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The fatal woman : sources of male anxiety in American film noir, 1941-1991
(Book)
Author
Published
Madison : Fairleigh Dickinson University Press ;, ©1996.
ISBN
0838636624, 9780838636626
Physical Desc
194 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Status
Copies
| Location | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Regis - Main | PN1995.9 .F44 M38 1996 | On Shelf |
More Details
Published
Madison : Fairleigh Dickinson University Press ;, ©1996.
Format
Book
Language
English
ISBN
0838636624, 9780838636626
Notes
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 188-191) and index.
Description
This book is primarily a study of the psychological threat posed by attractive female characters to the male protagonists of American detective and crime films over a fifty-year period. In the films of the 1940s (The Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity, Murder, My Sweet, Out of the Past, and White Heat), an attractive female character is literally a murderess, who poses a threat of varying degrees of intensity to the life of the male protagonist.
Description
Alfred Hitchcock's 1956 film Vertigo serves as a transition to a different understanding of the role of the fatal woman. Although Judy/Madeleine has been used by Elster in a plot to murder his wife, her degree of complicity in the crime is never made explicit. The film emphasizes not her role in the murder of the real Madeleine, but rather her devastating effect on the psyche of the male protagonist of the film, Scottie Ferguson.
Description
In certain later films, although an attractive female character is presented primarily as a victim, she nonetheless has an extremely destructive effect on the self-image of the male protagonist. In two films, Point Blank and Mean Streets, the hero's involvement with a woman is less threatening than his emotional dependency on a male friend because a strong emotional tie between men also undermines the illusion of self-sufficiency and dominance that our culture upholds as the male ideal.
Description
To be sure, two of the later films considered in this volume return to the forties conception of the fatal woman as literal killer. Only in Thelma and Louise, the final film under discussion, is feminine violence portrayed as in any sense warranted - as a justifiable resistance to male tyranny.
Additional Physical Form
Also issued online.
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Citations
APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)
Maxfield, J. F. (1996). The fatal woman: sources of male anxiety in American film noir, 1941-1991 . Fairleigh Dickinson University Press ;.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)Maxfield, James F., 1936-. 1996. The Fatal Woman: Sources of Male Anxiety in American Film Noir, 1941-1991. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)Maxfield, James F., 1936-. The Fatal Woman: Sources of Male Anxiety in American Film Noir, 1941-1991 Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1996.
MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)Maxfield, James F. The Fatal Woman: Sources of Male Anxiety in American Film Noir, 1941-1991 Fairleigh Dickinson University Press ;, 1996.
Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.
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