Cain is noir; Hammett is hardboiled--in my opinion. And,
also, in my opinion, Spade is hardboiled and not noir.
Chandler is also hardboiled and not noir.
I admit that my definition of noir is too narrow for some,
but I've seen Eddie Muller's name taken in vain here. For my
money, Eddie is the expert on noir--damn the
definitions.
It is my recollection however that in what I thought was a
great, short film, pieced together from snippets of noir
films to form a virtually coherent story, each of the films
featured characters who were screwed, whether jailed,
murdered, or killed in the midst of crime or an attempted
escape.
I also admit that defining hardboiled as just "tough" may be
a bit to broad for some, but I challenge anybody to find a
lead character in anything they consider hardboiled who is
not tough.
The on-and-on discussion is actually fun, but I think it is
as impossible for us to come up with a definition of either
hardboiled or noir that will satisfy everybody. And if it can
be done, it could probably be done by Eddie Muller.
Jack Bludis
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