Critical Essays Resources from Movies Directory

Apollo Leisure Guide: Film Noir - Dan Jardine reviews Nicholas Christopher's Somewhere in the Night: Film Noir and the American City and produces an enlightening essay in the process.

Bright Lights Film Journal: Film Noir and Neo-Noir - Film noir essays from the Bright Lights Film Journal.

Film Noir and Contemporary American Culture - A series of essays exploring the themes of film noir and their relevance to contemporary culture in the United States.

High Heels on Wet Pavement - Essay from Michael Mills' The Palace examines the role of the femme fatale in film noir and how the archetype changed over time.

James M. Cain: The Prince of Darkness - William Preston Robertson on hard-boiled writer James M. Cain's novels vs. the film noirs that were made from them.

Night of the Soul - Popular culture essay on the origins of film noir. Appendix includes references to seminal Borde-Chaumeton article on film noir as well as a lengthy filmography.

No Place for a Woman: The Family in Film Noir and Other Essays - A Berkeley student's thesis on the ladies of film noir. Very interesting.

Richard Widmark: The Face of Film Noir - Brian W. Fairbanks examines Richard Widmark's contributions to film noir beginning with Kiss of Death in 1947.

Ten Shades of Noir - Illustrated essays analyzing ten genre classics.

The Noir Connection - An essay describing film noir and the influence of German expressionism. Also a bibliography filmography and trivia quiz.

The Shadows of Film Noir - Brian W. Fairbanks examines the film noir's origins and recent revival.