Mexico Noir

Mexican noir films emerge in the 1940s, coinciding with the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. Among their chief characteristics is that they do not arise from a tradition of printed detective fiction. While many American noir classics are adaptations of short stories or novels, Mexican publishing did not have a strong detective novel scene that might serve as the foundation for its films.

Several critics have pointed out that Mexican noirs have a more melodramatic tone than American films, often featuring plots focused on romantic entanglements or emotional reactions. However, this is not a unique quality of Mexican films. Many Hollywood noirs feature romance or melodrama: Mildred Pierce and Victims of Sin are both movies about abnegated mothers.

Instead, one of the key differences between American and Mexican film productions is the element of censorship. Mexican films did not have a Hayes code. Although Mexican studios would ultimately punish femme fatales and criminals during the conclusion of a film, noirs explored themes of crime, sexuality, and moral ambiguity with more freedom than their Hollywood counterparts.

This led to the development of a Mexican noir sub-genre: el cine de rumberas o cabareteras. These films took place in nightclubs, with actresses such as Ninón Sevilla performing elaborate musical numbers. While Hollywood also had its share of nightclub acts in films, the costumes, music and shots in films such as Sensualidad were often more provocative.

In the 1940s and 1950s Mexico underwent an economic boom. A mass wave of countryside residents moved to large urban centers, birthing a buoyant middle class. This era was nicknamed ‘the Mexican miracle,’ but this quickly modernizing and changing society was filled with contrasts, and sometimes, with dread.

We glimpse the economic anxieties of the era in the slums and denizens that appear in Streetwalker and Salón México. But we also see the flashy cars, expensive apartments and designer clothing of the nouveau riche.

Women are also a study in contrasts. Mexico, desiring to position itself as a vibrant, modern nation often struggles with the role of women in its movies. While some films of the Golden Era, such as María Candelaria, harken back to a mythical past in which women are innocent and good, noir produces treacherous dames who challenge the men around them. María Félix’s nickname, “the Devourer,” comes from a noir film of this era which crystallizes her as the ultimate forbidden fruit. These noirs also create another archetype, the sexually provocative martyr. Women like Julieta in Another Dawn, who makes ends meet by working in a nightclub, epitomize the erosion of traditional values while still emphasizing her ultimate purity.

Men in Mexican noirs also exhibit dangerous dualities. Official constructions of masculinity and femininity were based on notions of a nuclear family, with a male breadwinner and female homemaker. But noirs contained new types of men. Pedro Armendáriz, known for roles of countryside heroes, goes against type in Night Falls where he is a conniving playboy. Arturo de Córdova plays an astrologer who cons women in In the Palm of Your Hand. Pimps and seducers and low-class criminals threaten the social order in these movies.

Eventually, Ernesto P. Uruchurtu, Mexico City’s longest-serving mayor, would impose a moralization campaign and crackdown on nightlife activities. Such efforts affected urban spaces and the production of noirs. And, as Mexico’s Golden Age came to a close, so too came the end of noirs.

Noirs showed that the Mexican miracle could also yield nightmares. These films looked at both the slums of the poor and the mansions of the rich, complicating the story of a nation. For a brief moment there was a shimmering space of shadows and light, of passion and crime. Enter this dark world of gangsters, dancers, obsessed lovers and femme fatales…

— Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Mexico Noir curator

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