Gary D. Rhodes is a lecturer in film studies at Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Gary D. Rhodes, a master at making out-of-the-way topics both accessible and appealing, performs a grand service with this savvy forum on the strange and necessary filmmaking career of Edgar G. Ulmer. From the martyred brilliance of The Black Cat through the unlikely finery of Bluebeard and Detour—with his own tangle of detours into ethnic cinema, symphonic soap opera, and drive-in schlockery—Ulmer comes into view for the first time as a compleat artist, perhaps the most influential forebear of the New Century's independent-cinema movement.

• Chapter 1 Table of ContentsChapter 2 DedicationChapter 3 IntroductionPart 4 I: Texts and ContextsChapter 5 1. Edgar G. Ulmer: The Low-End Independent FilmmakerPar ExcellenceChapter 6 2. Edgar G. Ulmer: The Godfather of Sexploitation?Chapter 7 3. At the Border: Edgar G. Ulmer's The Singing Blacksmith (1938) and Cossacks in Exile (1939)Part 9 II: Film NoirChapter 10 4. Dead Fathers and Other Detours: Ulmer's NoirChapter 11 5. See Spot: The Parametric Film Noirs of Edgar G. UlmerChapter 12 6. Even the Pictures Lie: The Unreliable Narrator in the Film Noirs of Edgar G. UlmerChapter 13 7. Edgar G. Ulmer's Homicidal Noirs: Psychosis and Possession in Strange Illusion, The Strange Woman, and BluebeardChapter 14 8. All Wrong Turns: Tracking Subjectivity in Detour (1945)Chapter 15 9. Masculinity and Masochism in Detour (1945)Part 16 III: Individual FilmsChapter 17 10. Puppets and Painting: Authorship and Artistry in Edgar G. Ulmer's BluebeardChapter 18 11. Beyond Citizen Kane: Ruthless as Radical PsychobiographyChapter 19 12. "The Gateway to America": Assimilation and Art in Carnegie Hall (1947)Chapter 20 13. Meeting The Man From Planet X (1951)Chapter 21 14. Nothing to Hyde: Reading The Daughter of Dr. Jekyll (1957)Chapter 22 15. Murder, Family, and Weird Science:The Amazing Transparent ManChapter 23 16. "A Sword and Sandal Gone Screwy" or, Edgar G. Ulmer's Journey to the Lost City—L'AtlantidePart 24 IV: Case Study—The Black Cat (1934)Chapter 25 17. Bauhaus of Horrors: Edgar G. Ulmer and The Black CatChapter 26 18 The Devil's Contract: The Satisfaction of Self-Destruction in Edgar G. Ulmer's The Black CatChapter 27 19 "Tremonstrous" Hopes and "Oke" Results: The 1934 Reception of The Black Cat

Gary D. Rhodes is a lecturer in film studies at Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Gary D. Rhodes, a master at making out-of-the-way topics both accessible and appealing, performs a grand service with this savvy forum on the strange and necessary filmmaking career of Edgar G. Ulmer. From the martyred brilliance of The Black Cat through the unlikely finery of Bluebeard and Detour—with his own tangle of detours into ethnic cinema, symphonic soap opera, and drive-in schlockery—Ulmer comes into view for the first time as a compleat artist, perhaps the most influential forebear of the New Century's independent-cinema movement.

• Chapter 1 Table of ContentsChapter 2 DedicationChapter 3 IntroductionPart 4 I: Texts and ContextsChapter 5 1. Edgar G. Ulmer: The Low-End Independent FilmmakerPar ExcellenceChapter 6 2. Edgar G. Ulmer: The Godfather of Sexploitation?Chapter 7 3. At the Border: Edgar G. Ulmer's The Singing Blacksmith (1938) and Cossacks in Exile (1939)Part 9 II: Film NoirChapter 10 4. Dead Fathers and Other Detours: Ulmer's NoirChapter 11 5. See Spot: The Parametric Film Noirs of Edgar G. UlmerChapter 12 6. Even the Pictures Lie: The Unreliable Narrator in the Film Noirs of Edgar G. UlmerChapter 13 7. Edgar G. Ulmer's Homicidal Noirs: Psychosis and Possession in Strange Illusion, The Strange Woman, and BluebeardChapter 14 8. All Wrong Turns: Tracking Subjectivity in Detour (1945)Chapter 15 9. Masculinity and Masochism in Detour (1945)Part 16 III: Individual FilmsChapter 17 10. Puppets and Painting: Authorship and Artistry in Edgar G. Ulmer's BluebeardChapter 18 11. Beyond Citizen Kane: Ruthless as Radical PsychobiographyChapter 19 12. "The Gateway to America": Assimilation and Art in Carnegie Hall (1947)Chapter 20 13. Meeting The Man From Planet X (1951)Chapter 21 14. Nothing to Hyde: Reading The Daughter of Dr. Jekyll (1957)Chapter 22 15. Murder, Family, and Weird Science:The Amazing Transparent ManChapter 23 16. "A Sword and Sandal Gone Screwy" or, Edgar G. Ulmer's Journey to the Lost City—L'AtlantidePart 24 IV: Case Study—The Black Cat (1934)Chapter 25 17. Bauhaus of Horrors: Edgar G. Ulmer and The Black CatChapter 26 18 The Devil's Contract: The Satisfaction of Self-Destruction in Edgar G. Ulmer's The Black CatChapter 27 19 "Tremonstrous" Hopes and "Oke" Results: The 1934 Reception of The Black Cat