The study of Hollywood detectives has often overlooked the B-Movie mystery series in favour of hard-boiled film. Hollywood's Detectives redresses this oversight by examining key detective series of the 1930s and 1940s to explore their contributions to the detective genre.

The story of Dana Andrews (1909-1992)

Genre and Hollywood provides a comprehensive introduction to the study of genre. In this important new book, Steve Neale discusses all the major concepts, theories and accounts of Hollywood and genre, as well as the key genres which theorists have written about, from horror to the Western. He also puts forward new arguments about the importance of genre in understanding Hollywood cinema. Neale takes issue with much genre criticism and genre theory, which has provided only a partial and misleading account of Hollywood's output. He calls for broader and more flexible conceptions of genre and genres, for more attention to be paid to the discourses and practices of Hollywood itself, for the nature and range of Hollywood's films to be looked at in more detail, and for any assessment of the social and cultural significance of Hollywood's genres to take account of industrial factors. In detailed, revisionist accounts of two major genres - film noir and melodrama - Neale argues that genre remains an important and productive means of thinking about both New and old Hollywood, its history, its audiences and its films.

As a boy, Miguel ngel Tobar fled a small town in El Salvador torn apart by warring guerillas and US-backed death squads. As a teen in Los Angeles, he fought discrimination and beatings by joining a gang--MS-13. By the time the US deported him to San Salvador, The Hollywood Kid joined a wave of thousands of US-bred gangsters, whose violence--in concert with corrupt offiicals--have in turn helped propel new waves of refugees. The incomparable Salvadoran journalist Oscar Martinez got to know the Hollywood Kid and met with him as he first turned on MS-13, killing gang members, and then in turn was assassinated by other gang members. In intensely vivid scenes, Martinez and his anthropologist brother Juan tell the story of a violent life and death--and of the geopolitical forces that propelled a country into becoming one of the most violent on earth.

Neo-Noir as Post-Classical Hollywood Cinema suggests the terms “noir” and “neo-noir” have been rendered almost meaningless by overuse. The book seeks to re-establish a purpose for neo-noir films and re-consider the organization of 60 years of neo-noir films. Using the notion of post-classical, the book establishes how neo-noir breaks into many movements, some based on time and others based on thematic similarities. The combined movements then form a mosaic of neo-noir. The time-based movements examine Transitional Noir (1960s-early 1970s), Hollywood Renaissance Noir in the 1970s, Eighties Noir, Nineties Noir, and Digital Noir of the 2000s. The thematic movements explore Nostalgia Noir, Hybrid Noir, and Remake and Homage Noir. Academics as well as film buffs will find this book appealing as it deconstructs popular films and places them within new contexts.

This book, a collection of fifteen original essays on the film performances and stardom of John Barrymore, redresses the lack of scholarship on Barrymore by offering a range of varied perspectives on the actor's work.

With a deceptively simple style, this novel takes a compassionate look at complicated character, Ardennes Thrush, an award-winning movie star who suddenly and mysteriously quits acting.

An in-depth look at the portrayal of Asian characters by non-Asian actors in classical Hollywood film. In the "classical" Hollywood studio era of the 1930s to the 1960s, many iconic Asian roles were filled by non-Asian actors and some—like Fu Manchu or Charlie Chan—are still familiar today. In Hollywood Goes Oriental: CaucAsian Performance in American Film, Karla Rae Fuller tracks specific cosmetic devices, physical gestures, dramatic cues, and narrative conventions to argue that representations of Oriental identity by Caucasian actors in the studio era offer an archetypal standard. Through this standard, Fuller shed light on the artificial foundations of Hollywood's depictions of race and larger issues of ethnicity and performance. Fuller begins by investigating a range of Hollywood productions, including animated images, B films, and blockbusters, to identify the elaborate make-up practices and distinct performance styles that characterize Hollywood's Oriental. In chapter 2, Fuller focuses on the most well known Oriental archetype, the detective, who incorporates both heroic qualities and darker elements into a complex persona. Moving into the World War II era, Fuller examines the Oriental character as political enemy and cultural outsider in chapter 3, drawing a distinction between the "good" Chinese and the "sinister" Japanese character. In chapter 4, she traces a shift back to a seemingly more benign, erotic, and often comedic depiction of Oriental characters after the war. While Hollywood Goes Oriental primarily focuses on representations of Oriental characters by Caucasian actors, Fuller includes examples of performances by non-Caucasian actors as well. She also delves into the origination, connotations, and repercussions of the loaded term "yellowface," which has been appropriated for many causes. Students, scholars of film, and anyone interested in Asian and cultural studies will appreciate this insightful study.

From Entertainment Weekly columnist Maureen Lee Lenker comes the standalone follow-up to It Happened One Fight, a rompy second-chance romance set in the glittering world of 1930s film. Arlene Morgan has always dreamed of being a movie director, like so many women in the silent era before her. But when Evets Studios finally gives her a shot, a rare thing in 1930s Hollywood, she's dismayed to discover that her leading man is none other than Don Lamont. Born Don Lazzarini, Don was Arlene's next-door-neighbor growing up, two best friends with two big dreams. He's the only man she's ever loved...except he abandoned her to pursue his dance career in New York, and she hasn't seen or heard from his since. But Don, despite his Broadway success, has been caught under the thumb of his gangster manager Frankie Martino for the last eight years, unable to come home. When he gets offered a role in a Hollywood picture, he leaps at the chance to free himself once and for all. But clashing with his director, the girl he once knew as Lena, leaves him scrambling to find his footing. As the two unpack old wounds and struggle to work together, Don starts to realize Lena might have been his dream girl all along. But she doesn't know about Frankie, and getting her involved in his contract would put her in danger, too. It's going to take quite the footwork to prove his feelings and help make Arlene's picture a success before Frankie takes drastic measures to keep his most valuable leading man.