eBook

Thrillers, Chillers, and Killers

Krutnik, Frank

2025

Overview

Film noir is one of the most exciting and most debated products of studio-era Hollywood, but did you know that American radio broadcast many programs in the noir vein through the 1940s and 1950s? These included adaptations of such well-known films as The Maltese Falcon, Murder, My Sweet, and Double Indemnity, detective series devoted to the adventures of private eyes Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade, and the spine-tingling anthology programs Lights Out and Suspense. Thrillers, Chillers, and Killers is the first book to explore in detail noir storytelling on the two media, arguing that radio's noir dramas played an important role as a counterpart to, influence on, or a spin-off from the noir films. Besides shedding new light on long-neglected radio dramas, and a medium that was cinema's major rival, this scrupulously researched yet accessible study also uses these programs to challenge conventional understandings of the much-debated topic of noir.

• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Subject: 1940s radio / 1950s radio / American radio / ART / History / General / ART / Techniques / General / chillers / Detective and mystery radio programs / detective series / Double Indemnity / Film & Video / Film noir / History & Criticism / killers / Lights Out / Murder / My Sweet / neglected radio dramas / noir debates / noir films / noir influence / noir media comparison / noir storytelling / noir vein / PERFORMING ARTS / Philip Marlowe / Popular Culture / Radio / Radio adaptations / radio as cinema's rival / radio noir dramas / Radio plays, American / radio vs cinema / Recreational & performing arts / Sam Spade / SOCIAL SCIENCE / SOCIAL SCIENCE / Popular Culture / studio-era Hollywood / Suspense / The Maltese Falcon / thrillers
• ISBN: 1978836414, 9781978836419, 9781978836402, 9781978836389, 9781978836396, 1978836406, 1978836392, 1978836384