RARA-AVIS: Re: Big Book of Noir

joseph (joseph@sos.net)
Tue, 23 Mar 1999 11:23:23 -0800 I am 3/4 of the way through the book and I really like it. I already knew
most of the film noir stuff. The interviews are great. The stuff on the
paperback originals (PBO) was most elucidating. Saddened by some of the
lives who eked a living out of writing. The background on the whys and
wherefores on the PBO system were neat.

The one personal caveat I would say is the introduction. It is from the
school of the Journal of Popular Film and Television by Bowling Green Press
psuedo-intellectual writing. They love the sound of their own words. But I
did glean a qoute that I thought was a hoot.

>From the introduction of "The Big Book of Noir":

"Cagney later contributes a rousing portrait of a gangster with a raging
Oedipus complex in "White Heat," from the Hollywood's misogynistic period.
Trapped on a oil storage tank, he crys exultantly: "On top of the world,
Ma!" before joining his dead mother via the auto-destructive orgasm of his
own personal mushroom cloud."

Buy it today. The book section is a marvelous primer to the topics spoken here.

Joseph

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