Extremely interesting look at the world of "adults only" cinema, with a great layout, plenty of photographs, interviews and behind-the-scenes details about early drug, nudist and atrocity movies that usually promised a lot more than they offered! Seems well-researched and is thankfully non-judgmental about the films in question, most of which would probably rate a PG-13 on today's modern screens.

A feast for the eyes! Gorgeous NOIR poster repros and interesting factoids highlight this weighty tome. Fans will swoon, and the casual viewer will have his/her interest tweaked. As a NOIR poster/lobby card collector, this book is an essential library addition, because I need to occasionally check out pictures of posters I'll sadly never be able to afford(!)

This book is a must for all film lovers. It contains the most complete collection of film noir posters anywhere. And since the book is "cofee-table" size, the posters are big enough that you can appreciate even the smallest details. The text is also very interesting, giving a short but insightful review of each film. Get this book now!!!!

This man started owning noir with his "Dark City - The Lost Art of Noir," and he is the best possible advocate/interpreter for our era.

This is just a fabulous book, with sensational art. And I look forward to each new book of his, be it fiction or non-fiction.

Eddie Muller's noir compilation, Dark City is one of the finest books ever written about American cinema. The pages are filled with descriptive images that embody the essence of the greatest chapter in Hollywood film making- noir. If jazz is America's cultural contribution to music,then American film noir stands as the pinnacle contribution to the medium of motion pictures. Muller's book, Dark City is an enlightening testament to the creative genius of directors, actors, actresses, and cinematographers associated with the creation of noir film making. Muller explores over one hundred of these dark films with interesting insights about the themes, scripts, lighting, and camera work that marked so many of them as classics. Muller cleverly divides the book's chapters into separate realms, where the danger of noir themes often thrived. The chapter "The Precinct" features expositions on Detective Story, Where The Sidewalk Ends, and On Dangerous Ground. "Shamus Flats", a section devoted to private investigators, critiques films such as: The Maltese Falcon and Out of the Past. These and other chapters are augmented with captivating black and white stills. Photographs of actors and actresses on lobby cards, movie posters, and frame shots adorn every page. What differentiates Dark City from other literary works written about cimema, is Muller's chilling and revelatory research on the private lives of the people marked by noir. In many instances the dangerous fiction of celluloid noir crossed into reality for many of its players and creators. Readers will absorb the mysterious details Muller exposes about noir stalwarts such as: Gene Tierney, Robert Micthum, Lizabeth Scott, Tom Neal, Ava Gardner, Dana Andrews, and Gloria Grahame to name just a few. Muller's writing style is witty, engaging, and stroked by a geniune infatuation for this mesmerizing cinematic art form. Any writer that describes Marie Windsor's bust as being able to "suppport a double run of pinochle" can pull up a lazy boy and a six pack for an all night noir feast with me anytime. Every noir enthusiast should own this exceptional book.

If you like Film Noir, or American movies in general, then you must read this masterpiece. It is a thrilling ride into the world of this specific genre of American Film. Reading Dark City is like going to the best of these movies.

Eddie Muller's Dark City is a must for any lover of Film Noir! Who can resist a book with such chapter headings as "Sinister Heights," "Blind Alley," and (my favorite) "Vixenville." Eddie Muller has advoided the pitfall of Nicholas Christophers's "Somewhere in the Night" in fashioning a prose, while not only witty, has great pace and never stalls into leaden analysis. Muller also provides small bios of noir icons as Robert Mitchum, and Lizabeth Scott among others.

He also put a great deal of care into the design of the book and the movie stills.This book was a real treat and I can't wait to read the author's next book.

This novels takes you back to the late 1940's and the San Franscisso era of boxing. Muller brings this period of history to life with active characters and his insight into the boxing world is topnotch. Billy Nichols is a sports reporter and is beat is the boxing world and he befriends many boxers and managers
covering the sport. On the very first page Muller sets the bar high by having the murder committed and the murder revealed all by page 2. Nichols role in all this is the cover up. He helps the boxer clean up the crime scene and remove the body. Now remember this is the 1940's and DNA technology wasn't invented to the
caliber of what we have today. The rest of the story is told by Billy and his fast stepping to keep ahead of the deceptive assigned the case. Since Muller set his sights so high so early in the book the middle falls flat. He knew where he wanted the story to go he just couldn't grasp the words to get it there. Close to the ending the story picks up the high pace of the beginning chapters and the ending is full of tension. The big
question is will Billy be found out about his accessory to the crime and go to jail or will Muller save his character so we can have other book about him.

Evokes the color and atmosphere of the fight game in post WWII San Francisco from a "roman noir" perspective. Tough dames, wise cracking reporter, hard luck fighter and a host of streetwise characters. Muller reproduces the jargon of the era with an expert ear. The language, description and characterizatons are worth the price of admission. The story gets off to a terrific start, then the pace falters until the action is revitalized at the end. As the mystery and doublecrosses are unraveled, plot credability weakens and the reader becomes aware of the author's strained attempt to clean up messy loose ends. The little stories spun within the novel enhance the characters and entertain the reader. However attmepts to give the protagonist spiritual or philosophical dimension were awkward and intrusive. On the whole it was a very enjoyable and promising light novel.

Eddie Muller's THE DISTANCE is a wonderfully atmospheric noir tale of murder and passion set in colorful, corrupt, post-war San Francisco. [Note that the San Francisco of the late 40s was much closer in time and ambiance to the period of the great 1906 earthquake and fire than to the glistening "city on a hill" tourist mecca for yuppies and trans-gendered folk it has become today.]

THE DISTANCE combines two cultural elements which are now fading memories: professional boxing and the great newspapers. The Brown Bomber has retired to debt, and the heavyweight crown is available for a price. San Francisco is served by five daily newspapers. [Television is just coming on board and has not yet swamped the ship.] Men are men and women are women, and don't bet on the outcome.

Noir fiction depends for its success on authentic speech more than on highly cultivated plot, and Muller does a fine job of recreating the languages of the period. Just listen, and you can hear the color!

I liked especially that Muller mixed it up, but never went for the knockout. THE DISTANCE, as a title, reflects that long 15 rounds which were the nature of a life then, the grinding working class struggle to survive. And precious little whining.

Some 50 years ago, the women of this book worked in relative obsurity amidst the shadows of large studios during film noir's heyday. Now with the resurgent popularity of the film noir genre, these actresses are finally being recognized for the keen talent they possess and the effect they had on a generation of movies.

None of these women are household names because none of these women were given the star publicity treatment that Myrna Loy, Joan Crawford and others were givne during the same time period. But their stories are every bit as interesting and author Eddie Muller tells them wonderfully.

Muller is obviously a fan of folm noir, but does not let this color these biographies. Rather, Muller deftly allows the six actresses featured here to tell their own stories. The result is an honest, touching and insightful view into the Hollywood moviemaking era of the late 30s to early 50s.

Each actress' life is chronicled from the time she was born until the present. The personalities shine through as Muller shows the different ways in which each woman found a love for acting and was later "discovered" by Hollywood. The result is poignant. From the exhileration of the "big" movie to the sorrow at the death of a spouse, each life is fascinating. A great book!

Dark City's leading citizen has done it again with Dames. In this beautiful book, 'hiz honor' introduces us to the lives and work of Jane Greer, Ann Savage, Audrey Totter, Coleen Gray, Evelyn Keyes and Marie Windsor. Do you dare argue?, the quintessential Noir Babes?

It is fair to say that the author's work here is nothing less then visionary. These actresses have never received the credit that they deserved and now in the their golden years someone has come forward to celebrate the contributions that they made to the American Cinema. The word on the street in Dark City is, that no one could have done it better than the Mayor, Eddie Muller.

Among his works, Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir and a recently released novel 'The Distance'. He is the co-director of the American Cinematheque's Annual Festival Of Film Noir at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood during March and April.

Eddie Muller demonstrated his noir chops with the earlier Dark City, but this is a more personal, intimate view of some of the players - including some neglected ones.
The six women profiled (once each in 1950 and in 2000) might be seen by some as marginal characters...before they read this engaging volume.