Overview

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.

Full Product Details

Author:   Robert Miklitsch
Publisher:   University of Illinois Press
Imprint:   University of Illinois Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 2.80cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.513kg
ISBN:  

9780252085543

ISBN 10:   025208554
Pages:   304
Publication Date:   11 January 2021
Audience:   General/trade ,  Professional and scholarly ,  General ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Direct Address: To the Reader Preface: Gangster/Noir Introduction: From the Syndicate to the Classic Heist Picture Organized Crime as “Big Combo”: The Octopus The Syndicate Picture: Bright City Confidential The Syndicate/Rogue Cop Film: The Racket The Rogue Cop Film: Dragnet v. “Bloody Christmas” “Gangster with a Badge”: 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 Caper” 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

Reviews

Alert to the aesthetic, political, industrial, and historical provocations and subversions of 'gangster noir, ' I Died a Million Times provides an excellent overview and analysis of this subgenre and reminds us of film noir's rich hybridity. Full of truly superb readings of well-known and less familiar classic noir films, Robert Miklitsch's book, written with striking verve, will engage, delight, and inform scholars and movie fans. --Julie Grossman, coauthor of Ida Lupino, Director: Her Art and Resilience in Times of Transition

Miklitsch's book is gripping. . . . So the many facets of the individual versus the system or the one system against another one (in that case a mob/gangster syndicate) get a lot of attention. --PopCultureShelf Alert to the aesthetic, political, industrial, and historical provocations and subversions of 'gangster noir,' I Died a Million Times provides an excellent overview and analysis of this subgenre and reminds us of film noir's rich hybridity. Full of truly superb readings of well-known and less familiar classic noir films, Robert Miklitsch's book, written with striking verve, will engage, delight, and inform scholars and movie fans. --Julie Grossman, coauthor of Ida Lupino, Director: Her Art and Resilience in Times of Transition I Died a Million Times is an enjoyable and informative read for film noir aficionados and casual movie fans alike, offering a cogent analysis of '50s gangster noir as a cinema of social commentary. --Arts Fuse

I Died a Million Times is an enjoyable and informative read for film noir aficionados and casual movie fans alike, offering a cogent analysis of '50s gangster noir as a cinema of social commentary. --Arts Fuse Scholars of cinematic history and aficionados of gangster folklore will be riveted. --Library Journal Alert to the aesthetic, political, industrial, and historical provocations and subversions of 'gangster noir, ' I Died a Million Times provides an excellent overview and analysis of this subgenre and reminds us of film noir's rich hybridity. Full of truly superb readings of well-known and less familiar classic noir films, Robert Miklitsch's book, written with striking verve, will engage, delight, and inform scholars and movie fans. --Julie Grossman, coauthor of Ida Lupino, Director: Her Art and Resilience in Times of Transition

Alert to the aesthetic, political, industrial, and historical provocations and subversions of 'gangster noir,' I Died a Million Times provides an excellent overview and analysis of this subgenre and reminds us of film noir's rich hybridity. Full of truly superb readings of well-known and less familiar classic noir films, Robert Miklitsch's book, written with striking verve, will engage, delight, and inform scholars and movie fans. --Julie Grossman, coauthor of Ida Lupino, Director: Her Art and Resilience in Times of Transition

"""This is a readable, engaging book. . . . Recommended."" --Choice ""Miklitsch's book is gripping. . . . So the many facets of the individual versus the system or the one system against another one (in that case a mob/gangster syndicate) get a lot of attention."" --PopCultureShelf ""Alert to the aesthetic, political, industrial, and historical provocations and subversions of 'gangster noir,' I Died a Million Times provides an excellent overview and analysis of this subgenre and reminds us of film noir’s rich hybridity. Full of truly superb readings of well-known and less familiar classic noir films, Robert Miklitsch’s book, written with striking verve, will engage, delight, and inform scholars and movie fans.""--Julie Grossman, coauthor of Ida Lupino, Director: Her Art and Resilience in Times of Transition ""I Died a Million Times is an enjoyable and informative read for film noir aficionados and casual movie fans alike, offering a cogent analysis of ’50s gangster noir as a cinema of social commentary."" --Arts Fuse ""Scholars of cinematic history and aficionados of gangster folklore will be riveted."" --Library Journal"

Author Information

Robert Miklitsch is a professor in the department of English language and literature at Ohio University. He is the editor of Kiss the Blood Off My Hands: On Classic Film Noir and the author of The Red and the Black: American Film Noir in the 1950s.

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