What If: ‘Jackie Brown’ Was a Classic Film Noir?

Recently, I finally got a chance to sit down a watch Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown (1997), and like a lot of people, I can’t help but like it. At first, I just thought it was good, but the more I thought about it the more I began to love it.

It wasn’t just because of the performances, the dialogue, and the awesome ’70s-centered soundtrack, but it was because I felt that this was a massive tribute to classic pulp crime stories and film noir movies. Obviously, one would point out that this movie has many references to blaxploitation films of the ’70s, the most obvious examples is the casting of Foxy Brown herself, Pam Grier. But Tarantino has stated that this was not meant to be a blaxploitation film. There’s plenty of evidence to suggest that this was meant to be more of an homage to film noir along with pulp novels than blaxploitation, right down the original source material — Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard.

The late Elmore Leonard was a well known and celebrated writer of pulp stories and has had several stories adapted to the big screen. Including Out of Sight (1998), Mr. Majestyk (1974), Hombre (1967) and 3:10 to Yuma (1957/2007). This is similar to guys like Dashiell Hammett who wrote many pulp crime stories that would get adapted to major motion pictures.  

This time around instead of creating a faux history of this fake film,  I’m just going to tell who I think would be cast in the film and who would adapt it. Let’s say that the film was made back between 1947-1958.

So who would be the creative person behind it? Who could give a proper rendition of the movie? My selection would be John Huston. The reason for this is because, if you look at Huston’s filmography, you’ll see that the man has a good track record of excellent literary adaptations: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), The Red Badge of Courage (1951), Moby Dick (1956) and, of course, two film noir classics: The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and The Maltese Falcon (1941). Falcon is a particularly good example because that story had two failed adaptations before the famous 1941 movie. So I have no doubts that Huston would’ve been the selection.

But now onto the fun part: the cast.

Of course, we all know that around this time in Hollywood there weren’t that many great opportunities for African-American actors (or actors of any minority), but let’s just pretend for this article that they would allow a black-female lead for the movie, who could play this role that was masterfully performed Pam Grier originally? I would have to go singer and actress Pearl Bailey. I don’t know why, but from what I’ve seen, she seems like the kind of actress that could pull off that confidence that Grier had in the movie.

For the main antagonist of the film, Ordell Robbie, my selection would have to be then-newcomer Sidney Poitier. This actor had a commanding and confident presence which would work very well for the character. For the love-struck bail bondsman, my pick would be Edward G. Robinson. While he was known for playing gangsters and such, he could play a non-gangster type of character. Just look at his role in Double Indemnity (1944) where he plays the eccentric claim adjuster if you want proof, and I think based on that, he would’ve been a pretty great actor for this character.

For the hapless former cell mate of Robbie’s — Louis Gara — I would go with Robert Mitchum. Robert DeNiro (who played Gara in the Tarantino film) has cited Mitchum as one of his idols, and considering how De Niro and Mitchum played the same character in two different version in Cape Fear (1962/1991), I think it could work. Also, Mitchum has some great film noirs in his filmography, so I’d feel ashamed if I ignored him.

As for other characters: the ATF Agent Ray Nicolette (originally played by Michael Keaton) could be played by someone like Ralph Meeker; for Nicolette’s partner Det. Mark Dungus, I’ll give it to Huston himself who had acted in a few movies; for the sarcastic and stunning Melanie Ralston (originally played by Bridget Fonda) I’d have to go with someone like Peggy Cummins who made a name for herself in the great film noir, Gun Crazy (1950); and as one Ordell’s former couriers, Beaumont Livingston (originally played by Chris Tucker), I’d cast Dennis Hopper, who around this time would almost always play a “kid” character who got caught up in events of the film and almost wanted no part in it. And for those of you wondering — no, I could not find a ’40s/’50s equivalent of Chris Tucker.

Now, there are few things in the plot that would be changed. Nothing grand or anything, just some minor things. For instance, in the beginning we see Ordell and Louis watching a VHS tape called Chicks With Guns which consists of bikini-clad models firing off guns while Ordell lists them off as if he’s an expert. Obviously, VHS tapes didn’t exist at the time, or home videos of any kind, same goes with some of the guns listed in the video. In the film noir version, this scene would probably be Ordell showing off military guns of the time (Thompsons, BARs, and such) and talking about how he knows about them. Melanie would then chime in saying he only knows of the stuff through his brief army service.

What gets Jackie in trouble in the beginning is Nicolette and Dungus finding some cocaine in a bag of money she was transporting for Ordell. I highly doubt that during the ’40s or ’50s they would blatantly show and talk about cocaine, so I would imagine they change it to being illegal guns or something. Also, since the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms didn’t exist until 1972, Nicolette would probably just be another LAPD Detective.

One final thing that I would note/tweak a little is the discussions about music between Max and Jackie. In the Tarantino film, the two meet in Jackie’s apartment after she’s released, and she puts on a Delfonics record which helps trigger more emotions in Max towards her. That could work in a film noir version but just change the Delfonics to a noted Blues musician at the time, someone along the lines of Big Bill Broonzy.

So, what do you think? Do you agree with my casting choices? Let me know how you’d see film-noir Jackie Brown in the comments!

John Hamilton

John Hamilton is a lover of classic cinema from Southern Ohio and has been since he was a tiny little lad growing up on the farm. He's a fan of every type of film out there, especially Westerns and movies from the '60s and '70s. John is also a blogger and freelance writer.