I do especially love though, your analysis of location in noir and this film. I can’t tell you how many noirs I had to watch before I picked up on patterns in setting, and this film is a very good example of it, aside from being shot in studio. The emptiness of the Sternwood mansion, stands in for most rich homes in Noir. They’re huge, they’re clean, they’re opulent, but cold and lifeless… they never seem lived in. There is also a rather interesting quirk of noir, although I don’t think it’s used in this film, since it’s far more characteristic of on location noirs, is the inclusion of the ceiling in many shots. Even today, very few films incorporate the ceiling within shots…. a lot of this is due to studio shooting, but thematically it seems irrelevant. Noir was perhaps the first American genre to go out and shoot on location, and they wanted people to know it. It began to take on more thematic implications, really caging in characters, and even commenting on the lack of “God” in this reflection of life. Once you notice it the first time, it starts popping up everywhere.