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I died a million times : gangster noir in midcentury America / Robert Miklitsch.
Van Pelt Library PN1995.9.G3 M54 2021
Available
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Miklitsch, Robert, 1953- author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Gangster films--United States--History and criticism.
- Gangster films.
- Film noir--United States--History and criticism.
- Film noir.
- Motion pictures--Social aspects.
- History.
- United States.
- Motion pictures--Social aspects--United States--History--20th century.
- Motion pictures.
- Genre:
- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
- History.
- Physical Description:
- xviii, 269 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
- Place of Publication:
- Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [2021]
- Summary:
- "In the 1950s, the gangster movie and film noir crisscrossed to create gangster noir. Robert Miklitsch takes readers into this fascinating subgenre of films focused on crime syndicates, crooked cops, and capers. With the Senate's organized crime hearings and the brighter-than-bright myth of the American Dream as a backdrop, Miklitsch examines the style and history, and the production and cultural politics, of classic pictures from The Big Heat and The Asphalt Jungle to lesser-known gems like 711 Ocean Drive and post-Fifties movies like Ocean's Eleven. Miklitsch pays particular attention to trademark leitmotifs including the individual versus the collective; the family as a locus of dissension and rapport; the real-world roots of the heist picture; and the syndicate as an octopus with its tentacles deep into law enforcement, corporate America, and government. If the memes of gangster noir remain prototypically dark, the look of the films becomes lighter and flatter, reflecting the influence of television and the realization that, under the cover of respectability, crime had moved from the underworld into the mainstream of contemporary everyday life"-- Provided by publisher.
- Contents:
- Machine generated contents note: Organized Crime as "Big Combo": The Octopus
- The Syndicate Picture: Bright City Confidential
- The Syndicate/Rogue Cop Film: The Racket
- The Rogue Cop Film: Dragnet vs. "Bloody Christmas"
- "Gangster with a Badge": On Dangerous Ground
- The Heist Picture: "Nasty, Ugly People Doing Ugly, Nasty Things"
- The Proto-Heist Film: High Sierra and Beyond
- pt. ONE THE SYNDICATE PICTURE
- 1. The Combination
- 711 Ocean Drive: California Dreaming
- The Captive City: Underworld, USA
- The Big Combo: Between Men
- 2. The Phenix City Story: History and Fiction (Film), Civil Rights, and the Last Days of Pompeii
- 3. The Brothers Rico: Sunshine Noir and the `50s Syndicate Picture
- pt. TWO THE ROGUE COP FILM
- 4. Where the Sidewalk Ends: Theft, Adaptation, Prototypicality
- Detective Story: In the Line of Fire
- Where the Sidewalk Ends: Hate and Theft
- Coda: Night Cry, or Ringing the Changes
- 5. The Thin Blue Line
- The Prowler: Car Culture/Cadillac
- The Big Heat: Something/Nothing
- Shield for Murder: Dirt/Castle Heights
- 6. Touch of Evil: Good Cop/Bad Cop
- pt. THREE THE HEIST MOVIE
- 7. The Asphalt Jungle: The City under the City
- 8. The Big Caper
- Armored Car Robbery: Striptease
- The Killing: Jigsaw Puzzle
- Plunder Road: Near Mint
- 9. Odds against Tomorrow: Race, Space, and Sputnik Noir
- Coda: Post-'50s Syndicate, Rogue Cop, and "Big Caper" Films
- Neo
- Gangster Noir Syndicate Picture: Underworld, U.S.A.
- The Post-'50s Rogue Cop Film: Cape Fear
- Postclassic Heist Movie: Ocean's 11.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Other Format:
- Online version: Miklitsch, Robert, 1953- I died a million times
- ISBN:
- 9780252043611
- 0252043618
- 9780252085543
- 025208554X
- OCLC:
- 1142509805
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