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The Life-Blood of Film Noir
Christopher reminds us that the technical and artistic progenitors of film noir were the German expressionist films of the teens and twenties, which gave noir its look and bleak attitude, and the American gangster movies, which gave noir its dark underbelly of violence and greed. The expressionist films' visual emphasis on shadows and fog combined with their thematic study of man's darker impulses to exert a strong influence on many future noir directors. Expressionists helped create the signature style of noir scenic portraiture, with its darkened streets and chiaroscuro (use of light and dark) illumination. Not only did expressionists influence future American noir directors, many of the German expressionists directors became noir directors themselves, after they became expatriate Germans in the 30's when they fled Nazi Germany and emigrated to the States, bringing their skills and style with them. go back ... or continue to the next page: Film Noir and the A-Bomb
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Nicholas
Christopher contends that the psychological numbing that resulted from the
incessant threat of nuclear war helped create a climate of fear and paranoia,
which was the very life's blood of the film noir genre. The Prohibition-era
urban warfare between the mob and the cops in American cities (naturally
Hollywood, that great social commentator, built an industry around gangster
films in the 30's) that pre-dated the nuclear age acted in concert with the
Manhattan Project to construct an anxious urban populace, who would become the
consumers of noir films. 
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