 
The
Maltese Falcon
by
Dashiell Hammett
One
of the first detective films to use the expressionistic
lighting characteristic of noir style, Huston's adaptation
was also the first to capture Hammett's taut dialogue and
lean storytelling style. Bogart, meanwhile, became the
definitive Sam Spade, bringing the tough-talking,
hard-drinking sleuth to life.
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The
Big Sleep
by
Raymond Chandler
A
master craftsman of the hardboiled detective genre, Raymond
Chandler defined a paradigm and inspired a host of imitators
in fiction, film, and television. Devastating femme fatales,
wry and incorruptible detectives, gritty urban
landscapes—his work established the basic vocabulary of
the genre.
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Double
Indemnity
by
James M. Cain
Directed
by Billy Wilder and co-scripted by hardboiled master Raymond
Chandler. This film takes Cain's riveting and complex plot
and pulls out all the stops—from dramatic lighting
borrowed from the German Expressionist silent films Wilder
had worked on earlier in his career, to a tightly wound plot
and a classic femme fatale. The results are staggering.
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Phantom
Lady
by
Cornell Woolrich
Penned
under a pseudonym, William Irish, Cornell Woolrich's Phantom
Lady pioneered the now-common "innocent-man-condemned" plot.
In the often-overlooked noir drama adapted from the Woolrich
novel, director Robert Siodmak successfully employs many of
the genre's technical devices to create a dark urban
atmosphere.
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Dark
Passage
by
David Goodis
Initially
published serially in the Saturday Evening Post, Dark
Passage established Goodis as a leading author of crime
fiction. The film adaptation, an underappreciated gem of the
noir genre, was filmed at Warner Bros in 1947 by Delmer
Daves; the success of the film landed Goodis on the studio's
payroll as a screenwriter.
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Ulysses
by James Joyce
The
U.S. Customs Office banned the importation of this
classic for 15 years on the grounds that it was
obscene. In 1918, chapters published in the Little
Review were burned by the U.S. Post Office. In
1933, the ACLU won a major legal victory that
forced the U.S. Customs Service to lift its ban.
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Candide
by Voltaire
This
critically acclaimed satire was declared obscene by
U.S. Customs in 1929 and seized in 1930. At the
time, the book was an assigned text at Harvard, and
was defended by two professors. The book was then
permitted in a different edition. The U.S. Post
Office demanded that a mail order book catalog omit
the book in 1944.
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Leaves
of Grass by Walt
Whitman
In
1881, the Boston District Attorney demanded
expurgation of this American classic and threatened
criminal prosecution unless this demand was met.
According to the prosecutor, the volume of poetry
was in need of a few "fig leaves."
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The
Grapes of Wrath by John
Steinbeck
Generally
cited for "vulgar language," this American classic
has been burned, banned, and challenged since its
publication. The first incident was a burning by
the St. Louis public library, and more recently it
was challenged as questionable material in
California as reading material for an 11th grade
literature class.
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Brave
New World by Aldous
Huxley
Huxley's
classic has been accused of being anti-family and
anti-Christian and has been challenged due to
"language and moral content." It faced a challenge
in California in 1993 on the grounds that it is
"centered around negative activity."
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Fahrenheit
451 by Ray Bradbury
Ironically,
this novel about book-burning and censorship faced
expurgation in California in 1992 when students
received copies with words deemed to be offensive
crossed out. Students and parents protested, and
after being contacted by the media, school
officials agreed to stop using the expurgated
copies.
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The
Bluest Eye by Toni
Morrison
This
novel by the Pulitzer prize-winning author was
pulled from a high school in Alaska in 1994 and
cited for being too "controversial." The novel was
both challenged and banned in Pennsylvania in 1994,
and faced challenges in both Florida and
Massachusetts due to the book's sexual
content.
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The
Diary of a Young Girl by Anne
Frank
Anne
Frank's diary of the holocaust has been a target of
frequent challenges. While a county in Virginia
objected to sexually offensive language in 1982, an
Alabama textbook committee called for the rejection
of the diary on the grounds that it was "a real
downer."
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The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark
Twain
Ironically,
this book which was attacked after its first
publication for being too racially tolerant is now
being attacked for being too racist. Twain's
classic was deemed upon publication as "rough,
coarse and inelegant," and not suited for
"intelligent, respectable people."
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