Alfred Hitchcock was a major figure in the development and flourishing of film noir. His noir films became an inspirational foundation of the neo-noir movement beginning in the 1970s, from Brian de Palma’s mash-up homages to Hitchcock originals such as Obsession (1976) and Body Double (1984) to the dark political thrillers of the era that explore the underside of American life, all of which owe a substantial debt to Hitchcock.
However, the central role of Hitchcock in the long history of film noir has seldom been acknowledged in work devoted to his career and noir criticism more generally. Instead, there has been a tendency to consider Hitchcock’s many dark thrillers and crime melodramas as sui generis, that is, as "Hitchcock films" that are somehow separate and distinct from industry trends. But this is to take a narrow view of the director's accomplishments that underestimates his substantial contributions to film history.
Alfred Hitchcock and Film Noir will be the first book-length treatment of the impressive corpus of Hitchcock noir films considered as such, as well as of his connection more generally to the emergence and flourishing of this important cinematic trend.
A thorough analysis of Alfred Hitchcock's career-long engagement with, and influence on film noir
Arvustused
"In film noir evil lurks around every corner, especially in the 1950s and early 1960s features. R. Barton Palmer and Homer B. Pettey have assembled a fine array of film scholars to offer their respect to a pioneer and fellow traveller of noir directors like Siodomak, Wilder and Dmytryk. Here Hitchcock has come out of the shadows of his role as 'Master of suspense.'" * John J. Michalczyk, author of "Nazi Medicine: In the Shadow of the Reich" * Alfred Hitchcock and Film Noir contains a wealth of stimulating intellectual pleasures. It deserves a wide readership among admirers of Hitchcock and film noir alike. -- David Sterritt * The Hitchcock Annual (Volume 28) * Alfred Hitchcock and Film Noir contains a wealth of stimulating intellectual pleasures. It deserves a wide readership among admirers of Hitchcock and film noir alike. -- David Sterritt * Hitchcock Annual *
Acknowledgements
Notes on Contributors
Illustrations
Chapter
1. Introduction: The Dark Side and Hitchcock's Early Noirs - R.
Barton Palmer and Homer B. Pettey
Chapter
2. The 39 Steps (1935) and the Hard-Boiled Tradition - Homer B.
Pettey
Chapter
3. Hitchcock's Gothic Noir (Rebecca [ 1940] and The Birds [ 1962]):
Haunted and Haunting Women and Les Oiselles Fatales - Julie Grossman
Chapter
4. The Americanization of Hitchcock: The Precariousness of Democratic
Agency in War Noir - Alan Woolfolk
Chapter
5. Suspicion (1941): A Noir Woman's Film - Florence Jacobowitz
Chapter
6. Unhitched: Joan Harrison's Noir Marriage Plots - Mark Osteen
Chapter
7. Noir Americana Aesthetics in Shadow of a Doubt (1943) - Elisabeth
Bronfen
Chapter
8. What's Love Got to Do with It? Reading Spellbound (1945) Through
Marnie (1964) in the Time of #MeToo - Thomas Leitch
Chapter
9. Designing the Notorious Woman: Costume, Characterisation and Star
Persona in the Fabrication of the Femme Fatale - Helen Hanson
Chapter
10. The In-Between of Stage and Screen: Rope (1948), Stage Fright
(1950), and Dial M for Murder (1954) - Bruce Isaacs
Chapter
11. Upending Noir in Strangers on a Train (1951) - Lee Clark
Mitchell
Chapter
12. I Confess (1953): Hitchcock and the "Great Darkness" - Jim Leach
Chapter
13. Crossfire of Knowledge: Noir and Tropical Dualism - Murray
Pomerance
Chapter
14. The Wrong Man (1956): Hitchcock's Contribution to the Noir "Film
of Fact" Production Cycle - R. Barton Palmer
Chapter
15. The Midge Ending: Vertigo (1958) and The Role of the Third Woman
- Jans B. Wager
Chapter
16. Territorial Imperative: the Dark Landscape of the Body in Psycho
(1960) and Frenzy (1972) - Jennifer L. Jenkins
Chapter
17. The Weak Link in the Chain: Copenhagen and Cold War Noir in
Hitchcocks Torn Curtain (1966) and Topaz (1969) - Ian Scott
Chapter
18. Epilogue - Rear Window (1954) and North by Northwest (1959) -
Homer B. Pettey and R. Barton Palmer
Chapter
19. Bibliography
Index
R. Barton Palmer is Calhoun Lemon Professor of Literature Emeritus at Clemson University. He is the author, editor, or general editor of many books including Hollywoods Dark Cinema: The American Film Noir (1994), After Hitchcock: Influence, Imitation, and Intertextuality (2006), and A Little Solitaire: John Frankenheimer and American Film (2011). He is the series editor for EUPs traditions in World Cinema, Traditions in American Cinema and International Film Stars series, and he is co-editor of five recent EUP books: Michael Mann, George Cukor, Film Noir, International Noir and The Other Hollywood Renaissance. Homer B. Pettey is Professor Emeritus of Film and Comparative Literature at the University of Arizona. He serves as the founding and general editor for Global Film Directors (Rutgers U.P.), Global Film Studios (Edinburgh U.P.), and International Stars (Edinburgh U.P.).
