The Mysterious Romance of Murder : : Crime, Detection, and the Spirit of Noir / / David Lehman.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Cornell University Press Complete eBook-Package 2022
• VerfasserIn: Lehman, David,
• Place / Publishing House: Ithaca, NY : : Cornell University Press, , [2022]; ©2022
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (296 p.)

From Sherlock Holmes to Sam Spade, Nick and Nora Charles to Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin, Harry Lime to Gilda, Madeleine Elster, and other femmes fatales,—crime and crime-solving in fiction and film captivate us. Why do we keep going back to Agatha Christie's ingenious puzzles and Raymond Chandler's hard-boiled murder mysteries? What do spy thrillers teach us and what accounts for the renewed popularity of morally ambiguous noirs? In The Mysterious Romance of Murder, the poet and critic David Lehman explores a wide variety of outstanding books and movies—some famous (The Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity), some known mainly to aficionados—with style, wit, and passion.Lehman revisits the smoke-filled jazz clubs from the classic noir films of the 1940s, the iconic set pieces that defined Hitchcock's America, the interwar intrigue of Eric Ambler's best fictions, and the intensity of attraction between Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer, Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman. He also considers the evocative elements of noir—cigarettes, cocktails, wisecracks, and jazz standards—and includes five original noir poems (including a pantoum inspired by the 1944 film, Laura) and ironic astrological profiles of Barbara Stanwyck, Marlene Dietrich, and Graham Greene. Written by a connoisseur with an uncanny feel for the language and mood of mystery, espionage, and noir, The Mysterious Romance of Murder will delight fans of the genre and newcomers alike.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction: The Mysterious Romance of Murder -- Part I. Killer Style -- 1. Cracking Wise -- 2. Paradise of the Damned: Eighteen Notes on Noir -- 3. Poetry Noir -- 4. Five Noir Poems -- Part II. The Elements of Crime -- 5. Here’s to Crime! -- 6. The Last Cigarette -- 7. Among My Souvenirs -- Part III. Auteurs -- 8. The Great British Spymasters -- 9. The Limits of Logic: Trent’s Last Case -- 10. Dashiell Hammett’s Priceless Patter -- 11. Paperclip (Raymond Chandler) -- 12. “Grim Grin” (Graham Greene) -- 13. Rex Stout: The Emperor of Couronne de Canard -- 14. Ida Lupino: The First Lady of Noir -- 15. Black Friday (David Goodis) -- 16. Orange Noir (Charles Willeford) -- 17. Ed McBain: The Man from Isola -- 18. Hitchcock’s America -- Part IV. Dreams That Money Can Buy -- 19. Straight Down the Line: Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity (1944) -- 20. Strangers and Mirrors: Orson Welles’s The Stranger (1946) and The Lady from Shanghai (1947) -- 21. An Exchange of Bullets in Belfast: Carol Reed’s Odd Man Out (1947) -- 22. Blind Accidents: John Huston’s The Asphalt Jungle (1950) -- 23. Epitaph for a Genre: Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing (1956) -- 24. Shadow of Evil: Robert Mitchum Cape Fear (1962) -- 25. A Reluctant Spy’s Conversion: William Holden in The Counterfeit Traitor (1962) -- 26. Gangsters in Love: Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America (1984) -- 27. Rogues’ Gallery -- 28 Why Not New York? -- Part V. The Imp of the Perverse -- 29 Three Astrological Profiles -- Author’s Note -- Authors and Books Index -- Film and Television Index