Affiliation:
1. University of Wisconsin-Madison
Abstract
The Chase (1946), long celebrated as a boldly innovative film noir, poses many narrative inconsistencies typical of 1940s Hollywood. Several of those, including a disarming revelation of the protagonist’s dream, can be traced to indecisions during the production process. Using documents recording the decision-making process, the essay investigates the choices made, then partially withdrawn, in the course of scriptwriting, shooting, and editing. Not all anomalies are fully explained, but we now have a better sense of how 1940s filmmakers, striving to obey conventions and yet go beyond them, sometimes created ‘innovation by accident’.
Publisher
Edinburgh University Press