Sandy Hobbs, November 2018

In “Noir People”, I argued that the CH consensus measure outlined in “Defining Film Noir” might fruitfully be employed to estimate the extent of a director’s contribution to American film noir. However, I suggested that looking at roles other than that of director might be more problematic. Nevertheless, I did consider two individuals taking account of different roles they had undertaken. Robert Rossen, who had scored 23 on the basis of films he had directed, rose to 35 if he were credited with films he wrote or produced. Ida Lupino, by contrast, rose dramatically in importance if her acting were included, from only 6 to over 70, placing her close to the third highest scoring director, Alfred Hitchcock. Joan Harrison differs from Rossen and Lupino in that she appears never to have directed. Nevertheless, she was active in American filmmaking in the heyday of film noir, so it is worth considering her role.

Harrison (1907-1994) entered movies as an assistant to Hitchcock in Britain in the 1930s. She received screenwriting credits in Hitchcock’s last film before moving to Hollywood (Jamaica Inn) and in his first Hollywood films (Rebecca and Foreign Correspondent). During the period we are treating as the era of American film noir, 1941-1958, IMDb reports her as active both as a screenwriter and as a producer. In what we have treated as the key noir years, 1941-1958, she was co-writer of Hitchcock films treated as noir by only a minority of the list-makers, Suspicion (1941) and Saboteur (1942). Each of these has a CH score of 5, i.e. appeared on 5 out of the 12 lists included in Cornwell and Hobbs’s survey. Subsequently, she left the Hitchcock team. For a few years, 1944 to 1947, she produced or wrote eight films which appear on some noir lists. Most notably she was producer of Phantom Lady (1944, CH 11) and Ride the Pink Horse (1947, CH 10). She also co-authored the screenplay of Dark Waters (1944, CH 5) and produced The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry (1945, CH 7), Nocturne (1947, CH 7) and They Won’t Believe Me (1947, CH 6). However, her next film, Once More, My Darling (1949) is described by IMDb as a “screwball comedy”. This was followed by two films made in Britain, although with America-based directors. These were Eye Witness (1950, Robert Montgomery) and Circle of Danger (1951, Jacques Tourneur). From then onwards she seems to have worked exclusively in television.

So what does this mean in assessing Joan Harrison’s contribution to American film noir? The cumulative CH score of 56 means that her role in this type of film is worth careful consideration. The significance of the exact figure should not be exaggerated. Without additional evidence we cannot know for certain what underlies having, or not having, a “producer” or “screenplay” credit. In IMDb, she is listed in some films as either an “uncredited” or “unconfirmed” writer. Helen Hanson (2007) refers to her as “associate producer” of Dark Waters but she is not so credited on IMDb. For the purposes of calculating a CH score, such uncertainties are ignored, but obviously if one seeks to establish a individual’s unique role in creating a particular film then it is necessary to explore more deeply.

However, for films made over such a short period to appear so frequently in noir lists requires further investigation. Harrison’s CH score of 56 puts in her the same ballpark as Anthony Mann (61), Henry Hathaway (59) and Otto Preminger (54). Yet Harrison has not been particularly well treated in movie scholarship. When Annette Kuhn and her colleague were compiling the Women in Film International (1990), they included an entry on Ida Lupino, but not Joan Harrison. Her films are not even included in the list of films “directed, written or produced” by women. In contrast, Lizzie Francke, in her study of women writers in Hollywood, Script Girls (1994) does devote six pages to Harrison. She quotes Harrison as saying in an interview “I am proud of being a specialist” (p. 57). Certainly looking at her work between 1942 and 1947, one sees someone with an interest in a particular type of film, and that type seems relevant to an understanding of American film noir. It is not simply a question “making film noir”, as her movies most frequently listed as noir, Phantom Lady and Ride the Pink Horse, each has a feature making it unusual in noir films. The principal protagonist in Phantom Lady is female (Ella Raines), which is not typical of American film noir. Ride the Pink Horse is not set in a big US city as is frequently the case with most commonly listed noir movies. Harrison’s first film after leaving the Hitchcock team, Dark Waters, like Phantom Lady, focuses on the female lead, played in this case, by Merle Oberon. Selby’s brief account of this movie says that it “asserts the film noir’s newfound ability to transcend its own plot material through aesthetic execution and refined psychological emphasis” (1984, p. 141). (I confess I am unsure what is meant by these words, but Selby seems to be suggesting originality in treatment.) It is worth stressing that this, and Harrison’s other films, were made in the early days of film noir, hence may have had a significant influence on later works.

It is as a producer that Harrison’s contributions are potentially most interesting. Although she was also a writer, female writers were not uncommon in Hollywood in the 1940s, as is clear from Francke’s Script Girls. Harrison was one of only a handful of female producers, and, as such she was a pioneer. Her role in the development of film noir is worth closer examination. It may be appropriate to do so while also considering the “female gothic”* film. Helen Hanson (2007) lists “The Female Gothic Cycle of the 1940s” chronologically. Harrison was involved in the making of three of the earliest, Rebecca, Suspicion and Dark Waters.

The terms “female gothic” and “film noir” appear to refer to overlapping characteristics. Of the 27 films listed by Hanson, seven have CH scores of 7 or more, i.e. appear in more than half of the “noir” lists. A further nine have scores between CH 4 and CH 6 and five have scores of CH 1 to CH 3.

References

Francke, L. (1994). Script girls; Women screenwriters in Hollywood. London: BFI.

Hanson, H. (2007). Hollywood heroines; Women in film noir and female gothic films. London: I. B. Tauris.

Kuhn, A. and Radstone, S. (1990). The women’s companion to international film. London: Virago.

Selby, S. (1984). Dark city; The film noir. London: St James Press.