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REJECTED WOMEN IN FILM NOIR By CAROLYN A. KELLEY A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2011 1 © 2011 Carolyn A. Kelley 2 To my mother and father, Elaine and Thomas Kelley 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I want to thank my parents, Thomas and Elaine Kelley, for their unwavering love and support. You are the kindest, most generous people I know. I am proud to be your daughter. To my sister, Christine Kelley-Connors, thank you for always making me laugh and for helping me keep my perspective. I thank my ―second parents,‖ Madeline and Stuart Sheets, for always listening to me and for giving me excellent advice. I thank Ted Kingsbury for introducing me to classic Hollywood films through his Thursday night screenings at the Wellesley library. To Professors Patrick Murphy, Edward O‘Shea, Jean Chambers, and Steven Abraham of Oswego State University, and Julian Wolfreys of Loughborough University, I thank you for your support, friendship, advice and generosity in sharing your knowledge. Thanks also go out to Professors Pamela Gilbert, Kenneth Kidd, and Chris Snodgrass of the University of Florida for your thoughtful guidance, wisdom and patience. To my dissertation committee members, Robert Ray, Marsha Bryant, and Louise Newman, I appreciate your generous devotion to helping me shape this project and your helpful, insightful input. And, to my Dissertation Director, Maureen Turim, I thank you for your guidance, patience, intelligence, and kindness. Finally, to everyone listed on this page, please know this project would not have been possible without you, and I am extremely grateful to you all. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.............................................................................................................. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................................................. 5 LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................... 8 LIST OF FIGURES....................................................................................................................... 9 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................. 15 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: REJECTED WOMEN IN FILM NOIR .............................................. 19 Nurse One‖ in Citizen Kane: Characteristics and Prototype of Rejected Women in Film Noir........................................................................................................................ 19 Female Character Types in Film Noir .............................................................................. 23 What is Film Noir? Why Does It Produce Rejected Women Character Types? ....... 29 Film Noir is a Cycle...................................................................................................... 29 Film Noir Exists ............................................................................................................ 32 Film Noir is July Fifth ................................................................................................... 36 The Films .............................................................................................................................. 38 Methodology: Three Risks ................................................................................................. 40 Risk One: Renewal of ―Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema‖ .......................... 41 Risk Two: Repairing the Rift and Renewing Psychoanalytic Film Theory .......... 54 Risk Three: The Gaze of Descriptive Movie Group Practices .............................. 68 Chapters ............................................................................................................................... 70 2 INVISIBILITY OF REJECTED WOMEN: A ―TO-(NOT)-BE-LOOKED-AT-NESS.‖... 80 Invisibility and Agency in Rejected Women .................................................................... 80 Invisibility and Sexual Longing in Rejected Women...................................................... 84 Close Readings: Specific Examples of Rejected Women of Film Noir as Invisible ............................................................................................................................. 89 Gaye Dawn in Key Largo............................................................................................ 89 Selma Parker in The Big Heat ................................................................................... 97 At Victory Auto Wrecking ..................................................................................... 97 At Larry‘s apartment ........................................................................................... 105 Effie Perrine in The Maltese Falcon........................................................................ 107 The Lush in Criss Cross ........................................................................................... 115 3 AMBIVALENT RESISTANCE: THE IMMOBILE AND WRITTEN UPON BODIES OF REJECTED WOMEN................................................................................................. 139 5 The Body of the Rejected Woman: Passivity and Ambivalent Resistance .............. 139 Immobile Bodies of Rejected Women and the Telephone ......................................... 141 Effie and the Telephone in The Maltese Falcon ................................................... 141 Norah, Crystal and Sally and the Telephone in The Blue Gardenia.................. 143 The Blue Gardenia and passivity ..................................................................... 143 The Blue Gardenia and resistance .................................................................. 157 Written-Upon Bodies of Rejected Women in The Big Heat........................................ 167 Lucy Chapman ........................................................................................................... 171 Doris the B-Girl ........................................................................................................... 174 Debby Marsh .............................................................................................................. 178 Last Shot of The Big Heat ........................................................................................ 184 4 THE OPTIC WHITENESS OF FILM NOIR AND REJECTED ―WOMEN‖ OF FILM NOIR ......................................................................................................................... 204 Mama Ochobee as the Gaze in the Picture.................................................................. 204 The Optic Whiteness of Film Noir................................................................................... 206 Othered Persons in Film Noir .......................................................................................... 213 Othered Women In Film Noir .......................................................................................... 218 Othered Men as Rejected ―Women‖ of Film Noir......................................................... 227 5 LACAN‘S SARDINE CAN IN FILM NOIR: THE OBJECT‘S GAZE AND REJECTED WOMEN ....................................................................................................... 246 Lacan: the Gaze of the Sardine Can and Petit-Jean................................................... 246 Rejected Women of Film Noir and Encounters with the Lacanian Gaze ................. 248 Example One: The Oyster Fountain as Gaze in The Blue Gardenia: Foreshadowing Norah‘s Rape ..................................................................................... 249 Example Two: The Whirlpool as Gaze in The Blue Gardenia: Symbol of Norah‘s Rape ................................................................................................................................ 255 Example Three: Popping Meat and Mustard as Gaze in The Blue Gardenia ......... 264 Example Four: Velda and the Gaze of the Magazine in Kiss Me Deadly ................ 268 Summary of the Film ................................................................................................. 268 Analysis of the Magazine as Gaze.......................................................................... 270 Example Five: The Telephone as Gaze in The Blue Gardenia ................................. 278 6 REJECTED WOMEN OF FILM NOIR AS THE GAZE ................................................ 292 Mimicry and The Gaze ..................................................................................................... 292 The Rejected Woman as ―Sticking to the Seat‖ of Film Noir: ―Lounge Time‖ and Abjection ......................................................................................................................... 295 Examples of Rejected Women as the Gaze ................................................................. 297 Yvonne in Casablanca .............................................................................................. 297 The Lush in Criss Cross ........................................................................................... 310 Velda in Kiss Me Deadly ........................................................................................... 317 6 7 ―SPECTATOR, CAN‘T YOU SEE WE‘RE BURNING?‖ REJECTED WOMEN AND THE NUCLEAR BOMB..........................................................................................