Film Noir: The Bare Facts
Burlesque was a natural setting for film noir—a stage set to assemble gangsters, cops, femme fatales, and assorted lowlifes. It fit right into the noir cityscape, nestled among pool rooms, cheap diners, and downtown police stations.
Burlesque was all about glamour and style—or at least tried to be. The 1950s witnessed the final spasm of American vaudeville. The old extravaganza had devolved into a whirling dervish of striptease, with the emphasis on tease: the painfully slow removal of garments, revealing little by today’s standards, punctuated by bump and grind amid sequins, feathers, and exotic props, mimicing the new Las Vegas showgirls.
In film noir, burlesque lured every male—good guys and bad guys and those in between. A pair of intrepid Teasury Department agents in "Undercover Man" (James Whitmore and Glenn Ford) follow a suspect to an establishment and are obliged, in the line of duty, to watch the show while keeping tabs on him.
The performance art was often billed as a “novelty” act. At the top of the heap were talented stars who found fame and fortune taking it off, most famously Gypsy Rose Lee and Lili St. Cyr. Both parlayed stage careers into movies, including appearances in film noir.
A rung down the entertainment ladder were popular performers with big personalities and a flair for provocative props—snakes, popping balloons, and whatever else might keep an audience watching. Tempest Storm, “The Queen of Exotic Dancers” and Blaze Starr, “The Hottest Blaze in Burlesque,” lived long and prospered.
Film noir was a burlesque playground. Here are a few places where you can get a peek at the action.
Lady of Burlesque (1943)
Based on Gypsy Rose Lee’s novel The G-String Murders, the film stars Barbara Stanwyck as feisty burlesque performer Dixie Daisy, who finds herself tracking down a killer in their midst—one who strangles dancers with their own stage costumes. A great glimpse of sassy acts and turbulent backstage life.
Armored Car Robbery (1950)
Gape at femme fatale Yvonne LeDoux, a mesmerizing burlesque queen playing both ends against the middle in this film noir classic. She’s the estranged wife of one of the armored-car robbers, while secretly bumping and grinding with the gang’s mastermind (Dan Duryea). Watching her bump-and-grind act, her distraught husband mutters to the smirking mastermind: “She’s expensive, but she’s worth it.”
The dame in question is actress Adele Jergens who was usually cast as a showgirl in film noirs. It was a decent—and steady—Hollywood living.
Screaming Mimi (1958)
Gypsy Rose Lee runs a high class strip joint that features Anita Ekberg as an exotic dancer. Ms. Ekberg's performance is worth the price of admission.
Final Cut Noir grows by word of mouth. If you enjoy what you read, please pass it along.
Follow Final Cut Noir on Instagram
