Because of my friend George’s marvelous HBO series I once again subscribe to HBO.  Which means that I can watch movies while I’m cooking or cleaning up the kitchen.  The other day WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT was on.  I’ve always liked the movie, but now I have a far greater appreciation of how closely to the noir formula the writers hewed, and what a wonderful job they did.

I’d never read Chandler or Hammett, I’m embarrassed to admit.  Oh, I’d seen Bogie in The Maltese Falcon, but I hadn’t actually read any of the seminal works.  The closest I’d come was Ross McDonald who I think is a brilliant writer, but he wasn’t the originator of the form.

While I was traveling in Australia last year I needed paper books while airplanes took off and landed.  The IPad was great once we were in the air, but I have a restless nature, and I can’t just sit even for takeoffs and landings.  So my traveling companion loaned me several of his noir mysteries.

What became rapidly apparent is that a formula was born, and like all good formulas it serves it’s purpose — it’s familiar without being trite, exciting because the reader/viewer can anticipate what is coming next, and comforting because you know right will triumph.

So, here I am watching Roger Rabbit, and by god it’s all there.  There’s the burnt out detective with a tragedy in his past.  There’s the dangerous femme fatale who you suspect is behind the murder, at a critical point in the story the detective stumbles across a dead body, but doesn’t go to the authorities, the detective is always at odds with the authorities, a critical witness is shot.  In Roger Rabbit there is a dame/twist/chick/frail with a heart-of-gold who has stuck by the burnt out detective.

I was just charmed and delighted, and I ended up enjoying the movie even more now that I had a small background in noir mysteries.  It just shows that a deeper understanding of the antecedents of anything can deepen the appreciation whether it’s noir mysteries, dressage, opera, dance, etc.