House sound : reverb, offscreen sound, and voice-over narration in early RKO noir -- Sonic effects : sound and fury in 40s noir -- Audio technologies : intercoms and dictaphones, telephones and radios, phonographs and jukeboxes -- Blues in the night : popular and classical instrumental source music -- Singing detectives and bluesmen, black jazzwomen and torch singers -- The big number (side b) : killing them softly -- The big number (side a) : siren city