Recommended reading - L.A. Noir: Nine Dark Visions of the City of Angels (2008):

L.A. Noir: Nine Dark Visions of the City of Angels

By William Hare.

Published by McFarland & Company.

Published in 2008.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0786437405

ISBN-13: 978-0786437405

Description:

Los Angeles is an ideal city for film noir for both economic and aesthetic reasons. The largest metropolitan area in the country, home to an ever-changing population of the disillusioned and in close proximity to city, mountains, ocean, and desert, the City of Angels became a center of American film noir.

This detailed discussion of nine films explores such topics as 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.

Recommended reading - Early Film Noir: Greed, Lust and Murder Hollywood Style (2003):

Early Film Noir: Greed, Lust and Murder Hollywood Style (2003).

By William Hare.

Published by McFarland & Company.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0786416297

ISBN-13: 978-0786416295

Description:

The name is French and it has connections to German expressionist cinema, but film noir was inspired by the American Raymond Chandler, whose prose was marked by the gripping realism of seedy hotels, dimly lit bars, main streets, country clubs, mansions, cul-de-sac apartments, corporate boardrooms, and flop houses of America.

Chandler and the other writers and directors, including James M. Cain, Dashiell Hammett, Jane Greer, Ken Annakin, Rouben Mamoulian and Mike Mazurki, who were primarily responsible for the creation of the film noir genre and its common plots and themes, are the main focus of this work. It correlates the rise of film noir with the new appetites of the American public after World War II and explains how it was developed by smaller studios and filmmakers as a result of the emphasis on quality within a deliberately restricted element of cities at night. The author also discusses how RKO capitalized on films such as Murder, My Sweet and Out of the Past – two of film noir's most famous titles – and film noir's connection to British noir and the great international triumph of Sir Carol Reed in The Third Man.

Contents: Foreword; Introduction; Film Noir: Chandler and the American Institution with a French Name; A Blend of Three Great Talents: Double Indemnity (1944); Women of Danger and RKO's Noir Factory; Dmytryk and the RKO Team; Jane Greer: Hollywood's Unforgettable Femme Fatale; Laura (1944); An Obsession in White and a Final Reckoning: The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946); British Noir: The Third Man (1949) and Across the Bridge (1957); Synopses of Major Films; Bibliography; Index.

Recommended reading - Pulp Fiction to Film Noir: The Great Depression and the Development of a Genre (2012):

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.