7510 ADVANCED STUDIES IN FILM: FILM NOIR
 
 

This graduate seminar will  introduce you to the historical corpus of films that have fallen under the label “noir.”   We will analyze Gilda, Laura, Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Big Heat, Sudden Fear, The Killers, Naked City, The Big Clock, Mildred Pierce etc  (some of which you will be required to watch on your own).  The seminar will interrogate the shifting critical debates about noir & neo-noir, the role of the femme fatale and masculinity; the historical changes in the postwar period, & psychoanalytic, feminist and historiographical debates from Joan Copjec to Vivian Sobchack, Slavoj Zizek to Richard Dyer.
Classes will be structured through a weekly screening followed by discussion & analysis of the readings. Please do the readings before each class. I will get people to introduce the readings each week (this counts for your presentation grade of 30 %).
 

Film Noir Web Links
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Alan Ladd in This Gun For Hire,(1942)© Paramount Studios


Class: Mondays 6-9 Location: 326 State Hall   Professor: Dr. Kirsten Moana Thompson  (313)577-3358 (office), (313) 577-2450 (Dept.)
Office Hours Tuesday 5-6 or other times by appointment, Room 1252, Ground Floor English Department 51 W. Warren E-mail: kirsten_thompson@wayne.edu
Web Page: http://www.wayne.edu/english/~thompson.  Please explore for useful film links
v Classes will be structured through a weekly screening followed by discussion & analysis of the readings. Please do the readings before each class. I will get people to introduce the readings each week (this counts for your presentation grade of 30 %).


Required Texts KEY JN = James Naremore;  FNR= Film Noir Reader;  COP= Joan Copjec; AS= Andrew Spicer, RES= articles on Reserve at Purdy Library

 I What is Film Noir?    CRITICAL DEBATE I
September  9 Detour (Edgar Ulmer, 1946) 16 mm
Readings: JN chap 1;  (handouts ) Nino Frank  “A New Kind of Police Drama” (1946); Jean-Pierre Chartier “Americans are Also Making Noir Films” (1946);   Claude Chabrol “the Evolution of the Crime Drama” (1955); AS  chap 1 “The Background to Film Noir”

II SEMI-DOCUMENTARY NOIR & CONDITIONS OF PRODUCTION /CRITICAL DEBATE II
Sept 16 Naked City (Jules Dassin, 1948)--UGL LASER
Recommended Viewings: Night and the City, The Naked City, The Asphalt Jungle
Readings: FNR Border/Chaumeton, Higham/Greenberg (handouts outside office); AS chap 2 (handout)
Recommended Readings: Carl Richardson “ Film Noir on Location: The Naked City”  c. 2 from Autopsy, RES; Weegee The Naked City RES & website photographs; Linda Brookover “Blanc et Noir: Crime as Art” (handout outside office)

III HARD BOILED DETECTIVES
Screening  Sept.23 Murder My Sweet (Edward Dmytryk, 1944) VHS UGL
Recommended  Home Viewings: The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, Kiss Me Deadly
Readings: FNR Schrader, Durgnat, Porfiro, Janey/Place
Recommended Readings: FNR Damico, JN chap 2

IV THE FEMME FATALE
Screening  Sept. 30 Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 1947)--UGL LASER
Readings: Schwager (handout); John Harvey “Out of the Light: An Analysis of Narrative in Out of the Past” (RES); Janey Place “ Women in Film Noir”
Supplemental Readings: Laura Mulvey “ Visual Pleasure  and Narrative Cinema”  RES;  Mary Ann Doane “Film and the Masquerade: Theorizing the Female Spectator” RES; Linda Williams “Feminist Film Theory: Mildred Pierce and World War Two” RES

V FEMME FATALE II
Screening: Oct. 7 Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles, 1948) 16mm/VHS UGL
 Recommended Home Viewings: Force of Evil, Scarlet Street, Woman in the Window, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers
Readings: COP Elizabeth Cowie “Film Noir and Women”; JP Telotte “Narration, Desire and the Lady from Shanghai” RES (from Voices in the Dark) RES; Slavoj Zizek “ Why are there Always Two Fathers?” from  Enjoy Your symptom! RES

VI MASCULINITY
Oct. 14 Screening : Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder)--UGL DVD
Recommended Home Viewings: Gun Crazy, Pickup on South Street, The Killers
Reading:”, Copjec  “The phenomenal Nonphenomenal”;  FNR Karen Hollinger “Voice-over and the Femme Fatale”; Frank Krutnik, c. 9 “The criminal-adventure Thriller” RES
Recommended: Frank Krutnik “ Desire, Transgression and James M Cain” RES; Frank Krutnik In a Lonely Street, Film Noir, Genre and Masculinity; COP Jameson “The Synoptic Chandler

VII HOMOSEXUALITY & THE FEMME FATALE
Screening: Oct. 21 Gilda (Charles Vidor, 1946)--UGL VIDEO /16mm
Recommended  Home Viewings: Crossfire
Readings: Mary Anne Doane “Epistemology as Striptease”; Richard Dyer “Resistance through Charisma: Rita Hayworth and Gilda” both RES
Recommended Further Reading: Robert Corber Homosexuality in Cold War America; Resistance and the Crisis of Masculinity

VIII NECROPHILIA
Screening Oct. 28 Laura (Otto Preminger, 1944)--UGL LASER
Readings: Robert Corber “ “Resisting the Lure of the Commodity: Laura and the Spectacle of the Gay Male Body” RES; Vivian Sobchack “Loungetime; Postwar Crises and the Chronotope of Film Noir” RES
Recommended additional readings (useful intersections between Art, Expressionism, Jazz  & Noir all from Film Noir Reader vol 2, Robert Porfirio “Dark Jazz: Music in Film Noir” RES;  Linda Brookover “Blanc et Noir: Crime as Art”; Kente Minturn ‘Peinture Noir: Abstract Expressionism and Film Noir”
Supplemental Viewings: Portrait of Jennie, Woman in the Window, Scarlet Street, I Wake Up Screaming

IX RANDOM PSYCHOPATHS
Nov. 4 The Hitchhiker (Ida Lupino, 1953)  DVD  UGL
Readings:  JN chap 3& 4;  “ Ida Lupino” from Femme Noir (handout)
Supplemental Viewings: The Outrage (Lupino), Kiss of Death, Crossfire

X FATALISM & THE FEMALE VOICEOVER
Nov. 11 : Screening Raw Deal (Anthony Mann, 1948) DVD  UGL
Recommended Extra Viewing: T Men (Anthony Mann, 1947) DVD UGL
Readings:  FNR Robert Smith; Todd McCarthy “Through a Lens Darkly” The Life and Times of John Alton” RES

XI HOMME FATAL
Nov. 18 Sudden Fear (David Miller, 1952) DVD ENG
Recommended home screening: Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz, 1947), Gaslight, Suspicion
Readings:

XII EVERYBODY DIES
Nov. 26 Postman Always Rings Twice (Tay Garnett, 1946)--UGL VIDEO/16mm
Thanksgiving Day recess Nov. 28- Nov. 30
Recommended Further viewings: They Live By Night, Kiss Me Deadly, Criss-Cross, Night and the City, Asphalt Jungle
Readings: Robert Porfiro “Whatever Happened to the Film Noir?: The Postman Always Rings Twice” RES

XIII TICK-TOCK
Dec 2 The Big Clock (John Farrow, 1948)--UGL VIDEO /16mm
Readings : FNR Silver/Ursini  “John Farrow: Anonymous Noir” ; R. Barton Palmer “ Film Noir and the Genre Continuum: Process, Product and The Big Clock” RES
Recommended Supplemental Screenings: The Stranger (Orson Welles, 1946)
Recommended Readings: JN 5 & 6

XIV GANGSTER NOIR
Dec.  9 The Big Heat (Fritz Lang, 1953)-- UGL VIDEO/16mm
Neo-Noir: COP Diawara & Pfeil; JN  c 7 Noir Mediascape
Classes end Dec. 11

Additional Recommended Viewings (Check UGL, DPL & Thomas Video for many of these titles)
The Maltese Falcon (John Huston,1941); The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946); Key Largo (John Huston,1948); D.O.A. (Rudolph Maté,1949); Strange Love of Martha Ivers (Lewis Milestone, 1946)
The Stranger (Orson Welles, 1946); Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1953); Scarlet Street (Fritz Lang, 1945); Woman in the Window (Fritz Lang, 1945); Clash by Night (Fritz Lang, 1952); In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray, 1950) Killer’s Kiss,  (Stanley Kubrick, 1955); They Live By Night (Nicolas Ray, 1949); I Walk Alone (Byron Haskin, 1948); Out of the City (Richard Siodmak, 1948); Night and the City (Jules Dassin, 1950); Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich, 1955); Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950); High Sierra (Raoul Walsh, 1941), Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz, 1945); The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949); Pickup on South Street (Samuel Fuller, 1953); Force of Evil (Abraham Polonsky,1948); The Asphalt Jungle (John Huston,1950); Gun Crazy (Joseph Lewis, 1952)

Actresses:
Veronica Lake (This Gun for Hire, The Glass Key, The Blue Dahlia); Marie Windsor (Force of Evil, The Narrow Margin, The Killing); Rita Hayworth (Gilda, The Lady from Shanghai); Gloria Grahame (The Big Heat, Crossfire, In a Lonely Place, Sudden Fear, Human Desire, Odds Against Tomorrow); Barbara Stanwyck (Double Indemnity; The Strange Love of Martha Ivers; Sorry, Wrong Number); Lauren Bacall : (To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, Dark Passage, Key Largo);  Ida Lupino (High Sierra, They Drive By Night, Road House, Beware My Lovely, On Dangerous Ground, While the City Sleeps, The Big Knife); Jane Greer (Out of the Past, They Won’t Believe Me); Joan Crawford (Mildred Pierce, The Damned Don’t Cry, Sudden Fear, Possessed); Joan Bennett (The Woman in the Window, Scarlet Street, The Scar, The Reckless Moment); Agnes Moorehead (Caged, Journey Into Fear, Dark Passage)

Actors: John Garfield (The Postman Always Rings Twice, Fallen Sparrow, Body & Soul, Force of Evil); Richard Widmark (Kiss of Death, Pick-up on South Street, Panic in the Streets); Alan Ladd (This Gun for Hire, Appointment With Danger, The Glass Key, The Blue Dahlia); Sterling Hayden (The Asphalt Jungle, The Killing); Humphrey Bogart (The Big Sleep, Key Largo, Maltese Falcon, In a Lonely Place, Dark Passage); Burt Lancaster (Brute Force, The Killers, Criss-Cross, Sorry, Wrong Number, Sweet Smell of Success); Robert Mitchum (Out of the Past; The Racket; Angel Face; The Big Steal; Crossfire; The Night of the Hunter; Cape Fear; Farewell, My Lovely); Dan Duryea (Ministry of Fear, Scarlet Street, The Woman in the Window, Criss Cross); Victor Mature (Kiss of Death, Cry of the City); Richard Conte (Somewhere in the Night, Cry of the City, Call Northside 777, Thieves’ Highway, The Blue Gardenia); Jack Palance (Sudden Fear, The Big Knife, Panic in the Streets)

Great Noir Directors: Raoul Walsh (The Roaring Twenties, High Sierra, They Drive By Night, Pursued, White Heat); John Huston (The Maltese Falcon, The Asphalt Jungle, Key Largo; co-wrote High Sierra and The Killers); Jules Dassin (Brute Force, The Naked City, Night and the City); Nicholas Ray (They Live By Night, In a Lonely Place, On Dangerous Ground); Robert Aldrich (Kiss Me Deadly, The Big Knife, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?); Sam Fuller (Pick-Up on South Street, Underworld USA, The Naked Kiss, Shock Corridor); Anthony Mann (Desperate, T-Men, Raw Deal) ; Billy Wilder (Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, The Lost Weekend, Ace in the Hole; Otto Preminger (Laura, Where the Sidewalk Ends, Angel Face, Fallen Angel) Fritz Lang (The Big Heat, The Woman in the Window, Scarlet Street, Clash by Night, Secret Beyond the Door) Edgar Ulmer (Detour, Club Havana, Ruthless, Out of the Night)

Great Noir Cinematographers: John Alton (T-Men,  He Walked By Night, Border Incident, The Big Combo); Emil Musuraca (The Stranger on the Third Floor, Cat People, The Fallen Sparrow, Out of the Past, Clash By Night, The Blue Gardenia)

Neo-Noir: Remakes (original titles in parentheses if changed) -- Farewell, My Lovely (Murder, My Sweet); Thieves Like Us (They Live By Night); The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Underneath (Criss Cross), No Way Out (The Big Clock), Against All Odds (Out of the Past), D.O.A., Kiss of Death, Cape Fear, The Desperate Hours, Narrow Margin, Gun Crazy, The Getaway
The '70s: Chinatown, The Conversation, Klute, Night Moves, Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Badlands.
The '80s -- Body Heat, Blade Runner ("cyber-noir"), Dressed to Kill, House of Games, Thief, Manhunter, To Live and Die In L.A., Angel Heart, At Close Range, Blood Simple, Blue Velvet, Jagged Edge, Frantic, 52 Pick-Up; things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead; Sea of Love; Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer; Blood Simple
The '90s ­, Light Sleeper; The Grifters; After Dark, My Sweet; King of New York; Red Rock West; Dead Again; Deep Cover; Devil in a Blue Dress; Heat; The Spanish Prisoner; Homicide; L.A. Confidential; Lost Highway; True Romance; One False Move; The Professional; The Talented Mr. Ripley; Seven; The Usual Suspects; A Simple Plan; Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai; The Limey; Barton Fink; Miller’s Crossing; Fargo; Reservoir Dogs; Pulp Fiction; Final Analysis; Breakdown, The Vanishing (Dutch version)
2000’s- The Man Who Wasn’t There, The Matrix (cyber ­noir), Mulholland Drive
Modern femme fatales -- Body Heat, Fatal Attraction, The Last Seduction, La Femme Nikita, Basic Instinct, Thelma and Louise, Bound, Romeo is Bleeding, Diabolique; House of Games; Final Analysis; Black Widow
Modern Homme Fatales: Masquerade, Jagged Edge, Betrayed
French Noir: Jean-Pierre Melville's existential gangster films Bob le Flambeur (1955) & Le Samourai (1967); Rififi, Diabolique; Elevator to the Gallows
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
KEY: ELEC= Electronic book Online
RES= On reserve at Purdy for periods from 3 hours ­2 days
Alton, John  Painting With  Light     RES
Paul Arthur, "The Gun in the Briefcase: Or, the Inscription of Class in Film Noir." The Hidden Foundation: Cinema and the Question of Class. Eds David E. James and Rick Berg. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press), 1996.
--------------, "Los Angeles as scene of the crime" Film Comment v. 32 July/Aug 1996:. 20-6
Mark L. Berrettini,. “Private Knowledge, Public Space: Investigation and Navigation in Devil in a Blue Dress. Cinema Journal  vol. 39 no. 1. 1999 Fall: 74-89.
Robin Buss French Film Noir (Marion Boyars), 2001
Raymond Borde & Etienne Chaumeton. Panorama du Film Noir Américain, 1941-1953
  (Paris: Flammarion), 1988, 1955.
Karen Burroughs Hannsberry Femme Noir: The Bad Girls of Film (McFarland : NY  1998
Ian Cameron, ed. The Book of Film Noir  (New York; Continuum) 1993. RES
Nicholas Christopher Somewhere in the Night: Film Noir and the American City
(Henry Holt: NY) 1998
Tom Conley, "Noir in the Red and the Nineties in the Black" In: Film genre 2000: new critical essays ed. Wheeler Winston Dixon: 193-210 (Albany: State University of New York Press), 2000
Robert J. Corber, Homosexuality in Cold War America: Resistance and the Crisis of Masculinity
Duke University : Durham 1997
Joan Copjec, ed .Shades of Noir  (Verso: London) 1993  RES
Bruce Crowther, Film Noir: Reflections in a Dark Mirror (New York: Continuum,)1989,
Manohla Dargis, "N for Noir." Sight and Sound, vol. 7 no. 7. 1997 July. pp: 28-31.
Manthia Diawara,. "Noir by Noirs: Towards a New Realism in Black Cinema." African American Review, vol. 27 no. 4. 1993 Winter. pp: 525-37.
Linda Dittmar, "From Fascism to the Cold War: Gilda's 'Fantastic' Politics." Wide Angle, vol. 10 no. 3. 1988: 4-18
Doane, Mary Anne, Femme Fatale (Routledge: NY) 1991 RES
Paul Duncan Film Noir (Pocket Essentials: London) 2000
Everson, William K. "British Film Noir" Films in Review, 38:5 (May 1987), pp: 285+; 38 (June/July 1985): 340 ff.
Dale E. Ewing, Jr. "Film Noir; Style and Content." Journal of Popular Film and Television v16, n.2 (Summer, 1988):60 .
Brian. Gallagher, "'I Love You Too': Sexual Warfare & Homoeroticism in Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity. Literature/ Film Quarterly, vol. 15 no. 4. 1987: 237-246.
Gary Gach, "John Alton: master of the film noir mood." American Cinematographer v. 77 Sept 1996: 87-92
Greg  Garrett, "Let There Be Light and Huston's Film Noir." Proteus: A Journal of Ideas, vol. 7 no. 2. 199
Dan. Georgakas, “The beloved B’s." Cineaste v.23, n.4 (Fall, 1998):54 : 30-33.
Dyer, Richard, “Homosexuality in Film Noir” in The Matter of Images (Routledge; London) 52-72
Barry Gifford Out of the Past: Adventures in Film Noir (University Press of Mississippi) 2001
Karen Burroughs Hannsberry, Femme Noir: Bad Girls of Film  (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland) 1998.
Rebecca R. House, "Night of the Soul: American Film Noir" Studies in Popular Culture, vol. 9 no. 1. 1986: 61-83.
Woody Haut Neon Noir: Hardboiled Films and Fiction from the 1960's to the Present (Serpent's Tail) 1999
Foster Hirsch Detours and Lost Highways: A Map of Neo-Noir (Limelight Editions: NY) 1999 RES
----------------, The Dark Side of the Screen, (Da Capo: NY) 1983 RES
Paul  Jensen "The Return of Dr. Caligari: Paranoia in Hollywood." Film Comment 7:4 (1971) pp:36-45
William Johnson, "Enigma variations." (on subtlety and complexity in film narratives) Film Comment v 33 Nov/Dec 1997. 70-3
E. Ann Kaplan, Women in Film Noir  (University of California Press :LA) 1998 RES
Amir Massoud Karimi,. Toward a Definition of the American Film Noir (1941-1949) (New York: Arno Press), 1976, 1971.
Jim Kitses Gun Crazy. (University of California Press: LA) 1996
Cimberli. Kearns, "The Homme Fatal: Living and Dying for Style." Cinefocus vol. 3. 1995: 26-33.
A. & Mills, J. Kotsopoulos "Gender, Genre, and Post-Feminism." Jump Cut, June 1994, 39: 15-24
Frank Krutnik In a Lonely Street: Film Noir, Genre, Masculinity (Routledge : NY) 1991 RES
-----------------, “Something More than Night: Tales of the Noir City” in Clarke, D.B. ed, The Cinematic City (Routledge: London) : 83-109
Raymond Lee. Gangsters and Hoodlums; The Underworld in the Cinema   South Brunswick [N.J.]: A. S. Barnes, 1971.
Arthur Lyons Death on the Cheap: The Lost B Movies of Film Noir (Da Capo: NY) 2000
Nina C. Leibman, "The Family Spree of Film Noir." Journal of Popular Film and Television v16, n4 (Winter, 1989):168
Tina Olsin. Lent "The Dark Side Of The Dream: The Image Of Los Angeles In Film Noir." Southern California Quarterly 1987 69(4): 329-348
Kimberly Lenz, "Put the Blame on Gilda: Dyke-Noir Versus Film-Noir" Theatre Studies, 1995, N.40: 17-26. William Marling, The American Roman Noir: Hammett, Cain, and Chandler (University of Georgia Press:              Atlanta) 1998
Eric Lott, "The Whiteness of Film Noir." American Literary History v.9, n.3 (Fall, 1997)
Kathi Maio "Dangerous to Know-Femme Fatales on Film." Sojourner, 23 (3): 14-15, November 1997
Richard Maltby. "Film Noir: The Politics of the Maladjusted Text" Journal of American Studies, vol. 18 no. 1. 1984 Apr: 49-71.
Martin, Mean Streets and Raging Bulls: The Legacy of Film Noir in Contemporary American Cinema
 (Scarecrow: Lantham, MD)  1999 ELEC
Don. Miller, "Private Eyes: From Sam Spade to J.J. Gittes”. Focus on Film, 22 (1975) pp: 15-35
William Marling, "On the Relation Between American Roman Noir and Film Noir." Literature-Film Quarterly v.21, n.3 (July, 1993):178
James F. Maxfield, The Fatal Woman: Sources of Male Anxiety in American Film Noir, 1941-1991 (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press) 1996
J. Murphet,  "Film Noir and the Racial Unconscious." Screen, 1998 Spring, V39 N1:22-35.
Eddie Muller Dark City Dames: The Wicked Women of Film Noir (HarperCollins : NY) 2001
---------------, Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir, (St. Martin's: NY) 1998
Munby, J. “Heimat Hollywood: Billy Wilder, Otto Preminger, Edgar Ulmer and the Criminal Cinema of the Austro-Jewish Diaspora” in Good, D.F. & Wodak, R. eds., From World War to Waldheim: Culture and Politics in Austria and the United States (Berghahn Books: NY) 138-62
James Naremore More than Night: Film Noir in Its Contexts University of California: LA 1998 RES
-------------------- "Hitchcock at the Margins of Noir." In: Alfred Hitchcock: Centenary Essays eds. Richard Allen and S. Ishii-Gonzales. pp: 263-77 (London: British Film Institute), 1999.
Justus J Nieland,. "Race-ing Noir and Re-Placing History: The Mulatta and Memory in One False Move and Devil in a Blue Dress" Velvet Light Trap vol. 43: 63-77 (1999 Spring)
R. Barton Palmer, Hollywood's Dark Cinema: The American Film Noir (Gale : NY) 1994
--------------------- ed., Perspectives on Film Noir (Macmillan: NY )1995
Gene D. Phillips, Creatures of Darkness: Raymond Chandler, Detective Fiction, and Film Noir
(University Press of Kentucky : Lexington) 2000
Robert Porfirio  & James Ursini eds. Film Noir Reader 3: Interviews with Filmmakers of the Classic Noir Period (Limelight :NY) 2001
Norman Rosenberg,” Law Noir" In: Legal Realism: Movies as Legal Texts, ed. John Denvir: 280-302. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press) 1996.
Mark. Osteen, "The Big Secret: Film Noir and Nuclear Fear." Journal of Popular Film and Television v.22, n.2 (Summer, 1994): 79
Leland Poague "Of Flashbacks and Femmes Fatales." Hitchcock Annual 1999-2000, 131-55.
Lott, E. “The Whiteness of Film Noir” in Hill, M, ed. Whiteness; A Critical Reader (NYU Press; NY) 1997
Dana Polan, "Film Noir." Journal of Film and Video  (Spring 1985) pp: 75-83
-------------- "Blind Insights and Dark Passages: The Problem of Placement in Forties Films" The Velvet Light Trap, vol. 20. 1983 Summer: 27-33
------------- Power and Paranoia RES
Paula Rabinowitz, "Domestic Labor: Film Noir, Proletarian Literature, and Black Women's Fiction." MFS: Modern Fiction Studies, 2001 Spring, 47:1, 229-54.
Spencer Selby Dark City: The Film Noir (McFarland :Jefferson  NC) 1997
Ronald Schwartz  Noir Now and Then, Vol. 72 (Greenwood Westport: Conn) 2001.
Murray Smith, “Film Noir, the Female Gothic and Deception." Wide Angle, vol. 10 no. 1. 1988: 62-75.
Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward eds.  Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style co-editors, Carl Macek and Robert Porfirio. 3rd ed., rev. and expanded ed. (Woodstock, N.Y: Overlook), 1992.
Alain Silver & James Ursini  Film Noir Reader 2  (New York: Limelight )1999.
---------------------------------, The Noir Style  (Overlook:  Woodstock NY) 1999
Vivian Sobchack, "Lounge Time: Postwar Crises and the Chronotope of Film Noir." In: Refiguring American Film Genres: History and Theory / Nick Browne, ed. pp: 129-70 (Berkeley: University of California Press) 1998.
Michael L. Stephens Film Noir: A Comprehensive, Illustrated Reference to Movies, Terms, and Persons
J. P. Telotte, Voices in the Dark: The Narrative Patterns of Film Noir (University of Illinois: Chicago) 1990 RES
---------------,. "Fatal Capers. Strategy and Enigma in Film Noir." Journal of Popular Film and Television, XXIII/4, Winter 96.163-170.
---------------,. "The Big Clock of Film Noir," Film Criticism , 1990 Winter, V.14 N2:1-11.
Jon Tuska, Dark Cinema : American Film Noir in Cultural Perspective, Vol. 9 (Greenwood: Westport, Conn) 1984
Jans B Wager,. "The Big Heat." Bright Lights, 14, 95:.23-26.
----------------, Dangerous Dames: Women and Representation in the Weimar Street Film and Film Noir
(Ohio University Press)  1999
Weegee (Arthur Fellig) The Naked City (Da Capo: NY) 1990 RES
--------------------------- Weegee's New York: Photography 1930-1960 (Neues Publishing: NY) 2000
Tom Whalen "Film Noir: Killer Style" Literature-Film Quarterly v.23, n.1 (Jan, 1995):2
 THE FINE PRINT
Note on Grading: All assignments MUST be submitted for successful completion of the course.
Failure to submit one or more assignments will result in a final grade of C or worse.
Attendance Policy:
Since regular attendance is important for the success of the class, students are expected to be able to arrange their schedules around class meeting times. (That includes work schedules, vacations, etc.).  In the event that a student’s final attendance record is very poor (say, more than two unexcused absences; or a pattern of arriving late and/or leaving early), points will be subtracted from the final grade.  The penalty for poor attendance can be severe, resulting in a final grade of C or worse.  In my view, a student with a poor attendance record has not really taken the course at all.
Late enrollment, withdrawal, and other special policies:
Withdrawals: The last day to drop the course is Nov 1.  You cannot drop the class because of poor assignment grades after this date.
The English Department attendance policy is as follows
Students enrolled in any English course must attend at least one of the first two class sessions of the term in order to maintain a place in the class.  If a student does not show up he/she may be required to drop the class.  The student is responsible for dropping the class.
Other Policies:
1.  There are no makeup screenings of films, so if you must miss a screening, try to rent the videotape or laser disc version. Ademany has most of the class titles.  Attendance at film screenings is a requirement of the course.
2.  In previous courses, I have received some complaints about talking and noise during film screenings, so please use common sense and be courteous to others during screenings.  Please don’t talk during the films (or during class discussion, for that matter).  I don’t object to food and drink in the screening room, as long as you eat quietly. PLEASE take all trash out with you when you leave the room.
Also, please keep in mind that the end of a film is just as important as the beginning.  Please do not walk out in the middle of films, and please do not start packing up to leave until the auditorium lights go up.
3.  All written assignments for the course are due in class.  Please do not leave papers for me at the English Department, unless you have first secured my permission.  (This is to prevent papers from getting lost, and please do not slide papers under my office door!)
4.  Please photocopy your papers prior to submitting them, or keep a backup copy on computer.  If your paper gets lost, I will ask you for the backup copy. Computers or printers  crashing  are not acceptable excuses
5. GRADING SCHEDULE: I will try to return assignments as soon as possible, but it will usually take me at least one week to grade a given paper or test.  It is important that students receive assignments back promptly, but it is also very important that I have the time to make detailed comments and suggestions.  I try to grade quickly, but also carefully—and that takes time.
6.  Handing in an assignment late will result in loss of points, unless a valid excuse is provided.  For every two days the assignment is late, the score drops by half a letter grade.  Except for dire emergencies, I will not accept papers that are more than 2 weeks late.
7 .  Makeups for missed tests or quizzes require a valid excuse, and under most circumstances I will ask for written documentation about the reason for absence (doctor’s receipt, auto repair bill, etc.).  If for some reason you miss a test, PLEASE notify me as soon as possible—generally within 1 or 2 days.
8.  If you cannot make it to a scheduled office meeting with me, please call to cancel as soon as possible.
9. PLAGIARISM.  Plagiarism (unacknowledged use of another person’s work) and cheating are both serious offenses.  Like most American universities, Wayne State Univ. has a fairly severe policy about penalties for both.  Evidence of plagiarism (or fabrication of sources) or cheating will result in a zero for the assignment and an F for the class.  Prior to submission of the final paper, students will be given the opportunity to discuss what constitutes plagiarism. College of Liberal Arts Policy on Plagiarism (Undergraduate Bulletin, page 272:The principle of honesty is recognized as fundamental to a scholarly
 Students are expected to honor this principle and instructors are expected to take appropriate action when instances of academic dishonesty are discovered.  An instructor, on discovering such an instance,
may give a failing grade on the assignment or for the course.  The instructor has the responsibility of notifying the student of the alleged violation and the action being taken.  Both the student and the instructor
are entitled to academic due process in all such cases.  Acts of dishonesty may lead to suspension or exclusion.
10. Students must put away ALL papers, notebooks, clipboards, and books during tests.  You will be given paper for the test.  I will circulate around the classroom during exams.  CHEATING WILL RESULT IN AN F FOR THE TEST AND CLASS
11. Writing Standards
Although I can provide some writing tips, this class is too large for extensive individual tutoring in basic writing techniques.  Students who  have difficulties with English grammar or spelling should contact the Writing Center for assistance: 313/577-2544; 337 State Hall.  Hours of operation vary from semester to semester.  You will be penalized if your writing standards are insufficient for university work
12. Personal Problems/  Physical or Mental Health
If you feel overwhelmed or stressed out, there is always help available at the WSU Counseling Services at 1001 Faculty Administration  Building --call (313)577-3398.  Alternatively there is the Detroit-Wayne Community Mental Health Emergency Telephone Service (313)224-7000 (24 hour service).  Don't drop your classes--talk to someone first!  If you are feeling overwhelmed, depressed or seriously stressed, TELL your professors in your classes so they can help you if you are having difficulties. If you have a physical or mental impairment that may interfere with your ability to complete successfully the requirements for this course, please contact EAS in Room 583 of the SCB to discuss appropriate accommodations on a confidential basis. Telephone: 577-1851.