The Art of Noir: THE POSTERS & GRAPHICS FROM THE CLASSICAL ERA OF FILM NOIR [Paperback]

Eddie Muller (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Stanley Kubrick's The Killing touted as being "In All Its Fury and Violence...Like No Other Picture Since 'SCARFACE' and 'LITTLE CAESAR'!" Bay Area mystery writer Muller (his novel Shadow Boxer will be reviewed in the Dec. 9 issue of PW) describes the various styles employed by the studio system, all designed for, in the charming vernacular of theater owners, "putting asses in the seats"; the idiosyncratic promo for Sudden Fear has Joan Crawford staring luridly over a male figure's shoulder at a miniaturized Gloria Grahame embracing Jack Palance. With a clear love for and expertise in his subject matter, Muller tracks the evolution of the form through 275 posters (338 full-color illustrations in all), many of them full-page plates, which look nothing short of smashing in the book's oversize, 10 x 14 format. A series of foreign posters reveal how artists outside the studio system were able to convey a great deal of the films' psychological complexity in a single, giant image. The variety, style and color here, representing films familiar (The Postman Always Rings Twice) and forgotten (The Big Tip Off, starring Cathy Downs), will be enticing to any fan of noir or mid-century American history.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

It is hard to quibble with this gorgeous movie-poster album. Fans of the gritty '40s and '50s flicks that made the reps of Humphrey Bogart, John Garfield, Alan Ladd, Lizabeth Scott, Gloria Grahame, and Ida Lupino, and burnished the already risen stars of Joan Crawford and Barbara Stanwyck, will roll in the 10-by-14-inch volume like cats in 'nip. Collector Muller is suitably systematic about his passion, displaying the book's riches in chapters on various movie studios' poster styles, poster styles outside the U.S. (the Swedish examples are unnervingly up-to-date looking), noir poster iconography, the biggest noir stars, the biggest noir writers (Hammett, Chandler, Cain, and a bevy of obscure screenwriters), and the best noir directors, among whom a director of photography, chiaroscuro virtuoso John Alton, is given pride of place. All this is great, so why kvetch? Well, the text could have been more thoroughly fact checked, edited, and proofed. There are many tiny errors and grammatical gaffes, and one caption ends not only midsentence but midline. (Ah, quit readin' an' lookit th' pitchas.) Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Overlook TP (November 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585676039
• ISBN-13: 978-1585676033
• Product Dimensions: 13.9 x 10.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,025,268 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Noir to knock you out., December 30, 2002

By 

Robin Benson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Art of Noir: The Posters And Graphics From The Classic Era Of Film Noir (Hardcover)

A superb showing of 338 color film noir posters in a marvellous (oversize) book. None of the posters are angled or overlap each other and they all have credit and comment captions, all this thanks to book designer Bernard Schleifer who handles this rather garish material in a restrained way, though he did make a mistake with the ridiculously small page numbers. Author Eddie Muller writes just enough to back up the posters without making the book too text heavy and he has come up with some neat ideas, like using posters from other countries, grouping posters according to the director or actor or writer and a chapter that I thought fascinating, `Noir Around The World: Exploring how artists in other cultures rendered a peculiarly American style'.

Look through the book and you'll see how tacky so many of the American illustrations look, whereas the artists used in Europe seem technically better (is this a cultural thing?) and in many cases the poster design is more competent, the Spanish version of Dragnet (1954) on page sixty-three is really graphic yet uses all the usual ingredients, painting of the star, smaller illustrations (in this case the New York skyline and a couple of gangsters) bold type for the title yet turn over the page and a huge American version hits you and it looks a mess in comparison. However, all these posters capture the spirit of this American movie genre and the book looks so stunning that I don't think the subject could be covered better.

The perfect companion to `The Art of Noir' is `The Noir Style' by Alain Silver and James Ursini (and also beautifully designed by Mr Schleifer) it uses dozens of film stills to explain just what was so special about these movies. I found it fascinating to see the black and white photos the artists used to create the poster art. Both books should be in your `noir' collection.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The 'Noirhead''s coffee-table essential, April 15, 2003

By 

John David Felter (New York (Ripper)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Art of Noir: The Posters And Graphics From The Classic Era Of Film Noir (Hardcover)

A feast for the eyes! Gorgeous NOIR poster repros and interesting factoids highlight this weighty tome. Fans will swoon, and the casual viewer will have his/her interest tweaked. As a NOIR poster/lobby card collector, this book is an essential library addition, because I need to occasionally check out pictures of posters I'll sadly never be able to afford(!)

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Gem of the Field, October 8, 2003

By 

William Hare (Seattle, Washington) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Art of Noir: The Posters And Graphics From The Classic Era Of Film Noir (Hardcover)

Film noir is a fascinating field with a deserved faithful and ever widening audience. Eddie Muller scored impressively with "Dark City Dames," a study of the women of film noir with intimate portraits of such notables as Jane Greer, Marie Windsor and Ann Savage.

Muller returns to a familiar theme here and achieves mightily in two respects, with glossy pictures which practically jump off the page at you, giving one a feel for time and place, as well as being a part of the scene, along with a text providing valuable information on the memorable films being showcased.

San Franciscan Muller is one of the genuine authorities of the genre. He has a real feel for the world of darkness beset by flashing neon lights, smoke-filled bars, detectives in trench coats, and dangerous women.