Three hard-boiled noir-shrouded drama directed by Fritz Lang in his latter Hollywood years, in which, regardless of his temperament (kind-hearted, virtuous or utterly evil), a man’s proclivity for violence (mostly towards the weaker sex) is dyed in the wool. So one might be tempted to dub them as Lang’s “men’s bestiality trilogy”.
CLASH BY NIGHT has the distinction of being birthed out of a Clifford Odets’s play. It is an absorbing melodrama unfurling with startling plausibility about a woman’s seesawing between settling into the traditional role as the angel in the house and following her restless instinct as a maverick branded by cynicism and carnal passion. Stanwyck’s Mae is the said woman, returning to her bayside hometown Monterey, California after her married lover giving up the ghost and her 10-year stretch in the East Coast bearing no fruit. After marrying a well-disposed, down-to-earth fisherman Jerry (Douglas), and giving birth to a daughter, despite herself, Mae’s wandering heart is inexorably magnetized towards Earl (Ryan), Jerry’s friend, a hard-bitten, hard-drinking, freshly divorced movie projectionist. Their affair eventually drives Jerry into a murderous rage, partially on account of the insidious abetment from Jerry’s deadbeat uncle (Naish), and Mae is left with a tall order, she must eat humble pie and throw herself completely on a man’s mercy. However, Lang’s film discards Odets’s brutalizing ending and in lieu, settles for a more conventional and sexist ending which betrays perhaps his own biased moral yardstick.
THE BIG HEAT is a stereotyped David and Goliath yarn. An impeccably righteous homicide detective Dave Bannion (Ford) will stop at nothing to expose and dismantle a crime syndicate who is answerable for killing his wife Katie (Brando). He recieves appreciable help from Debby Marsh (Grahame), a materialistic dame who is the girlfriend of Vince (Marvin), a misogynistic thug. The film features a savage scene where a sadistic Vince pours scalding coffee roundly on Debby’s face and disfigures her after gathering that she consorts with Dave behind his back. The sheer, abrupt violence incurred upon a helpless woman is gobsmacking, to say the very least, to watch. Although Debby manages to exact a tit for tat in the climax, her tragic denouement lets on the ugly truth: she is merely functional as a means to an end, which is Dave’s triumph. Apropos of nothing, she turns cold-bloodedly murderous just for Dave’s sake, so that the kompromat is let out in the open. Dave can finally turn the table and complete his revenge.
A similar scenario results in an entire different outcome in HUMAN DESIRE, an adaptation of Émile Zola’s novel “La bête humaine” also starring Ford and Grahame. Here Grahame’s Vicki is blackmailed and abused by her brutish husband Carl (Crawford, whose odiousness really challenges a viewer’s tolerance). Out of desperation, when she insinuates to her new lover Jeff (Ford), a Korean War veteran, that they can be happy together only if Carl is out of the picture, Jeff flips out, feels insulted and manipulated, leaves her to face the beastly Carl on her own. The discrepancy on show between THE BIG HEAT and HUMAN DESIRE can only be ascribed to Lang’s own jaundiced, scornful views on women. Instead of being a hapless, sympathetic victim (which she is, at any rate), Vicki - which is very likely Grahame’s most visceral performance, all that palpable dread, hope, ignited and then dashed, restrained disobedience, are let down by the script’s mean streaks - is mistreated as the “original sin” that drives two men homicidal just because of her questionable past? It is a shady maneuver on Lang and scriptwriter Alfred Hayes’s part. But it also piques Yours Truly’s interest to watch Jean Renoir’s 1938 eponymous adaptation of Zola’s novel.
Scarcely one can find a man isn’t mean and doesn’t hate women in the three films. CLASH BY NIGHT has an addle-brained Jerry voluntarily getting hitched with a woman who clearly doesn’t love him (she tells him very directly so), solely because she is way out of his league. He foolishly reckons that marriage can tame her, which can be imputed to a man’s immanent vanity (who doesn’t want a pretty wife to show off). Audience can sympathize with May’s struggle because her life is stuck in a pickle and Jerry seems to be an easy way out, and the bottom line is she doesn’t cozen him into marriage. On a side note, the film marks Monroe’s first before-title credit (fourth billed), her Peggy, the girlfriend of Joe (Andes), Mae’s tough-as-nail brother, is another simpleton whose free spirit is nipped in the bud. It is a small role and Monroe’s faux-naivety and open-faced posturing is modestly appealing.
Riding on Odets’s vernacular wordings and against Lang’s marked alteration, while Douglas may lay thick on playing the chummy side of Jerry, both Stanwyck and Ryan rise to the occasion with flying colors. May is an incompatible combination of sense and sensibility, she knows who she is and what she wants, yet she often overestimates her sense of proportion. Stanwyck never allows May’s dignity sullied by any derision about her amoral past, and she remains the most compassionate actress in Hollywood’s Golden Era. No hyperbole, sentimentality or glamor, all she trusts is to bring honesty out of her character’s self-worth, even when it is full of flaws. Ryan is also exceptionally gripping as a man who drinks the haterade as if it is lemonade, switching between vulnerable, desperate, vainglorious, maudlin or repulsive at the drop of a hat, and the erotic tension between him and May during the kitchen scenes reaches the white heat mostly due to their neatly choreographed and fervently emoted pas de deux and Lang’s directorial flourishes.
THE BIG HEAT has no frills (CLASH BY NIGHT has that striking fishing and cannery sequences and elemental forces foreshadowing May’s entrapped domesticity whereas HUMAN DESIRE endeavors to document railroad operations à la cinema vérité), it is as straightforward as its plot could go, operating on a Gadarene momentum with film-noir’s familiar trappings. Among the performers, Nolan stands out for her immaculate duplicity and death-defying composure. As the leading man, Ford fares much better here as a pertinacious gangbuster spitting insults to those high-flying hypocrites like nobody’s business, than in HUMAN DESIRE, where his Jeff cannot muster enough urgency as the plot goes thicker and more far-fetched. For example, Carl’s blackmailing is rather untenable, only if Vicky could’ve come clean to the police, the murder case isn’t too hard to explain and Carl would have a more difficult time to explain how come it is him who is in possession of that critical letter! HUMAN DESIRE ends up as a smirch in Lang’s otherwise first-rate track record, reeking of misogyny and self-pity that is too tenacious to dispel.
referential entries: Raoul Walsh’s WHITE HEAT (1949, 8.4/10); Lang’s SECRET BEYOND THE DOOR… (1947, 7.4/10), THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW (1944, 7.5/10).
Three hard-boiled noir-shrouded drama directed by Fritz Lang in his latter Hollywood years, in which, regardless of his temperament (kind-hearted, virtuous or utterly evil), a man’s proclivity for violence (mostly towards the weaker sex) is dyed in the wool. So one might be tempted to dub them as Lang’s “men’s bestiality trilogy”.
CLASH BY NIGHT has the distinction of being birthed out of a Clifford Odets’s play. It is an absorbing melodrama unfurling with startling plausibility about a woman’s seesawing between settling into the traditional role as the angel in the house and following her restless instinct as a maverick branded by cynicism and carnal passion. Stanwyck’s Mae is the said woman, returning to her bayside hometown Monterey, California after her married lover giving up the ghost and her 10-year stretch in the East Coast bearing no fruit. After marrying a well-disposed, down-to-earth fisherman Jerry (Douglas), and giving birth to a daughter, despite herself, Mae’s wandering heart is inexorably magnetized towards Earl (Ryan), Jerry’s friend, a hard-bitten, hard-drinking, freshly divorced movie projectionist. Their affair eventually drives Jerry into a murderous rage, partially on account of the insidious abetment from Jerry’s deadbeat uncle (Naish), and Mae is left with a tall order, she must eat humble pie and throw herself completely on a man’s mercy. However, Lang’s film discards Odets’s brutalizing ending and in lieu, settles for a more conventional and sexist ending which betrays perhaps his own biased moral yardstick.
THE BIG HEAT is a stereotyped David and Goliath yarn. An impeccably righteous homicide detective Dave Bannion (Ford) will stop at nothing to expose and dismantle a crime syndicate who is answerable for killing his wife Katie (Brando). He recieves appreciable help from Debby Marsh (Grahame), a materialistic dame who is the girlfriend of Vince (Marvin), a misogynistic thug. The film features a savage scene where a sadistic Vince pours scalding coffee roundly on Debby’s face and disfigures her after gathering that she consorts with Dave behind his back. The sheer, abrupt violence incurred upon a helpless woman is gobsmacking, to say the very least, to watch. Although Debby manages to exact a tit for tat in the climax, her tragic denouement lets on the ugly truth: she is merely functional as a means to an end, which is Dave’s triumph. Apropos of nothing, she turns cold-bloodedly murderous just for Dave’s sake, so that the kompromat is let out in the open. Dave can finally turn the table and complete his revenge.
A similar scenario results in an entire different outcome in HUMAN DESIRE, an adaptation of Émile Zola’s novel “La bête humaine” also starring Ford and Grahame. Here Grahame’s Vicki is blackmailed and abused by her brutish husband Carl (Crawford, whose odiousness really challenges a viewer’s tolerance). Out of desperation, when she insinuates to her new lover Jeff (Ford), a Korean War veteran, that they can be happy together only if Carl is out of the picture, Jeff flips out, feels insulted and manipulated, leaves her to face the beastly Carl on her own. The discrepancy on show between THE BIG HEAT and HUMAN DESIRE can only be ascribed to Lang’s own jaundiced, scornful views on women. Instead of being a hapless, sympathetic victim (which she is, at any rate), Vicki - which is very likely Grahame’s most visceral performance, all that palpable dread, hope, ignited and then dashed, restrained disobedience, are let down by the script’s mean streaks - is mistreated as the “original sin” that drives two men homicidal just because of her questionable past? It is a shady maneuver on Lang and scriptwriter Alfred Hayes’s part. But it also piques Yours Truly’s interest to watch Jean Renoir’s 1938 eponymous adaptation of Zola’s novel.
Scarcely one can find a man isn’t mean and doesn’t hate women in the three films. CLASH BY NIGHT has an addle-brained Jerry voluntarily getting hitched with a woman who clearly doesn’t love him (she tells him very directly so), solely because she is way out of his league. He foolishly reckons that marriage can tame her, which can be imputed to a man’s immanent vanity (who doesn’t want a pretty wife to show off). Audience can sympathize with May’s struggle because her life is stuck in a pickle and Jerry seems to be an easy way out, and the bottom line is she doesn’t cozen him into marriage. On a side note, the film marks Monroe’s first before-title credit (fourth billed), her Peggy, the girlfriend of Joe (Andes), Mae’s tough-as-nail brother, is another simpleton whose free spirit is nipped in the bud. It is a small role and Monroe’s faux-naivety and open-faced posturing is modestly appealing.
Riding on Odets’s vernacular wordings and against Lang’s marked alteration, while Douglas may lay thick on playing the chummy side of Jerry, both Stanwyck and Ryan rise to the occasion with flying colors. May is an incompatible combination of sense and sensibility, she knows who she is and what she wants, yet she often overestimates her sense of proportion. Stanwyck never allows May’s dignity sullied by any derision about her amoral past, and she remains the most compassionate actress in Hollywood’s Golden Era. No hyperbole, sentimentality or glamor, all she trusts is to bring honesty out of her character’s self-worth, even when it is full of flaws. Ryan is also exceptionally gripping as a man who drinks the haterade as if it is lemonade, switching between vulnerable, desperate, vainglorious, maudlin or repulsive at the drop of a hat, and the erotic tension between him and May during the kitchen scenes reaches the white heat mostly due to their neatly choreographed and fervently emoted pas de deux and Lang’s directorial flourishes.
THE BIG HEAT has no frills (CLASH BY NIGHT has that striking fishing and cannery sequences and elemental forces foreshadowing May’s entrapped domesticity whereas HUMAN DESIRE endeavors to document railroad operations à la cinema vérité), it is as straightforward as its plot could go, operating on a Gadarene momentum with film-noir’s familiar trappings. Among the performers, Nolan stands out for her immaculate duplicity and death-defying composure. As the leading man, Ford fares much better here as a pertinacious gangbuster spitting insults to those high-flying hypocrites like nobody’s business, than in HUMAN DESIRE, where his Jeff cannot muster enough urgency as the plot goes thicker and more far-fetched. For example, Carl’s blackmailing is rather untenable, only if Vicky could’ve come clean to the police, the murder case isn’t too hard to explain and Carl would have a more difficult time to explain how come it is him who is in possession of that critical letter! HUMAN DESIRE ends up as a smirch in Lang’s otherwise first-rate track record, reeking of misogyny and self-pity that is too tenacious to dispel.
referential entries: Raoul Walsh’s WHITE HEAT (1949, 8.4/10); Lang’s SECRET BEYOND THE DOOR… (1947, 7.4/10), THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW (1944, 7.5/10).
警察自杀，证人被杀，这已经不是寻常的黑了。从Dave的老婆死于汽车炸弹开始，我就被黑晕了，Gloria Grahame不惜露出烫伤相，也是一种另类的黑法。哦天哪，哦天哪天哪天哪。
这部戏，数一数至少死了三个女人两个男人，死亡对于Lang来说是一种很稀松平常的事情，他的生死观真的很奇特。我一直想知道，Lang的内心到底藏了多少只蝙蝠。
这部电影的气质很独特，警探调查案件的过程中，妻子被杀害。正义的警探如何在真相和复仇中选择了？出于商业片的考虑，弗里茨朗设计了拜金的女主，替男主犯了罪，报了仇，也帮观众出了口气。最后达到了互相救赎的效果，也有效避免了留给观众不太好消化的道德困境。
本片确实可以做得更好，就是以女主为中心，结尾再把男主回归警察日常工作和女主问男主妻子的话对换一下，那样就是：一部紧张刺激的犯罪惊悚片，男女主最后互相救赎，些许暧昧，最关键的是，以女主为中心，会更加衬托出男主与妻子的爱情之美。如此一来，便是上乘之作。
时代所限，商业片中，当时做不了这么大胆的尝试。现在的好莱坞完全可以，甚至是赶上了风头。但另一个问题来了，如今好莱坞商业片中的俊男靓女越来越少。商业片简单而原始的功能——满足观众意淫，也逐渐丧失。
本片另一个亮点就是省去了男主妻子的葬礼，我敢说就算是如今也会有大量导演会俗气地加上葬礼戏份。如果是韩国电影的话，一定会有。之所以省去，一方面妻子不是主角，另一方面把妻子的死化到破案与复仇中，高效而自然地推动剧情，把失去挚爱的痛苦藏起来。当然了，正如我所说，如果以女主为中心，本片就接近完美了。
这部戏可以说几乎是男主角Dave的独角戏。从很多场合，我们看见他的多疑、冲动、粗鲁、刻薄、甚至冷酷。有评论苛责他的“不通人情”和对爱的麻木。我倒觉得，Dave心中埋着一个正常人细腻的感情。比如，自始至终，他都没有开枪杀人，无论是害死他妻子的凶手或是幕后主使者，他都选择将罪犯送交法律，而不是以私刑报仇；有多个瞬间，从他的眼里流露出不可抑制的痛苦和温情，比如当他搬离老房子时，当他感谢老妇人提供情报时，当他最后敞开胸怀深情地追忆妻子时。
所以Dave并非是一个内心无爱、只知嗜杀的机器。他只是掩埋了他内心的温情，柔软的内核被深深地藏在各种坚硬的面具之下。其实这正是四五十年代美国黑色电影所探讨的主题。因为战争、因为社会秩序的被打破和由此产生的社会伦理的坍塌，使得整个社会关系人与人之间蔓延着不信任感和疏离感，社会有一种分崩离析的感觉，个人就在这种崩溃的大环境中自觉或不自觉地修正和模糊着本真的自我从而实现生存。Dave就是这种压抑、迷失、充满欺骗性和破坏性、危机重重的社会关系下人性挣扎的集中表现。
谁剥夺了男人的温情？是社会上弥漫的危险、扭曲的气氛，剥夺了男人坚强有力的保护者形象，使他们变得愤怒而无奈，最后和女人一样成为受害者。
影片结尾，Dave回到警署又开始另一个案件，只不过是充斥在Lang电影中宿命色彩的又一次体现。无论人们怎么挣扎，怎么抗争，最终还是回到注定的轨道上来，无可辩驳地开始新一道轮回。
按照艾伯特等几位影评家的观点，朗的这部很容易被看成是一部俗套平庸的警察侦凶的电影，实际隐藏了另外一个黑暗的多的故事！这个黑暗故事的主人公就是男主角——警探，班尼昂！下面，本人就顺着这个思维角度，以个人粗浅理解，讨论分析一下这部影片。
首先是班尼昂的自我意识导致了提供线索的酒吧女的死亡。很显然，他不信任对方。他认为对方之所以积极地提供内幕消息，只是出于警察遗孀的勒索的目的。当然，这种不信任又不是如酒吧女所认为的，仅仅是出于对于同事妻子的偏袒和保护。因为从主人公和警察遗孀的几次对话来看，他同样没有信任。此外，在酒吧对话一场戏，也使得班尼昂职业素质受到质疑。他居然可以在是非之地和疑似重要的证人进行交谈，然后毫无顾忌的扬长而去！
紧接着是对邓肯夫人的再度询问。这位警察遗孀表面上似乎不值得同情，但她同样也是一个受害者。从与班尼昂的对话中，我们了解到，她丈夫不止和一个女人来往。仅仅她知道就有四个之多。可以说其夫的虚伪与不忠，最终导致了夫妻关系的破裂，以及她在丈夫自杀后所表现出的冷酷。但是班尼昂看不到这一点。在他眼里，世界只有简单好与坏的二元结构。各色人等的分类，非此即彼。所以他不会去考虑对方在特定环境下的立场和感受。
然后就是他太太的死。其实，在之前的家庭温馨戏中，导演已经通过夫妇双方的对白，为悲剧的来临做足了铺垫。因为班尼昂太太已经习惯性和他的丈夫分享一切：分享一支烟，喝一口对方杯中啤酒、尝一口对方餐盘中的食物，所以，当最终分享的是他被装了炸弹的汽车时，也就变得顺理成章了。但真正导致其妻死亡原因还是班尼昂的自大。的确，他无比痛恨这个街区的黑帮犯罪分子。但是他的自大让他在接到恐吓电话之后，没有合理的去评估可能的危害性，也没有做任何相应的防护性措施，就轻率和冲动地去了犯罪集团幕后老大家中，对其进行了侮辱式的警告。而这一十分不明智的行为当然更加激发了对方除掉他的决心。
班尼昂的死对头斯通（李·马文扮演）的女人玛莎，开场就有亮相，但在影片后半程，她成为了影响本片故事发展的重要人物。电影中段，已经愤然辞职的班尼昂在Retreat酒吧教训并驱逐欺辱吧台女的斯通和他手下。在场的玛莎看到班尼昂英雄气概后，对其产生好感。并执意跟随去了他的公寓。而班尼昂同意这个女人进屋的真正原因似乎是要打听斯通同党莱瑞，也就是在他汽车内安放炸弹的人的下落。他对玛莎本身没有丝毫的兴趣。所以当玛莎释放善意和爱意时，被他用很近乎与羞辱言语断然拒绝。这场戏中，有一段对话。当玛莎希望班尼谈谈他下逝去的爱妻时：
班尼昂：27岁，浅色头发，灰色眼睛……
玛莎：这是警察式的描述。她喜欢做饭吗？喜欢惊喜吗？什么事情会让她发笑？
班尼昂：对不起，我不想谈论他。
这段对话说明了什么？仅仅是职业病使然吗？否！它实际是在要告诉观众，班尼昂并不真的懂的去爱一个女人。
悻悻回到家中的玛莎，被已经从盯梢口中得知她行踪的斯通，暴怒中用滚烫的咖啡泼到脸上。几乎毁掉了她整个左边脸颊。悲愤中的玛莎再次来到班尼昂的公寓，把莱瑞的地址告诉了他。
在捉拿莱瑞时，情节设计的很有意思。班尼昂让稍早前曾经主动向他提供信息的瘸腿的老妪先去敲门试探，看看是不是要找的人。而此时房门内的莱瑞当然是十分警惕，持枪开门，不过被老妪的误认所欺骗……这场戏，似乎是在揭示班尼昂的冷酷。他为了达到目的不择手段。甚至让无辜之人冒风险也在所不惜。
班尼昂从抓到的莱瑞的口中得知，警察遗孀邓肯夫人握有遗嘱罪证。她以此做要挟向犯罪集团勒索钱财。于是，班尼昂直奔邓肯夫人处，斥责其与犯罪分子为伍。甚至恼羞成怒下不惜掐死对方以迫使“重要证物”的曝光。虽然，由于警察的及时赶到只能作罢，但是班尼昂此时已经由冷酷上升到了冷血。
回到公寓，心有不甘的班尼昂向一直等在房中的玛莎吐露了自己的所做所为。后者似乎从中突然意识到了如何才可以报她的毁容之仇。就在这时，照看班尼昂女儿的人来了电话告急。班尼昂匆匆离去时留下了自己的佩枪给玛莎防身。对于这场戏的理解，如果纯粹按照角色性格发展的惯性，甚至都可以解读为班尼昂的毒辣心计！是他有意提供信息给玛莎，并有意留下了佩枪让替她替自己实施复仇。但个人认为这种诠释过于黑暗了。即使是被黑暗面所控制的正义警察，还是有他的起码底线的。更何况，事件的后续发展并没有合乎逻辑到他可以预判和掌控的地步。所以，似乎用宿命论来解释这场戏更为恰当。
拿到手枪的玛莎直奔邓肯夫人家，先是劝告不成，然后开枪杀死了她。之后直奔斯通家中。号称黑片史上最惊心动魄的一场戏上演了：预先埋伏好的玛莎没用枪，而是以眼还眼，用一锅滚烫的咖啡泼向了刚刚返家毫无准备的斯通！然后她对着捂着脸痛坐在沙发上的斯通撕下自己左脸的纱布。兴奋同时狠狠地说道：“从今天开始你也和我一样了。以后你走到大街上，也没人敢正眼看你了！”。结果，她被斯通开枪打倒。
在玛莎临死之前，她再次要求班尼昂讲讲自己的妻子。这时他说道：“她就像个质检员，常常喝一口我的饮料，吸一口我的烟，尝一口我盘中的菜。我喜欢她，非常喜欢(注意他说的是 I Like her而不是love！)！”
镜头一转，灯光明亮的警察局凶杀组的办公室，每个人都带着笑脸迎接班尼昂的回归。他像平常一样坐下接听电话，简单记录信息，然后拿起帽子走出办公室去侦破另外一起命案！
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通过上面的分析可以看出，朗的这部作品带有强烈的女性主义与悲观主义色彩。影片几乎所有的男性角色都是丑恶的（至少是丑陋的）。企业大亨和犯罪团伙蛇鼠一窝杀人越货；警察局的头头和黑帮分子一起打牌；酒吧车厂的头头几乎就是帮凶。就连所谓的绝对正面人物，侦探班尼昂，也被塑造成了一位思维僵化，大男子主义，自我为中心，不懂得珍惜所爱，甚至是冷酷无情的家伙。相反，绝大多少女性角色是都善良的甚至是有正义感的。例如：在班尼昂的侦办过程中，向他提供有价值线索都是女性。从开始的酒吧女到后来柱拐的老太太。而巧舌如簧的酒吧老板和以肥胖的车厂经理，则都采取了各自的不合作的态度，与他们的女性同事形成鲜明对比。即使对于敲诈黑帮的邓肯太太，这位貌似影片中唯一的负面女性形象，导演也给予她足够的去表达其不得以的苦衷的机会。同时，这些女性的结局却是悲惨的。四位牵扯案件当中的女人，一个接一个地为了她们所爱的或者曾经爱过的男人付出了生命的代价。而唯一幸存者，那位老太太，也仅仅是因为已经过了爱的年龄，才得以保全性命。
在男权主导的世界当中，即使是警察扫荡黑帮分子，也必须是以牺牲善良和无辜的女性生命为代价。而最终的所谓正义的胜利，也不过是一种男性的人性丑恶取代另外一种罢了。这也许就才是本片作为黑色经典的真正含义。