The Slippery Slope of Motherhood in Noir

In film noir, we rarely see mothers. And when we do, we see them as tragedies. 

Mildred Pierce is a divorced working mother whose daughter sleeps with her lover. Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity is the evil step mother who plots to murder the only living parent her step daughter still has. The most tragic Noir mother, of course, is Evelyn Mulwray in Chinatown. Raped by her own father, secluded with her daughter/ sister, and then murdered in the end, there's absolutely nothing but horror in her short and brutal life. 

In Cleveland City, we meet several mothers. There's Esti, the Jewish society-page widow, real estate powerhouse and mother of two grown sons. And then we also meet Colleen.

Colleen is a 30-something young mom of one son. Her husband was groomed by her own dad and being provided for was never her concern. Colleen did not go to college. She did not aspire to be a doctor or a lawyer or anything that required any level of schooling. It wasn't that she was lazy. Instead, it's that her entire life, she aspired to be a mother. And to be there for a child in a way that her own mother, who she never knew, was never there for her.

Building her hope chest and scrap-booking since she was a kid, Colleen was crafty. She needed an escape from the testosterone world of her father's dealings and male companions. Even if she thought any of their sons were cute, she could not date any of them as she knew her father would kill them. He was that protective over his only child. His princess.

A devout Catholic, she remained a virgin until her boyfriend proposed to her. But once she got engaged, quickly after she discovered she was pregnant. With her father's blessing (mandate) she had a shotgun wedding at St. James in Lakewood, Ohio. She knew no greater joy. Her heart, her skin, her soul beamed. She was finally going to create a family of her own. And as a tomboy, only child with a deceased mother and Irish mob connected father, she finally felt whole. She finally felt healed.

Her son, named after his own father, was born on Easter Sunday. They were both healthy and doing great. No complications. He was baptized shortly after, also at St. James and while the immediate family was small, because of who her father was, members of the once powerful Irish mafia were there. Rumor was that Danny Greene's son out of wedlock was there. But who really knows these days? The Irish mafia of Cleveland is more mythical than the Romanovs.

All was good in Colleen's world. She had a loving, hardworking husband, a healthy and happy son and a lovely century home in Lakewood, supposedly a house that, back during prohibition, had its own basement speakeasy. She had everything that she ever hoped for, dreamed for and prayed for.

Then one day, she decided to take her son on a field trip downtown. She remembered how her dad use take her to Higbee's and while it's long closed, she decided to go to Tower City. So she out on her trench-coat, took her car, put Jr. in the car seat, his stroller into the trunk and headed into the city. She parked her car in the lot just off East 9th and as she approached Euclid Ave., ready to cross the street, she looked left only to see the thing she never thought she'd see. Her husband holding hands with another woman. This woman, dressed in simple jeans and a black sweatshirt, leaned against the building, and he leaned against her. They were both smiling, flirting, laughing. The woman ran her fingers through Colleen's husband's hair. He pressed into her and kissed her, endlessly.

While Colleen was beside herself, her son started to yell, "Daddy, daddy!" and pointed toward the man that was his father. Colleen immediately put on her sunglasses, pulled up the hood on her trenchcoat and pivoted the stroller and herself back towards the garage. Jr. started crying. Colleen was breathing so heavily that her vision became blurry. She almost passed out, bracing herself by the very same wall of concrete against which, just around the corner, her husband braced his mistress.

She cried on the entire drive home. Her perfect universe had just been crushed. If she told her father anything, he would kill her husband, and then she'd be a widow. And she didn't want that. She wanted something far more painful.

She wanted revenge.