ABSTRACT
Besides subjectivizing history, another major tendency in flashbacks in American films of the forties and fifties is to bind flashback structure to the psyche, either overtly, as is the case in the psychological melodrama, or covertly, as is the case in film noir, the stylized detective/crime film that emerged in this period. In both cases, the films' hermeneutic structures entail investigation or confession. The secrets of the past need to be told or found out.
