Film Noir

Murder, My Sweet Discussion Notes

Discussion Questions

1. What are the significant similarities and differences between the book and film?
2. How is the book structured differently than the film?
3. What is the role of race in the novel? What does Naremore say about this?
4. How is subjectivity represented in the book and the film?
5. In what ways do they both capture Marlowe's voice?
6. How are the women represented differently in the book and film?
7. Is there something the film gives us that the book does not? How so or how not?
8. What is the role of the pink bug
9. How does this book illustrate the role of detective fiction in film noir?

More Chandler

• The Big Sleep
• The Long Goodbye
• The Lady in the Lake
• Credited with screenplay for Strangers on a Train (Hitchcock, 1951)
  • "Plausible" sense Chandler
  • Hitchcock doesn't really care (his term)
  • Hitchcock and Chandler had different approaches:
    • Visuals vs dialogue
    • Clarification vs wrapped up
    • Talker vs writer
  • Hitchcock did not acknowledge Chandler
  • Did not use Chandlers work
  • Chandler got the credit because of Warner Brothers

"The Simple Art of Murder"

• Contrasts himself with Hammett
• Claims that the world he writes about is more real
• Everything that's art has quality of redemption
• Claims his work is art
• Suggests Marlowe stands in for Chandler
• Marlowe reflects Chandler's sides of American class and culture
• Marlowe is unprosperous middle-class

Noir and the Effeminate Man

• Hyper masculine vs feminine
• Fascination with homosexuality (labeled sexual perversion)
• Openly homosexual characters not permitted
• Noir villains often portrayed as esthete: art collector, artistic type
• Esthete is one code for homosexuality
• Feminine men so far:
  • Cairo & Gutman - The Maltese Falcon
  • Waldo Lydecker - Laura
  • Lindsay Marriott, Jules Amthor - Murder, My Sweet
• They are all villains