HARDBOILED HOLLYWOOD

I received a copy of HARDBOILED HOLLYWOOD (2010) from my "Secret Santa" at work this past Christmas. Thanks Corey! I wasn't familiar with this title but I got a kick out of reading it.

It's a survey of several classic noir films, almost all of which I've seen. The films are LITTLE CAESAR (1931), THE BIG SLEEP (1946), IN A LONELY PLACE (1950), KISS ME, DEADLY (1955), HELL IS A CITY (1954), PSYCHO (1960), POINT BLANK (1967), BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967), GET CARTER (1970), DILLINGER (1973) and L.A. CONFIDENTIAL (1997). The two films here that I haven't seen are both British, HELL IS A CITY (which, despite the title, is about London, not McDade) and GET CARTER. I'll check them out first chance I get.

Author Max Decharne devotes a chapter to each film in which he discuses the true crimes and/or novels (sometimes both), on which the films are based. He writes in a breezy, informal style that is a nice change of pace from the often times overly scholarly approach books like this can take. It's a short, quick read and I wished he had chosen a few more films to write about. As usual with books of this type, reading about these films and novels made me want to revisit the ones I've already enjoyed and seek out the ones that I haven't yet experienced. Mission accomplished and well done.

 Recommended to fans of the genre and for those just starting to discover the pleasures of film noir. .