Noir Nook: Noir’s Scariest Characters
October is a month for ghosts and goblins, bats and jack-o’-lanterns, black cats and skeletons. Not necessarily the characteristics that come to mind when one thinks of film noir.
But there’s one thing that’s common to both October and noir – scary characters.
In the spirit of the month, I’m taking a look at four of my favorite scary folks from the classic film noir era – men and women who embody the concept of “looking out for number one.” They have no arc, as they possess no redeeming qualities; it’s their sociopathic self-absorption, their mercenary self-indulgence, and their unyielding sense of self-preservation that makes them so darn scary.
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Mr. Brown (Richard Conte) in The Big Combo (1955)
The Big Combo stars Cornel Wilde as police lieutenant Richard Diamond, who has a single-minded determination to bring to justice a mobster by the name of Mr. Brown. He also happens to be obsessed with Mr. Brown’s troubled girlfriend (played by Wilde’s real-life wife, Jean Wallace).
Mr. Brown is one of the most ruthless dudes you’ll ever want (or don’t want) to encounter – we see him methodically arranging the elimination of anyone possessing information that might lead to his downfall, and that includes his right-hand man (Brian Donlevy) and his two devoted underlings, Mingo (Earl Holliman) and Fante (Lee Van Cleef). They’re all completely disposable. And Mr. Brown has even less regard for Lt. Diamond; in a typical demonstration, he has his minions abduct Brown, then proceeds to torture him by blasting music in his ear and pouring hair tonic down his throat. He’s not a nice guy.
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Margot Shelby (Jean Gillie) in Decoy (1946)
The plot of Decoy is one of noir’s most unique: convicted criminal Frankie Olins (Robert Armstrong) is sentenced to death for knocking off an armored car and making off with a cool $400,000. He refuses to divulge where he’s hidden the money, but his devoted (and I use the word loosely) lover, Margot, has a plan – to team up with a local doctor, arrange for Frankie to be resuscitated after his execution . . . and then get her hands on that money.
Margot is a classic femme fatale; she’s an expert at employing her wiles to get her way. She applies a combination of sweet talk, promises of favors (you know the kind), and hard-boiled street smarts to ensnare and juggle three men at the same time: Frankie; his henchman, Jim Vincent (Edward Norris); and the hapless doctor (Herbert Rudley), using each of them and then, like Mr. Brown, discarding of them when they’ve served their purpose. She even manages to wrap the local detective (Sheldon Leonard) around her finger – no male is safe with her around.
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Charlie Oakley (Joseph Cotten) in Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Young Charlie Newton (Teresa Wright) is bored with her humdrum life in picturesque Santa Rosa, California, but she’s delighted when her family gets a visit from her beloved uncle, after whom she was named. Unfortunately, before long, Young Charlie’s jubilance turns to dread as she begins to suspect that her uncle is the “Merry Widow” serial killer being sought by police.
Uncle Charlie is charming, affable, sophisticated – everything admirable to a young girl. But it doesn’t take long for us to see that there’s something very wrong with Uncle Charlie; there are numerous clues, like when he roughly grabs his niece after she discovers a newspaper article he’s tried to hide, or when he starts talking about wealthy widows, calling them “horrible, faded, fat, greedy women.” It soon becomes apparent that Uncle Charlie views the entire world with contempt – and his namesake is no different.
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Vera (Ann Savage) in Detour (1945)
Tom Neal stars as Al Roberts, a piano player who gets more than he bargained for when he hitchhikes from New York to California to join his singer-girlfriend. First, Roberts catches a ride with a well-heeled gambler, Charles Haskell (Edmund MacDonald), but when the man winds up dead, Al panics, leaves Haskell on the side of the road, and takes his car. And when Al picks up a hitchhiker of his own – Vera – things really kick into high gear.
Unlike Margot, Vera isn’t your typical femme fatale. When we first meet her, she’s dusty from travel, with an unkempt hairdo and a simple pencil skirt and blouse, and she falls asleep soon after she and Al get back on the road. But when she wakes up, she’s got fire in her eyes and accusations on her lips. She knows Al’s car belongs to Charles Haskell and she suspects that Al “kissed him with a wrench.” From that moment on, Vera is in charge; she doesn’t utilize feminine charms, but aggression and threats, forcing Al into a series of actions that he’s too afraid to challenge. And we don’t blame him. Vera is one scary dame.
Who are some of your scariest noir characters? Leave a comment and let me know!
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– Karen Burroughs Hannsberry for Classic Movie Hub
You can read all of Karen’s Noir Nook articles here.
Karen Burroughs Hannsberry is the author of the Shadows and Satin blog, which focuses on movies and performers from the film noir and pre-Code eras, and the editor-in-chief of The Dark Pages, a bimonthly newsletter devoted to all things film noir. Karen is also the author of two books on film noir – Femme Noir: The Bad Girls of Film and Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir. You can follow Karen on Twitter at @TheDarkPages.
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