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

1.2 The Gangster Film
“Snatched from today’s headlines” is how Warner
Brothers advertised their gangster movies in the
1930s, and it’s a fair indicator of the origins of the
genre. “Today’s headlines”, however, is a bit of an
exaggeration – “Last decade’s headlines” would
be more accurate. (Hughes 2005:3)
Gangster movies have existed for almost as long as
cinema itself. Once they entered the public
consciousness there was no stopping them, and
they swiftly became a Hollywood staple. Many subgenres
later, today’s mobsters and hitmen have
come a long way. Yet all of them remain ultimately
cut from the same hoodlum cloth, recognizable
descendants of a long tradition of dirty, yellowbellied
rats. (Hughes 2005:23)
In this chapter, I examine what the gangster film and film noir have in common, but
most essentially what makes the former a genre in its own right, and why sometimes this
genre seems to overlap with the noir cycle. Many scholars support the idea that film noir is
in fact a challenging development within the general history of the gangster film, and
therefore I focus on the cultural influence it wielded over film noir, but at the same time I
distinguish between the two types of films, especially in terms of their narrative approach
and the respective complexities that follow or form it.
The major cycle of gangster films appeared during the end of the Hollywood silent
era, enabling it to capture the striking and theatrical sound of tommy guns, the shrieking
car tires, the screeching brakes, and just as significantly, the fast beating rhythm of the
gangster’s speech. With the National Prohibition Act of 1919, known as the Volstead
Act, 12 or more popularly as “Prohibition”, the country would be prohibited from
manufacturing, transporting and selling beverages (“beer, wine, or other intoxicating malt
or vinous liquor”) containing more than 0.5 per cent of alcohol. One of the major upshots
of the Prohibition Era was the development of gangsterism and crime. To guarantee that
prohibition would actually be enforced was a difficult assignment for the police and an
12 The Act would come into force on January, 17, 1920.
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