Not really the reel thing 2/5

I found this an incredibly superficial look at reel noir. Some reviewers, seeing the Life logo on the cover, thought it was a magazine, its not, there are no ads and almost all the photos are film stills according to the photo credits. I think there are three that were taken by Life photographers. The book is probably seventy percent or more photos. 

Oddly, only half the paperback considers proper noir movies from the forties and fifties, just eleven, which misses several classics, like The big sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946) The postman always rings twice (Tay Garnett 1946) or The asphalt jungle (John Huston,1950)  the other half looks at nine movies from the seventies onwards, called here as Neo noir. I think these were added because most of the book's buyers/readers will have seen them.

As there is so little text there isn't an index or bibliography. But if you want know more about this intriguing movie genre Film noir (ISBN 9780879514792) by Silver and Ward is an encyclopedia reference with 480 pages. Eddie Muller's Dark city (ISBN 9780762498970) is a treat about these movies. Both books put Life's Film noir to shame.

US

Amazon.com: LIFE Film Noir: 75 Years of the Greatest Crime Films: 9781683304401: LIFE Special - 2016-8-19 SIP, Meredith: Books

UK

LIFE Film Noir: 75 Years of the Greatest Crime Films : The Editors Of LIFE: Amazon.co.uk: Books

 

Keeping tabs on the big ones

Illustrator Stephen Biesty (1961-2004) is famous for his incredibly detailed and accurate pictures of the world around us, past and present and he specialises in cutaway sections, it could be a castle or the liner Queen Mary. This book, published in 2014, is probably of more interest to boys as it features large vehicles. 

There are only eight spreads with plenty factual captions relating to the picures. It's printed thickish card, this because each picture has several lift-up tabs with words about what the tabs cover printed on the underside, for example the jumbo jet has six tabs. A nice touch is that these tabs are not obviously indicated, you have run your fingers over pictures to find them. 

I think it's worth searching net sellers as you can find the book really cheap (though don't forget to add the postage).

US

Giant Vehicles (Inside Vehicles): Green, Rod, Biesty, Stephen: 9780763674045: Amazon.com: Books

UK

Giant Vehicles : Green, Rod, Biesty, Stephen: Amazon.co.uk: Books

 

The vine of crime yields bitter fruit 5/5

The same book, left, the large hardback and right, the paperback with an extra chapter.

Film Noir posters obviously reflect the contents of the movies with lots of background black and hand-lettered typography similar to actual titles on the screen (remember those that were angled and some of the letters were really big, coming from the front and stopping when the whole title was readable on the screen) and always in capital letters. The three hundred posters in the book capture the exuberance of the style. It is fair to say though, that none of these were made as examples of creative design, in the style of, for example, a Saul Bass poster like The man with the golden arm, Anatomy of a murder, Exodus or Schindler's list. You can see some here: Past Print: Saul Bass movie posters (westread.blogspot.com) Movie posters decades ago were the responsibility of marketing departments.

Paintings of the stars in action were a standard graphic treatment for any movie poster before photos took over. The author mentions how stylish many of these illustrations were but they were just churned out by reasonably competent artists who lowered their standards to fit in with the Noir poster style. They had to compete with bold titles, other cast members and with smaller type the directors, producers and screenplay writers.

Each poster gets some technical details and nicely the author adds a few words about the theme of the movie. An interesting chapter is four: The usual suspects - Noir's most familiar faces. Nineteen stars are mentioned with several posters of their best Noir appearances.

I think it's worth mentioning that this paperback is a straight reprint of a hardcover, coffee table, version published by Overlook Press (ISBN1585670731) in 2002 and still available at about the same price as this paperback. It's beautifully printed on gloss paper. The only difference between the two books (apart from the smaller size paperback) is the addition, in the paperback, of an extra chapter with twenty-six posters. I think the Overlook hardcover is a much better buy.

How to live in a plastic novelty 3/5

On the left, an architectural rendering that should have been much bigger.

On the right, architectural graphics that should have been used bigger over this spread..

Part of a page from a brochure that is just eye candy
rather than being useful for the reader.

This back of the book spread describes a house tour for a graphic earlier in the book, it should really have been on the same spread with the graphic.

I remember seeing a photo of this house some decades ago and found it very intriguing. In this book the author has written a very comprehensive coverage about all aspects of the structure but was it really the house of the future or just an architectural novelty? As Monsanto was a leading plastic company why not pay (like other companies) to have their products  displayed in a Disney theme park. The obvious answer was a housing unit with the structure and most of interior objects made from Monsanto plastics. 

Were there any plastic houses built? I doubt it. Even the well known Case Study Houses, comprising thirty-six prototype designs between 1945 and 1966, of which several were built, in the Los Angeles area, didn't inspire the house building industry to create fresh suburban estates based on these inexpensive designs.

The book has plenty of photos, probably more than half and unfortunately I thought some  pages could have looked better. Interesting visual material, architects plans and other graphics have just been reduced to eye candy on pages 25, 60, 115 and 123 so the reader is missing out on worthwhile information. On page forty-five there is a tour plan of the house, Monsanto provided a printed description of the tour, instead of putting this on the next page it appears at the back of the book. With such a complete overview there are plenty of footnotes, three pages with 225 of them, this requires a lot of flipping when these notes should have been on the relevant pages.

Luckily for the author this will be the only book about the Monsanto House of the future. A good title for the general reader and Disney fans.

US

The House of the Future: Walt Disney, MIT, and Monsanto's Vision of Tomorrow: Bossert, David A: 9781735769189: Amazon.com: Books

UK

The House of the Future: Walt Disney, MIT, and Monsanto's Vision of Tomorrow eBook : Bossert, David A: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store