1. Film Studies PPT Films of the 1940s and the genre of film noir

2. Films during this time were often dramatic, melodramatic, or considered a film noir. Other genres like the musical and comedies were around still too. • WWII influenced what was made in Hollywood since it was a dark time in the US and films reflected it. • Stars like Humphrey Bogart, Orson Welles, Abbott and Costello, Katherine Hepburn, Judy Garland, and many others. • And films like: Bambi, Casablanca, It’s a Wonderful Life, and Citizen Kane and many others. Films of the 1940s Genres and stars

3. Crime dramas or others with a dark/cynical mood • 1940s to 1950s • Influenced by German expressionist cinematography by using low-key black and white visual style (very dark hence noir) • The term, by the way, was not accepted until the 1970s • Usually melodramatic in acting but also can have melodramatic elements like music, recognition, and in other story elements. • Often features stereotypical characters like the femme fatale (a mysterious and seductive woman), or the private eye (or investigator) • Often, but not always, takes place in a city Film Noir Characteristics

4. The Big Sleep (1946) with Humphrey Bogart http://cleanvideosearch.com/media/action/yt/watch?videoId=LF_chuSy9G4 The Maltese Falcon (1941) with Humphrey Bogart http://cleanvideosearch.com/media/action/yt/watch?videoId=Yiq5Fkr3yX8 Classic Film Noirs

5. Casablanca (1942) Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart http://www.cleanvideosearch.com/media/action/yt/watch?videoId=pa-dGYjSq5k Double Indemnity (1944) Barbara Stanwyck http://cleanvideosearch.com/media/action/yt/watch?videoId=ZKdcYnlkhx8 Film Noirs cont’d

6. The Third Man (1949) with Orson Welles http://cleanvideosearch.com/media/action/yt/watch?videoId=UADNSWq5kOY Sunset Boulevard (1950) with William Holden http://cleanvideosearch.com/media/action/yt/watch?videoId=jMTT0LW0M_Y Film noirs cont’d

7. Mildred Pierce (1945) • Directed by Michael Curtiz • Film Noir about a long-suffering mother and her ungrateful daughter • Joan Crawford (the main character who plays the mother) won an academy award for best actress. • Tells the story in the third-person in chronological order with voice-over narration from the main character’s perspective. • This is also a crime drama.