Joaquim da Silva Fontes, Significação e Estabilidade do Género no ...

“particular application” concerning “displays of the body” was, for instance, not honoured
by the director if we think about the scene in which Phyllis appears with her towel above
the knees.
About the role of women – and more specifically about femmes fatales in classic
film noir – it is interesting to note that none could be seen in the braless or otherwise
revealing costumes that the molls and nightclub girls in gangster films showed back in the
early thirties. To Breen, a 1931 version of The Maltese Falcon could never be approved as
Bebe Daniels, in her role of Ruth Wonderly or “the dame in the kimono”, appears nude in
a bathtub or almost naked in another scene whilst being strip-searched. The next version of
the film portrays a Mary Astor completely attired in rather demure ladylike clothes,
actually quite inapposite for the role. Having read the MPPDA files with their direct
references to objections to certain noir films, it is clear that what was of major concern to
the censors was the effect on society itself and how to present the public with models of
how they should behave (rather than what they actually did), upholding thus an
“instrumentalist view of culture” as well:
The important thing is to leave the audience with the definite conclusion that
immorality is not justifiable, that society is not wrong in demanding certain
standards of its women, and that the guilty woman, through realization of her error,
does not tempt other women in the audience to follow her course. (Jason Joy, a
MPPDA official censor) (in Jacobs 1991:3).
As I have already pointed out above, most of these noir productions would recur to
various techniques to get past the censors’ scissors. Since the Code restricted specific
depiction of sex and violence, producers and directors felt the need to compensate for that
kind of sexual insinuation through dialogues 45 with squalidly suggestive and noir artefacts
(like fissuring Venetian blinds, marked shadow, and chiaroscuro low-key mise-en-scène,
etc). Moreover, some fetish-like symbols would be allowed to intrude into (rather than
showing) some of these “forbidden” scenes. The anklet worn by Phyllis provides a strong
physical ignition when Neff sees her coming down the stairs and provides them both with
ample opportunity to stare at her exposed legs. This point is clinched towards the end of the
scene when Neff agrees to return and see her:
45 Refer to the previous section on hard-boiled writers who used a clever fusion of hard-boiled style and black
comedic wit to capitalise the characters’ dialogue.
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