Mark,
Re your questions below:
> ". . . and even romantic chick flicks like LAURA
and
> THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE."
>
> I'll grant you they both have elements of
gothic
> romance, but "chick
> flick"? At great risk, I'm going to ask you
for
> another definition --
> what's a chick flick?
"Chick flick" is a dismissive, pejorative term that guys
apply to movies with a strong feminine interest which they're
not really interested in seeing.
I was wrong to apply it to two well-made movies, both of
which I enjoyed, and continue to enjoy, but I was trying to
draw a distinction between these films and more overtly
masculine films like, say, THE KILLERS or THE ASPHALT JUNGLE
in order to demonstrate the wide array of films to which the
term "noir" has been applied.
And I thought it would be clear that my tongue was at least
partly in my cheek.
> Where did Wilder and Spillane apply the word
noir?
> Again, I'm not
> trying to pick another fight. I'd genuinely like
to
> read what they've
> said or written on the topic.
I don't know if Wilder ever applied the word "noir" to either
film or literature. But it was Wilder, the co-writer and
director of one of the seminal film noirs, DOUBLE INDEMNITY,
who hired Raymond Chandler to collaborate with him on the
script, and he hired him precisely because he thought that
Chandler and Cain were harvesting crops from the same field.
Thus Wilder was one of those who, before the term "noir" had
even been coined, tossed Chandler and Cain together.
Spillane and Max Allan Collins have co-edited an anthology
called A CENTURY OF NOIR. Spillane's views on the topic may
be inferred by the choice of stories included. Which is
fairly eclectic.
JIM DOHERTY
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