The BFI Companion to Crime
Movie lovers would be well served if every film genre had a book devoted to it that is as loving and comprehensive asThe BFI Companion to Crime. Editor Phil Hardy, who also oversaw the excellent Overlook encyclopedias ofhorror,science fiction, andWesternfilms, has outdone himself with this volume. Teaming with the British Film Institute, Hardy has produced a volume that covers all aspects of the crime film. You'll find entries on every significant movie in the genre: classics such asThe Maltese Falcon,The Big Sleep,Chinatown, andGoodfellas; lesser-known works such asAn American Tragedy,Raw Deal,Peeping Tom, andMona Lisa; popular favorites such asDie HardandPulp Fiction; and foreign films fromLes VampirestoDiva. Entries for each movie summarize and evaluate the film and provide a full list of credits.The companion also covers the lives and careers of important pulp novelists such as Agatha Christie, Daphne  du Maurier, and Elmore Leonard (whose books were frequently made into movie classics) and approaches the genre by subject. Entries on a variety of relevant topics include blackmail, drugs, Fu Manchu, homosexuality, Sherlock Holmes, and vigilantes. Perhaps the best feature of the book are the hundreds of photographs, in both color and black and white, that illustrate the volume. They are the most striking collection of stills you'll see in any movie book, and they collectively give a taste of the crime film's extraordinary visual richness. This superb companion is full of detail, yet is  so accessible that it will delight both crime film aficionados and fans who are just getting acquainted with this deep  genre.