From the spooky season to the seamy underbelly, it’s time for Noirvember! This week we’ve got five iconic films noir written by female screenwriters that you should watch now (or watch again).
The Big House (1930, Frances Marion)
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I’m always intrigued by how men will showcase female screenwriters but only ones who write in accepted genres like comedy or musicals. I mean, girls can’t write the really tough, hard-boiled things, right? Of course, they’d never acknowledge Frances Marion, who wrote all sorts of screenplays, including the script for The Big House, a pre-Code prison movie involving a shockingly violent prison riot, male relationships, and manly things like beating the shit out of people. Just more proof that anything men can do, women can do backwards and in high heels.
Suspicion (1941, Joan Harrison and Alma Reville)
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We can debate whether Suspicion totally qualifies as a noir (it does), but it’s representative of two underrated forces in Hitchcock’s work—Joan Harrison and Alma Reville, who co-wrote the screenplay with Samson Raphaelson. The overall film, dealing with a wife who suspects her husband of being a murderer, evinces an understanding of feminine psychology, including why someone wouldn’t mind being murdered by Cary Grant. We should remember that for every great Hitchcock film, there was almost always a woman at the back of it.
The Big Sleep (1946, Leigh Brackett)
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Howard Hawks brought Leigh Brackett in to fix up William Faulkner’s script for The Big Sleep, making her one of the writers on one of the finest films noir of all time. Brackett herself was already a major name as a sci-fi writer, later becoming the first woman to be shortlisted for a Hugo. She also wrote an early script for a little film called The Empire Strikes Back. So, yeah.
Sorry, Wrong Number (1948, Lucille Fletcher)
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Lucille Fletcher wrote the screenplay for Sorry, Wrong Number, based on her own radio play of the same name. A creepy psychological thriller about an invalid wife who overhears someone plotting a murder on her phone, the film relies on the fantastic performance of Barbara Stanwyck for its combination of suspense and drumming up audience sympathy for an otherwise unlikable protagonist.
The Hitch-Hiker (1953, Ida Lupino)
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Lupino really could do it all. With The Hitch-Hiker, she solidified her place in film noir history, co-writing and directing the taut story of two men trapped in a car with a psychopath. Much has been written about The Hitch-Hiker, but beyond any other considerations, it’s one of the tensest noirs I’ve ever seen.
Honorable Mention:
The Long Goodbye (1973, Leigh Brackett)
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Leigh Brackett also adapted another Chandler novel,The Long Goodbye, which we discussed on a bonus episode. Her elegant writing works perfectly with Altman’s overlapping, free-flowing style, and epitomizes both Chandler’s romantic view of the hard-boiled detective and the more cynical 1970s adaptation here.