Toughboiled Television

And it would be stone written, that a genre as rife with style and high aesthetic as film noir would ultimately make it's journey to that certain square box in the collective American living room - that it would inspire the medium of television to embellish on it's cinematic magic. 

In the 1950s, the wildfire popularity of television also had it's impact on film, primarily because now there would be that extra effort for the former cinema audiences to peel away from their sofas and leave their novelty box behind and get back to their theatre routine.


Hollywood was spurred on, to revamp their approaches and that would mean seducing with widescreen spectaculars with elaborate casts in terrific Technicolor,  and to also convey an optimism that in turn would sequester the profound troubles rumbling just below the surface of American society.


It has long been theorized that noir's classic period saw the last of it's genre days by the year 1959, and the main reason was because it was now expatriated to television, along with many of it's staple actors, directors, writers and producers.


And even though noir was veritably absent in the 1960s, it still exuded a potent influence on television screenwriters, who longed to infuse their programs with noir's intense motifs.




Even a series like The Twilight Zone came down with a case of chiaroscuro itself.




And one such example was The Fugitive (1963-67) When the idea of this series was being entertained by creator Roy Huggins- an executive balked at the idea and actually said verbatim that it was the most repulsive concept he had ever heard. And yet another executive lauded Huggins for this idea. He could not give it enough paeans in fact. Whichever ideology one would have, there was no refuting the magic of the longest chase sequence in the history of television. The plight of Dr Richard Kimble (David Jannsen) who was ever on the run for a crime uncommitted. The perennial searches for "the one-armed man' who was the true perp. And this would keep audiences transfixed and delight their eyes each episode of it's 120 in the series.



Make this quick, I need to be on the set of Harry-o by the next decade.




And Kimble would achieve last laugh's sheer satisfaction, as three quarters of America's population at the time were tuned in.


During it's height, The Fugitive would show quite the verisimilitude of noir's traditional - man trapped in circumstances, beyond his control. And with the recurrent  Western theme of the rootless pariah wandering America's landscape.  And Kimble's journeys would take him straight to small-town America. The series had some exquisite examples of rural noir and with it's well-oiled shooting style, traces of documentary-noir, albeit the protagonist is the actual victim of police procedure. And this would be not unlike the character  Henry Fonda portrayed in  Balestro, from the Hitchcock suspense fest, The Wrong Man (1956)









Earlier in 1959, another series that would appear at the end of noir's golden days, although only running one 27 episode season - Johnny Staccato which featured John Cassavetes right before he would embark on becoming one of the most groundbreaking directors to walk this earth. Would bring television that very same ethos that noir brought to the big screen. The concept was quite engaging - Johnny the day jazzo slash evening private eye. The noir flavor all the more sweeter as the series came replete with  real location shots of New York's Greenwich Village . And the show exuded a hep cat feel that would offset the depraved nature of it's stories. And the icing on the cake, was it's winning jazz score, and no other than jazz giant Elmer Bernstein would compose the main theme. Unfortunately the censors found this series to push one too many buttons and they saw no other choice than to cancel , but this series even in small-screen shadows would be every bit on par with the big boys.









And even as late as the year 1986 noir was still a reigning muse - as in the case of Dennis Potter's undeniable masterpiece The Singing Detective. In fact, this mini-series was one of the most brilliant televisual offerings produced in the twentieth century. Michael Gambon haunted as the nihilistic novelist Phillip Marlow (the e is silent as you see) bedridden and in a state recumbent as a result of a mysterious skin affliction. The ailing author mentally rewrites his first Chandler inspired thriller The Singing Detective, entailing memories of his youth and even including himself as a detective/ lounge lizard who investigates a labyrinthine homicide plot in a noir induced fantasy realm



Nothing quite like this crooning sleuth, before or after it made it's indelible mark on tv history.


Dennis Potter expertly manifests the private eye figure to imbue Marlow's "existence" with elements of independence , machismo and a determinant triumph - all traditional private eye attributes that have been imperviously and cruelly reduced from his languid hospital bed reality. Consequently, the genre's trademark dark prurience and misogynistic violence impels his inner journey of self-awareness. Potter excelled at postmodern framework of noir motifs and they conveyed a powerful assessment of how unsavory youthful cruelties result in dire damage even decades later.


It would be difficult to refute that noir has not only influenced the world of the small screen as we know it - but it may have only been television's strongest ally and the heart of noir is still ticking, and if you don't believe me - perhaps you have not seen :