The elements of a femme fatale were vastly seen in “Midnight in Silicon Valley”. The wife of Mr. Chen reminded me a lot of Phyllis in “Double Indemnity” who was a perfect refection of the femme fatale in classic noir. Although Mrs. Chen’s motive seemed more pure than those of Phyllis, the evil she struck upon her husband was devilish and disagreeable. Mrs. Chen had a reason for her evil where as Phyllis just did it for the money, Mrs. Chen did it for revenge. Mr. Chen had been cheating on his wife with mutable women one being a young teenage girl. Mr. Chen was almost a slime ball for what he was doing where is Mr. Nirdlinger was just a man of innocents in the book “Double Indemnity”. Dangerous Days on the other hand highlighted the characteristics of the detective figure Cravitz as did Keys in “Double Indemnity”. The book started off with a friend of Cravitz, Calzone, fearing for his life because he accidentally shot and killed a young black boy. Because of all the racial tension Calzone was getting death threats. Cravitz offered him a hideout which soon was found. Athena later had Calzone murdered. Cravitz got down to the bottom of the case and put Athena in jail. I feel that Dangerous Days had more of the classic noir film elements because it had both the characters of the femme fatal and the detective figure. Athena was the femme fatale luring young men into her dark trap and Cravitz being the detective solving the case.
I think as same as you regarding Mr.Chen and his wife; even though Mrs. Chen doesn't performed enough through the story, at the end it can be see that she is a femme fatale. She got rid of him as Phyllis did with the people who were in her way. Moreover, regarding The Method story,it's cleat that Athena is the modern femme fatale.Killing with her own hands her victims, Calzone.Dangerous Days represents the neo-noir and Midnight in Silicon Valley is what is classic noir. I enjoyed the way you combine Dangerous Days and Double Indemnity. Good job!!!
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