Dark Like Our Souls: Drinking Coffee in Noir
detective or fugitive, lover or killer, they can't live without it
In celebration of Noirvember, enjoy these scenes of noir characters drinking, making, sipping, throwing, and discussing that all-important fuel.
Siphon Pot
Laurel can’t get away from Dix In a Lonely Place (1950)
Several hardboiled paperbacks describe detectives making coffee in a siphon, so it’s fun to spot one in Walter Neff’s apartment in Double Indemnity (1944)
Chemex
Lew Harper needs it to get going in Harper (1966)
Big Metal Pot
Joe spends his last night on earth in Hold Back Tomorrow (1955) and the psychology of why he fixates on a creature comfort and daily ritual — not to mention the gallows humour punchline — tells as much about him as us.
Mac makes Det. Joe Kojaku her strongest brew — The Crimson Kimono (1959)
Smelling and Sipping and Sloshing
Why just drink coffee when you can talk dirty about it? Born to Kill (1947)
Coffee isn’t just for staying wired in Garfield’s Babes and Bullets (1989), it’s also a key to solving the central mystery.
Flying
Holiday and Ralph play with their drink in Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (1950)
At first Holly’s coffee fling in The Nice Guys (2016) is as successful as Holiday’s, above . . . but spilt coffee can be just as dangerous!
While we’re at it, check out Stu’s video essay about clowning in The Nice Guys.
Last and least, in my (Mel’s) first ever short The Lilith Necklace, private eye Lou uses a piping hot siphon pot of coffee to work her way out of a jam.
