Alfred Hitchcock and Film Noir

The Darker Side

Add to my list

Edited by R. Barton Palmer and Homer B. Pettey

Type

Studies

Subject

Director > Alfred Hitchcock

Keywords

Alfred Hitchcock, film noir, crime films

Publishing date

2024

Publisher

Edinburgh University Press

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Hardcover • 344 pages
6 x 9 ¼ inches (15.5 x 23.5 cm)

ISBN

978-1-3995-3517-5

User Ratings

(0 vote)

X

Average rating:

0	rating	= We can do without
0	rating	= Good book
0	rating	= Excellent book
0	rating	= Unique / a reference

Your rating: -

Book Presentation:
A thorough analysis of Alfred Hitchcock's career-long engagement with, and influence on, film noir

• Provides case studies of Alfred Hitchcock's films and film noir, including Vertigo, Marnie, Strangers on a Train, Rebecca and The Birds
• Situates Hitchcock as influencing and influenced by film noir throughout his lengthy career
• Expands upon critical concepts of film noir as a fundamental cinematic type for the iconic works of Alfred Hitchcock

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.

About the authors:
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 Hollywood’s 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 EUP’s 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.).

Press Reviews:
"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"

See the publisher website: Edinburgh University Press

See the complete filmography of Alfred Hitchcock on the website: IMDB ...