House of Strangers (Mankiewicz, 1949)

Noir iconography and violence with a Shakespearean background

Abstract

The aim of the present research is to analyse the violence underlying the autocratic proceedings of a father upon his otherwise submissive and resentful sons under the frame of a Shakespearean background. The starting point has been the cinematographic adaptation House of Strangers (1949) by Joseph L. Mankiewicz which is based on one of the most acclaimed tragedies by the English bard, King Lear (1606). The theme of violence acquires relevance when the daughters who despise Lear are transformed into sons by Mankiewicz, revealing how roughness and brutality not only can be inherited and enhanced but, especially, that it can be surmounted and transcended given the proper conditions. These topics are considered not only from a genre perspective but from a very specific cinematographic context, that of noir films, which contribute with a whole set of motifs, characters and atmosphere. With regards to gender considerations, the main aspects examined include the different treatment given to male and female characters in labour and familiar contexts. While women are traditionally circumscribed within the family environment men are more frequently enclosed as leading roles in a social and working milieu. As a striking and significant differentiation, the role of three of the four brothers is analysed in terms of their “feminisation” due to their inability to face their father’s domineering nature, while the fourth one is heir of their father’s violence towards women. Finally, and most importantly, there is the comparison between two opposite female roles, that of Maria and Irene, being the first the impersonator of the concept of “the angel in the house” while the later embodies all the features of a prototypical femme fatale.