In the years between 1941 and 1965, Lance Comfort made some of the most entertaining films in Britain. There was the striking success of his second feature as director, Hatter’s Castle (1941) and when he returned to this melodramatic vein in 1945 he made a series of highly proficient and enjoyable studies in obsession, including Bedelia (1946) with Margaret Lockwood as a murderess, and Temptation Harbour (1947) starring Robert Newton as a decent man in the grip of erotic attraction. Comfort’s career has never been charted in full – that is, from the apprenticeship in the 1930s, through the melodramas of the 1940s to the often rewarding co-features of the following two decades. His is in many ways a prototypical career in British cinema: his very attractive body of work has been marginalised by critical focus on a few giant figures. This is a book that will appeal to all students and researchers in British cinema, as well as to anyone with an interest in British films – and why they were the way they were – in their most productive period.

This is a study of the work of Lance Comfort, who made films such as Hatter's Castle and Temptation Harbour between 1941 and 1965. The book should appeal to students and researchers in British cinema.

The crime film genre consists of detective films, gangster films, suspense thrillers, film noir, and caper films and is produced throughout the world. Crime film was there at the birth of cinema, and it has accompanied cinema over more than a century of history, passing from silent films to talkies, from black-and-white to color. The genre includes such classics as The Maltese Falcon, The Godfather, Gaslight, The French Connection, and Serpico, as well as more recent successes like Seven, Drive, and L.A. Confidential. The Historical Dictionary of Crime Films covers the history of this genre through a chronology, an introductory essay, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 300 cross-referenced entries on key films, directors, performers, and studios. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about crime cinema. -- from Amazon.com.

Film noir_literally 'black cinema'_is the label customarily given to a group of black and white American films, mostly crime thrillers, made between 1940 and 1959. Today there is considerable dispute about what are the shared features that classify a noir film, and therefore which films should be included in this category. These problems are partly caused because film noir is a retrospective label that was not used in the 1940s or 1950s by the film industry as a production category and therefore its existence and features cannot be established through reference to trade documents. The Historical Dictionary of Film Noir is a comprehensive guide that ranges from 1940 to present day neo-noir. It consists of a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, a filmography, and over 400 cross-referenced dictionary entries on every aspect of film noir and neo-noir, including key films, personnel (actors, cinematographers, composers, directors, producers, set designers, and writers), themes, issues, influences, visual style, cycles of films (e.g. amnesiac noirs), the representation of the city and gender, other forms (comics/graphic novels, television, and videogames), and noir's presence in world cinema. It is an essential reference work for all those interested in this important cultural phenomenon.

A comprehensive social history of British crime film by the UK's principal expert on crime film and fiction Presenting a stunning social history of Britain through classic crime film, Barry Forshaw, one of the UK's leading experts on crime fiction and fiction, focuses on how crime films have portrayed our changing attitudes towards class, politics, sex, delinquency, violence and censorship. Focusing on these key issues, British Crime Film examines strategies used by film makers in order to address more radical notions of society's decline. Spanning post-war crime cinema, from Green for Danger to Get Carter, from The Lady Killers to Layer Cake, from The Long Good Friday to Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, British Crime Film contextualizes the movies and identifies important and neglected works which will delight and intrigue film fans of this well-loved genre.