Study the enduring appeal of film noir's dark shadows, corruption, seductive femme fatales, alienated antiheroes, mid-century psychological struggles, and rain-slicked streets, often adapted from pulp novels and hardboiled crime fiction. An emphasis will be placed on the original “noir” cycle (the 1940’s and 1950’s), but we will also cover precursors as well the evolution of “neo” or “revisionist” Noir.