Book excerpts--and plenty of them

There are a whole lot of excerpts from Big Screen Boston up here, though most of them are in past months' archives. Here are links to some of those excerpts:

• Introduction: The 'Beanstreet movies, Part 1, a look at the gritty local dramas of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
• Mystery Street, the 1950 film noir--the first fictional feature to take advantage of predominantly Greater Boston locations.
• Introduction: The 'Beanstreets' movies, Part 2, a look at the impact of those movies.
• Girltalk, Kate Davis' unforgettable 1987 documentary.
• Billy in the Lowlands, Jan Egleson's ground-breaking 1979 drama.
• The Brink's Job, 1978's amusing comic take on the 1950s robbery and--perhaps more importantly--the fiasco-like production that soured Hollywood on Boston for years to come. 
• The Blinking Madonna and Other Miracles. Beth Harrington's one-of-a-kind personal documentary.
• Titicut Follies, Frederick Wiseman's still-disturbing 1967 documentary about Bridgewater State Hospital.
• The Thomas Crown Affair, the impossibly urbane Steve McQueen picture.
• Walk East on Beacon!, the hysterical (but scenic) Red-baiting 1952 "thriller."
• The Dark End of the Street, Egleson's equally engrossing follow-up to Billy in the Lowlands.
• The Friends of Eddie Coyle, the best movie ever made in Boston, Period. And still not on home video!