--- Philip Benz <
Philip.Benz@wanadoo.fr> wrote:
>
> It's quite a bit of fun catching up on some of
the
> earliest talking
> gangster films -- such a startling departure
from
> the post-code
> sanitized films we see much more often. The
Tom
> Powers character in
> "The Public Enemy" is a striking example
of
> everything the code was
> designed to prevent!
>
../..
> Cheers, --- Phil
> Lycé¥ Astier, Aubenas, France
Being in France, you probably know the small format book
published by Gallimard-Decouvertes, titled:
"Le crime a l'ecran"-1992 (transl:Crime on the Screen)by
Michel Ciment, which is IMO a very good introduction to crime
films, with a big part of it devoted to American cinema. But
not a real scholar book. In its well documented section about
"articles and essays" a few ones are about the "gangster
film" and could perhaps lead you to more extended references
as well.
To prolong your remark about pre- and post- Hays films in the
USA, an interesting study would be to compare the rather free
of censorship (West-) European films enjoyed during the
pre-30s to the same period in the USA, and see effects on
ethics and "morale"(morality) pictured in films on both sides
of the Atlantic. And then to compare the post-Hays code era
productions to the European films of the same period, again
for their morality contents. It could even be focused on
"gangster films" for part of it, Europe having had rather
early its own thing in films involving the underworld
("truands"), the
"mauvais garcons" (bad boys), the low-lives of big
cities...etc- these are not gangster films per se of course,
but they were depicting local "enemies of society".
E.Borgers
'On French Crime Films' by Yuri German- an article available
on: Hard-Boiled Mysteries http://www.geociites.com/Athens/6384
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