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UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS
I Died a Million Times
I Died a Million Times
Gangster Noir in Midcentury America
ISBN: 9780252085543
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In the 1950s, the gangster movie and film noir crisscrossed to create gangster noir. Robert Miklitsch takes readers into this fascinating subgenre of films focused on crime syndicates, crooked cops, and capers.
With the Senate's organized crime hearings and the brighter-than-bright myth of the American Dream as a backdrop, Miklitsch examines the style and history, and the production and cultural politics, of classic pictures from The Big Heat and The Asphalt Jungle to lesser-known gems like 711 Ocean Drive and post-Fifties movies like Ocean’s Eleven. Miklitsch pays particular attention to trademark leitmotifs including the individual versus the collective, the family as a locus of dissension and rapport, the real-world roots of the heist picture, and the syndicate as an octopus with its tentacles deep into law enforcement, corporate America, and government. If the memes of gangster noir remain prototypically dark, the look of the films becomes lighter and flatter, reflecting the influence of television and the realization that, under the cover of respectability, crime had moved from the underworld into the mainstream of contemporary everyday life.
With the Senate's organized crime hearings and the brighter-than-bright myth of the American Dream as a backdrop, Miklitsch examines the style and history, and the production and cultural politics, of classic pictures from The Big Heat and The Asphalt Jungle to lesser-known gems like 711 Ocean Drive and post-Fifties movies like Ocean’s Eleven. Miklitsch pays particular attention to trademark leitmotifs including the individual versus the collective, the family as a locus of dissension and rapport, the real-world roots of the heist picture, and the syndicate as an octopus with its tentacles deep into law enforcement, corporate America, and government. If the memes of gangster noir remain prototypically dark, the look of the films becomes lighter and flatter, reflecting the influence of television and the realization that, under the cover of respectability, crime had moved from the underworld into the mainstream of contemporary everyday life.
By Robert Miklitsch
Imprint: UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS
Release Date:
Format: PAPERBACK
Pages: 304
Acknowledgments
Direct Address: To the Reader
Preface: Gangster/Noir
Introduction: From the Syndicate to the Classic Heist Picture
Organized Crime as Big Comboa: The Octopus
The Syndicate Picture: Bright City Confidential
The Syndicate/Rogue Cop Film: The Racket
The Rogue Cop Film: Dragnet v. Bloody Christmasa
Gangster with a Badgea: On Dangerous Ground
The Heist Picture: Neo-Gangster Noir
The Proto-Heist Film: High Sierra and Beyond
Part One
1 The Syndicate Film
711 Ocean Drive: California Dreaming
The Captive City: Underworld, USA
The Big Combo: Between Men
2 The Brothers Rico: Sunshine Noir and the '50s Syndicate Picture
3 The Phenix City Story: History and Fiction (Film), Civil Rights, and the Last Days of Pompeii
Part Two
4 Where the Sidewalk Ends: Theft, Adaptation, Prototypicality
0 5 The Rogue Cop Film
The Prowler: Car Culture/Cadillac
The Big Heat: Something/Nothing
Shield for Murder: Dirt/Castle Heights
6 Touch of Evil: Good Cop/Bad Cop
Part Three
7 The Asphalt Jungle: The City under the City
8 The Heist Film
Armored Car Robbery: Striptease
The Killing: Jigsaw Puzzle
Plunder Road: Near Mint
9 Odds against Tomorrow: Race, Space, and Sputnik Noir
Conclusion: Post-'50s Syndicate, Rogue Cop, and Big Capera Films
Neo-Gangster Noir Syndicate Picture: Underworld U.S.A.
The Post-'50s Rogue Cop Film: Cape Fear
Post-Classic Heist Movie: Ocean's 11
Notes
Index
View full details
Direct Address: To the Reader
Preface: Gangster/Noir
Introduction: From the Syndicate to the Classic Heist Picture
Organized Crime as Big Comboa: The Octopus
The Syndicate Picture: Bright City Confidential
The Syndicate/Rogue Cop Film: The Racket
The Rogue Cop Film: Dragnet v. Bloody Christmasa
Gangster with a Badgea: On Dangerous Ground
The Heist Picture: Neo-Gangster Noir
The Proto-Heist Film: High Sierra and Beyond
Part One
1 The Syndicate Film
711 Ocean Drive: California Dreaming
The Captive City: Underworld, USA
The Big Combo: Between Men
2 The Brothers Rico: Sunshine Noir and the '50s Syndicate Picture
3 The Phenix City Story: History and Fiction (Film), Civil Rights, and the Last Days of Pompeii
Part Two
4 Where the Sidewalk Ends: Theft, Adaptation, Prototypicality
0 5 The Rogue Cop Film
The Prowler: Car Culture/Cadillac
The Big Heat: Something/Nothing
Shield for Murder: Dirt/Castle Heights
6 Touch of Evil: Good Cop/Bad Cop
Part Three
7 The Asphalt Jungle: The City under the City
8 The Heist Film
Armored Car Robbery: Striptease
The Killing: Jigsaw Puzzle
Plunder Road: Near Mint
9 Odds against Tomorrow: Race, Space, and Sputnik Noir
Conclusion: Post-'50s Syndicate, Rogue Cop, and Big Capera Films
Neo-Gangster Noir Syndicate Picture: Underworld U.S.A.
The Post-'50s Rogue Cop Film: Cape Fear
Post-Classic Heist Movie: Ocean's 11
Notes
Index
