Review: 'Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir '

There's no way to miss a noir when you're face to face with one. The story is always the same. There's always some world-weary private dick or ne'er-do-well who falls hard for a femme fatale or a less dangerous woman in the possession of some loathsome mug. You know you're looking at a noir because the image is drained of color, shadows crowd the frame, and you're never, ever in the country. You know you're hearing it because noir speaks a tangy language all its own.

Originally published in 1998, Eddie Muller's Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir has to be the ultimate noir survey because it hits all the noir signifiers square between the eyes. Naturally, it has to cover the most important and iconic films, and it has all the usual suspects: Laura, The Maltese Falcon, Nightmare Alley, Gilda, Touch of Evil, and so on, as well as a few less typical selections such as Psycho and neo-noirs such as Chinatown. It better show us something to, and with ample stills and striking poster art, it tics that box too. Where Muller really goes above and beyond is in his telling. He speaks fluent noir, and Dark City reads like Dashiell Hammett's auto-bio. 

Dark City is now available in an expanded and updated edition.