William P. McGivern Archives - Criminal Element

Lost Classics of Noir: The Big Heat by William P. McGivern

By Brian Greene

March 23, 2015

I first saw Fritz Lang’s 1953 film noir The Big Heat decades ago, and I just viewed it again this week. This time I watched it immediately after reading William P. McGivern’s novel of the same title. This is the latest in my series of posts where I rave about an underappreciated noir novel while…

More Than Pretty Pictures: Tag Lines in Classic Pulp Novels

By Eric Beetner

April 25, 2013

Let’s face it: a book cover is a seduction. No one knew this better than the pulp fiction publishers of the 1940s and ’50s, their covers all gussied up with lurid colors, barely clad women, big black guns, and promises of what was between the covers. But what’s a seduction without a good pickup line?…