The film was noir and the dialogue was black - blacker than a doll in mourning, blacker than Mildred Pierce's steaming hot java, blacker than the seam up the back of Marlene Dietrich's leg. In the cult, crime, and noir films of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, everyone was supremely eloquent. Now you, too, can be infinitely clever with Hard-Boiled: Great Lines from Classic Noir Films, a collection of over 300 lines from nearly 150 of the wickedest films, from Casablanca to Born to Kill and The Big Heat. Need something romantic to woo your gal? "If there's anything I don't like, it's a smart-cracking dame." (Jack Palance in Panic in the Streets.) Something to prove to the cops that you're not a thug? "Me? I didn't do nothin'. I didn't kill anyone. I just drove away with the body." (Zero Mostel in The Enforcer). The boss chewed you out? Try this: "I've met a lot of hard-boiled eggs in my time, but you - you're twenty minutes." (Jan Sterling in The Big Carnival). How about something for that special moment? "I felt pretty good - like an amputated leg." (Dick Powell in Murder, My Sweet). The most luridly fascinating characters say the most outrageous things - and now you can read them all in black and white. With full-color reproductions of publicity photos, promotional posters, and film stills, Hard-Boiled is a glamorous and handy round-up of the unrestrained words of the drifters and dreamers, lovers and killers whose lives are the stuff of film noir. Some days--you know the kind, the kind where you can feel the heat rise off the gritty pavement and the smog is so thick you could slice it up and serve it like day-old bread--you feel the need to change your lingo. A little kick in the teeth for the dames and mugs down at the corner dive. That's when a book like Hard Boiled: Great Lines from Classic Noir Films walks in. Hard Boiled collects the snappiest, toughest, most bitter dialogue from the greats into one easy package, ready for whipping out when the opportunity strikes. Need to describe that fatal ex? Why not borrow detective Walter Brown's line from The Narrow Margin : "What kind of a dish was she? The sixty-cent special--cheap, flashy, strictly poison under the gravy." Want to make the bartender stand up and take notice? Order The Blue Dahlia 's "Bourbon, straight! With a bourbon chaser!" End a relationship in style with Impact 's "I'll never think of our moments together without nausea." For more tender moments, cop a line from Sudden Fear to show that special someone you care: "I'm so crazy about you I could break your bones." Or you can simply emulate the classics with Follow Me Quietly 's immortal "Follow that car!" Life may be a crooked game of blackjack with no more chips left to play, but maybe you can bring in a little glimmer of something wonderful if you slide up to your favorite cannon, slip him this book, and mutter softly, "The next person that says Merry Christmas to me, I'll kill them." Used Book in Good Condition