Petronella Wyatt
There was something film noirish about Boris Johnson’s position. The film noir hero, usually played by Robert Mitchum or Fred MacMurray, is often a man of apprehension and talent, not, as is usually supposed, an illiterate mug. He knows from the beginning that his actions are self-destructive and will lead to his eventual demise, but he continues on his path with a sort of buccaneering determination that is almost awe-inspiring,
I could never get Boris to watch noir classics like Double Indemnity or Out of the Past, but he would have found them instructive. The hero, like Johnson, is a loner who believes the world to be unaware of his greatness. In his attempts to correct this, he becomes convinced he has god-like qualities and can always beat the rap. The other night I was enthralled by 1951’s The Prowler, in which Van Heflin’s Webb Garwood, who has committed murder, hides out from the LAPD on a patch of wasteland.
