Mark,
Re your comments below:
"I'm in the middle of Gil Brewer's 13 French Street. The
narrator is torn between two women, his blonde girlfriend at
home and the dark haired wife of his old Army buddy. Brewer
really plays up her dark hair, clearly symbolic of a greater
blackness within her. It reminded me of what had been pointed
out to me in a college class on westerns, how the blondes
usually represent purity (for instance, Doc Holliday's
girlfriend back east in My Darling Clementine) and the fallen
women are dark haired (Holliday's Mexican girlfriend in
Tombstone). I must admit, I haven't really paid much
attention to the hair color of femmes fatales in vintage noir
lit, but Brewer makes suc a big deal about the ontrast. Has
anyone else paid more attention? Is this typical? Seems to me
a lot of these femmes were blonde or redhaired in
film."
It works the reverse at least as often. In the western
example you named, MY DARLING CLEMENTINE, while it's true
that Cathy Downs's Clementine is lighter-haired than Linda
Darnell's Chihuahua, she's not blonde, just not as
dark-haired as te Hispanic Chihuahua. Further, though
Chihuahua is't virginal, she's not evil, and she redeems
herself before she dies.
In MURDER, MY SWEET, it's blonde Claire Trevor as Velma who's
the villainess, and redhead Anne Shirley as Ann Grayle (who's
hair looks dark in B&W) who's the pure-hearted
sweetie-pie.
In both the book and film versions of I THE JURY, it's the
blonde temptress who turns out to be the murderer, while
Hammer's virginal brunette secretary, Velda, waits patiently
for Mike to come to his senses.
In DOUBLE INDEMNITY, Barbara Stanwyck's Phyllis, is the
blonde murderess and seductress who leads Walter into mortal
sin, while Jean Heather's dark-haired Lola, Phyllis's
step-daughter, is the "nice" girl.
JIM DOHERTY
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