- Paperback: 96 pages
- Publisher: Pocket Essentials (30 Jun 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1903047080
- ISBN-13: 978-1903047088
- Product Dimensions: 17 x 11 x 1 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,076,832 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Film Noir - The Pocket Essential Guide
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Pocket Essentials is a fresh new series of film books that are short, snappy, and easy to read. Packed with facts, and backed up by opinion, each book has all the key information you need to know about the world's most celebrated film directors and film genres. What's in a book? As well as an introduction to the subject, each film by a director or each genre is individually analyzed and reviewed. In addition, the director or genre's impact on the film industry is explained, and a handy reference section lists all the far weightier (and more expensive) books on the subject. For movie buffs and students, these are great little entry-level books that build into an essential film library.
From the Back Cover
Almost everything you need to know in one essential guide.
The laconic private eye ... the corrupt cop ... the heist that goes wrong ... the Femme Fatale with the rich husband and dim lover - all are trademark characters of the movement known as film noir, that allusive mixture of stark lighting and even starker emotions. Noir explored the dark side of post-war society - gangsters, hoodlums, prostitutes and killers - and showed how it corrupted the good and the beautiful. Many of these films are now touchstones of what we regard as 'classic' Hollywood - The Maltese Falcon (1941), The Big Sleep (1946), Double Indemnity (1944), and The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946).
The Pocket Essential Film Noir charts the progression of the noir style as a vehicle for film-makers who wanted to record the darkness at the heart of American society as it emerged from World War to the Cold War.
What's in this book? As well as an introductory overview of the origins of film noir, this Pocket Essential discusses all the classics from the heyday of the movement and includes a handy reference section for readers who want to know more.
Paul Duncan edited The Third Degree: Crime Writers in Conversation, and has written pocket essentials on Stanley Kubrick,Alfred Hitchcock and Noir Fiction.
Packed with facts, opinionated and crammed with information, Pocket Essentials are the perfect companion to film and pop culture.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
What is Film Noir ? How did it start ? Which films are the best in the genre ? The answer to these questions and many more can be found in Paul Duncan's "Film Noir."
The book forms part of the Pocket Essentials series which covers actors, directors and genres in handy size volumes of around 100 pages. Easy to digest and very informative.
"Film Noir" contains in depth plotlines on sven classic Noir movies from "Stranger On The Third Floor"(1940) to Hitchcock's "Vertigo"(1958). The reviews may be opinionated, but are detailed and fascinating. Duncan's comments are witty and honest, even if you don't agree with them all.
T book provides an overview of the genre's history in addition to a list of pre and post Noir titles.
The most useful aspect of this guide for regular Noir watchers, and especially those new to this genre, is the forty page review of Film Noir titles from 1940 to 1960. These are at most a few lines each, but cover essential infomation including directors, cast, writers, plotlines and alternative US and UK release titles.
Next time you're wondering if it's worth watching one of those late night black and white movies pick up this guide and let it help you decide.
I may disagree with some of Duncan's views...I think "Roadblock" is a classic film noir, while "Night Of The Hunter" is an overrated pice of tosh where style suffocates content.
Yet, strangely enough this book is my most thumbed film guide. Why not make it yours too ?
The book forms part of the Pocket Essentials series which covers actors, directors and genres in handy size volumes of around 100 pages. Easy to digest and very informative.
"Film Noir" contains in depth plotlines on sven classic Noir movies from "Stranger On The Third Floor"(1940) to Hitchcock's "Vertigo"(1958). The reviews may be opinionated, but are detailed and fascinating. Duncan's comments are witty and honest, even if you don't agree with them all.
T book provides an overview of the genre's history in addition to a list of pre and post Noir titles.
The most useful aspect of this guide for regular Noir watchers, and especially those new to this genre, is the forty page review of Film Noir titles from 1940 to 1960. These are at most a few lines each, but cover essential infomation including directors, cast, writers, plotlines and alternative US and UK release titles.
Next time you're wondering if it's worth watching one of those late night black and white movies pick up this guide and let it help you decide.
I may disagree with some of Duncan's views...I think "Roadblock" is a classic film noir, while "Night Of The Hunter" is an overrated pice of tosh where style suffocates content.
Yet, strangely enough this book is my most thumbed film guide. Why not make it yours too ?
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Why do I prefer this briefer-than-brief guide to other, more comprehensive efforts? Simply because it has a minimum of (often irritating) analysis & is very easy to pick up & put down. (In common with another reviewer, my copy is extremely well-thumbed).
Only criticisms:-
a) It could do with updating (last reprinted 2006). In the UK Noir section, particularly, there are glaring omissions (Heatwave, Woman in question, Blackout, The Impersonator, to name but a few),
b) Way of all flesh, a 1940 film starring Akim Tamiroff & Gladys George, is also omitted (in common with just about every Noir guide). This is one of my favourite movies of any genre & deserves to be better known.
However, despite these flaws, I would recommend this item to anyone with an interest in Noir. To the revewer who said the information is available elsewhere - yes, but not in such a handy, concise format, nor so reasonable priced. Me, I wouldn't be without it!
Only criticisms:-
a) It could do with updating (last reprinted 2006). In the UK Noir section, particularly, there are glaring omissions (Heatwave, Woman in question, Blackout, The Impersonator, to name but a few),
b) Way of all flesh, a 1940 film starring Akim Tamiroff & Gladys George, is also omitted (in common with just about every Noir guide). This is one of my favourite movies of any genre & deserves to be better known.
However, despite these flaws, I would recommend this item to anyone with an interest in Noir. To the revewer who said the information is available elsewhere - yes, but not in such a handy, concise format, nor so reasonable priced. Me, I wouldn't be without it!
6 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Whilst any title in the "Pocket Book Essentials" series is always going to be brief and should only really act as a primer for the uninitiated; the author here struggles to pin-down what "film-noir" actually is/was and proceeds to give half a dozen so-so reviews of films seemingly picked at random (several of which shouldn't really qualify for inclusion). At least 50% of the book is then taken up with lists of information that is freely available elsewhere.
A rip-off, even at the admittedly low R.R.P.
A rip-off, even at the admittedly low R.R.P.
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