The Red and the Black. American Film Noir in the 1950s.
Robert Miklitsch
Mixing scholarship with a fan's devotion to the crooked roads of critique, Miklitsch autopsies marquee films like D.O.A., Niagara, and Kiss Me Deadly plus a number of lesser-known classics. Throughout, he addresses the social and technological factors that dealt deuce after deuce to the genre--its celebrated style threatened by new media and technologies such as TV and 3-D, color and widescreen, its born losers replaced like zombies by All-American heroes, the nation rocked by the red menace and nightmares of nuclear annihilation. But against all odds, the author argues, inventive filmmakers continued to make formally daring and socially compelling pictures that remain surprisingly, startlingly alive.
Cutting-edge and entertaining, The Red and the Black reconsiders a lost period in the history of American movies.
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About Robert Miklitsch
Reviews for The Red and the Black. American Film Noir in the 1950s.
Ann Douglas, author of Terrible Honesty: Mongrel Manhattan in the 1920s "Miklitsch's extended mediation on 1950s noir will entertain and intrigue both film scholars and movie fans."
Journal of American Culture "An interesting piece of work that highlights a commonly neglected period of American film noir."
Pop Culture Shelf “In this recommended read, [Miklitsch] finds something fresh to say about a familiar film topic.”
Library Journal "Highly Recommended."
Choice "Robert Miklitsch shows once again why he is one of the most interesting and knowledgeable critics of film noir. These readings of key '50s releases sparkle with insight, wit, and the enthusiasm of the committed cinephile."
R. Barton Palmer, author of Hollywood's Dark Cinema: The American Film Noir?