Pulp Fiction to Film Noir: The Great
Depression and the Development of a Genre (2012)
by William Hare.
Paperback.
ISBN-13: 978-0786466825
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.
