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Pulp Fiction to Film
Noir: The Great Depression and the Development of a Genre (2012)
By William Hare.
Published by McFarland.
Paperback.
ISBN-10: 0786466820
ISBN-13: 978-0786466825
Description:
During
the Great Depression, pulp fiction writers created a new, distinctly American
detective story, one that stressed the development of fascinating, often
bizarre characters rather than the twists and turns of clever plots. This new
crime fiction adapted brilliantly to the screen, birthing a cinematic genre
that French cinema intellectuals following World War II christened "film
noir."
Set on dark streets late at night, in cheap hotels and bars, and
populated by the dangerous people who frequented these locales, these films
introduced a new antihero, a tough, brooding, rebellious loner, embodied by
Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon and Philip Marlowe in The
Big Sleep. This volume provides a detailed exploration of film noir, tracing
its evolution, the influence of such legendary writers as Dashiell Hammett and
Raymond Chandler, and the films that propelled this dark genre to popularity in
the mid-20th century.
