{"id":4,"date":"2007-01-23T13:54:29","date_gmt":"2007-01-23T20:54:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/craiggrazianohmygod\/2007\/01\/23\/of-noir-and-deceit\/"},"modified":"2007-03-13T20:11:28","modified_gmt":"2007-03-14T03:11:28","slug":"of-noir-and-deceit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/craiggrazianohmygod\/2007\/01\/23\/of-noir-and-deceit\/","title":{"rendered":"Of Noir and Deceit"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1941,\u00c2\u00a0a full year before the Glass Key was released, John Huston’s adaptation of another Dashiell Hammett novel considerably altered the cinematic tradition forever.\u00c2\u00a0His combination of a hard boiled detective story with visual cues taken from German expressionism (shadows, smoke filled rooms, and an overall attention towards\u00c2\u00a0details\u00c2\u00a0which\u00c2\u00a0greatly complement black and white cinematography) resulted in\u00c2\u00a0The Maltese Falcon<\/em><\/a>. Each year we encounter a handful of movies that owe it all to\u00c2\u00a0these visual cues.<\/p>\n

\"The\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Filmmaking, and Hollywood especially is a\u00c2\u00a0cannibalistic system that thrives off of\u00c2\u00a0remaking what has worked so well in the past. \u00c2\u00a0This is why I thought it strange that The Glass Key <\/em>has few noirish elements, and plays out much more like the gangster movies that were popularized a decade earlier. For example, when Ed walks into the Henry mansion, you know from that point on that he is definitely attracted to Janet. A romantic score playsas they “cut eyes” at each other. The ambiguity that made Hammet’s novel so intriguing is lost in order to placate the audience. When I read in the novel that Ned had a big smile on his face, I imagined\u00c2\u00a0a friendly expression, but\u00c2\u00a0with evidence that menace was directly behind that grin.\u00c2\u00a0It was something that I could picture in his eyes. I do not see that in Ed.<\/p>\n

Beaumont’s ambitious escape from\u00c2\u00a0Nick’s henchmen brought to mind\u00c2\u00a0earlier films of Cagney<\/a> and Edward G. Robinson<\/a>. The lone hero, running around and causing trouble for others. Ned Beaumont, to me, does not seem like a runner. And by the point he found the razorblade in the medicine cabinet, I had seen enough to know that they would omit his suicide attempt.<\/p>\n

This adaptation is one that I can admire and have fun discussing in the class and on here, but it is not one that I can stand behind, or will come back to\u00c2\u00a0a decade later. I do not mean to sound like a purist by any means, for every viewing experience, no matter what the movie is, really helps enhance the critical procedure. I look forward to finishing The Glass Key<\/em> tomorrow<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1941,\u00c2\u00a0a full year before the Glass Key was released, John Huston’s adaptation of another Dashiell Hammett novel considerably altered the cinematic tradition forever.\u00c2\u00a0His combination of a hard boiled detective story with visual cues taken from German expressionism (shadows, smoke … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-glass-key"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/craiggrazianohmygod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/craiggrazianohmygod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/craiggrazianohmygod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/craiggrazianohmygod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/craiggrazianohmygod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/craiggrazianohmygod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/craiggrazianohmygod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/craiggrazianohmygod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/craiggrazianohmygod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}