Best and most difficult to classify as noir.

In the “the Golden Cost” section I would have to say that the story “the Girl Who Kissed Barnaby Jones” is the best example of noir. In the other hand, in my opinion the story  "Kinship" would have to be the difficult to classify as noir.

The "Kinship" is about a Filipino boy who grows up and ended up in gangs. He wants to do better for himself and for Veronica. Veronica has a son name Emerson who is disabling and is being bullied. Well the story to me can be noir in some areas like violent. But I like story “the Girl Who Kissed Barnaby Jones” better for noir.

In the story “the Girl Who Kissed Barnaby Jones” there was some crazy woman call Cherie. Well you don’t know she’s crazy till the end but ya.  I guess you can call her the femme fatal in this story. Femme fatal = noir.  Tate another character can be the male protagonist. Once again male protagonist = noir.  Noir crazy twisted ending = “the Girl Who Kissed Barnaby Jones” ending. :D Which is the famous femme fatal Cherie, kills Tate for calling the cops on her. Haa poor Tate.

Yes and .....NO

I would have to say YES on noir to "The Method" story. Holly wasn’t the femme fatale in the story, but the protagonist. The method is a weird, twisted, but interesting story. She did what she had to do to safe herself. I do consider the story to be noir because there a murder done a twisted ending which shocked me but I kind of knew it was coming. It was dark and the guy was freaky and weird. That’s noir for u.

 "Morocco Junction 90210" was interesting as well. People can say it was boring but I really did enjoyed reading it. It was more like a mystery story than a noir to me. But I did like the ending of it through. 

Stories

I picked option two. Reading the two stories "Dangerous Days" and "Midnight in Silcone Alley," they both take place in LA but in different areas. Dangerous Day its in Leimert Park where a lot of Blacks and Mexicans lives. It’s more on the poor side and where the housing are low income. Thugs and gangsters get control. Midnight in Silcone Alley is more on the wealthy side in San Marino. It’s an Asian culture and the crime is not as bad as the other story. Both stories have a murder involve. Their characters are well known have you read the stories. Both are good but different stories of neo-noir. 

Neo-Noir or Film Noir???

Both neo- noir and film noir are really alike, with a little bit of differences. Neo-noir is a new style of film noir. In other words neo-noir is the modern way of film noir. The themes of both neo-noir and film noir are “greed, corruption, obsession, and deception reflect an entire society's sickness. The protagonist, in the tradition of hard-boiled detective novels, is often characterized as a cynical loner who is psychologically damaged or morally flawed” [(Naremore 222) Fireman.]. He might find himself drawn into masochistic love affairs with captivating, predatory, destructive women - femme fatales. Noir narratives explore "the male protagonist's need to investigate and punish the woman and his equally important need to adore her and be destroyed" (Naremore 264). Often, these are linked when the protagonist cannot destroy the threat that the femme fatale poses without destroying himself, too. The femme fatale's sexuality is linked with her treachery - noir made sex dangerous. Noir also made danger sexy, as in Gun Crazy, where criminal behavior is a turn-on for a pair of outlaw lovers. The narrative itself makes use of a convoluted, melodramatic plot, the sarcastic wit of the protagonist, and a cool underworld vernacular. Flashbacks fragment the plot and suggest fatalism - beginning the story at the bleak end leaves no room for the audience to hope for a better future, just as noir would imply that the mistakes of a character will forever haunt him with no hope of escape. Voice-over narration links the narrative together, but implies that the entire story is subjective (Fireman).Neo-noir is different by it having colors in it, it is more modern in culture.

Review

            Reading a few reviews, the Double Indemnity: A Policy That Paid Off by John Allyn got my attention.  Maybe it was the part where is said A Policy That Paid Off, where I think its ironic title for his review of the novel itself. John compares the two ending and discusses the end as a policy that paid off. I think it’s ironic because in the end in both novel and film this classic film noir, someone ends up dying. "In the original story Walter and Phyllis carry out a murder and stage a phony accident on a train to collect double indemnity on her husband’s insurance policy. They might get away with it but fear, inevitably, drives them apart. Each plan to kill the other, and Phyllis, who is more than a little pathological, it the first to act." she shoots him and he ends up in the hospital telling the story to Keys, to save Lola, (Phyllis daughter who Walter fall in love with) who is the cops number one suspect. End of the novel Keys lets Walter escape on a boat to Mexico where Phyllis is also on. While being on the boat "they feel they have been spotted and decide to jump overboard in a suicide." So they both die in the novel at the end.

            In the same review John talks about the film which has I different ending. "In the film version the ending finds Walter and Phyllis meeting for that last in her living room. Phyllis shoots Walter and wounds him on the shoulder, but she cant fire that second shot and thereby becomes a more sympathetic, more tragic figure than the cool-blooded Phyllis in the book. Walter then shoots her to protect Lola.

             Something I like about John's review was how stated "there is no suicide plan so there is no reason to establish Phyllis as pathological." Which is true. Walter had the control film than the novel. " This turn makes her motive for murder more understandable and makes Walter more acceptable than the sap in the book who will follow Phyllis anywhere." in a way I didn’t like the ending of the film because john is correct. Phyllis is not the femme fatal in the film. Well she is but she turns out to be care-ness at the end instead of careless.

            Another thing I liked about john's review that he made sense to the film ending. "By returning to the living room where Walter and Phyllis first meet, as much a cage in the city as the insurance office, the film is given a satisfying dramatic and visual unity." once again I agree with John's review!

Allyn, John. "Double Indemnity: A Policy That Paid Off." Literature Film Quarterly 6.2 (1978): 116. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 7 Mar. 2011.