Product Description

Film noir was the dark side of the movies' happily-ever-after mythology. Sinister and sexy, it forged a new icon: the tough, independent, take-no-guff dame. Determined, desirable, dangerous when cornered, she could handle trouble -- or deal out some of her own.

If you thought these women were something special onscreen, wait till you meet the genuine articles. In Dark City Dames, acclaimed film historian Eddie Muller profiles 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 surveys the lives 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, L.B. Mayer, Robert Mitchum, Otto Preminger, and John Huston -- offer an illuminating counterpoint to their movies, such as Out of the Past, Detour, The Lady in the Lake, and The Killing. Then Dark City Dames revisits each one of these women today, fifty years on, 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.

Dark City Dames re-creates the excitement and glamour of a group of gifted performers who lived out their youthful fantasies -- and, along the way, remade the image of the American woman.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1301575 in Books
• Published on: 2001-06-01
• Released on: 2001-05-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

Amazon.com Review
Penzler Pick, August 2001: Two years ago, I wrote a book titled 101 Greatest Films of Mystery and Suspense. In addition to watching every one of those movies again (not exactly a horrendous ordeal), I did tons of research, flipping through or reading more than a hundred books about film. The best book--the one with the most offbeat stories and anecdotes, the most accurate information, and the most entertainingly written--was Dark City by Eddie Muller. It was a fascinating study of the great films noir, and a page didn't go by without my learning something.

Now Muller is back with Dark City Dames. It's a very different kind of book, not offering the big-picture overview that Dark City did, but it's nearly as fascinating. It's a portrait of six of the greatest femme fatales of the wonderful black-and-white crime movies that filled the screens in the 1940s and '50s: Jane Greer (the star, with Robert Mitchum, of Out of the Past and The Big Steal), Marie Windsor (The Killing, The Narrow Margin), Ann Savage (Detour), Evelyn Keyes (The Prowler, Johnny O'Clock), Audrey Totter (The Lady in the Lake, The Unsuspected), and Coleen Gray (The Sleeping City, Kiss of Death, Nightmare Alley).

But these aren't rehashes of plots and quotes from the rave reviews of these stars. Muller personally interviewed each of them, and the second half of the book is a kind of "Where are they now?" Perhaps oddly--perhaps not--these wicked, lying, cheating, double-crossing, money-hungry temptresses of the screen turn out to be rather nice ladies, as normal as one could expect of beautiful movie stars, and Muller brings them fully to life.

There are regrets here, both on the part of the reader and of Muller, that space couldn't be devoted to many of the biggest female stars of film noir. There's no Barbara Stanwyck, or Gloria Grahame, or Veronica Lake, or Lisabeth Scott, or Claire Trevor, or Ida Lupino. Scott became a silent recluse, and the others had died. But that is only in real life. On the screen they will live forever, just as they do in Muller's marvelous love letter to them all. --Otto Penzler

From Publishers Weekly
Shot in stark black and white, dressed in negligees and toting pistols, the dangerous dames of film noir boldly linger in our minds. In this entertaining and often insightful look at noir starsMarie Windsor, Audrey Totter, Jane Greer, Ann Savage, Evelyn Keyes and Coleen GrayMuller recreates 1950s Hollywood, the heyday of film noir and B thrillers, and reports on these actors today. Combining interviews with his subjects, a comprehensive knowledge of Hollywood and an astute analysis of the social, political and economic pressures of the industry, Muller (Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir) shrewdly documents the role of women (as characters and performers) in the genre and the industry. Muller delivers numerous impressive insider tidbitsGreer's secret pregnancy while filming The Big Steal; Totter's close friendship with bad girl Gloria Graham; Beatrice Pearson's on-set problems with her controlling lesbian lover while filming Force of Evil; and Keyes's struggles with husband John Huston's marijuana habit. The book's strength lies in Muller's portraits of these women today; all lead contented and productive lives and, aided by Muller's fluid narrative style, tell tales shimmering with mystique, absurdity, scandal or poignancy. While covering a specific slice of Hollywood and film historyprimarily the 1940s and '50sMuller's look at these noted female performers is an important addition to popular feminist and film literature.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Film noir flourished in the late 1940s and early 1950s, a transitional time in Hollywood. The iron grip of the studios was beginning to weaken: television was luring filmgoers away from theaters, audiences were demanding a more honest depiction of life than had been seen on screen in the prewar years, and blacklisting had Hollywood on the run. Muller (Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir) touches on all those elements in this work, which is less a history of noir than a series of conversations with and portraits of six surviving actresses (Audrey Totter, Marie Windsor, Jane Greer, and others) who personified the "femme fatale" to postwar audiences. He captures an era when a hopeful could get her break from a Life magazine layout or by working as a nightclub cigarette girl. Things weren't all roses, however: The now senior women recall the difficulties of dealing with paternalistic, manipulative studio bosses, unhappy love affairs, and the ever-present problem of typecasting. A cultural shift in the 1950s, which celebrated "wholesome" stars like Doris Day, doomed the careers of most of these "dark city dames," who generally went on to lead normal, fulfilling lives after Hollywood. Briskly written and well researched, this survey should be popular in large public library film collections. Stephen Rees, Levittown Regional Lib., PA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Superb biography of the queens of film noir
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 Dames": not pretty faces , but a triumph!
"Dark City Dames": The Wicked Women of Film Noir is a fascinating book about some extraordinary screen actresses from the "good old days" of Hollywood. Eddie Muller's unique work is definitely not the typical coffee table volume composed for Hollywood nostalgia addicts. His superbly researched profiles of six noted actresses from the film noir genre; Coleen Gray, Jane Greer, Evelyn Keyes, Ann Savage, Audrey Totter and Marie Windsor, create real life drama from the femme fatale images of the past. Mr. Muller cleverly organized his book with two chapters for each actress, past and present. In every instance, all of the profiled women freely share their triumphs and disappointments, their loves and heartbreaks. While many of the insider stories and tidbits offered by Mr. Muller will amuse and titillate the reader, it is the admirable spirit, determination and character of these women that truly touched my heart. A case in point was the late Marie Windsor, a prime example of a unique talent who never realized her supernova screen potential. Toward the end of her life, Miss Windsor was desperately ill, taking care of a sicker husband, supporting a stepson, managing a household and holding down an important position with the Screen Actors Guild. Through it all, she remained determined to perservere and was ever grateful for a good life fully lived. Mr. Muller adroitly weaves the central themes of film noir, Hollywood and the studio system through the book, but the actresses and their fascinating personal lives earn the deserved star billing. "Dark City Dames" is a must for the film noir buff, but is a terrific book for anyone who enjoys the indomitability and compassion of the human spirit. They don't make movies like they used to, because they don't have actresses like these six around anymore.

Then-and-Now Biographies of 6 Actresses of Classic Film Noir
Author Eddie Muller proved himself adept at engaging readers with a lively tour of classic film noir in his popular book "Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir". In "Dark City Dames", Muller presents then-and-now biographies of 6 actresses whose portrayals of femmes fatales will forever fix their images on the consciousness of film noir audiences. The first half of the book, entitled "Hollywood Midcentury", introduces us to these women, who came to Hollywood from a variety of backgrounds and locales, but all aspired to be movie actresses and were under contract to one studio or another in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Jane Greer was brought to Hollywood from Washington, D.C. as a teenager under contract to RKO. She made "Out of the Past" and "The Big Steal", among others, before Howard Hughes vowed to end her career. Audrey Totter was straight-laced, professional, and ambitious. She acted in 6 film noirs, among them "The Lady in the Lake", "The Unsuspected", "Alias Nick Beal", and "The Set-Up" before remarkable coincidence began her married life and ended her film career, just as coincidence had launched it. Marie Windsor was the pride of Marysvale, Utah, who had dreamed of being an actress since childhood. Pragmatic and persistent, her dark hair made her the villain in "The Narrow Margin", "Force of Evil", and "The Killing". Evelyn Keyes was backwards and unworldly when Cecile B. DeMille signed her. But her persistent curiosity and independent nature inspired her to many Hollywood adventures. Her films included "Johnny O'Clock" and "The Prowler" , before she walked away from Hollywood after 13 years in the business. Coleen Gray was an insecure midwestern farmer's daughter, but you wouldn't know it from "The Sleeping City", "Nightmare Alley", or "Kiss of Death". Anne Savage was headstrong and vivacious, as her stage name implies. She will be best remembered for "Detour", which might have ended her decade-long acting career.

In the second part of "Dark City Dames", "Hollywood Fin de Siècle", we meet the 6 actresses today. Now in their 70s and 80s, the ladies of film noir tell us what happened as their film careers dwindled and what they've done since. It's interesting that the revived interest in classic film noir has brought these actresses a lot of unexpected attention and praise that was lacking when it would have helped their careers. Several of them lament the demise of the studio system that protected actors even as it limited them -and studio politics ended many careers prematurely. All of the actresses profiled cooperated with the author, so their stories are personal and very much their point of view. "Dark City Dames" doesn't actually say much about the films or the characters these actresses embodied. It's about the experiences of its 6 heroines, who, as young starlets in post-war Hollywood, probably aspired to be A-list stars, but became indelible vixens of film noir instead.