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

money from Dundee. A more harrowing moment is when Slim enters the room, with the
two lovers trapped, as in the first scene, but this time awaiting death. In a rather cynical
ending, the couple die like romantic lovers, in each other’s arms (fig. 80 above) and
whispering each other’s names. The final shot is once again accompanied by Miklós
Rózsa’s powerful score, focussing on their two bodies which finally get united but this
time in death. The music carries then a tragic charge, emphasising the moonlit ocean
behind them and creating an even more tragic context.
The File on Thelma Jordon (1950) was Siodmak’s final noir production, made for
Paramount, and is considered to be his most discerning analysis of duality and obsession.
Cleve Marshall (Wendell Corey) is another of the helpless noir males; he is a happily
married assistant District Attorney who, like John Forbes in Pitfall, feels trapped in a
routine and humiliated by his father-in-law, a successful judge, who dominates his life. His
life radically changes when he first meets Thelma Jordon (Barbara Stanwyck), an
autonomous and alluring woman, who one night shows up in his office. They get involved
in an illicit love affair, and soon plot a scheme together (reminding us of Walter and
Phyllis in Double Indemnity) when Thelma’s wealthy aunt Vera Edwards (Gertrude W.
Hoffman) is found shot. Unlike the usual cold, passionless femme fatale, Thelma has a
heart and is more sympathetic (even towards Cleve’s personal and professional life).
Figure 81. The File on Thelma Jordon
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