Books Noir: A Crime Flight

1. “The Big Sleep”, by Raymond Chandler, 1939

The first novel of Chandler’s to feature detective Philip Marlowe this is a great example of the genre of “hardboiled” crime fiction. Marlowe, a P.I. who has seen it all, is called to a grand mansion and asked to deal with a problematic blackmailer and to ask no questions. But it seems to Marlowe that he should be asking questions, particularly about the general’s two daughters, Vivian and Carmen. What happened to Vivian’s husband when he disappeared about a month ago? Where does nightclub-owner and possible mobster Eddie Mars fit into the picture? And what are younger daughter Carmen’s connections with an L.A. porn ring? “The Big Sleep” is one of the first novels to depict an urban Los Angeles.

2. “The Third Man”, by Graham Greene, 1949

When Rollo Martins is called to Vienna by old friend Harry Lime, he jumps at the chance to see him. However, upon his arrival he’s greeted by a funeral – Harry Lime’s funeral. As Martins begins a series of interviews with the police and others (and is advised to leave Vienna and not get caught up in the aftermath of Lime’s “racket”), he begins to suspect foul play.

3. “Double Indemnity” by James M. Cain, 1936

When Walter Neff, an insurance agent, goes to meet with Phyllis Nirdlinger, it takes him no small amount of time to realize that she’d prefer having the money to having her husband. Eventually seduced by Phyllis, Walter decides to use his trade-knowledge in their favor – specifically, the fact that accident insurance pays double indemnity in deaths occuring on the railroad. At first, Nirdlinger’s death seems to be the perfect crime. But investigator Keyes seems to be on Walter’s trail…and Walter himself is having doubts about Phyllis’ intents, including her role in the death of her husband’s first wife, and her current relationship with both her stepdaughter and her stepdaughter’s boyfriend.


Commentary: All three of these are great examples of crime fiction, written in the terse, hardboiled language made most famous by Chandler. They all take place in urban environments – for both Chandler and Cain, in Los Angeles; for Greene, in Vienna. Another distinction is the role of hero and anti-hero: in “The Big Sleep”, while Marlowe is flawed, he is wise to the situation, and survives…both Greene and Cain provide an anti-hero -- chumps who are taken in by authority figures, villains, and seductresses. “The Third Man” was never intended to be a book; in fact, Greene wrote it at the same time as he wrote the screenplay primarily for promotional reasons. The fact that Greene intended this to be a movie brings up another significant characteristic of all these novels: they were all made into films, and arguably great film noirs. “The Big Sleep” was released in 1944 and starred Humphrey Bogart; “The Third Man” was released in 1949 and starred Orson Wells, with the screenplay written by Greene, as he intended; and “Double Indemnity” was released in 1944, directed by Billy Wilder and nominated for an Academy Award