Noir Nook: Noir’s Scariest Characters
October is amonth for ghosts and goblins, bats and jack-o’-lanterns, black cats andskeletons. Not necessarily the characteristics that come to mind when onethinks of film noir.
But there’s onething that’s common to both October and noir – scary characters.
In the spiritof the month, I’m taking a look at four of my favorite scary folks from theclassic film noir era – men and women who embody the concept of “looking outfor number one.” They have no arc, as they possess no redeeming qualities; it’stheir sociopathic self-absorption, their mercenary self-indulgence, and their unyieldingsense of self-preservation that makes them so darn scary.
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Mr. Brown(Richard Conte) in The Big Combo (1955)
The BigCombo stars Cornel Wilde as police lieutenant Richard Diamond, who has asingle-minded determination to bring to justice a mobster by the name of Mr.Brown. He also happens to be obsessed with Mr. Brown’s troubled girlfriend(played by Wilde’s real-life wife, Jean Wallace).
Mr. Brown isone of the most ruthless dudes you’ll ever want (or don’t want) to encounter – wesee him methodically arranging the elimination of anyone possessing informationthat might lead to his downfall, and that includes his right-hand man (BrianDonlevy) and his two devoted underlings, Mingo (Earl Holliman) and Fante (LeeVan Cleef). They’re all completely disposable. And Mr. Brown has even lessregard for Lt. Diamond; in a typical demonstration, he has his minions abductBrown, then proceeds to torture him by blasting music in his ear and pouringhair tonic down his throat. He’s not a nice guy.
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MargotShelby (Jean Gillie) in Decoy (1946)
The plot of Decoyis one of noir’s most unique: convicted criminal Frankie Olins (RobertArmstrong) is sentenced to death for knocking off an armored car and making offwith a cool $400,000. He refuses to divulge where he’s hidden the money, buthis devoted (and I use the word loosely) lover, Margot, has a plan – to team upwith a local doctor, arrange for Frankie to be resuscitated after his execution. . . and then get her hands on that money.
Margot is aclassic femme fatale; she’s an expert at employing her wiles to get her way.She applies a combination of sweet talk, promises of favors (you know thekind), and hard-boiled street smarts to ensnare and juggle three men at thesame time: Frankie; his henchman, Jim Vincent (Edward Norris); and the haplessdoctor (Herbert Rudley), using each of them and then, like Mr. Brown,discarding of them when they’ve served their purpose. She even manages to wrapthe local detective (Sheldon Leonard) around her finger – no male is safe withher around.
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CharlieOakley (Joseph Cotten) in Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Young CharlieNewton (Teresa Wright) is bored with her humdrum life in picturesque SantaRosa, California, but she’s delighted when her family gets a visit from herbeloved uncle, after whom she was named. Unfortunately, before long, YoungCharlie’s jubilance turns to dread as she begins to suspect that her uncle isthe “Merry Widow” serial killer being sought by police.
Uncle Charlieis charming, affable, sophisticated – everything admirable to a young girl. Butit doesn’t take long for us to see that there’s something very wrong with UncleCharlie; there are numerous clues, like when he roughly grabs his niece aftershe discovers a newspaper article he’s tried to hide, or when he starts talkingabout wealthy widows, calling them “horrible, faded, fat, greedy women.” Itsoon becomes apparent that Uncle Charlie views the entire world with contempt –and his namesake is no different.
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Vera (AnnSavage) in Detour (1945)
Tom Neal starsas Al Roberts, a piano player who gets more than he bargained for when hehitchhikes from New York to California to join his singer-girlfriend. First,Roberts catches a ride with a well-heeled gambler, Charles Haskell (EdmundMacDonald), but when the man winds up dead, Al panics, leaves Haskell on theside of the road, and takes his car. And when Al picks up a hitchhiker of hisown – Vera – things really kick into high gear.
Unlike Margot, Veraisn’t your typical femme fatale. When we first meet her, she’s dusty fromtravel, with an unkempt hairdo and a simple pencil skirt and blouse, and shefalls asleep soon after she and Al get back on the road. But when she wakes up,she’s got fire in her eyes and accusations on her lips. She knows Al’s carbelongs to Charles Haskell and she suspects that Al “kissed him with a wrench.”From that moment on, Vera is in charge; she doesn’t utilize feminine charms,but aggression and threats, forcing Al into a series of actions that he’s tooafraid to challenge. And we don’t blame him. Vera is one scary dame.
Who are some of your scariest noir characters? Leave a comment and let me know!
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– KarenBurroughs Hannsberry for Classic Movie Hub
You can read all of Karen’s Noir Nook articles here.
Karen Burroughs Hannsberry is the author of theShadows and Satin blog, which focuses on movies and performers from the film noir and pre-Code eras, and the editor-in-chief ofThe Dark Pages, a bimonthly newsletter devoted to all things film noir. Karen is also the author of two books on film noir –Femme Noir: The Bad Girls of FilmandBad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir. You can follow Karen on Twitter at@TheDarkPages.
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