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The Noir Western: Genre Theory and the Problem of the Anomalous Hybrid

2014; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 31; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/10509208.2012.660452

1543-5326

Paul Monticone,

Cinema and Media Studies

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. “Ramrod Premiere Aired Tomorrow at Salt Lake,” Variety, 20 Feb. 1947. 2. Chris Cagle, “Two Modes of Prestige Film,” Screen 48 (2007): 331. 3. On these premieres, see David Karnes, “The Glamorous Crowd: Hollywood Movie Premieres between the Wars,” American Quarterly 38 (1986): 563–67. 4. Jack Goodman, “Hoopla Hits the Road,” New York Times, 2 Mar. 1947, 68. For the producer's response, see Harry Sherman, “Postscripts on a Utah Premiere,” New York Times, 9 Mar. 1947, X5. 5. See especially Cagle, “Two Modes of Prestige Film,” 292–8. 6. See, for example, Edward Buscombe, The British Film Institute Companion to the Western (New York: Atheneum, 1988), 45; Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward, Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style (Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press, 1992), 325–7; Thomas Schatz, “Postwar Stars, Genres, and Production Trends,” in Boom and Bust: American Cinema in the 1940s, History of the American Cinema (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), 373. 7. For canonic formulations of this thesis, see Jim Kitses, Horizons West: Directing the Western from John Ford to Clint Eastwood, 2nd ed. (London: British Film Institute, 2004); Richard Slotkin, Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth-Century America (New York: Atheneum, 1992). 8. See André Bazin, “The Evolution of the Western,” in What Is Cinema? (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971), 149–57; Robert Warshow, “The Movie Chronicle: The Westerner,” Partisan Review, Mar–Apr 1954. rpt. in Jim Kitses and Gregg Rickman, eds., The Western Reader (New York: Limelight, 1998), 35–48. It is worth nothing that both authors were writing against the trend of “adult” or “sophisticated” westerns of which the noir western is a part. 9. See Rick Altman, Film/Genre (London: British Film Institute, 1999), Stephen Neale, Genre and Hollywood (London: Routledge, 2000). 10. Neale, Genre and Hollywood, 141. 11. Peter Stanfield's work on westerns in the 1930s has demonstrated that westerns, before their supposed postwar maturation, were far more aesthetically and ideologically heterodox than one might suspect after reading such critics’ accounts. See Peter Stanfield, Hollywood, Westerns and the 1930s: The Lost Trail (Exeter, Devon, UK: University of Exeter Press, 2001). 12. Hugh S. Manon, “Henry Hathaway's Rawhide and the Hermetic Frontiers of Film Noir,” Film & History 33 (2003): 41. 13. Sue Matheson, “The West – Hardboiled: Adaptations of Film Noir Elements, Existentialism, and Ethics in John Wayne's Westerns,” The Journal of Popular Culture 38 (2005): 879. 14. Scott Simmon, “‘That Sleep of Death’: John Ford and the Darkness of the Classic Western in the 1940s,” in The Invention of the Western Film a Cultural History of the Genre's First Half-Century (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 266–9. 15. These films appear in various locations, both fan communities and scholarly works, as noir westerns. See, for example, Silver and Ward, Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference, 325–7. 16. These figures are drawn from the online database of the AFI Catalog of Motion Pictures. 17. Stanfield, Hollywood, Westerns and the 1930s, 225. 18. For statistics regarding western production trends, see Buscombe, BFI Companion to the Western, 426-28. Unfortunately, his Table 5, which provides data on studios’ distribution of A- and B-westerns, extends only to 1941. For the increase and continued commitment to A-westerns, see “Swing to ‘A’ Horse Operas,” Variety, 30 Aug. 1944; and “Studio Lull Fails to Curb Epic Western Productions,” Hollywood Reporter, 7 Feb. 1949. 19. On the determinants of the late 1930s A-western, see Stanfield, Hollywood, Westerns and the 1930s, 145–7. For a summary of the challenges faced by the industry in the late 1940s, see Thomas Schatz, “The Postwar Motion Picture Industry,” in Boom and Bust: American Cinema in the 1940s, History of the American Cinema (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), 285–328. 20. “$30,000,000 in Tinted Oaters: 20 in Color, 12–15 Black ‘N’ White,” Variety, 18 Jun. 1947. 21. Paul Petlewski, “Complication of Narrative in the Genre Film,” Film Criticism 4 (1979): 19. 22. By the late 1940s, studios were attempting to rein in rising production costs. See Thomas Schatz, “The Hollywood Studio System, 1949–1949,” in Boom and Bust: American Cinema in the 1940s, History of the American Cinema (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), 332. For an account of Blood on the Moon's production, see Herb A. Lightman, “Low Key and Lively Action,” American Cinematographer, July 1948, 411+. 23. Neale, Genre and Hollywood, 151–77. 24. Several historical studies of reception have utilized reviews to critique historical fallacies of genre theorists, who would claim their own interpretations of genres as available at all moments of reception or would posit as novel a trend entirely within the norms of earlier phases of genre filmmaking. See, for example, Stephen Neale, “Melo Talk: On the Meaning and Use of the Term ‘Melodrama’ in the American Trade Press,” Velvet Light Trap 32 (1993): 66–89; and Janet Staiger, “Hybrid or Inbred: The Purity Hypothesis and Hollywood Genre History,” Film Criticism 22 (1997): 5–20. My aim in consulting the reception of these films is less polemical and more in line with Marc Jancovich's essay, in which he makes what's implicit in Neale and Staiger central: “reception studies can help us to reconstruct the ways in which films have not only been generically identified in specific periods but also how generic categories were understood.” See Mark Jancovich, “Shadows and Bogeymen: Horror, Stylization and the Critical Reception of Orson Welles During the 1940s,” Participations: Journal of Audience and Reception Studies 6 (2009): 25. 25. “It Has Mitchum,” Motion Picture Herald, 13 Nov. 1948, 4382. 26. “Western Omelet,” review of Ramrod, Newsweek, 26 May 1947, 96. 27. T.M.P, “At the Capitol,” review of Man from Colorado, New York Times, 21 Jan. 1949, 24. 28. Edwin Schallert, “Adult Western Subject Complex and Interesting,” review of Pursued, Los Angeles Times, 15 Mar. 1947, A5. 29. Bosley Crowther. “Colorado Territory, a Warner Film with Joel McCrea and Virginia Mayo, at Strand.” New York Times, 25 Jun. 1949, 8. 30. Bosley Crowther, “Peck, Baxter and Widmark Star in Western, Yellow Sky, New Bill at the Roxy,” New York Times, 2 Feb. 1949, 36. 31. Richard L. Coe, “A Chatter-Proof Western Is O.K,” review of Blood on the Moon, The Washington Post, 23 Dec. 1948, 21. 32. “Review of Man from Colorado,” Variety, 24 Nov. 1948; and The Daily Mirror's Justin Gilberts, quoted in Irving Hoffman, “Colorado above Average,” Hollywood Reporter, 25 Jan. 1949, 6. 33. Bosley Crowther, “Colorado Territory, a Warner Film with Joel McCrea and Virginia Mayo, at Strand,” New York Times, 25 Jun. 1949, 8. 34. New York Sun's Eileen Creelman, quoted in Irving Hoffman, “Pursued Terrific Western in Eyes of N.Y. Reviewers,” Hollywood Reporter, 12 Mar. 1947, 10. 35. Edwin Schallert, “Unique Treatment Gives Yellow Sky High Value,” Los Angeles Times, 15 Jan. 1949, 8. 36. “Desert Vendetta,” review of Pursued, Motion Picture Herald, 22 Feb. 1947, 3485. 37. Brog., “Rev. Of Yellow Sky,” Variety, 24 Nov. 1948. 38. “Ramrod Welcomely Adult,” Hollywood Reporter, 21 Feb. 1947, 3. 39. Richard L. Coe, “Six-Guns Signal the Knell of ‘48,” review of Yellow Sky, The Washington Post, 31 Dec. 1948, 8. For a summary of Station West's press materials, which emphasizes its new female role – “He had a lot of dangerous territory to handle, but it wasn't all on the map! Double-crossing a tiger woman is just another way of kissing life goodbye” – see “Your Selling Approach: Review of Current Pressbooks,” Motion Picture Herald, 11 Dec. 1948, 45. 40. “Review of Yellow Sky,” Time, 13 Dec. 1948. See also “Get a Horse,” review of Man from Colorado, Newsweek, 17 Jan. 1949, 74. 41. See, for example, “Adult Tale of Twisted Personalities, Soundly Dramatic, Rates as First-Rate ‘Class’ Western,” review of Pursued, Film Daily, 21 Feb. 1947, 7. 42. Coe, “A Chatter-Proof Western Is O.K,” 21. 43. See, for example, Brog., “Rev. Of Station West,” Variety, 8 Sept. 1948, 10., John L. Scott, “‘Ramrod’ Super Western,” Los Angeles Times, 31 May 1947, 7., and “Top-Cast Action Western,” review of Yellow Sky, Motion Picture Herald, 27 Nov. 1948, 4397. 44. Coe, “A Chatter-Proof Western Is O.K,” 21., and “Ramrod Welcomely Adult,” 3. 45. Esquire's Jack Moffitt, quoted in Hoffman, “Pursued Terrific Western in Eyes of N.Y. Reviewers,” 10. 46. “Thud of Hoofs Still Music at the Box Office,” Motion Picture Herald, 8 Nov. 1947, 17. Whether the B-western and A-western have any influence on one another is a matter of some controversy. For an account of the B-western continuing “cheerfully on its way” despite developments in the A-western, see Buscombe, BFI Companion to the Western, 41–5. For an account on the more complex relationship between the production levels in the 1930s, see Stanfield, Hollywood, Westerns and the 1930s, esp. 78-116. Some evidence of a shift in the B-western is indicated in the trade press; see “Rogers’ Oaters Get New Adult Themes,” Hollywood Reporter, 24 Jan. 1949, 4. 47. The postwar reception of the western appears to correspond to Chris Cagle's account of the development of critics’ tastes; see Cagle, “Two Modes of Prestige Film,” 305–9. In addition, the reception of these films varies in the independent-exhibitor-authored “What the Picture Did for Me” column in the Motion Picture Herald. Several theatre owners report the success and acceptance of these films while several others object to “hard to follow” stories, inappropriate star pairings, and moral degeneracy. For examples of the latter reports, see Motion Picture Herald, 3 Apr 1948, 40; Motion Picture Herald, 2 Apr 1949, 42; and Motion Picture Herald, 9 Apr 1949, 41. 48. Leonard Spinrad, “Boots and Saddles: Noting Changing Styles in Western Pictures,” New York Times, 8 Jun. 1947, X4., and Coe, “A Chatter-Proof Western Is O.K,” 21. 49. Altman, Film/Genre, 50–4. 50. Ibid., 60–1. 51. I should note that my notion of “frequency” derives not from a survey of all noir scholarship but instead from Steve Neale's survey. For this, see Neale, Genre and Hollywood, 151-78. My decision to confine these noir traits to those provisionally linked to the findings in the above reception analysis avoids both traits prima facie irrelevant to the noir western, such as urban ennui, and traits rooted in interpretations of the genre's material, such as ideological progressiveness. 52. Ibid., 160-1. 53. Silver and Ward, Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference, 325. 54. One reviewer commented “with all the outdoors in front of him … Wellman… has managed to make the whole thing seem rather confined, and he has been irritatingly leisurely in getting his action underway.” See “Review of Yellow Sky,” New Yorker, 12 Feb. 1949, 69. 55. John G. Cawelti, Adventure, Mystery, and Romance: Formula Stories as Art and Popular Culture (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1976), 11–12. 56. Neale, Genre and Hollywood, 173. 57. Janet Staiger, “Film Noir as Male Melodrama: The Politics of Film Genre Labeling,” in The Shifting Definitions of Genre: Essays on Labeling Films, Television Shows, and Media, ed. Lincoln Geraghty and Mark Jancovich (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2008), 72. 58. Ibid. 59. Ibid., 73. 60. Ibid. 61. “Review of Man from Colorado.” 62. Here, action-adventure romance seems analogous to nineteen-century melodrama in which moral values are inherent in characters and spectacular display is central. That is, action-adventure romance, as used by Lusted, corresponds to the blood-and-thunder melodrama of the nineteenth-century stage, while melodrama refers to its twentieth-century variant, which is premised on more complex, denser characters and interiority. For a discussion of these two melodramas, see Ben Singer, Melodrama and Modernity: Early Sensational Cinema and Its Contexts (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001), 37–58. 63. David Lusted, “Social Class and the Western as Male Melodrama,” in The Movie Book of the Western, ed. Ian Alexander Cameron and Douglas Pye (London: Studio Vista, 1996), 68. 64. Ibid., 69. 65. Ibid., 71. 66. Neale, Genre and Hollywood, 143. 67. Ibid., 145.