Film Noir and Fiction

Below is a list of books that address the relationship between film noir and hard-boiled and detective fiction that are available in the UNC library system. Each book's call number is hypertext linked to its record in the UNC Libraries online catalog.

• Cochran, David. America Noir: Underground Writers and Filmmakers of the Postwar Era.
  Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2000.
  DAVIS and UL PS374.P63 C63 2000
  This study focuses on ten writers and filmmakers, who the author contends challenged such social pieties as the superiority of American democracy, the benevolence of free enterprise, and the sanctity of the suburban family. He argues that all of these artists helped to set the stage for the 1960s counterculture's challenge to the established order by blurring the lines between "high" and "low" art.
  
• Hare, William. Early Film Noir: Greed, Lust and Murder Hollywood Style.
  Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2003.
  DAVIS PN1995.9.F54 H37 2003
  The author argues that, although film noir has connections to German expressionist cinema, the genre was mainly inspired by the work of Raymond Chandler and other hard-boiled fiction writers, including James M. Cain and Dashiell Hammett. He 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 with access to limited resources to make their films.
  
• Phillips, Gene D. Creatures of Darkness: Raymond Chandler, Detective Fiction, and Film Noir.
  Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2000.
  DAVIS PS3505.H3224 Z836 2000
  This bio-critical work analyzes Raymond Chandler’s role in the development of the genre of film noir. The author treats his original scripts, his adaptations of others’ works, and screenplays based upon his own novels, including plot synopses for each work.