Academy Award Nomination

Best Actor in a Supporting Role : Sydney Greenstreet
Best Picture
Best Writing, Screenplay : John Huston

What is a FILM-NOIR?

The content of a film noir, the basic plot line, tends to be an anti-hero down on his luck in an American city after the war who gets drawn into some kind of elaborate mystery or conspiracy by a seductive woman, usually the femme fatale, and is caught up in this conspiracy and must try to figure out how to get out of it and who's trapped him. There's usually a murder involved, almost always a murder involved, and there's a sense that no matter what he does, by the end he'll be doomed and taken up by this monster.

*********************************************************

The term "Film Noir" was first introduced to the world by the french film critic and writer Frank Nino in 1946. It literally means "Black Film", and films belonging to this "subgenre "are common for being not only visually dark, but also in the construction of their characters and themes. Nino got to notice this in films following the war period, which clearly showed how the directors felt at that time in history. This style became prominent after WWII with movies such as "Double indemnity" (Billy Wilder) and "Laura" (Otto Preminger), both released in 1944.

The end of the "Film Noir Era" was marked by Orson Welles's "Touch of Evil" (1958).

It is important to keep in mind that Film Noir IS NOT A GENRE, but a style that refers to a historical period of film history, speciffically film-making after Worl War II, which is similar to German Expressionism and French New Wave period that we have seen in class. However this label was only used after the Film Noir period -early noir film-makers didn't use that designation for their films and they weren't concious about this. Definitions provided by:

http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people5/Rich/rich-con3.html and

http://www.filmsite.org/filmnoir.html

Technical File


Director: Jonn Huston

Producers: Hal B. Wallis (executive producer) Henry Blanke (associate producer)

Writers: Dashiell Hammett (novel) John Huston (screenplay)

Release Date: 18 October 1941 (USA)

Genre: Film-Noir / Mystery

Awards: Nominated for 3 Oscars.

CAST

Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade

Mary Astor as Brigid O'Shaughnessy

Gladys George as Iva Archer

Peter Lorre as Joel Cairo

Barton MacLane as Det. Lt. Dundy

Lee Patrick as Effie Perine

Sydney Greenstreet as Kasper Gutman

Ward Bond as Det. Tom Polhaus

Jerome Cowan as Miles Archer

Elisha Cook Jr. as Wilmer Cook

James Burke as Luke

Murray Alper as Frank Richman

John Hamilton as District Attorney Bryanmore

Music: Adolf Deutsch

Cinematography: Arthur Edeson

Runtime: 101 min

Country: USA

Language: English

Color: Black and White

Aspect Ratio: 1.37 : 1

Sound Mix: Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification: Australia:G (TV rating) / Canada:G (Nova Scotia/Quebec) / Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) / UK:A (original rating) / UK:PG (video rating) / Spain:T / Iceland:L / West Germany:16 (nf) / Australia:PG / Finland:K-16 / Germany:12 / Netherlands:AL / Norway:16 (1945) / Sweden:15 / USA:Unrated

Filming Locations: Bush Street, San Francisco, California, USA

Company: Warner Bros. Pictures