Kiss the Blood Off My Hands: On Classic Film Noir

by Robert Miklitsch (Contributor), Krin Gabbard (Contributor), Philippa Gates (Contributor)

Consider the usual view of film endless rainy nights populated by down-at-the-heel boxers, writers, and private eyes stumbling toward inescapable doom while stalked by crooked cops and cheating wives in a neon-lit urban jungle.

But a new generation of writers is pushing aside the fog of cigarette smoke surrounding classic noir scholarship. In Kiss the Blood Off My On Classic Film Noir , Robert Miklitsch curates a bold collection of essays that reassesses the genre's iconic style, history, and themes. Contributors analyze the oft-overlooked female detective and little-examined aspects of filmmaking like love songs and radio aesthetics, discuss the significance of the producer and women's pulp fiction, and investigate topics as disparate as Disney noir and the Fifties heist film, B-movie back projection and blacklisted British directors. At the same time the writers' collective reconsideration shows the impact of race and gender, history and sexuality, technology and transnationality on the genre.

As bracing as a stiff drink, Kiss the Blood Off My Hands writes the future of noir scholarship in lipstick and chalk lines for film fans and scholars alike.

Krin Gabbard, Philippa Gates, Julie Grossman, Robert Miklitsch, Robert Murphy, Mark Osteen, Vivian Sobchack, Andrew Spicer, J. P. Telotte, and Neil Verma.

Genres: Nonfiction

242 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Robert Miklitsch is a professor in the department of English language and literature at Ohio University.

Reviews

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many of the noir theory books rehash the same movies and the same theories, this one, published in 2014, actually breaks new ground. Print is eye-straining pica type, however, so kiss the blood off my eyeballs is a better title. Reading this again.

[kp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fresh looks at a classic genre--these essays cover such topics as female detectives and love songs in film noir. A readable and enlightening collection.

[Mills College Library]

791.4361 K618 2014