Noir Cars

If you got it, flaunt it

On her twenty-fourth birthday, Orson Wells gives his future wife Rita Hayworth a 1941 Lincoln Continental Coupe. It costs $2,800. The average annual household income at the time is $1,750.

The 1% has always been with us. As depicted in film noir, they were often old wealth and modern gangsters. They were also the actors who portrayed them.

Five years later, the celebrity pair were married and co-staring in the film noir classic The Lady from Shanghai. Extravagant cars had retreated during the World War; the yearn to return was in the air. The 1946 Lincoln Continental Convertible that vixen Elsa Bannister (Rita Hayworth) sports in the movie sold in showrooms for $4400, a princely sum in the days when most new cars were around $1000.

1946 Lincoln Continental Convertible. Only 201 of these classics were produced in 1946.

Although you could buy a decent car in 1950 for the equivalent cost today, there were far less American luxury choices, especially early in the decade. $6000 ($85,000 today) was the most you could spend in that market – it would be a Cadillac or Continental or Imperial (Chrysler). High-end European cars will not appear for another thirty years.

You can’t mention luxury cars in film noir without a gracious nod to the grand dame, Norma Desmond, and her grand dame carriage, the 1929 Isotta Fraschini Type 8A, the most expensive car in the world at the time of manufacture. In Sunset Boulevard (1950), both represent a panache and elegance long faded from style, even back then.

Erich van Stroheim as the chauffeur, William Holden and Gloria Swanson in the back seat.