Sumario: | Classic film noir offers more than pesky private eyes and beautiful bad girls - it explores the quest for the not-so-attainable American dream. Desperate young lovers on the lam (They Live by Night), a cynical con man making a fortune as a mentalist (Nightmare Alley), a penniless pregnant girl mistaken for a wealthy heiress (No Man of Her Own), a wounded veteran who has forgotten his own name (Somewhere in the Night) - this gallery of film noir characters challenges the stereotypes of the wise-cracking detective and the alluring femme fatale. Despite their differences, they all have something in common: a belief in self-reinvention. This book offers an examination of how film noir disputes this notion at the heart of the American Dream.
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