Quote:
| OK, Bogie's tied up, and Bacall, instead of untying him, reveals that she's been playing him as a sucker, and she's been in cahoots with the bad guys all along. Bogie escapes, but he and Bacall are both gunned down in the end. |
Well, that film would not be made in 1946. First of all it would never survive the Production Code where the bad guys need to be punished in the end. Not to mention audiences accepting a major star like Bogart (playing a relatively moral protagonist) dying. Not likely.
The point I want to make though has little to do with how films end or don't end and more to do with the core of what makes a femme fatale. A femme fatale contributes to leading a man down a path of strong negative consequences, fueled by sexual attraction or intimacy.
Bacall is a femme fatale because (even though she is protecting a loved one) as she deceptively puts Bogie in harm's way. In my view, Vivian pre-dates Evelyn Mulwray of Chinatown. Both are protecting a love one while deceiving a private detective. In the end, Vivian's actions or non-actions lead Bogart indirectly to having to kill a man as certain as if Bogart had pulled the trigger himself. Presuming what could or couldn't have been is simply my guess, but the fact remains that Vivian put Marlowe in harm's way.
Now, regarding The Big Clock:
Quote:
But again, the main character never would have been in his predicament if it weren't for the sultry blonde, nearly leading to the destruction of his marriage and being charged with murder.
So, at a minimum, there is a "resemblance" to a Femme Fatale. |
Sultry blonde? How did that dame get to be a sultry blonde?
Rob,
I don't see any difference between Pauline York in The Big Clock and Ida Sessions in Chinatown. Seedy woman that serve as a plot device, nothing more.
In fact, you can make a strong case that George (Ray Milland) is never in harm's way except his own doing:
Warning Spoiler! Click to showAfter getting a call from the mammoth Janoth while on his honeymoon, George simply needed to do two things:
1. Call someone in the press and leak that Janoth has his whole staff working on finding a mystery murderer with the the initials J.R.
2. Go to the police with his story of everything that happened and all he knows.
So ... his word against the all-powerful Janoth who denies ever being in the dead woman's apartment that night? Hardly, Janoth makes the critical mistake of introducing the name Jefferson Randolph as the suspected murderer (as well as telling his whole staff of writers). As the dead woman just met Randolph for the first time the very night of the murder, the key question is how does Janoth who denies being with the blonde happen to know that name? Go straight to jail.
Yes, yes, I know it is just a movie, the problem is that there was
no need whatsoever for the director to include that plot point - none. So, what is an otherwise terrific film gets mucked up because the remaining 80 percent of the film is pointless. On a bright note, the film is worth seeing just for the performances, including a very interesting role for Harry Morgan.
