>The following are the entries from the OED. 1958 seems a little late to me; does anybody know of earlier use of the term in English? (& any idea what this 1960 film referenced below might be?) LT > > >1958 Spectator 25 July 134/2 It [sc. a play] tries to be a parody of a film noir. 1960 Times 9 May 16/4 A school-boy adventure story which turns suddenly and surprisingly into a bleak film noir. Objectif 48, a journal Bazin had written for, organised a Festival of American Film Noir in late 1948, held at the Pagoda Theatre. Andrews notes that this event was the "… first time the genre called 'film noir' had ever been singled out…" in Andrew, Dudley, "André Bazin"; Columbia University Press, New York 1978 ---- Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite http://www.tcf.ua.edu/ScreenSite