37 | CRIME FILMS

A concise and accessible introduction to the wide body of films that fall under the rubric of crime, from the gangster film to the film noir, and from the classic whodunnit to TV series like Law and Order, Homicide, Hill Street Blues and CSI. The volume approaches the crime scene from the standpoints of the criminal, the crime and the crime-solver, providing the master plan behind the world of crime on screen, with analyses of classics such as Se7en and The Silence of the Lambs, as well as delving into recent developments in the erotic thriller such as Basic Instinct and neo-noirs such as Body Heat and LA Confidential.

July 2007
144 pages

978-1-905674-13-8 (pbk)

£12.99

£9.09 with 30% Off - Spring Sale discount add to basket

Kirsten Moana Thompson is Associate Professor of Film Studies at Wayne State University. She is the co-editor of Perspectives on German Cinema (1996) and the author of Apocalyptic Dread: American Film at the Turn of the Millennium (2007).

'The book provides a short history of criminology and investigates the roots of the crime novel. Then it's on to the real meat of the book - the essay on the films themselves. Very readable despite its academic background and with a huge filmography in the back, this book succeeds admirably in presenting a concise yet thorough look at the genre.'
– Moviescope 

‘UK publishers Wallflower Press have for some time been presenting a splendid series of paperbacks with the overall title Short Cuts that survey all types of film genre, and their latest, the 37th, deals with the amazing variations on crime films down the ages. The gangster and detective type proliferate, and other aspects cover details of recent developments in the erotic thriller (such as Basic Instinct) and film noir (such as LA Confidential). The survey is perceptively and intelligently written.’
– Peter Haigh, Cinema Retro

‘From the library-with-a-candlestick to the bedroom-with-an-icepick, this compact volume leads us in the company of gangsters and g-men, safecrackers and serial killers, private dicks and public defenders, feds and femme fatales on a whistle-stop tour of our cinematic and televisual fascination with the left-handed form of human endeavour.’
– Mark Bould, University of the West of England