Old-School Noir.

I'm sure many of you will have noticed by now that our last several films have featured stories about Law Enforcement officers working tirelessly (and often over-zealously) to keep us safe from everything dangerous, nefarious or just plain bad.


You may or may not be happy to hear that our next film is very much a return to the older style of noir.


When we reconvened after the Easter break, I had said I wanted to showcase films that were "almost, but not quite" Noir. I described them as "Noir-Adjacent" or Near Dark.


But Noir is a very difficult term to define, partly because it was never meant to be a genre. When trying to establish what Noir is, it sometimes helps to examine what it isn't. Films like Appointment With Danger and even Union Station were starting to feel distinctly removed from the more unambiguous noir of the preceding decade.

If anyone doesn't believe me, you have only to watch Raw Deal and you'll see what I mean.


Full disclosure: This is a film that I had wanted to show before Easter, but I have only recently been able to obtain a good quality print. The previously available release of this film was borderline unwatchable (and it was on the wrong side of the border).


But showing it now, at this point in the series, is actually an unexpected boon: it highlights just how much had changed in the noir style in just a few years. Only two years separate Raw Deal from Appointment With Danger (Alan Ladd's Nun-centric Mail-truck heist) but the stylistic gulf between the two films is extreme.


Raw Deal (nothing to do with the 1980s Arnold Schwarzenegger film, by the way) tells the story of Joe Sullivan (Dennis O'Keefe), a convicted criminal who breaks out of prison at the beginning of the film, with the assistance of his girl (Claire Trevor) and his mobster accomplice (Raymond Burr).


The exact nature of the crime he has supposedly committed is kept deliberately vague, but it is strongly implied that he was merely the "fall guy" in this affair. Raymond Bur is unambiguously established as the truly sadistic villain of the piece (and a bit of a pyromaniac) whereas Joe is an unambiguously sympathetic (and tragic) character.


If you want to point your finger at the single most dramatic contrast between these "classic" noirs and the later "mid-Century" noirs, then here it is in (very) stark black and white: the "hero" of this story is an escaped convict on the run. 


He is most decidedly on the wrong side of Justice, and you know beyond a shadow of a doubt what kind of ending he is going to have.


But unlike the Cold War-era noirs, his character is sympathetic, while the law enforcers are the antagonistic outsiders.

You might also have noticed from the images thus far that the cinematography in Raw Deal is a thing of beauty.


Photographed by John Alton (who also gave us last week's The Big Combo) this is a film that plunges us headfirst into a "noir" reality that is at once other-worldly and nightmarish.


The vast majority of the story takes place at night, and the shadows are practically characters in their own right. While 50s noir made increasing use of real-world locations (all those train stations, ore refineries and power plants) this is old-school noir, where a shadow is far more effective than any train station.


Raw Deal isn't "Noir-Adjacent". It's Noir, all the way, and about as primal as it gets.

Sometimes it's worth looking back to see what used to be. 


Before we look ahead once again. (Spoilers for the following week!)


We will screen Raw Deal at 7.30 on Thursday, the 12th of June at the Victoria Park Baptist Church.

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