Noir and After

This chapter traces the history of film noir and its practitioners and expands its reach beyond the usual markers of dark, deserted streets, wicked women, and weak, gullible men. Though it does look at those characteristics through the eyes of Anthony Mann, Samuel Fuller, and Fritz Lang, whose key noirs, Woman in the Window, Scarlet Street, and Human Desire were adapted from earlier films by Jean Renoir and, with the exception of Human Desire, were made much darker. Turning to films by Sidney Lumet, the chapter examines his police film, Prince of the City, a favorite of Akira Kurosawa, and The Verdict , both sprawling films about the dark sides of New York that question, as do so many noirs, where justice is to be found.