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The Noir Western: Darkness on the Range, 1943-1962 David Meuel. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2015.
What makes a noir western? This is answered interestingly by David Meuel in his book, The Noir Western: Darkness on the Range, 1943-1962. Western films like noir films are uniquely American, so it is no wonder that both blend well by design or accidently. Meuel gives the reader an overview of the genre in the "Introduction: The Dark Cowboy Rides into Town" but examines lesser known western noirs or those which deserve more appreciation by scholars or audiences. Well known western directors such as John Ford, Anthony Mann, Delmer Daves, and Budd Boetticher are discussed but also directors Allan Dwan, Sam Fuller, Henry King, Andre de Toth, Raoul Walsh, William Wellman, and Robert Wise, who made fewer westerns, many noirs, or more famous films.
The book contains eleven chapters with defining features of titles. For instance, in "Westerns Shaken and Stirred," Sam Fuller upends both genre contentions in I Shot Jesse James and Forty Guns. The James film is the precursor to The Assassination of Jesse James by the Cowardly Robert Ford (2007)....