Dark borders: film noir and American citizenship

281 Pages·1.295 MB·English

by  Auerbach, Jonathan

DARK BORDERS

∫ 2011 Duke University Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper $
Designed by Jennifer Hill
Typeset in Arno Pro by Keystone Typesetting, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
appear on the last printed page of this book.
Duke University Press gratefully acknowledges
the support of the University of Maryland, which
provided funds toward the production of this book.
Contents
Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction the un-americanness
of film noir 1
One gestapo in america 27
Confessions of a Nazi Spy and
Stranger on the Third Floor
Two white-collar murder 57
Double Indemnity
Three cuba, gangsters, vets,
and other outcasts of
the islands 91
The Chase and Key Largo
Four north from mexico 123
Border Incident, Hold Back the
Dawn, Secret beyond the Door,
and Out of the Past
Five bad boy patriots 155
This Gun for Hire, Ride the Pink
Horse, and Pickup on South Street
Postscript darkness visible 185
Notes 205
Bibliography 245
Index 261

Illustrations
1 Nazi propaganda spreads across the United States,
from Confessions of a Nazi Spy 32
2 The terror of nonbelonging, from Confessions of
a Nazi Spy 38
3 Meng the informer, from Stranger on the
Third Floor 47
4 Fascist American justice, from Stranger on the
Third Floor 49
5 ‘‘I’ll not go back!’’: Deportation panic in Stranger
on the Third Floor 54
6 Neff and Gorlopis under the sway of Keyes, from
Double Indemnity 62
7 Oedipal visual schematics in Double Indemnity 70
8 The machinery of fate, from Double Indemnity 81
9 The look of death: The husband’s murder, from
Double Indemnity 87
10 The look of death: Neff watching Keyes watching,
from Double Indemnity 88
11 The exiled gangster’s watery return, from
Key Largo 102
12 The ur-American framed by Bogart and Bacall,
from Key Largo 103
13 Blood and soil in the Valle de Muerte, from
Border Incident 132
14 A ‘‘friend to all braceros,’’ from Border Incident 137
15–17 Death by U.S. agribusiness, from Border Incident 141
18 Korean War poster, from Pickup on South Street 173
19 Negotiating matters of scale, from Pickup on South Street 175
20 Rushing subway as reeling celluloid, from Pickup on South Street 175
21–22 Stylized artifice from start to finish, from Gun Crazy 191
23 A regime of visibility: Robert Aldrich grasps French Hollywood
cinephilia 194
24 Turning noir on its head, from Touch of Evil 203
Acknowledgments
I am happy to thank colleagues and friends who of-
fered feedback and support while I was working on
this project, including (in alphabetical order) Peter
Beicken, Chris Cagle, Kent Cartwright, Russ Castro-
novo, Kandice Chuh, Stan Corkin, Caroline Eades,
Astrid Franke, Oliver Gaycken, Markus Gehann, Jim
Gilbert, Saverio Giovacchini, Lisa Gitelman, Lee
Grieveson, Marshall Grossman, Tom Gunning, Liam
Kennedy, Isabell Klaiber, Bob Kolker, Frank Krutnik,
Ted Leinwand, Bob Levine, Greg Metcalf, Yoichiro
Miyamoto, Alan Nadal, Howard Norman, Devin
Orgeron, Marsha Orgeron, Liz Papazian, Don Pease,
Dana Polan, Joshua Shannon, Jan Stievermann, Horst
Tonn, Michael Tratner, Trysh Travis, Orrin Wang,
Mary Helen Washington, David Wyatt, and various
eagle-eyed students over the years who pointed out
puzzling and peculiar features of these films that oth-
erwise I would probably never have noticed.
My gratitude also goes to Michelle Cerullo for
help compiling the bibliography. I also express my
appreciation for the valuable comments made by the
two anonymous readers for Duke University Press,
as well as for the encouragement and guidance of my
editor there, Courtney Berger. Thanks also to the