The story I found most difficult to classify as noir was "The Hour When The Ship Comes In". One reason that it was difficult to classify as noir was the fact there was no clear femme fatale. It was more like a crime show from the criminals point of view. It just told about the crimes they did. I could not find a motive behind what they did other than drugs.
The one I found easiest to classify as noir was "The Girl Who Kissed Barnaby Jones". It had the ambiguous protagonist, Barnaby Jones. It had the femme fatale, Cherie. It also had the victim, Gary. It starts off similar to most noir style writings. It has the ambiguous protagonist at work describing what he does for a living. Then he gets the call from the femme fatale to come over. When he gets there one of the first things the writer does it describes the femme fatale. He describes her like this, "Cherie is the ur-cocktail waitress, tall and leggy with hair dyed blond, hanging straight with an inward flip just below her jawline, and looking at her face and body you wouldn't take her for more than forty." (Hamilton 288). It focuses on her looks and nothing else. Another thing that makes it like noir is that Barnaby Jones gets that gut instinct that something is wrong when she ask him to help her, just like Walter Huff did. He describes it like this, "I have the uneasy presentiment that what she wants me to do is something horrible ..." (Hamilton 293). Then instead of leaving he stays to find out what it is. The final thing that makes it like noir is that in the end the femme fatale gets away with it.
I think as same as you about The Hour When The Ship Comes In novel, it is very confuse and is difficult to see besides crime which other noir elements are present. Moreover, about The Girl Who Kissed Barnaby Jones tale, is too easy to find as a noir mode. Femme tale, Cherie, male protagonist, Tate, and the crime involved, Gary's murder. In my opinion like you,that novel
ReplyDeleteis the one which has more ne-noir elements.