Five Noir Novels of the 1940s and '50s by David Goodis, edited by Robert Polito; Library of America, 807 pages ($35). One needn't strain searching for some major enigmas among the 226 volumes in the ...

This classic film noir, adapted from a David Goodis novel and filmed by Jacque Tourneur, is the tale of an artist falsely accused of murder who is forced to flee both the law and organized crime when ...