"The L.A. Quartet" and The Fictional World of Archives

The "L.A. Quartet" novels by James Ellroy are:

• The Black Dahlia (New York: Mysterious Press, 1987)
  
• The Big Nowhere (New York: Mysterious Press, 1988)
  
• L.A. Confidential (New York: Mysterious Press, 1990)
  
• White Jazz (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992 )
  

The first of the quartet to be turned into a film, L.A. Confidential is a grim and thinly disguised indictment of how absolute power bestowed on a powerful civilian institution crushes and betrays even highly motivated individuals.

An analysis of the "L.A. Quartet" and the importance of historical police records in each novel by Dennis J. Duffy may be forthcoming.

L.A. Confidential

Feature Film Release Date: 1997

Conspiracy and corruption in the Los Angeles Police Department is only confirmed in the Records Room by Ed Exley (Guy Pearce). He is confronted there by Bud White (Russell Crowe), whom Captain Dudley Smith (James Cromwell) deviously manipulated just for this purpose, and the two men, unequally matched, duke it out and trash a few valuable records during their maniacal battle.

1. The Internet Movie Database

The Fictional World of Archives

Submitted by David Mattison, 1997.10.13. Updated 1997.10.13.