Dreams and Dead Ends

Dreams and Dead Ends provides a compelling history of the twentieth-century American gangster film. Beginning with Little Caesar (1930) and ending with Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead (1995), Jack Shadoian adroitly analyzes twenty notable examples of the crime film genre. Moving chronologically through nearly seven decades, this volume offers illuminating readings of a select group of the classic films--including The Public Enemy, D.O.A., Bonnie and Clyde, and The Godfather--that best define and represent each period in the development of the American crime film. Richly illustrated with more than seventy film stills, Dreams and Dead Ends details the evolution of the genre through insightful and precise considerations of cinematography, characterization, and narrative style. This updated edition includes new readings of three additional movies--Once Upon a Time in America, Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead, and Criss Cross--and brings this clear and lively discussion of the history of the gangster film to the end of the twentieth century.

Jack Shadoian is Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts.

Introduction
1. The Golden Age
The "Classic" Gangster Film
Little Caesar (1930)
The Public Enemy (1931)
2. Dark Transformations
The Descent Into Noir
High Sierra (1941)
The Killers (1946)
3. The Genre's "Enlightenment"
The Stress and Strain for Affirmation
Kiss of Death (1947)
Force of Evil (1948)
Gun Crazy (1949)
4. Going Gray and Going Crazy
Disequilibrium and Change at Midcentury
D.O.A. (1949)
White Heat (1949)
5. Focus on Feeling
"Seeing" Through the Fifties
Pickup on South Street (1953)
99 River Street (1953)
The Phenix City Story (1955)
The Brothers Rico (1957)
6. Contemporary Colorations
The Modernist Perspective
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Point Blank (1967)
The Godfather (1972)
The Godfather II (1975)
7. Towards the 21st Century
Frenzies and Despairs
Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995)
Appendix 1: Criss Cross: "One to Watch Over and Over"
Appendix 2: Gangster/Crime/Noir/Post-Noir: The Top 14
Appendix 3: 50 Post-Godfather Crime/Noir Films Worth a Look
Appendix 4: Aging Well: 50 Vintage Gangster/Crime/Noir Films
Notes
Selected Bibliography