Noir Hear This

Regarding “Why Don’t They Make ‘Em Like This Anymore?” by Ann Hornaday (March 27):

Not only is Hornaday’s whole premise spurious (that modern mystery novels of the Sue Grafton and Ruth Rendell ilk have something to do with the Hollywood cycle of films known as film noir), but she manages to garble several facts, asserting:

* That the movies “Point Blank” and “The Split” were released as “The Hunter” and “The Seventh.” Actually the books upon which they were based were published under those titles.

* That “The Poodle Springs Story” is the Raymond Chandler book that “started life as a screenplay” and remains the only novel of his unfilmed. Hornaday meant “Playback.”

* That Jim Thompson “witnessed” (by the article’s inelegant implication) the recent vogue for his work--long after his death.

* And that film noir is “in fact, an entire cinematic genre . . . based on literary antecedents.” Actually it has far more to do with cinematic antecedents as well as prevailing social conditions in America after World War II. Its basis in literature, while important, is by no means the crucial determinant Hornaday supposes in her utter confusion.

MATTHEW BRADY

Hollywood

*

The reason for the dearth of mystery movies based on best-selling mystery books is clear to me (and not simply because I am marketing my own original screenplay “Silence the Storm” with a like recommendation):

The new--and less successful--mystery films are being done in color rather than the native black-and-white that film noir demands. A comment I heard recently about Steven Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List” summarizes the concept. Paraphrasing: “Black-and-white was the perfect choice, as color photography would have made the graphic violence too brutal, while also making much of the rest too beautiful.”

Film noir is the embodiment of this ethic. It’s a gory world, the gumshoe’s, and his or her only emotional recourse is a kind of muted numbness. Black-and-white communicates this “coolness” to the audience, taking the brutal edge off the blood and gore, while likewise flattening those wonderful colors on the upside.

I, for one, would love to see Easy Rawlins ambling around L.A. or Dave Robicheaux flat-footin’ the French Quarter. In black-and-white.

DUKE C. CULLINAN

Huntington Beach