CRIME FILMS

This book surveys the entire range of crime films, including importantsubgenres such as the gangster film, the private-eye film,film noir, as well as the victim film, the erotic thriller, and thecrime comedy. Focusing on ten films that span the range of thetwentieth century, from Fury (1936) to Fargo (1996), ThomasLeitch traces the transformation of the three leading figures thatare common to all crime films: the criminal, the victim, and theavenger. Analyzing how each of the subgenres establishes oppositionsamong its ritual antagonists, he shows how the distinctionsamong them become blurred throughout the course of the century. This blurring, Leitch maintains, reflects and fosters adeep social ambivalence toward crime and criminals, while thecriminal, victim, and avenger characters effectively map theshifting relations between subgenres, such as the erotic thrillerand the police film, within the larger genre of crime film that informsthem all.Thomas Leitch is Professor of English and Director of Film Studiesat the University of Delaware. A contributing editor of Literature/Film Quarterly, he is the author of What Stories Are: Narrative Theory and Interpretation and The Encyclopedia of Alfred Hitchcock.

Crime Films/Thomas Leitch/ http://www.cambridge.org