Introduction
While #Noirvember may be long past, there’s no reason to give up on film noir. Cinema Scholars presents for your enjoyment five Holiday noirs for Christmas. These films are best enjoyed with bourbon-laced eggnog, or perhaps a smoky-mulled cider.
The Night Of The Hunter (1955)
Robert Mitchum was no stranger to noir. His work in Out of the Past (1947) remains in contention for one of the defining performances of the genre. While his characters often skewed more towards the conflicted anti-hero, The Night of the Hunter (1955) deploys him in a distinctly more menacing way.
Recently freed serial killer Harry Powell (Mitchum) rolls into a small town and ingratiates himself to widowed Willa Harper (Shelley Winters). Harper’s husband was an old cellmate of Powell’s who spoke of the $10,000 he had buried. Powell has it in mind to get the money. What follows is a terrifying progression of Powell seducing Harper and the town. Only Harper’s children Pearl (Sally Jane Bruce), and John (Billy Chapin) stand in his way.
The Night of the Hunter marks actor Charles Laughton’s lone directorial credit. If it’s any indication of what he could do, it’s a true shame he never directed another film. Mitchum may be the pitch-black center of the film, but Laughton’s sense of space and shadow craft a vision of small-town America as bleak and gothic as anything else in the genre.
The Night Of The Hunter is a tensely realized fable of crime and morality. At just over 90 minutes, its pace takes you by the throat and never lets go. The film stars Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, and Lillian Gish and is available to stream now on The Criterion Channel, Amazon Prime Video, Vudu Movie & TV Store, VUDU, or Apple TV.
Batman Returns (1992)
It’s Christmas in Gotham City and Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton) is tucked away in Wayne Manor. An attack orchestrated by the Penguin (Danny DeVito) calls him to action as Batman. Once on the scene, he saves tepid assistant Selina Kyle (Michelle Pfeiffer) from a pair of goons. However, he cannot save her from digging into her boss, Max Shreck (Christopher Walken), and his corrupt plans.
Shreck’s failed attempt to push Kyle out a window and kill her results in her transition to Catwoman. Before long, Shreck convinces Penguin to run for mayor. Wayne sees through the charade and investigates who the Penguin is. All the while, Wayne and Kyle embark on a deadly dance of dual romance across identities, secret and otherwise.
Batman is the hard-boiled detective and Catwoman is the femme fatale. Together, over Christmas, they must cat-and-mouse their way to vanquishing the seedy crime boss, and the diabolical Penguin, to save the holidays. If much of the first two acts embrace screwball elements, the third act fully embraces the noir sensibilities by turning the romance tragic. All the while maintaining its centrality to resolving the conflict.
Only by working together can Catwoman and Batman defeat Penguin and Shreck, but their decisions mean that Bruce and Selina’s romance is untenable. The closing scenes with Bruce divulging his feelings, and Selina killing Shreck, successfully position Batman Returns (1992) as a film in the lineage of Christmas movies that frame finding romance and connection as the antidote to the cold and greedy darkness that seeks to disrupt joy.
Batman Returns stars Michael Keaton, Michelle Pfeiffer, Danny DeVito, and Christopher Walken. It’s available to stream on HBO MAX, Amazon Prime Video, VUDU, Google Play, and the Apple iTunes Store.
L.A. Confidential (1997)
L.A. Confidential (1997) is a neo-noir film in the sense that it was released in the 1990s. However, its story and genre conventions are classic film noir through and through. Set in 1953 Los Angeles, the film focuses on three contrasting LAPD detectives. All of whom end up embroiled in investigating the same crime ring.
Played by Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, and, unfortunately, Kevin Spacey, each uncovers different parts of a prostitution and corruption plot that propels them towards each other, as well as incredibly dangerous levels of the seedy L.A. underworld. It all becomes even more complicated with Crowe’s Bud White falling for femme fatale Lynn Bracken (Kim Basinger). Layered and bursting with story, L.A. Confidential overflows with a vast collection of slimy characters, seedy settings, and shocking twists.
Adapted from a James Ellroy novel under Curtis Hanson’s direction, L.A. Confidential is a patient film. Hanson and company take their time navigating through the various flashpoints for each detective, weaving the crimes and leads together so that only over time do their links become more apparent.
Part of the joy, as is the case with the best noirs, is trying to solve the case before the detectives get to the bottom of it. However, even if you feel utterly lost by the twists and turns in the film, the cast is such great company that you’ll hardly even care. Crowe in particular delivers some of his finest work here. He turns White into a grizzled but loving figure you cannot help but root for.
L.A. Confidential stars Russell Crowe, Jr., Guy Pearce, and Kim Basinger (in an Oscar-winning performance for Best Supporting Actress). It’s available to stream on Amazon Prime Video, VUDU, Google Play, the Apple iTunes Store, and Showtime Anytime.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
Shane Black has been a mainstay of action and crime films since he broke into Hollywood with the original Lethal Weapon (1989) screenplay. That film, along with Die Hard (1988), helped kick off the craze of Christmas-set action films. This is a subgenre Black has added to in the years since with The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996).
The next entry on this list, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) centers on petty criminal Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr.). The film follows Lockhart as he serendipitously stumbles through Christmastime L.A., getting work as an actor and then a private investigator. The latter loops him into a twisted murder mystery replete with noir archetypes, from femme fatales to bumbling hitmen. All are filtered through Black’s loving tongue-in-cheek version of noir.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is as much a dark comedy as it is a neo-noir film. Black’s approach to riffing on the genre bears striking similarity to what Edgar Wright often displays in Shaun of the Dead (2004) or Hot Fuzz (2007). Black’s film comments on the genre while standing out as a top-notch entry in it.
Val Kilmer and Michelle Monaghan join Downey Jr. to round out the leading trio of a film that requires them to execute action sequences alongside witty exchanges, and they all deliver flawless performances. Downey Jr. in particular is exceptional, and this film marked the turning point of his comeback that led to Iron Man (2008).
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang stars Robert Downey, Jr., Val Kilmer, and Michelle Monaghan. The film is currently available to stream on Amazon Prime Video, VUDU, Google Play, Apple TV, and YouTube.
IN BRUGES (2008)
Martin McDonagh, who wrote and directed In Bruges (2008) is likely best known to American audiences for his multiple Academy Award-winning Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017). A playwright before taking up filmmaking, In Bruges was McDonagh’s feature film debut.
Starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as hitmen hiding out in Bruges, Belgium after a hit gone bad, the film is so dark in its comedy, that it makes Kiss Kiss Bang Bang look downright sunny. Ray (Farrell) meant to kill a priest but killed an altar boy instead. The more experienced Ken (Gleeson) is torn between frustration and empathy for the young man. While in Bruges the two process their failings. Ken hopes for a quiet and reflective escape. Ray aims to drown his pain in a stream of drugs, alcohol, and sex.
In Bruges is arguably the least noir on this list, but Farrell’s Ray is what ties it to the genre, especially when the film introduces Harry (Ralph Fiennes), the unhinged crime boss. The more the film examines Ray’s moral quandary around his actions, and where that leaves him in relation to his career (and life in general), the more he resembles the Phillip Marlowe’s and Sam Spade’s of the world.
Regardless, In Bruges is a violent and uproarious gem of a neo-noir that pushes the genre in unexpected directions by reimagining what you can fit into it. McDonagh translates hard-boiled detectives and shadowy L.A. streets into hitmen and European vacations, and it works beautifully.
In Bruges stars Colin Farrell, Brenden Gleason, and Ralph Fiennes. The film is currently available to stream on Hulu, Starz, Google Play, VUDU, Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Philo, and YouTube.
In case you want more Holiday noirs for Christmas….
- Christmas Holiday (1944)
- Lady on a Train (1945)
- Lady in the Lake (1947)
- Backfire (1950)
- Blast of Silence (1961)
- The Ice Harvest (2005)
- The Nice Guys (2016)
