Early film noir : greed, lust and murder Hollywood style / William Hare ; foreword by Ken Annakin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hare, William, 1942-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Film noir--United States--History and criticism.

Film noir.

United States.

Physical Description:

ix, 211 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm

Place of Publication:

Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland, [2003]

Summary:

The name is French and it has connections to German expressionist cinema, but film noir was inspired by the American Raymond Chandler, whose prose gripped the realism of the seedy hotels, dimly lit bars, back streets and country clubs, mansions and cul-desac apartments, corporate boardrooms, and flop houses of America. Chandler and the other writers and directors, including Dashiell Hammett, Jane Greer, Ken Annakin, Guy Green, Guy Hamilton, Rouben Mamoulian and Mike Mazurki are the main focus of this work. It correlates the rise of film noir with the new appetites of the American public after World War II and explains how it was developed by smaller studios and filmmakers as a result of the emphasis on quality within a deliberately restricted element of cities at night.

Contents:

1 Film Noir: Chandler and the American Institution with a French Name 7

2 A Blend of Three Great Talents: Double Indemnity (1944) 22

3 Women of Danger and RKO's Noir Factory 46

4 Dmytryk and the RKO Team 63

5 Jane Greer: Hollywood's Unforgettable Femme Fatale 80

6 Laura (1944) 106

7 An Obsession in White and a Final Reckoning: The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) 130

8 British Noir: The Third Man (1949) and Across the Bridge (1957) 144.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 205-206) and index.

ISBN:

0786416297

OCLC:

52269777