Table of Contents
Preface ix
Introduction 1
To Name the Thing-Film Noir as Style, as Genre 1
German Expressionism and the Roots of the Film Noir 9
Fritz Lang 20
Robert Siodmak 34
The Inception of the Film Noir in the French Cinema of the 1930s 42
The Film Noir in France in the Immediate Postwar Years 51
1 The Noir in America 60
The Noir City 62
Archetypes-Protagonists 65
Abraham Polonsky 70
Jules Dassin 75
Nicholas Ray 82
Orson Welles 88
2 The Hard-Boiled Fiction Influence 96
Cornell Woolrich 99
The Private Detective 103
Humphrey Bogart, Spade, Marlowe, and the Film Noir 109
The Gangster Figure and the Noir 112
John Huston 115
Violence in the Noir 121
Samuel Fuller 125
Robert Aldrich 130
Don Siegel 137
Sexuality in the Noir 142
Families in the Noir 146
Joseph H. Lewis 151
3 Women as Seen m the Film Noir 156
Otto Preminger 164
4 Noir Production 172
Noir Iconography 173
The Use of Voice-Over Narration 177
The Flashback Device 179
Amnesia as a Storytelling Device 182
The B Noir Production 184
Documentary Realism in the Noir 187
Critical and Popular Reception of the Film Noir 191
HUAC and the Blacklist 194
Fight Pictures 197
Caper Films 200
Crime Syndicate Exposés 202
The Kefauver Crime Hearings 203
Anthony Mann 206
Phil Karlson 213
5 The Noir Influence on the French New Wave 222
Jean-Pierre Melville 228
Epilogue: Comments on the Classic Film Noir and the Neo-Noir 235
Appendix: Credits of Selected Films Noirs 245
Notes 271
Bibliography 283
Index 291