Film noir is a movie genre with roots going back to Weimar Germany and the Freudian nightmare. Classic noir revolved around the theme of an ordinary man trapped by fate, a false step or a femme fatale. Yet there was another aspect to film noir that shined a light, for those who cared to look, on the underside of the post-war “American Dream.” These were films that film historian Thom Anderson labeled film gris.
Containing all the ingredients of classic noir, they avoided a sexist view of women and used the genre as a way of addressing many social issues facing post-war America. They were filmed and released mainly between 1947 and 1951, midway between the two rounds of HUAC hearings, which represented the right’s assault on left-liberal Hollywood. Ostensibly an investigation into Communist activity in Hollywood, the real aim was to ensure the removal of progressive ideas and social content from studio productions. Part of this right-wing attack focused on film gris movies, a sampling of which is provided here.
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