Street with No Name: A History of the Classic American Film Noir
What do Alexander the Great and film noir have in common? Both subjects invariably spur the writing of first-class books. While not as comprehensive as Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward's Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style, Dickos's work skillfully plumbs this "dark cinema," a style (genre to some, crime subgenre to others) that is recognized in such recent productions as The Usual Suspects (1995) and Memento (2001) but whose heyday resides between The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Touch of Evil (1958). Dickos (Intrepid Laughter: Preston Sturges and the Movies) does not neglect noir's roots in post-World War I German silent cinema and 1930s French sound films. He targets directors (from ‚migr‚s Fritz Lang and Otto Preminger to American-born Nicholas Ray and Don Siegel), settings (especially the city), protagonists (pursued and pursuer), plot devices (amnesia, flashbacks), and specific films (Body and Soul, The Big Heat, Kiss Me Deadly, and many more). The movie stills have been carefully chosen; a useful bibliography and credits for selected films are furnished as well. Recommended for public and academic libraries. Kim Holston, American Inst. for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters, Malvern, PACopyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.