Thrillers, Chillers, and Killers: Radio and Film Noir
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.
 
1146216455
Thrillers, Chillers, and Killers: Radio and Film Noir
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.
 
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Thrillers, Chillers, and Killers: Radio and Film Noir

Thrillers, Chillers, and Killers: Radio and Film Noir

by Frank Krutnik
Thrillers, Chillers, and Killers: Radio and Film Noir

Thrillers, Chillers, and Killers: Radio and Film Noir

by Frank Krutnik

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.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781978836389
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Publication date: 05/13/2025
Pages: 286
Product dimensions: 6.10(w) x 8.70(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

FRANK KRUTNIK is an emeritus reader in film studies at the University of Sussex in Brighton. His publications include Popular Film and Television Comedy; In a Lonely Street: Film Noir, Genre, Masculinity; and Inventing Jerry Lewis; and he is coeditor of Un-American Hollywood: Politics and Film in the Blacklist Era (Rutgers University Press). 

Table of Contents

Introduction : Radio and Film Noir    
Chapter 1: Noir Movies on the Radio
Chapter 2: Strange Romance - Laura, Film Noir, and Radio Drama 
Chapter 3: Seriality and the Radio Detective
Chapter 4: The Transmedial Seriality of Michael Shayne, #1 - From Book to Film 
Chapter 5: The Transmedial Seriality of Michael Shayne, #2 - Radio Drama
Chapter 6: Not for the Timid Soul - The Weird Mysteries of Lights Out
Chapter 7: Radio’s Outstanding Theatre of Thrills 
Chapter 8: Noir Anguish: Cornell Woolrich and Suspense 
Coda: Radio/Noir 
Appendix: Radio Adaptations of Noir Films 
Acknowledgements
Notes
Index

Introduction: Radio and Film Noir 1
1 Noir Movies on the Radio 23
2 Strange Romance: Laura, Film Noir, and Radio Drama 47
3 Seriality and the Radio Detective 77
4 The Transmedial Seriality of Michael Shayne, #1:
From Book to Film 89
5 The Transmedial Seriality of Michael Shayne, #2:
Radio Drama 100
6 Not for the Timid Soul: The Weird Mysteries of Lights Out 126
7 Radio’s Outstanding Theatre of Thrills 145
8 Noir Anguish: Cornell Woolrich and Suspense 173
Coda: Radio/Noir 199
Appendix: Radio Adaptations of Noir Films 203
Acknowledgments
221
Notes 223
Index 000
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