In The Method and Morocco Junction 90210 we have two women as our protagonists. They act as two different roles when compared
to the traditional noir roles. First, we have Holly in “The Method” as an
ambiguous protagonist. Second, we have
Minerva, a hard-boiled detective in Morocco
Junction 90210. These roles, in the
past, were almost exclusively male roles.
This role reversal goes further in The
Method, but I’ll get to that in a minute.
I feel these roles are what make a story fall within noir, not who is filling these roles.
In
our first story, The Method, we meet
Holly. She has seemed to build a wall
around herself to keep others out, but she wants to make it big more than
anything else. Fairly quickly we meet
another role reversal, Richard. He plays
the role of the “femme” fatale,
though in this case it would be homme fatale,
or fatal man. Richard lures Holly into
what seems, at first, to be a simple scam; returning a formerly famous woman’s
dog to her in hopes of getting a reward.
In reality, she finds out that Richard is trying to have Holly kill
Mariah, the dog owner, because his former relationship with Mariah turned
sour. In the end, Holly kills Richard
rather than Mariah, seemingly getting away with the murder.
So,
we have our ambiguous protagonist, our homme
fatale, and our crime. When
discussing noir, these are the usual
roles to fill when making a noir
story.
Next,
we have Morocco Junction 90210. Our protagonist in this story, Minerva, is an
information broker; just a fancy title for a detective. Morocco
Junction has no femme fatale, which
is atypical for most noir stories. We do, however, have a couple of apparent crimes;
the death of Eloise Davis and, previously, the burglaries of many wealthy
houses in Beverly Hills, one of which was the Davis’ home. Minerva, through the course of the story, slowly begins to uncover the truth about Eloise’s death; it was a suicide
brought on by the death of her unknown to everyone, even himself, illegitimate son.
In
this story we have a typical detective role being fulfilled. Minerva solves the mystery of circumstances surrounding
Eloise’s death, yet in an effort to protect Eloise’s image, she doesn’t tell
anyone. She does this to fulfill her own
code and that of Beverly Hills itself, “in Beverly Hills, the police don’t
talk. The victims don’t talk…. Why should I?” (144)
These
stories, collectively, are noir. The roles may be filled by atypical people
for the noir theme, but the roles
themselves are what make the theme, not the people in the roles.
