Film Noir

Paper Summary:

This paper examines film noir, which is a French term that describes films which feature a dark and degenerate urban environment, and which often feature a hard-boiled private eye in the Humphrey Bogart mold. The paper shows that Bogart's portrayals of Sam Spade in "The Maltese Falcon" and Marlowe in "The Big Sleep" established him as the personification of Hollywood private eyes, and Jack Nicholson's portrayal of private eye Jake Gittes in "Chinatown" was greatly influenced by Humphrey Bogart's legendary performances in these earlier examples of film noir.

From the Paper:

"Film noir is a French term that describes films which feature a dark and degenerate urban environment and which often feature a hard-boiled private eye in the Humphrey Bogart mold. Bogart's portrayals of Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon and Marlowe in The Big Sleep established him as the personification of Hollywood private eyes, and Jack Nicholson's portrayal of private eye Jake Gittes in Chinatown was greatly influenced by Humphrey Bogart's legendary performances in these earlier examples of film noir. In City of Quartz, Mike Davis mentions the film Chinatown several times and refers to it in reference to a, "famous water conspiracy." He also refers to Chinatown when analyzing the persistence of film noir's popularity, "through the 1950's to emerge in a new wave."

More papers on Film Noir:

• Essay # 89430 : "Casablanca as Film Noir"
• Film Review # 121279 : "Film Noir in "Double Indemnity"
• Essay # 73405 : "Film Noir"
• Research Paper # 61789 : "Women in Film Noir"

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