Library Adds to "Film Noir" Collection

BISBEE, AZ – With assistance from the Cochise County Library District, Bisbee’s Copper Queen Library recently added to its growing collection of classic “film noir” titles with the acquisition of recently-released titles from Warner and the Criterion Collection. These classic films, first released in the 1940s and 1950s, are some of the best existing examples of Hollywood’s famous and lesser-known stylish crime dramas – known as much for their sets and cinematographers as for their actors and directors.

New titles include Ace in the Hole, Act of Violence, Asphalt Jungle, The Big Steal, Border Incident, Born to Kill, Clash By Night, Crime Wave, Crossfire, Dillinger, Gun Crazy, His Kind of Woman, Illegal, Kiss Me Deadly, Lady in the Lake, Murder My Sweet, Mystery Street, The Narrow Margin, Night of the Hunter, On Dangerous Ground, Out of the Past, The Racket, The Set-Up, Side Street, Tension, They Live By Night, and Where Danger Lives.

The series also includes the documentary, Film Noir: Bringing Darkness to Light, a collection of five vintage "Crime Doesn't Pay" short films (Women in Hiding, You the People, Forbidden Passage, A Gun in His Hand, and The Luckiest Guy in the World), plus interviews with modern “noir” aficionados like directors Christopher Nolan and Frank Miller and writers James Ellroy and Brian Helgeland, who provide a multifaceted exploration of the movie style that grew out of the hard realities of post-World War II life.

Some of the directors represented in the library’s new titles include Nicholas Ray, Anthony Mann, John Sturges, Billy Wilder, John Huston, Robert Wise, Fritz Lang, Robert Montgomery, Edward Dmytryk, Richard Fleischer, Charles Laughton, and Jacques Tourneur.

The actors represented are some of the best-known in the world for film noir, including Farley Granger, Robert Mitchum, Maureen O'Sullivan, Richard Basehart, Van Heflin, Robert Ryan, Janet Leigh, Mary Astor, Sterling Hayden, Edward G. Robinson, Jayne Mansfield, William Bendix, Ramon Novarro, Cyd Charisse, Kirk Douglas, James Whitmore, Marilyn Monroe, Jean Hagen, Ricardo Montalban, George Murphy, Claire Trevor, Barbara Stanwyck, Paul Douglas, Robert Ryan, Jane Russell, Vincent Price, Dick Powell, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, Ida Lupino, Ward Bond, Rhonda Fleming, and Wallace Ford.

Sound like something you’d like to see? Patrons with library cards may borrow up to three movies at a time – FREE – and keep them for five days. Don’t have a library card yet? Why not? They’re free, too! (just bring proof of residency to the Circ Desk). And what better time to pick up your card than during Library Card Sign-Up Month in September!

For further information, contact the library at 432-4232.