Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir by Eddie Muller “Dig it: Eddie Muller’s Dark City is a righteous, rip-snorting
riff on the ultimate cinematic genre–film noir. This book displays a
salutary knowledge of the underpinnings of the genre; serves as a
fabulous reference book; and most importantly, dishes the real life dirt
on the freaks, geeks, commies, nymphos, hopheads, has-beens,
red-baiters, and all-purpose fiends who made this genre great.” –
James Ellroy
The Rough Guide to Film Noir A great introduction that covers the genre from early German expressionism to the latest neo-noirs, and highlights the movies to look out for.
Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference by Alain Silver “This encyclopedia is a valuable addition to any Film Noir library.
It contains production credits, plot summaries, and brief analyses of
hundreds of films noirs, as well as excellent appendices which include
summaries of the Film Noir genre and a chronology. The analyses are in
general quite good, if brief, with those by Robert Porfirio the most
perceptive and well written…” – Deborah Alpi
The Philosophy of Film Noir (The Philosophy of Popular Culture) From Publishers Weekly: “When Nietzsche
declared “God is dead,” little did he know he was helping to launch a new
cinematic genre characterized by shady characters and seamy plotlines involving
fallen women, murder and betrayal. But noir is inevitably more than just stylish
filmmaking or the marriage between American hard-boiled fiction and German
expressionism, according to the philosophers, film historians and English
professors who contributed to this book: film noir “challenged widespread
assumptions about material and moral progress” and represents a “systematic
deconstruction of the American Dream.” Examining classic noir films and books by
writers such as Albert Camus, Dashiell Hammett and James Cain, contributors
discuss essence of film noir as reflecting a sense of disenchantment, “inversion
of traditional values” and the “spiritual defeat of modernity.” In her essay on
The Maltese Falcon, Deborah Knight draws the distinction between the emotionally
conflicted detective Sam Spade and his more detached predecessor, Sherlock
Holmes. Philosophy professor Steven Sanders sifts through existentialist texts
and classic noir films to find the meaning of life, while several contributors
weigh in on themes of morality and Pulp Fiction gets a deep scholarly massage
from Conard. Dense and intriguing, the book suggests noir is best perceived as a
slightly warped mirror held up to contemporary society.”
Film Noir Reader Alain Silver & James Ursini (Editors)
From Booknews: “An anthology of 22 seminal and contemporary essays on the
art of noir in film, drawing together definitive studies and ruminations on the
philosophy and techniques that made movies like The Maltese Falcon classics. The
essays include the first English translation of “Towards a Definition of Film
Noir,” by Borde and Chaumeton, and Paul Shrader’s “Notes on Film Noir.” Other
critical discussions examine narrative structure, lighting, the evolution of the
femme fatale, and the neo-noir rebirth of the genre in films like Reservoir Dogs
and Gun Crazy. Lots and lots of black and white (of course) photographs make
this a film buff’s dream collection.”
L.A. Noir: The City as Character by Alain Silver
From Booklist: “Film noir continues to
generate a remarkable outpouring of pedantic prose, but the would-be scholars
may have expended the most effort while achieving the least on the topic of how
the genre uses the urban landscape. Only Nicholas Christopher, in Somewhere in
the Night (1997), managed to say something truly memorable about how, in the
best noir films, the labyrinth of the postwar city came to reflect the psychic
wounds of its inhabitants. This extensively illustrated guide to Los Angeles as
a noir setting makes a useful adjunct to the Christopher book. Moving throughout
the city, from downtown to the Westside, the Pacific Coast, and on to the
suburbs, the authors show how specific streets and buildings helped set the mood
and convey the dark messages in such classic noirs as Criss Cross and Kiss Me
Deadly as well as in neo-noirs, including Chinatown and Blade Runner. The
black-and-white illustrations of cityscapes prove every bit as evocative as the
actual film stills, eloquently making the point that place is every bit as
capable of driving meaning as action.” – Bill Ott
Film Noir by Andrew Spicer
From Back Cover: “Lucidly written, Film Noir is an accessible, informative and
stimulating introduction that will have a broad appeal…”
Blackout: World War II and the Origins of Film Noir by Sheri Chinen Biesen
From Time Literary Supplment: “Biesen’s book is readable,
informative and jargon free… Biesen uses her research into studio
archives, the films’ attendant publicity and the contemporary press to
bring alive the wartime period of film noir and its transformation into
a post-war genre for dealing with troubled veterans returning home, the
coming of the Cold War, nuclear angst and the effects of McCarthyism on
Hollywood and the nation at large.”
Somewhere in the Night: Film Noir and the American City by Nicholas Christopher
The Dark Side of the Screen: Film Noir by Foster Hirsch
Amazon says: “The classic study of the most menacing and original
genre of American cinema. A backlist best seller and the definitive take
on one of today’s reigning screen influences, film noir, this is an
essential guide to the extraordinary genre that launched the careers of
such luminaries as Burt Lancaster, Billy Wilder, Joan Crawford, Orson
Welles, and Stanley Kubrick.”
The Art of Noir: THE POSTERS & GRAPHICS by EddieMuller
More than Night: Film Noir in Its Contexts by James Naremore
From Back Cover: “One of the very best film books in recent years. . . .
There are any number of books on noir, but none as comprehensive, as rigorous,
as far- reaching as Naremore’s. . . . It will be the essential work for the
field.”
Film Noir Reader 4: The Crucial Films and Themes by Alain Silver
San Francisco Noir by Nathaniel Rich
Martin Scorsese: “Nathaniel Rich has written a fascinating work of criticism
disguised as a guided tour around a great city.”
European Film Noir
A Panorama of American Film Noir, 1941-1953 by Raymond Borde
From Amazon: “When it appeared in France in 1955, A Panorama of
American Film Noir was the first book ever on the genre. Now this
classic is at last available in English translation. This clairvoyant
study of Hollywood film noir is “a ‘benchmark’ for all later work on the
topic” (James Naremore). A Panorama of American Film Noir addresses the
essential amorality of its subject from a decidedly Surrealist angle,
focusing on noir’s dreamlike, unwonted, erotic, ambivalent, and cruel
atmosphere, and setting it in the social context of mid-century
America.”
The Noir Style by Alain Silver “It’s what you always want in a film reference book, but rarely find:
comprehensive, intelligently organized, voluminously illustrated, and possessed
of its own distinctive voice.” – Lawrence Kasdan
The Big Book of Noir
Fom Card Catalog: “Noir is big, so The Big Book of Noir jam-packs its pages
with articles, interviews, excerpts, opinion, and gossip that chronicle its
history and explore noir in all its forms: movies, detective stories, television
and radio shows, comic books, and graphic novels.”
Unless the Threat of Death Is Behind Them: … by John T. Irwin “Irwin’s analysis of five American crime novels from the Thirties
and Forties and his insightful discussion of the ‘noir’ films based on
them cast new light on the qualities of these ‘hard-boiled’ classics.
The surprising affinities he uncovers that link these works with other
examples of American ‘main-line’ fiction will surely increase the
reader’s perception of the inherent seriousness at the heart of these
genre entertainments.”– Donald A. Yates
Film Noir Reader 3: Interviews with Filmmakers of the Classic Noir
Period by Alain Silver
Out of the Past: Adventures in Film Noir by Barry Gifford
Hard Boiled: Great Lines from Classic Noirs by Peggy Thompson “When Lauren Bacall taught Humphrey Bogart how to whistle in To
Have and Have Not, she didn’t blow away the competition for great
one-liners. The book Hard-Boiled includes that line and more than 350
other tough, witty, and downright nasty quotes from classic noir films
produced between 1940 and the early Sixties… “ – Playboy March 1996
Dark Cinema: American Film Noir by Jon Tuska
“Tuska’s book is an attempt to link the film noir tradition to a wider world
of American culture. Thus it provides not only a description of the cinematic
antecedents of the films but also a history of its literary origins. The book
also defines noir’s typical style, themes and concerns, actors, actresses, and
directors…. This book is strongest when it discusses the films themselves….
Selected bibliography and filmography are included. Probably most useful at the
lower-division undergraduate level.” – Choice
The Gangster Film Reader by Alain Silver
Film Noir: Films of Trust and Betrayal by Paul Duncan
Noir Anxiety by Kelly Oliver
Dark City Dames: The Wicked Women of Film Noir by Eddie Muller “Briskly written and well researched, this survey should be
popular in large public library film collections.” – Stephen Rees,
Levittown Regional Lib., PA
L. A. Noir: Nine Dark Visions of the City of Angels by William Hare
From Amazon: “This work discusses nine films, each analyzed in detail,
with explanations of why certain settings are appropriate for film noir, why
L.A. has been a favorite of authors such as Raymond Chandler, and relevant
political developments in the area. The films are also examined in terms of
story content as well as how they developed in the project stage. Utilizing a
number of quotes from interviews, the work examines actors, directors, and
others involved with the films, touching on their careers and details of their
time in L.A. The major films covered are The Big Sleep, Criss Cross, D.O.A., In
A Lonely Place, The Blue Gardenia, Kiss Me Deadly, The Killing, Chinatown, and
L.A. Confidential.”
Neon Noir: Contemporary American Crime Fiction by Woody Haut
Film Noir and the Spaces of Modernity by Edward Dimendberg
Bookforum: “Urban transformations are the burden of Edward
Dimendberg’s fitfully brilliant study, Film Noir and the Spaces of
Modernity: the passage of a historical city of old neighborhoods,
traditional if often menacing public spaces, and anonymous crowds into
the postwar suburbs, highways, shopping malls, and industrial
landscapes…Dimendberg’s animating insight remarks the coincidence of
this radical reorganization in American space and the film-noir
cycle–from 1939 to 1959 or, as he slyly glosses, from the New York
World’s Fair, the construction of Rockefeller Center, and publication of
The Big Sleep to the Nixon-Khrushchev ‘Kitchen Debate,’ Robert Wise’s
Odds Against Tomorrow, and the death of Raymond Chandler. Film noir
registers the fears and human toll of all that spatial mutation, yet
obliquely, metaphorically, a sort of phantom parallel to everyday
enterprise…[A] mostly dazzling scholarly investigation.” – Robert Polito
Neo-Noir: The New Film Noir Style from Psycho to Collateral by Ronald Schwartz
French Film Noir by Robin Buss
Film Noir: From Berlin to Sin City by Mark Bould
Noir Is My Beat by Lara Fisher
From Amazon: “For the classic movie fan and the die-hard film noir
junkie, Noir is My Beat gives you hundreds of film noir brainteasers.
Test your smarts with quotations, questions and little known facts about
the movies, stars, writers and legends of film noir. Noir is My Beat is
an enjoyable and revealing look at the world of classic film noir. In
addition to oodles of trivia, this book provides a comprehensive listing
of films from the era that introduced film noir to the world.”
Arts of Darkness: American Noir and the Quest For Redemption by Thomas S. Hibbs
In a Lonely Street: Film Noir, Genre, Masculinity by Frank Krutnik
Death on the Cheap: The Lost B Movies of Film Noir by Arthur Lyons “A terrific piece of work, the definitive book on its subject, and a body
slam of nostalgia that knocked me out of my chair more than once.” – Dean Koonz
Tony,
I’m always amazed at the wealth of resources on your site.
I want to recommend another book, FILM NOIR: FILMS OF TRUST AND BETRAYAL.
It’s a brief book by Paul Duncan, who himself seems like a noir madman spewing out his vast knowledge in a stream of consciousness.
Cheers,
Mike L.
Noir Journal http://noirjournal.typepad.com/noir-journal/
FilmsNoir.Net 
Tony,
I’m always amazed at the wealth of resources on your site.
I want to recommend another book, FILM NOIR: FILMS OF TRUST AND BETRAYAL.
It’s a brief book by Paul Duncan, who himself seems like a noir madman spewing out his vast knowledge in a stream of consciousness.
Cheers,
Mike L.
Noir Journal http://noirjournal.typepad.com/noir-journal/
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Thanks Mike. I will add it to the listing, which needs updating badly, as I have a few other titles I need to add. Thanks again for the heads-up.
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You have a very interesting site that I enjoyed visiting. Thank you for including my books “L.A. Noir” and “Early Film Noir.”
All the best,
Bill Hare
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Thanks Bill!
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You only have one of my film noir books. I have written 2 others–NOIR, NOW & THEN (Greenwood Press) and HOUSES OF NOIR (McFarland Publishing)
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Hi Ronald. The list needs updating as I haven’t reviewed it for a while. Certainly there is always a new book on film noir. It is hard to keep up.
Please send me the Amazon links for your other books and I will add them to the list.
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