The Crime Films of Anthony Mann

Max Alvarez provides a solid contribution to the already remakarble corpus of Anthony Mann studies. His reasarch focused on the early life and debuts in theatre and television would justifity buying this book, as it brings a new light to an obscure and neglected phase of Mann's career. The noir "œuvre" is discussed in depth with numerous script excepts, screen shots, etc. All in all a major work.

Excellent film book about the filmmaker, Anthony Mann. Well researched and written with great insights about the man and his unique visual film style.

Anthony Mann is one of the greatly unappreciated directors of the fifties. His westerns with James Stewart not only revitalized Stewart's career but got Mann a place in the list of great western directors. Max Alvarez argues quite persuasively that some of his crime films deserve equal appreciation. His book is worth reading and getss my four star rating just for the opening chapters which are a short biography of Mann, who had quite an interesting childhood and upbringing. Alvarez then goes into great detail about Mann's early films. My main criticism of the book is Alvarez's repetitions of facts in the different sections on each film. Also, he goes quite a lot into the marketing (or lack of it) of each film, a little too much for me since it really doesn't further explain why Mann's early films have not received proper critical respect. But Alvarez does do a great job with his critical explanations of the films, showing the evolution of Mann's directorial vision.

I enjoyed reading about Anthony Mann's work, most notably about the Noir years. Clearly, Mr. Alvarez has a deep understanding of his subject and he includes well researched information. It's a great read and I highly recommend this gem to anyone interested in film.