The scene starts with an establishing shot, informing the
audience that it is set in San Francisco. This knowledge already helps us to
understand how this particular film noir film will go, as American film noirs
are typically more stereotypical and play into the conventions that film noirs
have more than other cultures do. Multiple shots from San Francisco are shown
to further emphasise the culture of the film, one of these shots being an
aerial shot sweeping over the city from left to right. The establishing shots
are accompanied by a strong orchestra soundtrack to emphasise and build
anticipation for the film. This acts as non-diegetic sound which contributes to
the mood of the film later on.
We then see a shot of the detective firm from the inside of
the office of the main detective. This shot informs us that the two partner
detectives throughout are Spade &
Archer as we see this written backwards (because the shot is from the
inside looking out) on the window. A vertical tracking shot is used to
introduce the private detective Spade sitting
his and his partner’s office. We see him making a cigarette whilst sitting in a
luxurious big chair. His costume also says a lot about his character as he is
wearing a suit and tie and has his hair slicked back, this represents his
status and how good of a detective he is, as he has worked hard enough to be
able to have his own partnership and afford luxuries like cigarettes whilst
working in a skyscraper in San Francisco.
An over-the-shoulder shot is then seen, showing his
secretary, again contributing to this idea of his success, wealth and power in
the detective industry. The character of the secretary also represents one of
the two different roles in which women were viewed, particularly near the time
the film was made/set. The secretary, showing us the domestic view on women;
obedient for the detective (man) and caring (helps him organise). The secretary
comments on the woman who is about to be introduced as being a ‘knockout’,
which again shows us how women were viewed and represented at the time. Detective
Spade also calls his secretary ‘sweetheart’ which demonstrates how gender is
represented in film and how women were viewed at the time, ‘sweetheart’ here is
used as a degrading term to minimise her to just an object and not a person. This
would have been a typical way of representing women in film noirs at the time
and throughout media, therefore making the role of these two women a very
important contribution to making this film one in the film noir genre.
The ‘damsel in distress’ is then brought into shot in the
form of a upper class, wealthy young woman. Her costume gives this impression
of her being upper class as she is wearing a stylish dress, along with an
extravagant hat and a fur shawl. We find out from her, part of the narrative,
her contribution being that she needs the detective’s help to find her sister
as she has been taken away by a mystery man, to the audience. She plays the
role of the femme fatale, a classic attribute to the Film Noir genre. By giving the detective information about her
sister and the man that has supposedly kidnapped her, she makes him seem like
the bad guy when most likely, in the film noir genre, she probably just wants
the man to be gotten rid of and the detective will do her dirty work because he
has fallen for her.
We are then provided with multiple close ups of the ‘damsel’
which gives us information about her emotions, or at least the emotions she
wants the detective to think she’s feeling (so he will be more persuaded to
help her). Emotions such as worry, fear and helplessness are shown through the
use of this close up which she uses to deliver the enigma of this opening
scene/film; Who killed the detective and
how is Detective Spade going to solve the ‘damsels’ case? She looks the
part of a helpless maiden in order to make Spade fall for her and help her.
After giving Detective Spade her sob story so he will help
her, Spade’s partner walks in, also dressed in the classic detective outfit:
fedora hat, big jacket, cigarette in his mouth.
Editing remains neutral throughout, without any clear signs
of extravagant editing. No slow motion, no jump cuts; the scene flows very
fluidly which helps the plot be introduced and developed without giving too
much to the audience all at once.
This opening scene clearly shows signs of the film noir
genre’s codes and conventions such as the detective’s costumes, along with the
females costumes, the setting (Chicago is commonly used for film noirs due to
its landscape) and the spider and the fly narrative which we clearly see in The Maltese Falcon’s opening scene.
