ASK EDDIE - February 15, 2024 

FNF prez Eddie Muller responds to film noir fan questions fielded by the Foundation's Director of Communications Anne Hockens. In this episode, we discuss our recent NOIR CITY Oakland festival and our upcoming NOIR CITY Seattle festival, Shakespearean noirs, “The Dark Past”, slang in film noir and more. On the cat front, we have two new additions to the crew.
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This week’s questions:
1. Do you know of any independent noirs made by former noir actors that were as commercially (or critically) successful as the preeminent studio noirs, or were these indie noirs relegated to obscurity at the time because they lacked the distribution deals that the large studios had?
-Neil
2. Is it possible to discuss the kind of black and white film that was used for film noir? Was cheaper film used for cheaper productions? How long would it take to process the film? Did one kind of film edge out another? Was one film preferred because it was more flexible as far as speed?
-Adrienne
3. What in the world is George concocting for Ida in “While the City Sleeps?” He appears to be muddling a small (green?) apple in the glass before adding champagne…
-Jayne
4. There are sooooo many organized crime films that focus on different US cities:
After watching “Kansas City Confidential”- which was incredible!- I am at an impasse of what to watch next. What do you two think?
-Liz
5. What are your favorite films of the noir genre based on plays by William Shakespeare? Which do you think is the best and why?
-Greg, Lake Charles, Louisiana
6. Classical tragedies are always about a person from the nobility brought low by some flaw or fault. I see the one brought low in noir being a middle class or working-class person, never a noble or modern equivalent. Are there noirs that have what we could call a noble main character with a tragic ending?
-Mike
7. I saw “The Dark Past: for the first time this week. With two superb leads - Lee J. Cobb and William Holden - it was a deep and satisfying watch. Noir or not? Worth a couple of minutes analysis by the Nabob of Noir! Keep up the good work and bring the Noir events to the UK, please.
-Pete
8. Just rewatched “To Die For” and it seems to have all the elements of noir: femme fatale, dead husband, male chump, cops, and yet....not quite. Maybe because it's perversely funny. Can you discuss?
-Susan, Moscow, TN
9. Any chance of TCM airing “Man in the Dark?”
-Eileen
10. What do you know about words and expressions in common language and in slang that come from the noir era? Do you know any other words or expressions in English, slang or not, that stem from the noir era? Or I can perhaps extend that to say films from the 1930s to the 1960s or even 1970s?
-Janne, Stockholm, Sweden