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The Postman Always Rings Twice,
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Greg
John, no. It is short and gritty, but it's on the unbelievable side. Double Indemnity is pretty much the same story, more polished, more intense, but no, that isn't noir either. Hammet and Chandler? No, they are hard-boiled private eyes, but that's not noir either. Real Noir? Try Cornell Woolrich's "I Married a Dead Man.". Or Jim Thompson's "Killer Inside Me." Or David Goodis' "Down There", made into the Trauffaut film, "Shoot the Piano Player" (the French, you know, embraced American noir, at the time, and gave it a name, more than Americans, who were hooked on Erle Stanley Gardner in the 1940s and 1950s. Or Kenneth Fearing's "The Big Clock", made into a very good noir film. Or just find Otto Penzler's "Big Book of Noir" and find a favorite author and go from there. That's not to say "Postman" isn't good, as it is. But real noir came during and after WW2, imo.
Michael A. Kahn
I second Efren Ayon: this is quintessential noir AND quintessential literature.
Efrén Ayón
Is quintessential literature.
Joseph Cruise
I would reserve that title for a work by Chandler or Hammett, but still, it's worth the read.
Bill Jenkins
Yes, it is by definition dark, nihilistic and violent. Noir fiction.
Maureen Spengel
Yes. It most certainly is.
Aporva Kala
yeah... You bet..
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