Mark Fertig

I love the subject, so the author would have had to produce a really bad book for me to have disliked it. Thankfully, the quality of reproduction of the posters is excellent, the author's commentary expert and accessible, and the big folio format sumptuous. The selection of films and their artwork is arguable, but that's what makes lists so enjoyable: Why is this film included and this one not? Why that poster and not this other one? You really rate that film above this one?

The entries are listed in reverse order, so we get a countdown to Fertig's Number One film noir movie. And it is a film's noir credentials that the author considers, so a relatively minor film can be ranked higher than an acknowledged movie classic if it better exemplifies the noir characteristics of the unshakeable inevitability of blind fate exacting retribution for even a momentary infraction of society's moral code, even if those morals are themselves corrupt.

If I have any beef with the book it is that it presents itself as the 101 best film noir posters, when it is, in fact, the author's 101 best noir films, as confirmed by his assertion that the poster at the top-spot is not all that good! I was going to deduct a half-star for that infraction, but I figure that blind fate will ultimately have its say.… (altro)