On the subject of teaching NOIR, the film file from the JOURNAL OF FILM
AND VIDEO is by Dana Polan and is in the Spring 85 issue (pp 75-83).
Books like Telotte's and Krutnik's are theoretical arguments which build
upon the NOIR work done in the 70s and 80s.  I'm not quite sure what ONE BOOK
would be able to be used in a film class on NOIR because the person did not
make explicit what they were doing with the genre.  What's wrong with
introductory picture books like Hirsch's FILM NOIR: THE DARK SIDE OF THE
SCREEN, Crowther's FILM NOIR: REFLECTIONS IN A DARK MIRROR,or even Silver
and Ward's FILM NOIR: AN ENCYCLOPEDIC REFERENCE TO THE AMERICAN STYLE?
 
Why teach noir in a film class?  What issues, questions, answers, etc are
you looking at/for?  This would help to define the text book(s).
Bill Covey--Purdue University
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