In his film noir second volume, Bernie Dowling reviews films about ordinary jobs in a greedy crime-ridden society. Fate Vs The Working Stiff explores an ignored noir sub-genre in five pictorial essays and hundreds of photos.

The 2023 extended Hollywood actors' and writers' strike challenged the invasion of AI into their workplace.

Noir writer Philip Yordan used pattern recognition, the basic principle of AI, from the 1940s, a decade before the first academic book on the subject. So, have the ethical conundrums of AI already been a part of Hollywood since its Golden Age? The intriguing Yordan also appropriated the works of other writers and received an Academy Award for nothing.

With humor, cultural analysis, and a passion for film noir, Dowling investigates the representation of the working class during the aftermath of economic depression and war.

The dark undercurrents of Hollywood at work are fascinating on and off the screens.