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NOIR CITY Boston will return to its home at The Brattle, June 13-15. This year’s program comprises five double features that turn a spotlight on the women of film noir, inspired by Eddie Muller’s Dark City Dames: The Wicked Women of Film Noir, reissued in April 2025 in a newly revised and expanded edition with the title Dark City Dames: The Women Who Defined Film Noir..
Five of this year’s films star actresses profiled in Muller’s book, Jane Greer, Marie Windsor, Audrey Totter, Evelyn Keyes, and Coleen Gray in, respectively, Out of the Past (1947), The Narrow Margin (1952), Tension (1949), 99 River Street (1951), and The Sleeping City (1950).
FNF board member, author, and film historian Foster Hirsch will be your host. Hirsch is also the author of author of Film Noir: The Dark Side of the Screen and Hollywood and the Movies of the Fifties: The Collapse of the Studio System, the Thrill of Cinerama, and the Invasion of the Ultimate Body Snatcher--Television.
Schedule, individual tickets and ticket packs available on the Brattle’s website.
✽ If you buy your ticket pack before June 1, you will receive a $10 discount.
CONFIRMED 2025 NOIR CITY DATES
NOIR CITY: Boston: June 13-15
The Brattle, Cambridge, MA
NOIR CITY: Portland: July 11-13
Hollywood Theatre, Portland, OR
NOIR CITY: Chicago: September 5-11
Music Box Theatre, Chicago, IL
NOIR CITY: Detroit: September 19-21
Redford Theatre, Detroit, MI
NOIR CITY: D.C.: October 10-23
AFI Silver Theatre, Silver Spring, MD
NOIR CITY: Philadelphia: November 14-16
The Colonial Theatre, Phoenixville, PA
FNF prez Eddie Muller will be at Vallejo’s Empress Theatre on June 21, 7:30 p.m. for an unforgettable evening featuring a screening of the Robert Rossen’s classic noir Johnny O’clock (1947), a book signing and live music in the Empress Marquee Club. Eddie’s books will be available for purchase on-site from Alibi Books.
When underground casino owner Johnny (Dick Powell) receives an expensive watch from his former flame Nellie (Ellen Drew) who’s now married to his partner, he tasks hatcheck girl Harriet (Nina Foch) with returning it. Harriet is later found dead, an apparent suicide. Her sister (Evelyn Keyes) comes to town, insistent that Harriet didn’t commit suicide. She and Johnny fall for each other, but Johnny’s past threatens their future.
VIP Admission -$25 per person
Gain early access to an intimate book signing with the author in Mr. Ric’s Eddie Muller’s Bar Noir. Enjoy priority entry and a welcome noir cocktail crafted from a recipe in Eddie’s book Bar Noir: Cocktails Inspired by the World of Film Noir.
General Admission $15 per person
After the film, head to the Empress Marquee Club for cocktails, live music, and your turn in the book signing line.
Tickets are available here.
FNF prez Eddie Muller returns to the Hollywood Theatre Friday-Sunday, July 11-13 for NOIR CITY: Portland, a weekend-long festival of both classic and obscure noir films from the 1940s and 1950s. This year’s films star the six actresses profiled in Muller’s newly revised and expanded book, Dark City Dames: The Wicked Women of Film Noir.
Jane Greer, Marie Windsor, Audrey Totter, Evelyn Keyes, Coleen Gray, and Ann Savage display their brilliance in, respectively, Out of the Past (1947), The Narrow Margin (1952), Alias Nick Beal (1949), 99 River Street (1951), The Killing (1956), and Detour (1945).
The festival also features the event “A Conversation with Eddie Muller & Book Signing” on Saturday, July 12th. Eddie will discuss his friendships and collaborations with Greer, Windsor, Totter, Keyes, Gray, and Savage, including the book's addition of ten new profiles of lesser recognized actresses.
Along with classic-era noirs, Peter Yates’ elegiac character piece The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), featuring a superb performance by Robert Mitchem as a low-level gangster trying to stay out of jail, will screen at 4 pm on Saturday, May 10.
Schedule, full series passes, and tickets available at the Hollywood Theatre’s website.
⚠ VIP passes are sold out.
FNF prez Eddie Muller's newest book, NOIR BAR: Cocktails Inspired by the World of Film Noir combines two of his greatest passions, film noir and cocktails.
In the words of the author, "Noir Bar offers a booze-based excursion through America's most popular film genre, pairing easy-to-master recipes with the kind of behind-the-scenes anecdotes that I like to include in my film intros and books." Some of the drinks are the ones being imbibed on screen and some are named after the films, the characters or the actors themselves. The recipes came from a variety of sources including Ernest Hemmingway and Sam Fuller. Some were even created by Eddie himself. Eddie also draws on his past as a bartender to coach you on the supplies and the techniques you will need to create these libations in your own home. The book is stylishly laid out and filled with movie stills, poster art, behind-the-scenes images, and cocktail photography. The book is available from Running Press.
The revised and expanded edition of FNF prez and Noir Alley host Eddie Muller's Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir is now available for purchase from the TCM Shop or your favorite bookseller. + READ MORE
Preserved by the Film Noir Foundation in 2013 and now beautifully restored through the UCLA Film & Television Archive, Never Open That Door (No abras nunca esa puerta) is a significant example of the cross-cultural cinematic legacy shared by the United States and Argentina during the post-WWII era. Based on two short stories by American master of suspense fiction Cornell Woolrich, the film is brilliantly directed by Argentine filmmaker Carlos Hugo Christensen with extraordinary cinematography by Pablo Tabernero. ORDER YOUR COPY
Says FNF founder Eddie Muller about this recent restoration, “It is a revelation to experience the work of an all-American author, in Spanish, and rendered as well – or perhaps better – than any Hollywood adaptation of his work.” + READ MORE
Argentine director Román Viñoly Barreto's El vampiro negro (The Black Vampire) is available from Flicker Alley in a deluxe Blu‑ray/DVD edition. A virtually unknown remake of Fritz Lang's seminal 1931 thriller M, this 1953 Argentine noir is a female-centered take on the tale. + READ MORE
We are proud to announce the release of two FNF restorations as Blu‑ray/DVD combos from Flicker Alley: The Bitter Stems and The Beast Must Die, two classics of Argentine noir.. → READ MORE
Did you know that The Film Noir Foundation regularly livestreams on our Facebook page in which Eddie Muller answers questions submitted by our e‑mail subscribers? All previous broadcasts are available on our YouTube broadcast archives page.
→ Subscribe to our mailing list, so you can get your question answered.
The latest ASK EDDIE broadcast on Facebook June 12 and on YouTube the following day.
Here are the winners of the Film Noir Foundation's NOIR CITY Magazine #43 donation drive held June 3-10:
★ The three new subscriber winners of the five NOIR CITY Magazine - digital - back issues — #17, #19, #22, #24, #28 are: Michael Rosenberg, Hoboken; NJ; Kathryn Atwood, Rohnert Park, CA; and Gary Young, Douglasville, GA
★ The two new subscriber winners who will receive Flicker Alley’s Blu-ray/DVD releases of two FNF restorations — Too Late for Tears (1949) with Lizabeth Scott and Dan Duryea and The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950) with Lee J. Cobb: Jane Wyatt, and John Dall are: Mary Corredor, Austin, TX; and Robert Eckert, Bloomington, IN
★ The three winners of FNF restoration Blu-ray/DVD of Woman on the Run (1950) with Ann Sheridan are: Thomas Strauch, Hickory Hills, IL; Louis Zanine, Elkins Park, PA; and Susan Nelson, Mosow, TN
★The winner of the Criterion Blu-ray Special Edition 4K release of David Lynch’s Blue Velvet (1986), plus a Blu-ray of Force of Evil (1948) with John Garfield: Mary Pryce, Sarasota, FL
★ The winner of the Flicker Alley Blu-ray/DVDs of two FNF Argentine restorations — No abras nunca esa puerta (1952) and El vampiro negro (1953), plus two English noirs — Brighton Rock (1948) and It Always Rains on Sunday (1947): Benjamin Iwasevic, Hinckley, OH
★ The winner of the Kino Lorber’s Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema XXII featuring the films Plunder Road (1957), The Scarlet Hour (1956), and The Enforcer (1951), plus two Lizabeth Scott features — a Blu-ray of Desert Fury (1947) and a DVD of Pitfall (1948): Jacquelyn Cheek, Fredericksburg, VA
★ The winner of the Flicker Alley Blu-ray/DVDs of FNF restorations Trapped (1949), The Guilty/High Tide (1947), and The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950), plus two features with Shelley Winters — Larceny (1948) and Odds Against Tomorrow (1959), plus from Fantagraphics, the book Ghostwriter by Spanish cartoonist Rayco Pulido: Nicholas Consales, Fanwood, NJ
★ The winner of three international noir titles – Blu-ray/DVD of the FNF’s 2024 restoration No abras nunca esa puerta (Argentina 1952), Blu-ray of Black Gravel (Germany 1961), and a DVD of Le Doulos (France 1962) with Jean-Paul Belmondo, plus from Fantagraphics, the book Fog Over Tolbiac Bridge, Jacques Tardi's graphic novel adaptations of legendary French crime writer Léo Malet's original "Nestor Burma" novel, as well as Tardi’s Run Like Crazy, Run Like Hell: Joe Smith, Oro Valley, AZ
★ The winner of the 27” x 40” mounted NOIR CITY 22 Alicia Malone display poster from the January 2025 festival: Randall Kau, New York, NY
Thank you to everyone who contributed to the Film Noir Foundation! A reminder that anyone who contributes $20 or more to the FNF and signs up our mailing list always receives a free year's subscription to NOIR CITY e-magazine. Contributors may receive additional FNF thank you gifts depending on the amount of the donation.
The film series In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City takes place June 6 - June 24 at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. Inspired by film historian and NOIR CITY Magazine Editor-in-Chief Imogen Sara Smith’s book of the same title, the twelve-film series focuses on film noirs set in suburbia and small towns, on the road, in the desert, and along borderlands. While the opening weekend, Friday June 6-Sunday, June 9, comprises four films, the rest of the series features one to two screenings per week.
Imogen will be introducing and leading post-screening discussions for the opening weekend films: Michael Curtiz’s 1950 film noir The Breaking Point adapted from Ernest Hemmingway’s novel To Have and Have Not; Ida Lupino’s tense tale of two ordinary men who cross paths with a psychopath in the Mexican desert, The Hitch-Hiker; Lewis Allen’s 1947 color noir Desert Fury which FNF prez Eddie Muller deemed “the gayest movie ever made in Hollywood’s Golden Era.”; and Raoul Walsh’s 1947 noir Western Pursued, shot by renown cinematographer James Wong Howe.
Film historian David Thomson introduces and leads the post-screening discussions for Alfred Hitchcock’s favorite film from his own oeuvre, 1943’s Shadow of a Doubt featuring Joseph Cotton as the charming and possibly murderous Uncle Charlie on Saturday, June 14, and for Nicholas Ray's 1948 existential romance embedded in a film noir They Live by Night on Wednesday, July 2.
Eddie will be introducing and leading post-screening discussions for Edmund Goulding’s 1947 noir Nightmare Alley starring Tyrone Power in the part he fought hardest for in his career, a ruthless carny turned fake society psychic on Friday, July 18 and for Phil Karlson’s 1955 “ripped from the headlines” docu-noir The Phenix City Story on Thursday, July 24.
Tickets and the full schedule are available on the BAMPFA’s website.
In this revised and expanded edition of his essential volume Dark City Dames, Eddie Muller—FNF founder and Turner Classic Movies host—offers a uniquely intimate look at the women who defined film noir, now featuring updated text, photos, and ten new star profiles.
In Dark City Dames, acclaimed film historian Eddie Muller takes readers into the world of six women who made a lasting impression in this cinematic terrain—from veteran “bad girls” Audrey Totter, Marie Windsor, and Jane Greer to unexpected genre fixtures Evelyn Keyes, Coleen Gray, and Ann Savage. The book provides in-depth profiles of these formidable women during the height of their careers, circa 1950, as they balanced love and career, struggled against typecasting, and sought fulfillment in a ruthless business. Their personal stories—teeming with larger-than-life characters like Howard Hughes, Louis B. Mayer, Robert Mitchum, Otto Preminger, and John Huston—offer a fascinating counterpoint to their movies. Then, Dark City Dames revisits each woman fifty years later to witness their hard-won—and triumphant—survival. On every page their own voices ring through, reflecting on their lives with as much passion, pain, intelligence, energy, and humor as any movie script. Muller conducted far-ranging interviews with the original six women profiled in Dark City Dames, in the process becoming a friend and confidante to each.
In this revised and expanded edition, he updates their stories and shares illuminating, never-before-told memories of his time with them. This edition also includes compelling new profiles of ten additional women who left an indelible mark on film noir, including Joan Bennett, Gail Russell, Rhonda Fleming, and Claire Trevor—all packaged in a stunning redesign that offers the ultimate look at performers who helped define a still-resonant and inspiring epoch of Hollywood history.
➥ ORDER from publisher Running Press
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NOIR CITY MAGAZINE - DIGITAL VERSION
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