I'm not sure I'd make a big argument that Leave Her to Heaven is noir. Although I do think it has some noir elements, I'd say they are overwhelmed by the melodrama. However, I don't think a domestic setting rules out noir. Al pointed out Grimhaven, but what is The Postman Always Rings Twice if not a domestic drama? And all of the later books that have a marriage destabilized by the entrance of a stranger?
Mark
> To: rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
> From: jvorzimmer@austin.rr.com
> Date: Sat, 31 Oct 2009 08:31:13 -0600
> Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: Slightly Scarlet and Leave her to Heaven
>
> > Funny, Raymond, I also linked Slightly Scarlet to Leave Her to Heaven. They have much the same synthesis of melodrama and noir, but Heaven is a much better film.
> > Mark
>
> There's something about both the book and movie, Leave Her to Heaven, that disqualify it as noir and it's not just the fact that the movie was shot in color, mostly outdoors in the daylight. I don't think of the book as noir either. I've been trying to figure why it doesn't feel noir. A book doesn't have to be set in a criminal milieu necessarily, but I think that a domestic melodrama about a family, even if it includes murder, disqualifies it. I know I'm not alone in thinking it's not noir. It's never included in noir filmographies, although it is tagged as such on IMDB.
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> Maybe someone can prove me wrong by coming up with an example of a film, or book, that's generally accepted as noir that has a domestic setting.
>
> Jeff
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