Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir

“Czar of Noir” Muller (host of Turner Classic Movies Noir Alley and president of the Film Noir Foundation) splendidly updates his 1998 film history book with this classy, glossy edition. With florid descriptions (“she swipes a gun…and gives Pope six good reasons he should have promoted her husband”) and deep knowledge of the genre, he takes readers on a tour of all the locales in “Dark City”: Vixenville, where dames like Rita Hayworth and Ida Lupino lead men astray; the Psych Ward, where “vexed veterans are quarantined”; the Big House, where noir’s leading men (and women) are doomed to enter and determined to break out; Hate Street, a rocky road of ruined relationships; and many more dark spots. Muller places film noir in historical perspective and livens up an already jumpin’ tome with mini profiles of Dark City denizens such as Roberts Mitchum and Ryan, screenwriter Ben Hecht, Hitchcock producer Joan Harrison, and Lizabeth Scott, dubbed “the Threat” by studio flacks. He uncovers some secrets and reveals who named names during the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings.