Dark Cinema: American Film Noir in Cultural Perspective (Contributions to the Study of Popular Culture)

Humor & Entertainment

Tuska, Jon

Movies

Praeger Pub Text

Billy the Kid: A Bio-Bibliography

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Greenwood Pub Group

The American West in Film: Critical Approaches to the Western (Contributions to the Study of Popular Culture)

Tuska, known for his work on the western film and film noir, is also an expert on the American detective film. . . . His approach is historical, focusing on popular detectives from Poe's Dupin and Doyle's Sherlock Holmes to Chandler's Philip Marlowe in his various incarnations on the screen. Tuska does not neglect the authors who created the detectives, the actors who played them on the screen, the scriptwriters who adapted the stories and novels, or the directors who brought them to the screen. A detailed, fact-filled study, enriched with excerpts from interviews. ChoiceThis unique volume traces the growth and development of the most popular detectives from the lives of their creators to their transformation into screen detectives. Included are Sherlock Holmes, Philo Vance, Charlie Chan, Mr. Moto, Nero Wolfe, Perry Mason, Sam Spade, Nick and Nora Charles, and Philip Marlowe, as well as the female detectives and the more current avenger figures. Tuska discusses the reasons behind the persistent popularity of detectives in fiction and film, and the comprehensive historical perspective of this work helps the reader to understand why the image of the detective has changed from the embodiement of reason and the Enlightenment to the somewhat darker figure of executioner in a corrupt society.

In Manors and Alleys: A Casebook on the American Detective Film (Contributions to the Study of Popular Culture)

This aptly titled study of the careers of eight prominent Hollywood directors is based on personal acquaintance, on formal and informal interviews conducted over a period of several years, and on scholarly research on the directors and their films. In each case, Tuska presents a study of the artist in terms of his creations, surrounding the chronology of his work in film with an appraisal of it and an informal portrait. Eschewing the subjective approach to film study akin to literary analysis, in which a critic projects sometimes alien theories on a film, Tuska proceeds from the premise that one cannot understand a filmmaker's craft without coming to terms with his personality and understanding how he went about achieving the results he sought.The particular directors were chosen because their careers parallel the development and growth of the motion picture industry from the silent era to the present. The earlier directors, H. Bruce Humberstone and, to a lesser extent, Henry King, Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hawks, John Huston, and Orson Welles, had to struggle, each in his own way, to liberate themselves from the restrictions of the studio system; Roman Polanski and Sam Peckinpah came on the scene in the era of the independent director but faced other difficulties. Each was able to overcome obstacles and produce films of enduring artistry. Their output is documented in detailed filmographies prepared by Karl Thiede, and a photo section provides a graphic dimension to the portraits of the directors, often showing them on the set and with actors or production staff. A bibliography and an index complete the work.

Encounters with Filmmakers: Eight Career Studies (Contributions to the Study of Popular Culture)

Was Billy the Kid the most romantic of Western desperadoes or a vicious killer? Ever since the Kid was shot by Pat Garrett in 1881, historians, storytellers, and filmmakers have been recounting and reinventing his life. In 1983 Jon Tuska published his first edition of Billy the Kid, and it was immediately recognized as the most accurate account yet produced. Choice called it A magnificent tour de force and a model for others who would study legendary heroes of the American West.In this new edition, Tuska reexamines the Kid's life and legend, and he analyzes the numerous histories, novels, films, and other interpretations of the Kid. He points out the errors of earlier materials as well as those perpetuated in the last 12 years. As with the earlier volume, this is the last word on the Western figure who still captures the public imagination beyond all others. For public libraries and all students and scholars of the American West and American Popular Culture.

Billy the Kid: His Life and Legend

Frederick Schiller Faust is not a name many readers recognize, but who does not know the name Max Brand? How many avid readers of Max Brand's western classics are familiar with the 18 other pseudonyms used by Faust? Or that the author of Destry Rides Again penned the Doctor Kildare series? Or that Faust worked as a screenwriter, often without credit, on numerous Hollywood films? Or that Faust thought of himself as a poet, writing prose, as he put it, to pay the bills? Or that, to pay the bills, he constantly strove to surpass his record of some 20,000 publishable words a day―and that he sold 99 percent of the fiction he wrote? The Max Brand Companion serves to tell the reader about the man as well as the author, charts the history of Faust's work and its derivations, and presents works by Faust himself indicative of the scope and range of his imagination. It is the essential guide to a major American author as well as one of the most popular writers of the 20th century.
Frederick Schiller Faust was a physically large man with enormous appetites, yet he suffered most of his life from an enlarged heart. In World War I, he went to Canada to enlist, but, frustrated by the slow pace of getting overseas, he deserted twice. By the time the United States entered World War II, Faust was overage and the only way he could see combat was to go as a correspondent. On the night of May 11, 1944, Faust was killed by a mortar shell fragment while accompanying a nighttime attack on a German strongpoint in Italy. According to one report, his last words were Those other wounded boys need help more than I do. Take them! The Max Brand Companion is the essential guide to one of the most popular writers of the 20th century as well as a major American author. The Max Brand Companion serves to tell readers and researchers about the man as well as the author, charts the history of his work and its derivations, and presents works by Faust himself which are indicative of the scope and range of his imagination. Contributors include family members, associates, and some of the leading writers on western fiction.

The Max Brand Companion:

Piekarski, Vicki

Biographies & Memoirs

1976 First Edition. Book is FINE but DJ is tattered, repaired, worn. E-mail for international shipping. Private library. We ship daily.

The filming of the West

DOUBLEDAY

A western anthology culled from Star Western magazine includes writings by twenty-two popular writers, and each story is prefaced by a brief biography and a chronological listing of the author's contributions to the magazine.

Star Western: A Treasury of 22 Classic Western Stories from the Golden Age of Pulp Fiction

Literature & Fiction

United States

Gramercy

From 1892 to the present day, this chronological treasury features fifteen outstanding works of Western fiction by Louis L'Amour, Mark Twain, Owen Wister, Max Brand, Zane Grey, Bret Harte, Willa Cather, Frederic Remington, and other notable authors.

Western Stories: A Chronological Anthology

Contemporary

Wings

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