The red and the black : American film noir in the 1950s / Robert Miklitsch.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Miklitsch, Robert, 1953- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

Film noir.

United States.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

xx, 284 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 2016.

Summary:

"Critical wisdom has it that we said a long goodbye to film noir in the 1950s. Robert Miklitsch begs to differ. Pursuing leads down the back streets and alleyways of cultural history, The Red and the Black proposes that the received rise-and-fall narrative about the genre radically undervalues the formal and thematic complexity of '50s noir and the dynamic segue it effected between the spectacular expressionism of '40s noir and early, modernist neo-noir. Mixing scholarship with a fan's devotion to the crooked roads of critique, Miklitsch autopsies marquee films like D.O.A., Niagara, and Kiss Me Deadly plus a number of lesser-known classics. Throughout, he addresses the social and technological factors that dealt deuce after deuce to the genre--its celebrated style threatened by new media and technologies such as TV and 3-D, color and widescreen, its born losers replaced like zombies by All-American heroes, the nation rocked by the red menace and nightmares of nuclear annihilation. But against all odds, the author argues, inventive filmmakers continued to make formally daring and socially compelling pictures that remain surprisingly, startlingly alive. Cutting-edge and entertaining, The Red and the Black reconsiders a lost period in the history of American movies"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Part 1 '50s Noir and Anticommunism

1 The Woman on Pier 13: I Married a Communist! 19

2 The Red and the Black: "Black Film" and the Red Menace 40

The Whip Hand: The Red Plague 42

I Was a Communist for the F.B.I: Fear of a Red Planet 48

Walk East on Beacon! "A Red behind Every Tree" 62

Big Jim McLain: Red Hawaii 72

3 Pickup on South Street: Out of the Red and Into the Black 79

Part 2 50's Noir in the Atomic Age

4 D.O.A.: Fatality, Sexuality, Radioactivity 95

5 "Black Film" and the Bomb: Spies and "Cowboys" Red Professors and Thieves 109

The Thief: Alien Nation 110

The Atomic City: Atomic Cowboys and Un-American Indians 120

Shack Out on 101: Bikinis, Bombshells, and the (Red) Planet of the Apes 131

City of Fear: Cobalt-60 137

6 Kiss Me Deadly: The X Factor, or The "Great Whatsit" 144

Part 3 New Media and Technologies

7 Noir en couleur. Color and Widescreen 163

Black Widow: Red Herring 166

House of Bamboo: "Kimono Girl" (Red), Gaijin Gangster-Detective (Black) 173

Slightly Scarlet: Color Me Bad 179

A Kiss before Dying: Pink Is the New Black 187

8 Niagara: Colored Marilyns 196

9 The Glass Web: 3-D, TV, and the Beginning of the End of Classic Noir 212

Conclusion: The Crimson Kimono: Odds for Tomorrow 229.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Miklitsch, Robert, 1953- author. Red and the black

ISBN:

9780252040689

0252040686

9780252082191

0252082192

OCLC:

946905383