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

of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birth-mark” written in 1843, which analyses obsession
with human imperfection, as well as showing the psychological impact it has on sexual
relations, and other ethical and philosophical issues of that time), whereas the caricatural
nature of puppetry arouses no such compulsions for him.
Figure 95. Bluebeard
These two examples of films show that period films have their themes rooted in
dark romantic psycho-sexual narratives. Their directors managed to create an aura of
apprehension rendered by the conventions that would become common in postwar film
noir. Ulmer uses mostly the Expressionistic techniques already described previously,
which included oblique camera angles and surreal sets, whereas in the case of Brahm’s
film The Lodger, meticulous attention is given to authentic detail. In any case, these films
reinforce the sense of peril that is normally implicit in Gothic productions (and obviously
appropriate to the last years of WWII). Douglas Sirk’s Lured 94 (1947) deploys the same
settings as the ones in The Lodger, but this time the narrative viewpoint is inverted as the
central figure is a woman Sandra Carpenter (Lucille Ball), a dance hall girl who agrees to
act as bait for the London police to catch a psychotic killer who preys on women through
94 The title was actually modified to Personal Column as the personnel at the Production Code
Administration believed that the word “lured” sounded very much like “lurid”. Director Douglas Sirk
expressed his disagreement many times, considering that the title change would generate much confusion in
the viewer’s mind. He also eventually admitted that this was one of the main reasons for the film’s box office
failure at that time.
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