I researched three classic film noirs, The Maltese Falcon (1941), directed by John Huston; Laura (1944) directed by Otto Preminger; and Touch of Evil (1958), directed by Orson Welles.The Maltese Falcon is a detective mystery starring Humphrey Bogart and Mary Aster. It is a mixture of mystery, romance and thriller, known mostly for its corrupt, hardened characters and the plot which is full of double-crossings and deceptions.
Laura, on the other hand, is a romantic melodramatic mystery and detective thriller. It is about a naïve, Southern playboy from Kentucky (played by Vincent Price); a society columnist and homosexual bachelor (Cliffton Webb); an ageing female (Judith Anderson) who wants the younger playboy to be ‘her’ man; the beautiful advertisement designer and heroine (Gene Tierney) who is presumed dead for half of the film; and a detective (played by Dana Andrews) who chain-smokes and plays puzzles.
Touch of Evil is a dark crime thriller filmed on location in California rather than the film’s setting in Mexico. The actress Janet Leigh plays a character who is staying in a motel. The motel landlord (Dennis Weaver) won’t leave her alone. The police captain is an obsessed, driven and bloated character who is a tragic figure with a “touch of evil” in his enforcement of the law. The controversial film considers the themes of racism, betrayal of friends, sexual ambiguity, frame-up, drugs and police corruption of power.
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