In celebration of Noirvember, MovieJawn is collaborating with Erik Kreffel of Noir Crazy! Each week we will walk down the dark alley for a different theme within the genre to peek between the blinds and showcase some of Erik’s work that he created specifically for MovieJawn. Read all our Noirvember articles here.

Copies of Erik’s publication Noir Crazy are available for purchase here as well as other noir themed items. Follow Erik on Instagram, Substack, Twitter, and contact him here for commissions.

by Rosalie Kicks Editor in Chief and Old Sport

I have watched enough motion pictures to know that to venture down a darkened alleyway only leads to trouble. However, all my cares are thrown out the window if Eddie Muller is the one leading me down the murky path. 

Host of Turner Classic Movies (TCM) weekly program NOIR ALLEY, Eddie Muller, knows a thing or two about navigating the darkness and peeking between the blinds. Bleak tales, shadowy figures, and cynical characters may await, but with Muller at my side I could not be more thrilled as I know my eyes will witness a moving image that is something to behold. With his dapper wardrobe and debonair disposition, he has taken a few cues from the stylish crime dramas rightfully earning him the moniker “The Czar of Noir”. His affinity for the genre extends beyond simply watching and gabbing, in 2005 he became the founder of the Film Noir Foundation (FNF), a non-profit group with the goal to preserve motion pictures in danger of being lost or irreparably damaged. Muller explains the foundations methods, “It’s a two-pronged process: you have to find the physical elements to restore the film, but you have to track its ownership history as well, to see if there are, shall we say, financial trapdoors to rescuing the movie.” If the foundation is able to work through the red tape, they foot the bill for the restoration of the celluloid with the goal of getting the picture back into circulation via theaters, streaming, and physical release. A list of all the films that FNF has restored and preserved can be found here.  

Eddie’s love of the noir genre led to the creation of the Noir City film festival. What began in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2003, has spread to other cities across the United States and has not only gained notoriety but has ignited a flame for the passion of not only noir but all classic film. Beginning Friday, November 15 until the 17th, Noir City will make a stop in Phoenixville, PA at The Colonial Theatre with an appearance from The Czar of Noir himself. Each day will present a double bill that showcases an eclectic mix of feature films from all over the world. Friday night’s program kicks off with the FNF’s most recent restoration, the 1952 Argentine film, Never Open That Door and followed up with Street of Chance (1942) being presented on 35mm. The rest of the weekend continues the theme of showcasing english language pictures made in the United States or United Kingdom paired with a foreign noir hailing from such locales as Italy, France, and Japan. For those seeking a hidden noir gem, this program is sure to satisfy and is the perfect way to celebrate Noirvember. 

If you are new to the celebration, it was actually a friend, former TCM colleague and writer, Marya E. Gates that kicked off the party when she coined the term, “Noirvember”. “She got into noir at my San Francisco, Noir City festival. In fact, she credits me with giving her her first whiskey.”, says Muller. Speaking of libations, Eddie penned a book featuring cocktails inspired by the world of film noir entitled, Noir Bar that was released in 2023. MovieJawn’s Liz Locke aka CinemaSips and Cocktail Aficionado gave it a glowing review here. Eddie will have these books on hand among his other works (Dark City is a must have and read for cinephiles) at this weekend’s festival and will be available for signings. 

I recently had the absolute pleasure to chat with Eddie about being a cinephile, his devotion to noir, and his upcoming visit to Phoenixville. If you’re in town this weekend and looking for a much needed escape from reality, join Eddie Muller for a trip in the shadows via the silver screen. 

Find the entire program for this weekend’s Noir City at The Colonial Theatre here. 

Rosalie Kicks (RK):  What interested you in the noir genre?

Eddie Muller (EM): At first it was the style. I’m visually oriented. I was drawing storybooks when I was a kid and by the time I was a teenager I thought I’d be a comic book artist or something like that. But then I started reading crime fiction and it all sort of dovetailed. Then I really started watching, and seeking out, noir movies. 

RK: How do you select the themes for Noir City?

EM: Just by noticing connections. Ways of grouping films. Stories about artists, about marriages, about heists, about mentally ill protagonists. My approach is to find thematic linkages, which offers more variety in a festival program than doing it museum-style, which is to focus on a particular artist. I don’t feature one director, actor, or cinematographer. That can make for a fine retrospective or series, but a festival needs to have a broader menu, a more eclectic selection of films. I like to contrast and compare, so I have a tendency to program double bills, say a heist film from Hollywood shown with one from France or Mexico. You get two good stories and some cultural anthropology in the bargain.

RK: If you were on a deserted island what noir character would you want to be stuck there with?

EM: Carol “Kansas” Richmond from Phantom Lady. She’s resourceful and resilient and wouldn’t whine about her fate. She’d pitch in. And Ella Raines is extremely easy on the eyes, so that’ll help pass the time.

RK: Do you have a top three noir motion pictures, if so what are they?

EM: It changes all the time, but for you I’ll say: In a Lonely Place, Sunset Boulevard, and Criss Cross. Ask me again next week: Out of the Past, The Breaking Point, and The Asphalt Jungle (writer’s note: This is showing on Sunday, November 17th at Colonial Theatre). I don’t do lists to rate things, but if they help people discover stuff they haven’t seen then I’ll make a list every once in a while. I hate all these “50 Greatest Film Noirs” lists on the internet. Most are compiled by people who haven’t see a fraction of what’s out there, or they’re not written by people at all—You can smell the AI on some of these lists. 

RK: Is there any noir film you are still trying to track down, that you have not seen?

EM: I feel like I’ve seen most of the American noir films made during the peak years of the movement. There are lots of noir-stained films from the 1930s and 1960s that are outliers and I’m still catching up with some of those. It’s the international noirs that most intrigue me now; that’s where we’re finding things—like our recent restoration, Never Open That Door—that virtually no one outside Argentina had ever seen. Tracking down films is getting harder all the time, however. I’ll spare you the gruesome details since I don’t think your readers want to be depressed. I’ll just say that given the turn our country has taken this Noirvember, it’s entirely possible that within a relatively short time America’s film history will be privately owned by one or another billionaire who can, if he wishes, dispose of it all and replace it with AI-generated replicas. If you scoff, just remember: Ted Turner created TCM by first buying the MGM film library. Fortunately, his aim was to preserve film history. An oligarch’s goal could just as easily be to destroy it all. Or just hide it away so you can’t compare the original to its AI-generated remake. They’re already banning books, the films could easily be next.

RK: If you could live inside any particular noir film, which would it be?

EM: I haven’t considered that. In general, noir is not a place you’d want to be trapped. I wouldn’t mind living in that New Mexico spread Gene Tierney has in Leave Her to Heaven. I just wouldn’t want her around.  

RK: If you could grab coffee with a film noir director, who would it be? Why?

EM: Probably Robert Siodmak. He’s my favorite noir director but there aren’t many interviews with him. He wasn’t a big personality, like Welles or Lang or Preminger. So I’d love to hear him discuss his work. But as for who I’d just like to hang out with, off the clock, I’ll say Sam Fuller, Ida Lupino, and producer Joan Harrison.