Radio and Film Noir
Author: Frank Krutnik
Genre: History/Entertainment
Hardcover; Paperback: Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781978836396
Rutgers University Press
286 Pages
$120.00; $120.00; $39.95 Amazon
May 13, 2025
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Film Noir is one of the most exciting and most debated products of studio-era Hollywood, but did you know that American radio broadcast many programs in the noir vein through the 1940s and 1950s? These included adaptations of such well-known films as The Maltese Falcon, Murder, My Sweet, and Double Indemnity, detective series devoted to the adventures of private eyes Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade, and the spine-tingling anthology programs Lights Out and Suspense. Thrillers, Chillers, and Killers is the first book to explore in detail noir storytelling on the two media, arguing that radio's noir dramas played an important role as a counterpart to, influence on, or a spin-off from the noir films. Besides shedding new light on long-neglected radio dramas, and a medium that was cinema's major rival, this scrupulously researched yet accessible study also uses these programs to challenge conventional understandings of the much-debated topic of noir.
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I wanted to read this book because I love mysteries, any way that I can get them. I have never heard a mystery on the radio, but I've seen them in movies, and I've always wondered about what life was like before television, when radio was the only medium in one's home. I've seen old photos with the huge radios, and I remember that my uncle had a floor-length one, and as a toddler I was completely fascinated with all the buttons and channels that it could receive.
I consider myself a crime buff -- I love Film Noir, true crime, and books about crime/mysteries, etc. So naturally I am drawn to anything that has anything to do with it, and this book explains it all, and more. The author parses the films and explains them, as he does the radio versions, and, as a side note, the endings are revealed. I have seen everything in this book, so no surprises there, but I just thought others should know as they read it. As far as classic films go, I own thousands of them. So, I think that I'm a pretty good judge of books of this genre, I add humbly.
But I was not young enough -- we had a television (albeit black and white) and were relegated to watch what was on the mere channels that we received at that time. (Here I am again aging myself!) When I learned that many popular actors lent their voices to the mysteries they starred in, in the films, to the voice on the radio, I found it intriguing; for why would a highly paid actor do this? It wasn't until later that I understood, and yet I am still fascinated by the issue and would love to be able to hear a real radio broadcast as it was. So far, I have only listened to the well-known War of the Worlds with Orson Welles. It is not enough.
But here we have a full-length book to explain to us how important radio was to people; and the films on which the programs were based. We learn the differences (for most programs were only half an hour or a tad longer; not two hours as the films); and they were done in episodes, so you did not get the entire play in one sitting, as you would a movie. Or they would condense a film to a thirty-minute time slot, abridging it. You could not show scenes, so you had to describe them, and for that, you sometimes needed to change the scene so that it would fit the timeline or "show" better on the radio.
I will take my favorite Film Noir picture as an example: Laura. No matter how many times I watch it (and I do watch it often), I am fascinated by the actors, the scenes, their faces, reactions, and everything about it. But obviously, we can show none of that on the radio. So even if all the actors lent their voices to the radio version (which they often do not), there is still the problem of people being able to imagine what is going on in a vast space that they cannot see.
How do you show a detective that has just fallen in love with the painting of a dead woman? How do you show the snideness of a man who loved that woman and discovers the detective staring at it? All this and more is explained in the book, and it brings to life what people heard long ago as they sat around the radio in their living rooms. Watch an old movie, and you might even catch a glimpse of people doing this.
As a bonus, we are shown old movie posters of these films, and actual cuts of the movies themselves. It gives you something that you can connect to both, and I will say that this book does a good job of connecting film to radio programs and how the public reacted to it; the screenwriters, and the actors themselves who filled the roles. I also learned trivia such as Jeff Chandler (a wonderful actor) filled the radio role of Michael Shayne, along with the original player, Lloyd Nolan. There are bits like this throughout the book.
Anyone who is interested in media history, entertainment, Hollywood of long ago, or is just a curious viewer like myself, will find this book of value. I will say that Film Noir is the best of classic films, and the author does a wonderful job in this book. Wouldn't it be nice if we could purchase an old antique radio and it came 'loaded' with all these programs? Ah, well. Read this book! Recommended.
I was given an advance copy of this book from the publisher and Edelweiss but this in no way influenced my review.
Now I think I'm going to sit down and watch Rebecca again...
