Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Noir--as genre, style, movement, or sensibility--has its roots in the hardboiled detective fiction of the likes of Hammett and Chandler; the works of these authors were among the wave of post-WWII Hollywood films that in 1946 were, separately, tagged "film noir" by French cineastes Nino Frank and Jean-Pierre Chartier. But film wasn't the only medium with a taste for a dark story. Hundreds of live dramas were staged on television in the 40s and 50s--adaptations of the works of Chandler, Hammett, Cornell Woolrich, David Goodis, W.R. Burnett, Dorothy B. Hughes and other writers of teleplays featuring brooding detectives and femmes fatales, gangsters and dark deeds. Dark storytelling gained traction on the small screen, with some key differences from film, not the least of which is the continuing hero, back week after week to address a new disruption of the social order.
In TV Noir, noted film and television historian Allen Glover has written the first complete study of the subject, in this incisive, lavishly illustrated and exciting survey of the television programming that evolved concurrently with the film noir heyday. Deconstructing its key elements with astute and informed analysis, from NBCs adaptation of Woolrich's The Black Angel and the anthology programs of the 40s and 50s to the classic period with the likes of Dragnet, M Squad, and 77 Sunset Strip and the neo-noirs of the 70s and 80s including The Fugitive, Kolchak, and Harry O., Allen Glover presents the essential volume that, at last, plumbs the depths of TV noir.
Rounding out the volume are the essays "Chaos and Order," "The Noir Setting," "Light and Shadow," and "The Investigative Journey."
Synopsis
The pioneering, incisive, lavishly illustrated survey of noir on television--the first of its kind Noir--as a style, movement, or sensibility--has its roots in hardboiled detective fiction by writers like Chandler and Hammett, and films adapted from their novels were among the first called "film noir" by French cinéastes. But film isn't the only medium with a taste for a dark story.
Hundreds of noir dramas have been produced for television, featuring detectives and femmes fatales, gangsters, and dark deeds, continuing week after week, with a new disruption of the social order. In TV Noir, television historian Allen Glover presents the first complete study of the subject. Deconstructing its key elements with astute analysis, from NBC's adaptation of Woolrich's The Black Angel to the anthology programs of the '40s and '50s, from the classic period of Dragnet, M Squad, and 77 Sunset Strip to neo-noirs of the '60s and '70s including The Fugitive, Kolchak, and Harry O., this is the essential volume on TV noir.