Representation of Women in the 60s: The Frightened City

The Frightened city is a British Neo-Noir gangster film about extortion rackets and gang warfare in the West End of London. It stars Herbert Lom, John Gregson and a pre-Bond Sean Connery, who plays a burglar called Paddy Damion. He is lured into a protection racket by oily mobster Harry Foulcher (Alfred Marks), in order to support his partner in crime Wally Smith (Kenneth Griffith), who is injured in a robbery.

The representation of women in this poster shows that women were clearly eroticized in the 1960s film era. They were seen as an object for men's pleasure or just an add on to the storyline. In this poster we see the woman lying down from a high angle shot. The high shot shows the woman's vulnerability. Also, the facial expression of shock on the womans face emphasizes this idea of vulnerable and weak. The dress code of the woman is very sexual and erotic as she is seen to be wearing nightwear. Nightwear is not normally erotic showing that they have purposely put her pleasing body parts on show. Her cleavage and legs are on show for the men viewing this poster to take pleasure from it. This reinforces the idea of the 'male gaze'. Another code that shows the representation of women is the gun in top left, the gun appears to be in a male's hand showing the power men had over women at the time. The fact the gun is pointing down on the woman shows the patriarchal society of the time and the influence men had on women. The men were always seen as more powerful to women and this poster shows it explicitly

In Stuart Hall's representation theory, the audience is actively encouraged to decode this familiar generic iconography. Of the time a woman lying helpless and eroticized was a norm and men would consciously decode this and what it means to the story.

At the top of the poster is states "The Men...The Women...The Evil...of a city's underworld!" This text shows that women and men are the 'the evil' of any city's gang life. This code may be an insight on the upcoming outlook of women further on the decade as women became more positively represented in the 60s.