Tail Fin Noirs

The "safe" title

Experiment in Terror (1962)

The original "visually" slightly transgressive title below ;-)

Tail Fin Noirs, those last ditch final studio produced Classic Film Noir and the independently produced Transitional Noirs that either noticeably or casually depicted vehicles with tail fins. They also coincided with the spotlighting of numerous post Classic Noir themes and paved the way for things to come. Among the various influences for these forays into terra incognito were the specter of impending Nuclear Holocaust, the abandonment of the Academy 1.37:1 motion picture frame ratio, and the weakening and demise of the Motion Picture Production Code.

The sex in cinema that was dampened during the 1930s by the code brought on by religious and social moralists, smoldered from lack of oxygen on a back burner for two decades. The zephyrs of freedom blowing through the fissures that appeared in the 1950s sparked and then fully ignited the sexual revolution by 1960.  Freedom spurred on by the feeling that we were all going to be soon incinerated anyway, was exploited various multiple ways by creative artists. You can distill that into the simple adage "If it feels good do it!"

Atomic bomb drill

Marilyn Monroe with a 1962 Chrysler New Yorker by then tail fins are starting to disappear.

It was also a time, fashion-wise, when women transitioned from stockings and garter belts to leotards and pantyhose, bras went pointy, earning the sobriquets torpedo or bullet bra. Swimsuits from one piece to bikini. Men went from fedoras to baseball caps and sunglasses. Longer and facial hair appeared on men while women exploitatively displayed their pubic hair. It was also a time when recreational drugs went mainstream. A Pandora's box opened. Being cool and alive was better than being square and dead.

Sandra Dee

Itsy-bitsy for sure, yellow can't tell, Julie Newmar models 1960 bikini.

Beatniks

Bush, courtesy of  Betti Page 

Leotards in The Beat Generation (1959)

Speaking of cool, the Beatnik (Beat Generation) Noirs were a counter culture specific type of Tail Fin Noirs, an offshoot, some times emphasized sometimes just alluded to. Music also ran the gamut from torch singers, Peggy Lee, Julie London, Keely Smith, Ella Fitzgerald, crooners Sinatra, Martin, Bennett, Como, and jazz Charlie Parker, Cole Porter, Thelonius Monk, through bongo and base backed poetry of Ginsberg, Kerouac, and Burroughs, through folk music, to rock and roll, Elvis, Chubby Checker, Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, and Jerry Lee Lewis. Also in the mix was an international paella. One particularly that I heard and  liked as a kid  was a cool fusion of Samba and Jazz called the Bossa Nova).

Hangouts changed from ballrooms, dance halls and traditional nightclubs to burger juke joints, coffee houses, piano lounges and GoGo bars.

The Rat Pack, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra

Bille Holiday

Jazz band D.O.A. (1949)

Keely Smith lt.

Jerry Lee Lewis

Julie London

Perry Como

Roy Orbison

Jazz

Coffee  house

The Metropole Cafe 

Thelonius Monk

Chubby Checker

Cole Porter

Tony Bennett

Elvis

Buddy Holly

Chuck Berry

Charlie Parker it.

Peggy Lee

The Bitter End Cafe, Greenwich Village, NYC (The Love Statue (1965))

The Beats

Topless GoGo Dancer Carol Doda

These various fascinating components of Tail Fin Noirs, some more or less stable some transitional, stretched from roughly 1955 or so, through to 1966-68 which coincided with the end of major Black & White film production.

For historical background, the automobile tail fin was first introduced on the 1948 Cadillac. General Motors design chief Harley Earl is generally credited for the tail fin styling, designing small fins on the 1948 Cadillac. The inspiration for the design came from the jet planes and rockets developed at the very end of WWII. The tail fin era of automobile styling stretched from the 1950s into the 1960s. It peaked between 1955 and 1961. It was regarded as the "golden age" of American auto design. Similarly inspired was architecture and advertising. Googie architecture and signage, were inspired by the car culture, the Space Age, and the Atomic Age. It even expressed itself in a Saturday morning cartoon The Jetsons 1962-63.

Nuke bomb spectators

Tail Fin Noirs (so far identified so check back for new additions)

5 Against the House (1955)
Slightly Scarlet (1956)
The Wild Party (1956)
The Wrong Man (1956)
While The City Sleeps (1956)
Crime of Passion (1957)
Death In Small Doses (1957)
Hell Bound (1957)
My Gun Is Quick (1957)
Nightfall (1957)
Plunder Road (1957)
Sweet Smell Of Success (1957)
Tattered Dress (The) (1957)
The Girl In Black Stockings (1957)
Time Table (1957)
Live Fast, Die Young (1958)
Stakeout On Dope Street (1958)
The Lineup (1958)
Murder by Contract (1958)
Screaming Mimi (1958)
Touch of Evil (1958)
City Of Fear (1959)
Date With Death (1959)
The Crimson Kimono (1959)
The Beat Generation (1959)
Two Men In Manhattan (1959)
The Naked Road (1959)
Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)
Girl Of The Night (1960)
The Savage Eye (1960)
Blast Of Silence (1961)
20000 Eyes (1961)
Underworld U.S.A. (1961)
Experiment In Terror (1962)
The Thrill Killers (1964)
One Naked Night (1965)