Dark City Dames: The Wicked Women of Film Noir [Englisch] [Gebundene Ausgabe]

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": 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.

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.