Join us January 24 – February 2 at Oakland’s historic Grand Lake Theater for NOIR CITY 22 featuring the fabulous femmes fatale who made the genre so spectacularly saucy, sexy, and sinister. Noir impresario and FNF prez Eddie Muller presents ten days and nights of vintage crime movies featuring actresses profiled in his classic tome Dark City Dames — newly updated, expanded, and set for release in April 2025. Joining Muller as co-host for the opening weekend will be his TCM colleague, Alicia Malone—who also graces this year’s NOIR CITY poster.
The program includes legendary noirs such as Out of the Past, The Narrow Margin, and Detour, alongside an array of dark gems and little-seen rarities like Hell’s Half Acre, The Sleeping City, and the 3D noir Inferno. In addition, the festival will be filled with special onscreen features, live music, and special guests—everything fans have come to expect from this annual celebration of noir style.
All proceeds from the festival go to the Film Noir Foundation’s mission of rescuing and restoring lost examples of the genre, which to date includes more than thirty restorations and preservations of films once feared lost.
Schedule, tickets and Passports (full-access passes) are available at NoirCity.com
Secure your spot at NOIR CITY 22 with an all-access PASSPORT for $200. This all-access festival pass grants the bearer:
✻ Admission to all 24 films (12 double features) during the 10-day NOIR CITY 22 festival
✻ Separate passport holders' queue for early admittance to the theater for all shows
✻ $40 savings over individually purchased double-feature tickets.
Plus, it’s the perfect holiday gift for the film noir lovers in your life! Proceeds from the NOIR CITY festival help fund the FNF's restoration and preservation efforts year-round. This is your chance to have a smashing time AND preserve a valuable art form.
If you're an out-of-towner looking for lodging in Oakland, the Film Noir Foundation recommends the Courtyard by Marriott Oakland Downtown. The Courtyard offers competitive rates and a discounted rate for stays over 7 days. Located at 988 Broadway in downtown Oakland, the hotel is 2 miles from the Grand Lake Theatre.
Need additional information, call the hotel at 510/625-8282.
CONFIRMED 2025 NOIR CITY DATES
NOIR CITY 22: January 24-February 2
Grand Lake Theatre, Oakland, CA
NOIR CITY: Seattle: February 14-20
Theater TBD, Seattle, WA
NOIR CITY: Portland: July 11-13
Hollywood Theatre, Portland, OR
NOIR CITY: Chicago: September 5-11
Music Box Theatre, Chicago, IL
NOIR CITY: Philadelphia: November 14-16
The Colonial Theatre, Phoenixville, PA
Lucas Cullen (in green suit above), the recipient of 2024’s FNF-Nancy Mysel Legacy Grant, looks back on his past year at the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation. READ MORE
Preserved by the Film Noir Foundation in 2013 and now beautifully restored through the UCLA Film & Television Archive, Never Open That Door (No abras nunca esa puerta) is a significant example of the cross-cultural cinematic legacy shared by the United States and Argentina during the post-WWII era. Based on two short stories by American master of suspense fiction Cornell Woolrich, the film is brilliantly directed by Argentine filmmaker Carlos Hugo Christensen with extraordinary cinematography by Pablo Tabernero. ORDER YOUR COPY
Says FNF founder Eddie Muller about this recent restoration, “It is a revelation to experience the work of an all-American author, in Spanish, and rendered as well – or perhaps better – than any Hollywood adaptation of his work.”
Originally a three-part anthology of Woolrich tales, Never Open That Door was released separately from the 73-minute film If I Should Die Before I Wake (Si muero antes de despertar) adapted by screenwriter Alejandro Casona and Christensen. An exceedingly rare archival conservation scan of If I Should Die Before I Wake is featured in this publication.
BONUS MATERIALS INCLUDE:
✽ Introduction by author, film historian, and "noirchaeologist" Eddie Muller
✽ Audio commentary by author and film historian Guido Segal
✽ New documentary on Cornell Woolrich
✽ Newly recorded conversation - with Argentina's leading film archivist and cinema historian Fernando Martín Peña
Argentine director Román Viñoly Barreto's El vampiro negro (The Black Vampire) is available from Flicker Alley in a deluxe Blu‑ray/DVD edition. A virtually unknown remake of Fritz Lang's seminal 1931 thriller M, this 1953 Argentine noir is a female-centered take on the tale. + READ MORE
We are proud to announce the release of two FNF restorations as Blu‑ray/DVD combos from Flicker Alley: The Bitter Stems and The Beast Must Die, two classics of Argentine noir.. → READ MORE
Did you know that The Film Noir Foundation regularly livestreams on our Facebook page in which Eddie Muller answers questions submitted by our e‑mail subscribers? All previous broadcasts are available on our YouTube broadcast archives page.
→ Subscribe to our mailing list, so you can get your question answered.
The latest ASK EDDIE broadcast on Facebook January 9 and on YouTube the following day.
Here are the winners of the FNF's NOIR CITY Magazine #42 donation drive held December 31, 2024 – January 7, 2025:
★ The three winners of the Flicker Alley Blu-ray/DVD release of the FNF restoration of Repeat Performance (1947) with Joan Leslie and Richard Basehart: Donald Kouba, Oak Forest, IL; Robert Ultan, Menlo Park, CA; and Kelly Hsu, Irvine, CA
★ The winner of Stark House Press' Sudden Fear by Edna Sherry, the Sudden Fear DVD from Cohen Film Collection, plus, the Flicker Alley Blu-ray/DVD of the FNF restoration of Woman on the Run (1950): Larry Long, Hammond, IN
★ The two winners of Flicker Alley Blu-ray/DVDs of the first three FNF Argentine restorations – Los tallos amargos (1956), The Beast Must Die (1952), and El vampiro negro (1953): Kim Dancy, Seattle, WA and John Cusano, Tucson, AZ
★ The two winners of Flicker Alley Blu-ray/DVDs of FNF restorations Trapped (1949), The Guilty/High Tide (1947), and The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950): Lowell Denning, North Bethesda, MD; Ioannis Gigis, Greece; and Deanna Trainham, Fairfax, VA
★ The winner of Kino Lorber’s Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema XXI featuring the films Short Cut to Hell (1957), Shack Out on 101 (1955), and Fritz Lang’s Clock and Dagger (1946); the Flicker Alley Blu-ray/DVD release of the FNF’s 2024 restoration No abras nunca esa puerta (1952 - Argentina); and a Blu-ray of 1949’s Act of Violence: Stephanie Holden, Dallas, TX
★ The winner of Kino Lorber’s Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema XIX featuring the films Beware, My Lovely (1952), No Man of Her Own (1950), and Dark City (1950); Flicker Alley’s most recent release of the FNF’s 2024 restoration No abras nunca esa puerta (Argentina 1952); and from the Warner Archive label – a Blu-ray of The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) and a DVD of Angel Face (1951) with a Special Features commentary by Eddie Muller: Daniel Ferko, Lexington Park, MD
★ The five new-subscriber winners of the five NOIR CITY Magazine back issues—#2, #16, #19, #24, #25—are: Alex Nordstrom, Encino, CA; Jeffrey Winter, Skokie, IL; Mary Prendiville, San Francisco, CA; Zee Straight-Weiss, Bellevue, WA; and Steve Hunt, Northampton, England
★ The three new-subscriber winners of Flicker Alley Blu-ray/DVD releases of two FNF restorations – Too Late for Tears (1949) with Lizabeth Scott and Dan Duryea and The Man Who Cheated Himself with Lee J. Cobb, Jane Wyatt, and John Dall: Martin H. Lager, White Plains, NY; Carl Kennedy, Kure Beach, NC; and Kim Hoffman, San Francisco, CA
Thank you to everyone who contributed to the Film Noir Foundation! A reminder that anyone who contributes $20 or more to the FNF and signs up our mailing list always receives a free year's subscription to the digital version of NOIR CITY e-magazine. Contributors may receive additional FNF thank you gifts depending on the amount of the donation.
Hardcover releasing April 8, 2025
In this revised and expanded edition of his essential volume Dark City Dames, Eddie Muller—FNF founder and Turner Classic Movies host—offers a uniquely intimate look at the women who defined film noir, now featuring updated text, photos, and ten new star profiles.
In Dark City Dames, acclaimed film historian Eddie Muller takes readers into the world of 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 provides in-depth profiles 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, Louis B. Mayer, Robert Mitchum, Otto Preminger, and John Huston—offer a fascinating counterpoint to their movies. Then, Dark City Dames revisits each woman fifty years later 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. Muller conducted far-ranging interviews with the original six women profiled in Dark City Dames, in the process becoming a friend and confidante to each.
In this revised and expanded edition, he updates their stories and shares illuminating, never-before-told memories of his time with them. This edition also includes compelling new profiles of ten additional women who left an indelible mark on film noir, including Joan Bennett, Gail Russell, Rhonda Fleming, and Claire Trevor—all packaged in a stunning redesign that offers the ultimate look at performers who helped define a still-resonant and inspiring epoch of Hollywood history.
➥ PRE-ORDER from publisher Running Press
➥ PRE-ORDER from Amazon
FNF prez Eddie Muller's newest book, NOIR BAR: Cocktails Inspired by the World of Film Noir combines two of his greatest passions, film noir and cocktails.
In the words of the author, "Noir Bar offers a booze-based excursion through America's most popular film genre, pairing easy-to-master recipes with the kind of behind-the-scenes anecdotes that I like to include in my film intros and books." Some of the drinks are the ones being imbibed on screen and some are named after the films, the characters or the actors themselves. The recipes came from a variety of sources including Ernest Hemmingway and Sam Fuller. Some were even created by Eddie himself. Eddie also draws on his past as a bartender to coach you on the supplies and the techniques you will need to create these libations in your own home. The book is stylishly laid out and filled with movie stills, poster art, behind-the-scenes images, and cocktail photography. The book is available from Running Press.
The revised and expanded edition of FNF prez and Noir Alley host Eddie Muller's Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir is now available for purchase from the TCM Shop or your favorite bookseller. + READ MORE
Come follow us on Tumblr to indulge your passion for noir! We'll be posting daily, celebrating all things noir with exclusive stills and images you won't see anywhere else, as well as trailers, film clips, and more.
Share our posts with your friends; your love of the art form is the Foundation's biggest asset in its mission to preserve and restore classics of the genre. We are also fully committed to present our rescued films in the way they were meant to be seen: in 35mm at our NOIR CITY festivals around the country.
NOIR CITY MAGAZINE - DIGITAL VERSION
For access to the best writing on noir available today, and to enjoy one of the most cutting-edge interactive multimedia cinema publications in the world, subscribe to NOIR CITY®.
Start by adding your name to our mailing list and then making a donation to the FNF of $20 or more. View the Table of Contents for the current issue here.
Keep us posted on noir news and events in your area! Email Anne Hockens, Film Noir Foundation news and events editor.