The Detective in Film

Citadel Film Series

by William K. Everson

The Detective in Film, by William C. Everson

Genres: Media Tie In, Mystery, Film

247 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

William Keith Everson was an English-American archivist, author, critic, educator, collector, and film historian.

Reviews

[Tom Shannon, Jr · Rating 4 out of 5]

More thought should have been put into the selection and placement of the scads of b&w still photos, for two reasons: 1. There were photos from a small number of movies that were never mentioned in the text! (ex: Bunny Lake Is Missing) 2. For the movies that WERE written up, it was common that the photos were placed nowhere near the written mention(s). (ex: Lady On A Train) So the photos often felt distracting, and slowed me down. Also the index at the end does not provide page numbers of the photos, only the written references.

Despite the shortcomings of the images, I loved the writing! The author knows his stuff: he has seen a multitude of cinema, and he can speak to the films themselves, and explain their place in the detective film cycle, which he felt had pretty much devolved into a pale shadow of its best work by time of its early 1970's publication.

[Bill]

I bought this book when it first came out and it's been a proud addition to my bookshelf of film books. I pull it down frequently to discover new films that were unavailable to view in the 70s but now have become available and also to rediscover films I've seen and need to rewatch. I took classes with
Professor Everson and even attended film screenings at his apartment, where every available wall was hidden by floor to ceiling film cans of his extensive film collection. Thank goodness we know have DVDs and Blu-rays which don't take up quite as much room. He was a wonderful teacher and a great film historian who saved many films.

[Peter Parziale · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book held so much promise! I fancy myself somewhat knowledgeable of the genre -- and yet this book introduced me to no fewer than 45 previously unknown (to me) movies, recommended by author Everson's enthusiasm. Did you know that there was a 1931 version of The Maltese Falcon, produced 2 years after the novel and ten years before the classic film? I didn't.

The book is divided into thirteen chapters with titles like The Silent Period, The Detective and Alfred Hitchcock, and two chapters on Private Eyes...all well and good. And there are loads of photographs. But the chapters themselves were all tediously written lists, basically, of film titles with the accompanying stars, and if the film was any good, a (very) short synopsis. Over and over, chapter by chapter. The names changed, but the writing style was the same. Another criticism: no concluding chapter. The book fizzled to a conclusion. But I mainly write these reviews as a way to communicate with old friend Chris R., so if it accomplishes that purpose, than my work here is done.

Pre-internet, this book has value in that it sifts the mass of detective-based mysteries and gives you a substantial list of winners. In the internet age, I can get this list, and explication, far more quickly, and with links to additional criticism and analysis, and perhaps a hot link to the films themselves.

[Jamie Jonas · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good, solid overview of the origins and evolution of the detective film, up to more contemporary movies such as "Klute" and "The French Connection." The book is littered with typos, though--my primary reason for dropping it one star--and Everson seems a little high-handed here and there in his presentation of films that he clearly thinks everyone should love with a passion simply because he does (e.g. Hitchcock's "Frenzy," which I found excessively sleazy and downright misogynistic). Regardless, the book certainly deserves four stars for its organization and its epic sweep of a film type whose importance should never be under-rated by any student of cinema.

[Cypress Butane]

Reading in conjunction with listening to the series of lectures from The Teaching Company: Detective Fiction: The Killer, The Detective, and Their World with Professor J. Dennis Huston.

Have been watching the Sherlock Holmes TV series circa 1954 starring Ronald Howard, H. Marion Crawford, and Archie Duncan on Netflix. Also watched the recent movie and plan on watching the sequel. Will have to look for more of the classics mentioned in this book in different places, but didn't even find the top 3 classic detective movies they listed in one of the first chapters on Netflix, so, they must not have a bunch of the good ones.