Chiaroscuro lighting uses strong contrasts between light and dark areas to create a low-key lighting style characteristic of film noir. This technique highlights key elements like a character's face while leaving other parts of the scene in shadow. Both The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) and The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941) effectively employed chiaroscuro lighting, such as highlighting a male character's face while shadowing his body in Hunchback or using window light to cast dramatic shadows on the floor, symbolizing psychological entrapment which was a common theme in detective films noir of the time period.