Targeting Male Viewers through the Male Gaze

Act of Violence—a Film Noir Whose Advertising Promises Something for All: Pretty Gals for the Male Gaze, and Domestic Drama for the Ladies

Act of Violence is an American noir film released in 1949 by MGM Studios. The film follows two main characters - Frank Enley, an American expat of WWII and a squad leader - and Joe Parkson, an expat himself and an underling of Frank; his once best friend turned enemy after an excruciating ordeal set into motion by Frank himself. The film follows an atypical noir formula, following both characters and both sides of the story at once, leaving the audience to deduce the story themselves through the scenes the characters put themselves through. However, the marketing of Act of Violence tells another story. Throughout MUCH of the marketing material, the three female characters in the movie are featured PROMINENTLY - the extent of which can be seen through the films tagline “The Manhunt No Woman Could Stop”. This gross misrepresentation of the movie serves one purpose - to garner more eyes on the movie. Act of Violence markets itself as a movie that features both men and women promentiently and equally, but is in reality a movie focused solely on the two prominent male characters - with the women only being used as a vehicle to further the men’s needs.

In the marketing of Act of Violence it is evident that MGM wanted to promote the film as a kind of romance or violent romance/melodrama. This is a typical marketing ploy of the 1940s and 1950s, a time when film noir was a trendy staple in cinemas. The idea inherent in the promotion of the film is that here is another cinematic contribution that will serve the public’s thirst for blood, sex, romance, risk, and danger. The promotional material promises scintillating cinema with its hint of gun fights, car chases, women in peril, and men faced with mortal dangers. The marketing of the film is full of promises of intoxicating sensations—with bright, bold colors splashed across the posters, and fonts designed to give the impression of chaos and alarm. Several films of the era all used similar marketing schemes: tall, curvaceous, buxom blondes or red heads lavishly portrayed on movie posters to attract the male gaze while a hint of danger or risk is implied by a man in a shadow or a man roused to anger. In MGM’s posters for Act of Violence, it is no different.[footnoteRef:1] [1: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041088/mediaindex/?ref_=tt_mv_close ]

The marketing campaign highlights the stars of the film and its genre as a film noir. The names of the actors and actresses are displayed prominently on the posters, but the male actors names take top billing, with the three female supporting stars receiving lower billing on the promotional material.[footnoteRef:2] The controversial social issue highlighted is actually depicted from the woman’s point of view on one poster, suggesting that the film has a great deal of domestic tension and will include the woman’s perspective throughout—but this is really false advertising as the bulk of the film is really from the perspective of the two male leads. MGM called it a “drama of love that was linked to an ‘Act of Violence’” as though the film was really a romantic noir thriller that female audiences will love as much as male audiences. Indeed, at the top of this poster is an actress’s face, her mouth covered by a hand, generating an image of shock and horror meant to show that the damsel in distress motif will be used in the film.[footnoteRef:3] Most of the promotional material has to rely on these tricks because it is not advertising any use of new film technology that might otherwise attract audiences to the cinema. However, one article originally published in American Cinematographer in 1948 states that the film does use some new technological tricks to advance the medium: “reflected lighting, no makeup, natural locations, and use of a 28mm lens for all shots are some of the new production trends explored in the making of this picture.”[footnoteRef:4] But none of these tricks are unique to Act of Violence really. Still, it is clear that the marketing is attempting to attract both males and females. Women are targeted by the obvious appeal to female sympathies in one poster that reads: “One morning Frank kissed me goodbye…And everything was as it had always been. That evening, he came home with horror in his eyes…and told me things that changed my life forever!”[footnoteRef:5] This text reads like a pulp magazine, meant to titillate female readers. However, it also targets men with its title, which appeals to a masculine desire for violent action—and a man holding a gun is shown in the promotional material as well. [2: https://www.ebay.com/itm/262066198880?hash=item3d045cd960:g:aGUAAOSwsB9WBiQI ] [3: https://www.ebay.com/itm/262066198880?hash=item3d045cd960:g:aGUAAOSwsB9WBiQI ] [4: https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/americancinemato29unse_0268 ] [5: https://www.ebay.com/itm/262066198880?hash=item3d045cd960:g:aGUAAOSwsB9WBiQI ]

The look of the ad campaign does relate to the film’s visual design, as the film is a noir, and the director Fred Zinnemann is lauded in the reviews for his handling of the genre. One review calls his direction “smart” for providing “a visual setting for terror and violence.”[footnoteRef:6] Another review calls it a “striking film, expertly directed, effectively photographed, and impressively portrayed by a cast that has gotten under the skin of the story.”[footnoteRef:7] These reviews help to emphasize the fact that the film is competently directed and delivers the look and style associated with the noir genre. Yet as far as the story goes, that is another matter. The first review emphasizes that the twist does little to inspire sympathy for the male lead who betrayed his friend. While the same review does cite the credible direction of Zinnemann it does not give a flattering take on the film as a whole. Essentially it recognizes it as a cheap, flimsy, superficial addition to the noir genre—something that looks good initially but that quickly wears thin. [6: https://www.nytimes.com/1949/01/24/archives/act-of-violence-a-metro-film-with-van-heflin-janet-leigh-new.html ] [7: https://www.proquest.com/docview/177670289/177A2BE058484E2FPQ/1?accountid=14523 ]

The thinness of the story is what the reviews tend to focus on: they all view Zinnemann’s directing style as superb and worthy of the noir genre—but the story is melodramatic. There is no real sense of anything controversial or innovative, aside from the fact that it was shot in a kind of “documentary” fashion within the noir structure.[footnoteRef:8] But beyond this there is nothing really “socially important” about the film. There is no hint of any really even in the promotional material: it is meant to be a straight-up pulp thriller, with dames displayed on posters to attract the male gaze, and melodramatic texts printed on posters to attract the female sympathies. It is presented as the equivalent of a 1940s date-night flick for teens—something that they can watch on the screen while they park at the drive-in, or something that might get their blood going in the dark of the cinema: sexy women and violence for the male gaze, and domestic drama for the ladies. There are no people of color in the posters, none in the trailer, and none in the film itself. It does nothing to represent diversity or equity or inclusivity. The trailer makes it seem that women figure predominantly in the lives of the two male leads—“Three WOMEN cross their evil path”—but this is really a marketing ploy to attract women to the film as much as it is to lure men. The trailer tries to lure both sexes: the first characters shown are men, then women; then men again, while a male main character narrates. The trailer makes it seem like at least one women is going to play a pivotal part in the action—but this is really an effect of editing, for no actress really plays a pivotal part at all. [8: https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/americancinemato29unse_0268 ]

The film’s promotional material and reviews all are true to the fact that the film is of the noir genre: the melodramatic nature of the film is emphasized on the posters and in the reviews; the stylized shooting, lighting, and direction of the film is also noted by reviews and promised in the posters and marketing. There is no misleading about the nature of the film’s genre here. The only really misleading aspect of the marketing material is the nature of the film itself: it is billed as one that will be for both men and women—but really it is more of a stylized psychological noir thriller, hokey and melodramatic at its core—but completely without sexual or domestic tension like that promised in the promotional material. Obviously, the marketing was done with the aim being to target both male and female audiences in the easiest way possible, without regard for what the story of the film really presented. The marketers simply took the typical noir tropes and amplified them in the promotional material.