Detecting Men: Masculinity and the Hollywood Detective Film

9. Investigating the “Other”: The Cult of Villainy

253 Investigating the “Other”: The Cult of Villainy [T]he psychopath may indeed be the perverted and dangerous frontrunner of a new kind of personality which could become the central expression of human nature before the twentieth century is over. —Norman Mailer, Advertisements for Myself THE UN-AMERICAN VILLAIN Hollywood has always constructed villains for its heroes to fight, but the villain has rarely received the critical attention that the hero has. Yet without the opposition of villainy there could be no concept of heroism. The villain represents that which is evil and morally wrong in society, but notions of villainy change with the times, just as notions of heroism do. As William Everson states: The activities of the bad guys tell us far more about the changing mores and morals of our time than a similar study of the good guys could ever do. From time’s beginning, the basic virtues have remained unchanged. But social, moral, and legal behavior is forever changing. (Bad xi)1 C H A P T E R N I N E Although some virtues may come to be seen as old-fashioned, they will never be deemed antisocial; on the other hand, what was once deemed antisocial can come to be seen as socially acceptable. Just as shifting social conceptions of masculinity can affect the constructions of heroes in popular culture, so too do they inform the constructions of villainy. And just as notions of heroism are linked to national myths of American masculinity, so too are those of villainy linked to “otherness” (in other words, un-Americanness ) as a product of historically specific fears and anxieties. Although the cinematic villain can be an American, he is most often made “other”—differentiated from normal society—by being portrayed as racially “other,” and meditations on American national identity come into play when discussing the hero’s adversary. The conflict between American heroes and “othered” villains can offer insight into the broader situation of international conflict at a specific moment in time: in many films released during and immediately after World War II, the cinematic villains were German or Japanese; during the Cold War, they were often Soviet; and during recent decades, new international villains have appeared, such as the Colombian drug lord and the Middle-Eastern terrorist. There is a long and established history of British actors portraying the villains of Hollywood film, beginning with the horror films of the 1930s and 1940s in which the monsters and/or evil doctors tended to be portrayed by actors such as Claude Rains, Lionel Atwill, Colin Clive, and Boris Karloff. As Everson states, in regard to Classical Hollywood cinema, “it is from England that the steadiest stream of villains has come” (Bad 118). The representation of foreignness—collapsed into Britishness either through British actors or the actors’ adoption of a British accent—as villainous is the result of trying to define Americanness as heroic. During the Depression, one of the myths that developed in Hollywood films was that of the gentleman adventurer. The hero—the cavalier—was played by an American actor, and his rival—the cad—was played by an English , or Anglicized, actor. The heroes included American actors like Douglas Fairbanks (senior and junior), John Barrymore, Errol Flynn, and Tyrone Power, whereas their villainous rivals were played by English actors like Basil Rathbone and George Sanders.2 The films followed the adventures of the cavaliers, who were constructed as nostalgic heroes that perform chivalric deeds, not unlike the knights of old. Knights could not be intellectuals—they were men of action—and, therefore, the English cads were differentiated from the American heroes by their intellect. The most famous archvillains— 254 DETECTING MEN criminal masterminds with international empires—are associated with intellectualism . Professor Moriarty, Dr. Mabuse, Dr. Fu Manchu, and Dr. No are all cultured, educated men, which is indicated by their being doctors or professors . Harriet Hawkins suggests that in American culture it is a weak man who displays too much interest in poetry, classical music, art, or the ballet (13). This idea stems from the egalitarian virtues of the frontier and Wild West where the lack of a classical education (associated with the East) was not something to be held against one. The ability to use violence effectively against one’s enemies became not only admirable in American film, but also necessary if the hero was to defeat the villain. The...