Pulp Fiction to Film Noir: The Great Depression and the Development of a Genre

by William Hare

During the Great Depression, pulp fiction writers created a new, distinctly American detective story, one that stressed the development of fascinating, often bizarre characters rather than the twists and turns of clever plots. This new crime fiction adapted brilliantly to the screen, birthing a cinematic genre that French cinema intellectuals following World War II christened “film noir.” Set on dark streets late at night, in cheap hotels and bars, and populated by the dangerous people who frequented these locales, these films introduced a new antihero, a tough, brooding, rebellious loner, embodied by Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon and Philip Marlowe in The Big Sleep. This volume provides a detailed exploration of film noir, tracing its evolution, the influence of such legendary writers as Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, and the films that propelled this dark genre to popularity in the mid-20th century.

222 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 25, 2012

Reviews

[Steven · Rating 2 out of 5]

An extremely ambitious book, but one that really needed better editing. A ton of great insights are obscured by the constant jumping around between film analysis, hollywood history, and actor/director biographies. The purpose of the book, as expressed in the title, is mostly lost in the detailed description of extraneous material. Not that it wasn't interesting reading, just terribly unfocused. A lot of the material was repurposed from Hare's other books and is also repeated in multiple chapters, so it gets redundant in a hurry. Some good stuff but disappointingly organized.

[Phillip Gallegos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tends to go off into odd tangents, occasionally repeats thoughts and phrases in quick succession, and ends very abruptly. Not bad, but could have used some more editing attention.

[Bill Hare · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book spans the detailed impact of the Great Depression and how it impacted and generating the creation of a new and exciting style of entertainment, that of film noir, and how its popularity has continued to the present.

PULP FICTION TO FILM NOIR reveals how an ingenious editor and publisher tailored a magazine to synergize with Great Depression reading tastes to a runaway success with BLACK MASK, which featured in tough, biting prose the battle for survival that existed on city streets. The battle was seen through the eyes of tough, no nonsense detectives determined to help their clients survive in a tough, often brutal world.

The innovative Captain Joseph Shaw was skipper of Black Mask. He enforced solid discipline and achieved success through the gritty prose of talented detective authors such as Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and Horace McCoy, who then fashioned their characters and Depression street drama.

Alas those successful books became bestseller novels and ultimately the world of film, where pictures on motion picture screens graphically presented cities at night in film noir, a French term meaning black film in English. The initial journey was via the vision of John Huston, the most successful screenwriter at Warner Brothers, who talked his boss Jack Warner into letting him make his directing debut via Dashiell Hammett's novel, THE MALTESE FALCON.

As for the important decision of leading man, Humphrey Bogart, fresh from a triumph in HIGH SIERRA from a script written by his close friend Huston. Bogart triumphed as a symbol of the toughness and survival mentality of enduring the Great Depression.

There are other great films of the period analyzed in PULP FICTION TO FILM NOIR as detectives battle tough times and dangers from mobsters and deadly temptations from glamorous femme fatale.

[William Hare · Rating 5 out of 5]

During the Great Depression a movement toward reading detective stories commenced as readers struggling to survive against tough times started to identify with the world of private detectives and their quest to right wrongs and assist battered citizens who have been wronged and sought to assist them in hours of great. Detectives Sam Spade and Philip Msrlowe answered the anguished calls. Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler captured the imaginations with identifying readers and bought up copies of BLUE MASK magazine with rapidity.

It was just a question of time before Hollywood's rapidly expanding film industry capitalized on the interest of detectives and their exploits. With the 1941 release of THE MALTESE FALCON with Sam Spade performing to gusto expectation in an adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's novel with mammoth box office results a new movie known as FILM NOIR captured the interest and imagination of film goers.

PULP FICTION TO FILM NOIR captures the rapidly evolving history of this exciting genre and its continuing popularity to the present better than three generations later. See how colorful detectives played by Bogart, Robert Mitchum and Jack Nicholson along with imaginative directors like John Huston, Alfred Hitchcock and Howard Hawks launched a new cinema history by capturing life on dark and dangerous city streets after midnight via film noir.

[Megha Sharma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Giving this book a 5-star rating isn't enough; I haven't been this affected-- intellectually and emotionally-- by anything I've read in a very long time, so I wish there were some way to reflect the significant difference between an "A" and an "A+

[Malika Binny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pulp fiction is great story from the Crime novels I gone through. Must read this book.