Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir, by Eddie Muller (Revised and Expanded Edition, 2021, Running Press, 448p.--E-BOOK VERSION)
EACH BLOG POST REPRESENTS A CHAPTER IN THE BOOK.
FILM ANNOTATIONS ARE IN THE ORDER OF THEIR DISCUSSION IN THE BOOK.
CLICK ON ANY T.O.C. LINK (COLOR AND UNDERLINE) TO LINK TO THE ANNOTATIONS FOR THAT CHAPTER.
CHAPTERS THAT HAVE LINKS HAVE BEEN COMPLETED OR ARE IN PROCESS.
CHAPTERS IN LARGE TYPE WITHOUT LINKS ARE THE CHAPTER YOU ARE LOOKING AT.
CHAPTERS THAT ARE NOT LINKED ARE CHAPTERS THAT HAVE NOT YET BEEN ANNOTATED
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
C 6: "Shamus Flats: Lost someone? Gumshoes for hire"
C 7: "Vixenville: Fiefdom of the femme fatale"
C 8: "Blind Alley: Crossroads of coincidence and Fate"
C 9: "The Psych Ward: Where vexed veterans are quarantined"
C 10: "Knockover Square: Deluxe district of heists and holdups"
C 11: "Losers Lane: Street of sorry psychopaths"
C 12: "The Big House: Last stop on a wayward course"
C 13: "Thieves Highway: The risky road out of town"
C 14: "The Stage Door: Enjoy a show... before it's too late
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I have been re-jiggering some of my information interests lately. Away from sports, and toward another long standing interest--film. My favorite films are silent films. My second favorite films are Films Noirs. It is to my second favorite films that this blog is aimed. This is a meta-site blog. There will be little to no analysis or opinion on my part. Far more knowledgeable people than I can be consulted on that.
This project began when I acquired a well known Noir compendium: Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir (revised and expanded edition) by Eddie Muller, AKA the Czar of Noir (Muller also organizes an annual Noir Film Festival, held in the Bay Area). More on him can be found at his website. It is not an academic treatment, rather an impressionistic tour of the various aspects of Noir as he sees them. It is a very interesting, educational, entertaining read. But the best part of it, for me, is an in chapter running filmography. It identifies hundreds of Noirs. (It is not exhaustive. See Michael F. Keaney's amazing Film Noir Guide: 745 Films of the Classic Era 1940-1959 for that. Keaney, also not an academic, has produced what has become a standard reference in the field, and his annotated bibliography alone-- although my copy is current only through the early 2000s--is more than worth the price.)
These Noirs, in the context of their time, theme, and style, inspired me to put together this companion, which links every film to four sources of further information about it:
1. The American Film Institute Catalog (AFI)
2. The Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
3. Rotten Tomatoes (RT)
4. Wikipedia (WIK)
At these sites you will be able to find exhaustive information about each film discussed in Dark City. In fact, you will be able to find anything you want to know about each film and then some.
In addition, there will be links to more information (if available) about the following aspects of each film, in the below listed order:
1. Director
2. Top Billed male star
3. Top Billed female star
4. Complete script
5. Studio Press Book
6. DVD/Blue Ray commentator track information
7. Synopsis and lengthy script quotations
8. Cinematographer
9. Music Composer
10. Other interesting things about the film
11. Gross Revenue--actual and inflation adjusted
12. ** will mark available Theatrical Trailers (coming attractions) at IMDb. The videos are usually 1 to 3 minutes in length and have a style of their own.
That is all that this blog will do. It will help you increase your enjoyment of Muller's wonderful book. It will serve as an introduction to whatever it is that Noir is in the context of Film (a much debated topic). What it will not do is link you to the actual films. Almost every film in the book is copyright protected. I will not link to sites that violate copyright. However, the above sources will give more than enough information to legally enjoy most, if not all of the films.
And for those with budgets, if you have a library card at any public or academic library, and the film is not available at that library, you can (yourself or have your librarian do it for you), find the film at the world's largest library catalog: WorldCat (look the film up as a title). Then simply ask your local librarian to loan the film for you via Inter Library loan. They will acquire it from the library that is geographically nearest your home. If your public library is too small to do this directly, they should have connections to a larger public library that can. Your Public Librarian will enjoy the chance to provide such a service, as it is not particularly well known outside the academic world. Since WorldCat is the largest catalog, it has the most items and is connected to the most libraries (public, academic, etc.). Which means that if a film is available via DVD, blue ray, or other formats, you will almost certainly be able to find it. (ADDED February 1, 2023).
Because of the sheer volume in the filmography, the links above are to chapter by chapter filmographies. That way you will be able to explore whatever aspects of Noir that are interest to you. All Table of Contents links will link to all other T.O.C. links.
I will be uploading this blog as I go. So keep an eye on it for additions.
Note: A great place to start (although dated), is Annenberg Lerner's 10 part documentary: American Cinema (Particularly Chapter 7: Film Noir. About 60 minutes). Narrated by Richard Widmark (Crimreads.com--Zach Vasquez). (ADDED January 29, 2023).
Notes on selected sources and annotations.
*=Blacklisted--* means that the person was a victim of Blacklist begun by the US House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) as result of hearings held in the late 1940s.
Career numbers, dates, and spans are based on American Film Institute (AFI) data. Different sources tend to have different numbers for various reasons. I have used AFI because it is an internally consistent source, easily enumerated.
Note: Box Office Grosses, when available, are taken from Variety (1st week in January Issue). When they are not available from that source, they are taken (if available), from Wikipedia, who's contributors generally use the Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television; The William Shaefer Ledger. Appendix 1, (1995) 15:sup1, P. 1-31, if not specifically stated otherwise. The different sources make comparing grosses between them impossible. I used the Variety source because it places the film gross in the context of other top grossing films for the year. In certain cases I will use other sources, which I will identify. For Comparisons to purchasing power today (2023) the source is Official Data Foundation (Ian Webster): PPT Figures are rounded to the closest million dollars.
Note: Title Screen shots for most of these films can be found at Filmsite.org, an amazing film compendium by Film Critic and Historian Tim Dirks. Simply click on the decade and then the year. Then "find in page" or scroll to the title of interest. Individual titles are arranged in alphabetical order.
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Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir, by Eddie Muller (Revised and Expanded Edition, 2021, Running Press, 448p.--E-BOOK VERSION)
EACH BLOG POST REPRESENTS A CHAPTER IN THE BOOK.
FILM ANNOTATIONS ARE IN THE ORDER OF THEIR DISCUSSION IN THE BOOK.
CLICK ON ANY T.O.C. LINK (COLOR AND UNDERLINE) TO LINK TO THE ANNOTATIONS FOR THAT CHAPTER.
CHAPTERS THAT HAVE LINKS HAVE BEEN COMPLETED OR ARE IN PROCESS.
CHAPTERS IN LARGE TYPE WITHOUT LINKS ARE THE CHAPTER YOU ARE LOOKING AT.
CHAPTERS THAT ARE NOT LINKED ARE CHAPTERS THAT HAVE NOT YET BEEN ANNOTATED
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
C 6: "Shamus Flats: Lost someone? Gumshoes for hire"
C 7: "Vixenville: Fiefdom of the femme fatale"
C 8: "Blind Alley: Crossroads of coincidence and Fate"
C 9: "The Psych Ward: Where vexed veterans are quarantined"
C 10: "Knockover Square: Deluxe district of heists and holdups"
C 11: "Losers Lane: Street of sorry psychopaths"
C 12: "The Big House: Last stop on a wayward course"
C 13: "Thieves Highway: The risky road out of town"
C 14: "The Stage Door: Enjoy a show... before it's too late
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