Originally published in 2001 and spun off from his Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir, Eddie Muller’s Dark City Dames was about six actresses of film noir: Jane Greer, Audrey Totter, Marie Windsor, Evelyn Keyes, Coleen Gray, and Ann Savage. The first part of the book (“Hollywood Midcentury”) profiles the women during their time in Hollywood when “an organic artistic movement flared up just as the once all-mighty studio system took its last gasp.” The second part (“Hollywood Fin de Siècle”) reveals their lives since. Born in different states, they all came to California with the same dream. Their first-hand accounts are compelling, transporting the reader back in time into their careers and their personal lives.
Buy Dark City Dames: The Women Who Defined Film Noir (Revised and Expanded Edition)The women speak about their experiences working in the industry. Greer, who hid her pregnancy, took over for Lizabeth Scott on The Big Steal when Scott bailed the project after Mitchum’s marijuana arrest. Totter was set to star in both Lady in the Lake and The Killers but when schedules conflicted, she went with the former as “it was the bigger part, and it was [her] studio.” A new actress was given the latter: Ava Gardner. Kubrick cast Windsor in The Killing based on seeing her in The Narrow Margin, although she was already committed to Roger Corman’s Swamp Women. They all have stories that contain famous show-biz names (i.e. actors, directors, studio heads, etc.) that will intrigue the classic-Hollywood fan throughout the book.
Twenty-four years later, Dark City Dames has now been revised and expanded with a third part (“Eternal Flames”) containing “profiles of ten additional actresses, colleagues and competitors of the principal dames.” Muller chose them because he “felt these ten had not gotten sufficient recognition” as compared to the notable names who transcended the genre, like Lana Turner and Lauren Bacall, or those he has written about elsewhere, like Barbara Stanwyck and Lizabeth Scott. The new additions are Joan Bennett, Peggie Castle, Rhonda Fleming (who declined inclusion in the original book), Marsha Hunt, Ella Raines, Ruth Roman, Gail Russell, Jan Sterling, Claire Trevor, Helen Walker. This part differs from the original because Muller didn’t have direct discussions with the ladies, but some still offer insight through archival interviews.
In his Afterword, Muller reveals the origins of the book, a letter to Newsweek written by the daughter of Edgar G. Ulmer, director of Detour, in response to a review of Muller’s Grindhouse: The Forbidden World of Adults Only Cinema. This led to a meeting with actress Ann Savage, who co-starred in Detour, at a Dark City book signing. Muller declares “writing Dark City Dames was the most valuable experience of [his] life” and he tells glowing stories about his interaction with the core six as he interviewed them.
Eddie Muller is a talented writer and his skills serve as a wonderful guide through the lives of the Dark City Dames. The book is highly recommended and the reader doesn’t have to be a movie fan to appreciate these women’s stories.
