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Spring 4-1-2004 Review. Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir Robin Imhof University of the Pacific, [email protected]

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Recommended Citation Imhof, R. (2004). Review. Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir. Reference and User Services Quarterly, 43(3), 261. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/libraries-articles/60

This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the University Libraries at Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in University Libraries Librarian and Staff Articles and Papers by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. census.gov. It should be noted that SF1 and special libraries.—J. Christina competing with free Web sources for data searchable in American FactFinder Smith, Anthropology/Sociology Biblio- film biographical information (like the and presented in this volume include grapher, Boston University Internet Movie Database, http://imdb. only thirty-nine American Indian/ com), it is all the more important that Alaska Native groups. Census officials Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir. By information in a print-reference source have indicated that place-level infor- Karen Burroughs Hannsberry. Jefferson, such as this be scrupulously accurate. mation was collected on all tribes. N.C.: McFarland, 2003. 790p. alkaline $75 As it is, Bad Boys is probably better Section 2, “Comparative Ranking (ISBN 0-7864-1484-7). suited for public libraries than for aca- Tables,” contains comparative ances- Hannsberry, author of Femme Noir: demic collections.—Robin Imhof, Refer- try data (numbers and percentages) for Bad Girls of Film (McFarland, 1998), ence Librarian, University of the Pacific, 217 ethnicities, arranged alphabeti- gives the male celebrities of the genre Stockton, California cally by group. These data are not equal time in this collection. While retrievable in American FactFinder. Alain Silver’s seminal Film Noir: An The Bootleg Guide. By Garry Freeman. The first table shows the 150 top Encyclopedia Reference to the American Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow, 2003. 728p. alka- places, sorted by number where, for Style (Overlook, 1993) is still the major line $89.95 (ISBN 0-8108-4582-2). example, Armenians live. The second reference source in this area, Bad Boys Back in the day of vinyl records, indicates the top 150 places sorted by can be considered unique in that there small shops sold pirated copies of live percent for all communities, thus put- is no other source that exclusively shows and stolen studio tapes. Fans ting tiny Ridgely, Missouri, with a 14 focuses on the male stars of the film bought these unauthorized releases percent Armenian population—ten noir genre. Covering the public and never really knowing what the quality individuals—in second place. The private lives of more than ninety actors and contents consisted of until they third table shows the same informa- who starred in American noir films of got home. Gary Freeman’s guide and tion for the top 150 communities of the 1940s and 1950s, all the usual sus- annotated bibliography to the bootleg ten thousand or more. The volume pects are here, including Humphrey record industry of the 1960s and 1970s ends with a place index. The CD-ROM, Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, James covers these recordings originally which is free upon request to pur- Cagney, and Robert Mitchum, while released on vinyl or tape. Items later chasers of the print volume, contains lesser-known actors who provided sta- converted to CD are noted as such. section-one data for all 33,150 com- ple noir supporting characters are Bands covered include major munities in the U.S., and section-two included in an appendix. A second artists from Bruce Springsteen to Frank rankings for the top six hundred com- appendix titled “Last Words from the Zappa to 10cc. Each entry includes the munities for each ancestry. The PDF Bad Boys” includes a sampling of the original title as released, date, venue, files are easy to use. snappy, hard-boiled dialogue that is tracks, quality rating of the recording, From a preservation perspective, characteristic of noir films. Most of the and comments. Although the thor- the 3,045 pages are very thin and will entries range from eight to ten pages oughness of the bibliography and tear easily when patrons attempt to and are accompanied by a photograph annotations is impressive, some of the photocopy them. Fortunately, the CD- of the subject. Each entry concludes item listings include scant details, per- ROM is available for printing. Perhaps with a bibliographical source list and a haps due to their scarcity. the 2010 Census edition of Ancestry in filmography. Because of the scope of In deciding whether to purchase America will be published in two sepa- the work, biographies for actors such as this title, one should keep in mind the rate, more manageable volumes. Vincent Price and Kirk Douglas, whose rarity of guides such as this. Also con- There is nothing comparable to primary film careers were outside of sider the need for, and usefulness of, Ancestry in America. County and City the noir genre, focus primarily on their such a guide (what will you do after Data Book: 2000 (U.S. Census Bureau noir achievements and the filmogra- you find out Deep Purple played 2001) has only eight basic race/ phy lists only those works. A bibliogra- “Paint It Black” on Nov. 12, 1970, on a Hispanic origin statistics for cities phy and general index completes the bootleg called “Alive Tribute to with populations greater than 25,000 book. A separate index to all the films Wally?” Go get it on eBay where a sur- and for places and minor civil divi- mentioned would have been a wel- prising number of these items are sions larger than 2,500. come addition. offered for sale.) However, music fans While the price is steep, and much The work would have benefited will want to use the book for hours on of the data are obtainable from from a more careful editing job. For end, and it will certainly be checked American FactFinder, the compilation example, Whit Bissell’s entry indicates out if added to the circulating collec- and synthesis of disparate data files his death on March 5, 1996, at the age tion. A reference location will ensure from SF1 and SF3, along with the of “1986” and Lloyd Nolan’s costar in that the book is available to all users. comparative rankings, make this a Hannah and Her Sisters was Maureen Bootleg serves the dedicated fan of the value-added, easy-to-use publication. O’Sullivan, not Maureen O’Hara. This golden age of music piracy as both a Recommended for academic, public, may be quibbling, but since this work is wish list and coffee-table reader. The

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