Books by Geoff Mayer

The crime film genre consists of detective films, gangster films, suspense thrillers, film noir, and caper films and is produced throughout the world. Crime film was there at the birth of cinema, and it has accompanied cinema over more than a century of history, passing from silent films to talkies, from black-and-white to color. The genre includes such classics as The Maltese Falcon, The Godfather, Gaslight, The French Connection, and Serpico, as well as more recent successes like Seven, Drive, and L.A. Confidential.The Historical Dictionary of Crime Films covers the history of this genre through a chronology, an introductory essay, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 300 cross-referenced entries on key films, directors, performers, and studios. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about crime cinema.

This book traces the indebtedness of Australian cinema to the classical narrative style of Hollywood film-making, comparing the problems faced by the Australian cinema of the seventies and eighties with those encountered by British filmmakers of the forties and fifties.

Scholarly and popular interest in British cinema has never been stronger, with films ranging from the Merchant/Ivory pictures through Notting Hill finding both critical and commercial success in America.

When viewers think of film noir, they often picture actors like Humphrey Bogart playing characters like Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon, the film based on the book by Dashiell Hammett.