Style
The 1965 film The Money Trap portrays elements of the classic film making style known as noir. The black and white film uses the theme of a simple man (Joe Baron) drawn into crime and corruption for materialistic needs.
The Money Trap was one of the last noir films mad e after the style had first erupted in the 1940’s. Not only does the main plot showcase a common noir film theme but the subplot that exists in the movie portrays a theme that proves The Money Trap to qualify as a noir film.
The subplot starts off with Joe Baron and his partner heading to the crime scene of a woman being hung by her husband for participating in sexual relationships for money (Prostitution). They later show that she has a daughter that her husband loved very much. On the day of their daughter’s birthday the girl’s father chooses to meet up and spend the day with her. At the end of the day Joe Baron arrests the man whilst the young girl is left to question about the actions that took place on her birthday. This small yet crucial storyline displays the theme of the happiness in a filmic perspective being never lasting.
Another example of the noir film technique being implemented is in the last seen where injured Joe Baron (Glenn Ford) turns all the lights on and looks over his large garden, swimming pool and beautiful house symbolizing all the materialistic needs that he chose to act unethically for.
Read more about this topic: The Money Trap
Famous quotes containing the word style:
“I am so tired of taking to others
translating my life for the deaf, the blind,
the “I really want to know what your life is like without giving up any of my privileges
to live it” white women
the “I want to live my white life with Third World women’s style and keep my skin
class privileges” dykes”
—Lorraine Bethel, African American lesbian feminist poet. “What Chou Mean We, White Girl?” Lines 49-54 (1979)
“Compare the history of the novel to that of rock ‘n’ roll. Both started out a minority taste, became a mass taste, and then splintered into several subgenres. Both have been the typical cultural expressions of classes and epochs. Both started out aggressively fighting for their share of attention, novels attacking the drama, the tract, and the poem, rock attacking jazz and pop and rolling over classical music.”
—W. T. Lhamon, U.S. educator, critic. “Material Differences,” Deliberate Speed: The Origins of a Cultural Style in the American 1950s, Smithsonian (1990)