Mae Doyle from CLASH BY NIGHT (1952)
Film noir and its losers...
Noir and melodrama often go hand in hand. Especially if Barbara Stanwyck has anything to do with it. And Clash by Night's Mae Doyle may just be one of the most perfect examples of that. One of the greatest performances in a career that, may I point out since we're in award season, went Oscar-less.
Written by Alfred Hayes and based on the Clifford Odets play of the same name, Clash by Night (1952, dir. Fritz Lang) tells the story of Mae Doyle (Barbara Stanwyck), a cynical and bitter woman who returns to her hometown, Monterey, Calif., after a decade in New York with nothing to show for it. Her brother Joe (Keith Andes) isn't too happy to see her but he lets her back in, and she soon strikes up a friendship with Joe's girlfriend Peggy, played by a young Marilyn Monroe. She also meets Jerry D'Amato (the always reliable Paul Douglas), a sweet fisherman who immediately falls in love with her. Problem is, she falls in love with Jerry's friend Earl (Robert Ryan) instead...
This motley crew of characters makes for one of the best family melodramas of its era, and that's mostly what Clash by Night is. Clash by Night isn't really a film noir. I mean, sure, Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Ryan are in it. And yes, Nicholas Musuraca shoots the film to raw perfection. And Fritz Lang is behind the camera, ok. But! But. It is a melodrama. And it does unfortunately fall in the increasingly longer list of films that buffs and, dare I say, critics think automatically become film noir if they've got a few shadows here and there. I mean, far be it from me to stop people from dissecting our greatest art form and all the many genres in it but I think it's important to make a distinction between what's what, what's not and whatnot. Clash by Night looks like a film noir. It's got some of the elements. But does it feel like a film noir? Not entirely... Unless...
‘What do you want, Joe? My life's history? Here it is in four words: big ideas, small results' Mae Doyle
Clash by Night sounds like a film noir. Because Mae Doyle expresses her innermost feelings, thoughts and frustrations to anyone who will listen. Mae Doyle is the protoypical film noir anti-hero. She left her hometown and headed for New York to fulfill her dreams. She wanted to make it big. She wanted to meet someone who would love her for who she is and who would be with her forever. Instead, she married a politician who ended up dying, and his family got his money. So she came back to Monterey. The safe option.
'Home is where you come when you run out of places.' Mae Doyle
Mae Doyle isn't happy here. She'd rather be anywhere else. She'd rather be in New York. But Monterey is where life took her. Now, her brother can't stand the sight of her for the most part, the people she once knew sort of vaguely remember her, and she ends marrying the first man she meets upon her return because why not. Then they have a baby. This isn't exactly what she wanted. And she knew it. And she knew she wouldn't be good for Jerry, but he didn't care. Honestly, Jerry could have had his own article here.
Mae is deeply unhappy. Her only source of anything that resembles some sort of feeling is Earl. They start out hating each other and by the end of the second act, their hands are all over in each other in what is easily one of the most insanely hot kisses in film noir. Mae's no good for Earl and Earl's no good for Mae, but they're no good for anybody else either.
'I pick and I choose. My privilege' Mae Doyle
Mae Doyle is the definition of film noir. The American Dream gone wrong, the need to escape, the sorrow in coming back, the shattered hopes, the crooked dreams, the crushing loneliness and sense of hopelessness in the face of it all. Going back to your roots is film noir's achilles heel. And the thing, whatever happened in those ten years in New York probably would have made for an equally great story. But that's not the story we got. That's not the story Mae Doyle got in the end.
We bid farewell to Mae Doyle and Clash by Night. Our next loser is fresh out of prison and ready for his next adventure: a heist. The film is Rififi (1955), the actor is Jean Servais and the loser... is Tony 'le Stephanois'.
See you on the sunny side of the street.
Oh, didn't know that. I'd bet with some cajoling you UK Noir fans could get Eddie to put a festival together. He's really enjoying his role as the Czar of Noir and doing a swell job elaborating this great cinematic movement. I need to order the new edition of Dark City Dames that just came out. His You Tube show put me on to a two volume set called The Dark Page: Books That Inspired American Film Noir by Kevin Johnson. Beautiful coffee-table sized volumes, profusely illustrated, and printed & bound in very high quality editions. You can get them nearly half - off directly from Oak Knoll Press. You will not be disappointed! But Eddie is a great ambassador for this dark fetish we all share. I'll bet with a good cinema signing on, some passionate scholar/fans supporting, and promise of good food & drink - - you'd have Noir City in the UK with Eddie doing the honors!
**Cal STATE university