The Films of Nicholas Ray: The Poet of Nightfall

Films like In a Lonely Place, Johnny Guitar, They Live by Night, and most of all Rebel Without a Cause were to ensure cult status for Ray as one of the most revered of all American ‘maverick’ auteurs. This new edition of Geoff Andrew’s unique and acclaimed study of his films discusses Ray’s stylistic artistry and abiding thematic concerns, and his work with such legends as James Dean, Humphrey Bogart, James Mason, Joan Crawford and Richard Burton. Above all the book shows how the vivid emotional authenticity of his films, coupled with his special brand of visual expressionism and his eloquently voiced disenchantment with the American Dream, were in established for him a profoundly loyal following in America and Europe that lasts to this day. This new edition, which covers all of Ray’s films, includes an updated introduction and fresh reflections on the enduring importance in the 21st century of one of the greatest directors to have worked in Hollywood.