A Companion to Film Noir

Ever since French commentators identified a new mode of American film–making as they watched Double Indemnity and Murder, My Sweet just after World War II ended, film noir has fascinated cineastes like no other genre. This authoritative companion features the work of a highly distinguished group of international scholars, adopting a thematic approach that examines key topics rather than focusing on individual titles or auteurs. It reflects the expanding purview of analysts by including novel subjects such as neo–noir, international noir movies from Europe, Asia, Latin America and Australasia, and ‘noir’ as expressed in other forms such as comics, graphic novels, posters, radio and television. As our understanding of the noir corpus expands to constitute a ‘noir mediascape’, this volume represents a compelling addition to the academic debate, interrogating film noir from a range of angles including its conceptualization; its hidden, hybrid and transmedia histories; its social, industrial and commercial contexts; its aesthetic fabric; its presentation of identity; and its proliferation in other media forms and geographical loci. The companion explores noir in relation to film history, questions of genre and categorization, issues of style and identity, and its particularized modes of production. Informed by cutting–edge scholarship, A Companion to Film Noir extends and deepens the developing understanding of this enduringly captivating mode of cultural expression.

List of Illustrations viii Notes on Contributors x Acknowledgments xviii Foreword xix James Naremore Introduction: The Problem of Film Noir 1 Andrew Spicer Part I Conceptualizing Film Noir 15 1 The Strange Case of Film Noir 17 Robert Porfirio 2 Genre, Hybridity, Heterogeneity: or, the Noir–SF–Vampire–Zombie–Splatter–Romance–Comedy–Action–Thriller Problem 33 Mark Bould 3 A Wet Emptiness: The Phenomenology of Film Noir 50 Henrik Gustafsson 4 Cinephilia and Film Noir 67 Corey K. Creekmur Part II Hidden, Hybrid, and Transmedia Histories and Influences 77 5 Precursors to Film Noir 79 Wheeler Winston Dixon 6 Crisscrossed? Film Noir and the Politics of Mobility and Exchange 94 Alastair Phillips 7 Film Noir and Horror 111 Peter Hutchings 8 Borderings: The Film Noir Semi–Documentary 125 R. Barton Palmer 9 Crime Fiction and Film Noir 142 William Marling 10 Film Noir, American Painting and Photography: Questions of Influence 158 Tom Ryall Part III Social, Industrial, and Commercial Contexts 175 11 The Politics of Film Noir 177 Brian Neve 12 The Black Typewriter: Who Wrote Film Noir? 193 David Wilt 13 Film Noir and Studio Production Practices 211 Geoff Mayer 14 Film Noir and Post–Studio Production Practices 229 John Berra 15 Selling Noir: Stars, Gender, and Genre in Film Noir Posters and Publicity 245 Mary Beth Haralovich Part IV The Fabric of Film Noir: Style and Performance 265 16 Out of the Shadows: Noir Lighting and Hollywood Cinematography 267 Patrick Keating 17 The Ambience of Film Noir: Soundscapes, Design, and Mood 284 Helen Hanson 18 In a Lonely Tone: Music in Film Noir 302 David Butler 19 Acting and Performance in Film Noir 318 Donna Peberdy Part V Identities and Film Noir 335 20 Film Noir and Subjectivity 337 Christophe Gelly 21 Women in Film Noir 353 Yvonne Tasker 22 "The Corpse on Reprieve": Film Noir′s Cautionary Tales of "Tough Guy" Masculinity 369 Gaylyn Studlar 23 Ethnicity and Race in American Film Noir 387 Dan Flory 24 The Climb and the Chase: Film Noir and the Urban Scene – Representations of the City in Three Classic Noirs 405 Murray Pomerance Part VI Noir in Other Forms 421 25 Radio Noir in the USA 423 Jesse Schlotterbeck 26 Television Noir 440 Steven Sanders 27 "It Rhymes with Lust": The Twisted History of Noir Comics 458 James Lyons Part VII New Geographies of Film Noir 477 28 Film Noir in Asia: Historicizing South Korean Crime Thrillers 479 Nikki J.Y. Lee and Julian Stringer 29 Bombay Noir 496 Lalitha Gopalan Index 512

Andrew Spicer is Reader in Cultural History at the University of the West of England, UK. His principal research interests lie in film and cultural history, including genre, stardom and constructions of masculinity, British cinema, and the role of producers and screenwriters in film–making. He has published widely on all these topics, including Typical Men (2003) and Sydney Box (2006), and three volumes on film noir: Film Noir (2002), European Film Noir (2007), and the Historical Dictionary of Film Noir (2010). He is currently co–editing a volume about film producers, and writing a study of Sean Connery. Helen Hanson is a Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Exeter, UK. Her research interests cover adaptation, gender and genre, film history, film style and technology, with a particular focus on the history of Hollywood.  She has written articles and chapters on these topics, and has authored Hollywood Heroines: Film Noir and the Female Gothic Film (2007) and co–edited The Femme Fatale: Images, Histories, Contexts (2010). She also has a forthcoming book on the evolution of sound technology, sound craft and film style in Hollywood cinema from 1931–1950.