Eddie Muller
Author of Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star
About the Author
Image credit: By Joe Mabel - photo by Joe Mabel, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=866091
Series
Works by Eddie Muller
The art of noir : the posters and graphics from the classic era of film noir (2002) 104 copies, 1 review
Eddie Muller's Noir Bar: Cocktails Inspired by the World of Film Noir (Turner Classic Movies) (2023) 22 copies
Kid Noir: Kitty Feral and the Case of the Marshmallow Monkey (Turner Classic Movies) (2023) 10 copies, 1 review
Noir City Annual No. 15 3 copies
NOIR CITY Magazine #37 2 copies
Noir city 2 copies
NOIR CITY Magazine #1 1 copy
Associated Works
Jewish Noir: Contemporary Tales of Crime and Other Dark Deeds (2015) — Contributor — 42 copies, 1 review
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1958-10-15
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Places of residence
- San Francisco, California, USA
- Education
- San Francisco Art Institute
- Occupations
- film critic
television host
novelist
journalist - Organizations
- Film Noir Foundation
- Short biography
- Eddie Muller is a film critic and writer, specializing in film noir. James Ellroy has called him "The Czar of Noir."
Muller is the founder and president of the Film Noir Foundation. He serves as the host and introducer of Turner Classic Movies's weekly Noir Alley movie series, and is co-programmer of the San Francisco Noir City Film Festival. He also provides wry commentary tracks for Fox's film noir series of DVDs.
His period crime novel The Distance (2002) was named the Best First Novel of the Year by the Private Eye Writers of America.
Members
Reviews
Issue primarily devoted to the age-old dichotomy of fiction and true life, specifically on movies that are based on books or headlines of criminals and their actions and how close or far said movies come to actually achieving actual events. The whole subject actually bores me, in that I feel that if the film is logical and entertaining, it doesn't matter where it was accurately based on real life. The most interesting article to me was Muller's on the top ten fact-based movies called 'Ripped from the Headlines'. The books and product reviews, especially the Noir film collection, give me new pathways to investigate.… (more)
this is the fascinating story of a hollywood-constructed pretty boy who had to hide his queerness from the people who held his reigns. tab hunter, himself, comes across as kind of a conservative jerk at the end, but it's really interesting to hear about his life, especially about his deep and tumultuous relationship with anthony perkins.
I have been a fan of Turner Classic Movies for some years now, and I have been aware of the term "film noir" through viewing more than a few of the channel's offerings over that time. However, I have only been aware of the author and his passion for this motion picture genre only since Robert Osborne began stepping away from the TCM universe starting in 2015 or so. While he is a most interesting onscreen personality, I wanted to see how Eddie Muller put this book together.
This is a pretty slim work of only 260 pages in this "expanded" edition, and that includes quite a few photographs. I did not read Muller's 1999 first edition. In the 260 pages Muller delivers 14 chapters--an introduction to what he calls "Dark City", which he reveals to be Hollywood itself by the end of the book, followed by chapters titled by different locales in this metropolis. Each of these "neighborhoods" is adorned with quite descriptive titles such as The Precinct, Hate Street, Shamus Flats, and the Psych Ward. Each of these neighborhoods describes a particular type of noir, and Muller provides several examples for each instance.
For example, "Vixenville" is the hangout of the legendary femme fatale, the good looking dame whose attraction dooms whomever serves as the nominal protagonist in the film. One of Muller's examples is the movie "Fallen Angel" featuring actress Linda Darnell, whose eventful personal life rivaled any noir screenwriter's work. Similarly the "Loser's Lane" chapter is devoted to sociopaths such as Richard Widmark's Tommy Udo in "Kiss of Death". For each movie Muller discusses he provides a basic synopsis along with details about the cast, key production staff, the studio, and the elements that bind the movie to film noir and the particular chapter in the book.
Muller writes this book in a very easy and informal style that makes this title a delight to read--no doubt he inherited his father's sportswriting chops. This is no book for the high-browed. While there is a lengthy bibliography, Muller doesn't use foot- or endnotes. He is clearly comfortable in his knowledge about this subject, and I think the reader should just enjoy the ride.… (more)
This is a pretty slim work of only 260 pages in this "expanded" edition, and that includes quite a few photographs. I did not read Muller's 1999 first edition. In the 260 pages Muller delivers 14 chapters--an introduction to what he calls "Dark City", which he reveals to be Hollywood itself by the end of the book, followed by chapters titled by different locales in this metropolis. Each of these "neighborhoods" is adorned with quite descriptive titles such as The Precinct, Hate Street, Shamus Flats, and the Psych Ward. Each of these neighborhoods describes a particular type of noir, and Muller provides several examples for each instance.
For example, "Vixenville" is the hangout of the legendary femme fatale, the good looking dame whose attraction dooms whomever serves as the nominal protagonist in the film. One of Muller's examples is the movie "Fallen Angel" featuring actress Linda Darnell, whose eventful personal life rivaled any noir screenwriter's work. Similarly the "Loser's Lane" chapter is devoted to sociopaths such as Richard Widmark's Tommy Udo in "Kiss of Death". For each movie Muller discusses he provides a basic synopsis along with details about the cast, key production staff, the studio, and the elements that bind the movie to film noir and the particular chapter in the book.
Muller writes this book in a very easy and informal style that makes this title a delight to read--no doubt he inherited his father's sportswriting chops. This is no book for the high-browed. While there is a lengthy bibliography, Muller doesn't use foot- or endnotes. He is clearly comfortable in his knowledge about this subject, and I think the reader should just enjoy the ride.… (more)
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 39
- Also by
- 5
- Members
- 1,156
- Popularity
- #22,231
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 34
- ISBNs
- 49
- Languages
- 2
- Favorited
- 2
Premise/plot: Kitty Feral is missing--literally and figuratively--her friend and companion Mitch the Mutt with whom she solves cases. But she's solo on this one. She will be trying to track down what happened to Cora's marshmallow monkey. Can she follow the clues and solve the case?
My thoughts: I LOVED the atmosphere of this one. The narrative is fun, fun, super-fun. The illustrations are AWESOME. I think adults will probably pick up on things young readers don't. But that isn't all bad, in my opinion. It just means the narrative is layered. I do think it holds up to multiple readings. I caught things the second time around that I didn't the first time. It is very noir. Chances are most young readers will have little to no familiarity with this genre.… (more)