**This class will be taught In-Person**
**Please note that this course will meet for 2.5 hours for a total of 5 weeks**
When I thought about teaching a course on Female writers of Film Noir, I had to think if there were enough examples for a 5 or 6 week course. It ends up the great majority of first-rate Film Noirs of the 1940’s and 1950’s were written by women. Laura, Strangers on a Train, Rebecca, The Big Sleep, In a Lonely Place, Sudden Fear and dozens more. And these female writers left their mark on these dark films which reflect the WWII and post-WWII psyches of Americans.
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It is time to look at Film Noirs produced mostly in the 1940’s and 1950’s that were written by women.
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Is the complexity of female roles in these Post-WWII films due in any part to them being written by women?
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We will also look at the expected roles for men in this post-war era.
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From reactions of film critics of the time to later essays looking at psychoanalytic readings of the gender, we will examine how what it means to be a man or a woman in our society is reflected in these dark films.
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We will also look at earlier history of women writing crime novels over the centuries and at more recent writers bringing their own dark style of writing to television and film. Many of these recent writers are Women of Color, Lesbians, Transgender, just overall “badasses”.
Week 1:
History of women writers in Crime writing and Hollywood , Strong female characters
Laura, 1944, written by Vera Caspary, directed by Otto Preminger (will view in class)
Films to be excerpted: Blue Gardenia, 1953; Letter to Three Wives, 1949; Fallen Sparrows, 1943
Week 2:
Early female writers – from Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers to Frances Marion and Mae West
Sudden Fear, 1952, written by Lenore Coffee, directed by David Miller (students view on Kanopy before class)
Films to be excerpted: The Big House, 1930; I Done Him Wrong, 1933; Possessed, 1931; The Reckless Moment, 1949
Week 3:
A woman who wrote Classic Noirs, Westerns, and The Empire Strikes Back
Also Ida Lupino Caged, 1950, written by Virginia Kellogg, directed by John Cromwell
Films to be excerpted: The Big Sleep, 1946
Week 4:
2 women writers, many awards Also Dorothy B. Hughes
The Unsuspected, 1947 written by Bess Meredyth and Charlotte Armstrong, directed by Michael Curtiz
Films to be excerpted: The Mark of Zorro, 1949; In a Lonely Place,1950; Don’t Bother to Knock, 1952; T-Men, 1947
Week 5:
Hitchcock always surrounded himself with strong women writers, producers, and his wife Daphne Du Maurier
Strangers on a Train, 1951, written by Patricia Highsmith, directed by Hitchcock
Films to be excerpted: Rebecca, 1940; The Birds, 1963; Talented Mr. Ripley, 1999
