The Noir Forties: The American People From Victory to Cold War
Lingeman inquires into America’s shift from New Deal liberalism to conservatism through the lenses of America’s late-1940s cultural and political scenes. He strives to see the change in society’s mood, whether induced by military demobilization, labor strikes, or Roosevelt’s succession by Truman, as it was reflected in the period’s signature movie genre, film noir. Summarizing the plots and productions of numerous titles, from the famous (Double Indemnity) to the less widely known (Detour), he juxtaposes noir’s expressions of alienation and cynicism, for example, against societal indicators of anxiety and divorce. Mixing in polls of popular complaints about prices and housing and reviews of popular songs and pulp fiction, Lingeman eventually devises an end-point of sorts with the ascendance of anticommunism, the blacklisting of Hollywood figures, and the exhaustion of film noir’s creativity. A work that never resolves whether it’s film history, political history, or lamentation for liberalism, Lingeman’s survey becomes everything by turns. Film noir is its attraction, and noir aficionados will decide whether Lingeman’s allied subjects, including his army service, interest them––or flip by them in the hunt for the next noir critique. --Gilbert Taylor