Want to buy or sell something? Check the classifieds
  • The Fedora Lounge is supported in part by commission earning affiliate links sitewide. Please support us by using them. You may learn more here.

Bookish Noirs/Moving Pictures

poetman

A-List Customer
Messages
357
Location
Vintage State of Mind
I am looking for some recommendations for noirs or new-noirs that have a bookish/literary vibe to them: films related to bookstores/libraries, authors, etc. --like a prolonged version of Bogie's Big Sleep scene in the used bookstore or Morgan Freeman's library scene in SEVEN (though not a noir). I know a number of noirs utilize newspapers/newsrooms as their plots (all of which I think I have seen). I know I am casting a wide net here, but I would appreciate other loungers' recommendations.
 

PatinaPen

New in Town
Messages
14
My favorite, THE KILLER INSIDE ME scene, where the main character, a Sheriff who is a psychopath, reveals he knows everything in his late father's medical books. Up till that point he has given everyone in town the impression he is a country bumpkin. It's also implied that his father kept him from going further in school because he knew his son's true nature. It's in the Jim Thompson novel and the film with Stacey Keach (I've never gotten around to seeing the remake).
Also,
I haven't seen it in a long time but THE MASK OF DIMITRIUS has a scene with a librarian.

Interesting question!
I am looking for some recommendations for noirs or new-noirs that have a bookish/literary vibe to them: films related to bookstores/libraries, authors, etc. --like a prolonged version of Bogie's Big Sleep scene in the used bookstore or Morgan Freeman's library scene in SEVEN (though not a noir). I know a number of noirs utilize newspapers/newsrooms as their plots (all of which I think I have seen). I know I am casting a wide net here, but I would appreciate other loungers' recommendations.
 

poetman

A-List Customer
Messages
357
Location
Vintage State of Mind
Found this recommendation online
Hollywood released the 1930s trilogy to please fans of the Myrna Loy and William Powell-led Thin Man series, as the wait time in between each film was deemed too long. Based on Marco Page's novel by the same name, Fast Company follows rare-book dealers, Joel and Garda Sloan (Melvyn Douglas, Florence Rice), as they attempt to solve a murder. The succeeding films star different sets of topnotch Golden Age actors like Rosalind Russell and Franchot Tone. But no matter the faces, each film is a crowd-pleasing bookish comedy.
 
Messages
17,223
Location
New York City
Found this recommendation online
Hollywood released the 1930s trilogy to please fans of the Myrna Loy and William Powell-led Thin Man series, as the wait time in between each film was deemed too long. Based on Marco Page's novel by the same name, Fast Company follows rare-book dealers, Joel and Garda Sloan (Melvyn Douglas, Florence Rice), as they attempt to solve a murder. The succeeding films star different sets of topnotch Golden Age actors like Rosalind Russell and Franchot Tone. But no matter the faces, each film is a crowd-pleasing bookish comedy.

Just so you are aware, those are fun comedies with some mystery and drama mixed in, but they are not really noir. The comparison to "The Thin Man" is good as they are, IMO, good B-versions of "The Thin Man."
 

Forum statistics

Threads
109,327
Messages
3,078,968
Members
54,243
Latest member
seeldoger47
Top