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

y a jealous (and suspicious) ex-cop, MacDonald (Raymond Burr), as the image below
shows (fig. 35). In that regard, Schwartz underlines that Powell acts out to be the decent
American middle-class husband:
Powell is the archetypal average American man living (…) in the suburbs, where
his type is viewed as the backbone of the country. This film does a good job of
poking holes in that dream, showing underneath the surface all is not well. The
wayward husband has fallen from his perch of bourgeois respectability in the eyes
of his wife, and the materialism needed to maintain such a middle-class lifestyle
(...). (Schwartz 2001:2)
Figure 35. Pitfall
These two female archetypes presented in the film reinforce the socio-cultural
dichotomy mentioned above and the ideological significance of film noir. In fact, much
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