Los Angeles: City of Film Noir (documentary) 

I'm from New York, and I love Film Noir's set here, but I so prefer when they're set in LA, particularly highlighting the old Bunker Hill. The eccentricity of 1940's-'50's LA was perfect for the genre. It's amazing how a place known for sunshine and palm trees was turned into a dark, gritty, rainy place. It was done so well by these great Germanic expressionistic directors. I adore these movies and feel the '44 through '50 era is the best, the '51-'55 next best, and then modernity began to seriously water them down. I can't get into them in color. Noir means "black". Shades of black is Film Noir!

I hear that trumpet playing and get the urge to watch "Chinatown" again.

I had the very good fortune to meet James at a book-signing event in the 1990s. He signed my copies of "The Big Nowhere" and "American Tabloid". He was very polite and good humoured. A great, great writer and a true gentleman.

This was great! I could listen to Ellroy all day. My favorite author.

This is an absolutely superb documentary! Beautifully done.

The L.A. Confidential Soundtrack is fantastic. Just like the film and the book. That rare trifecta doesn't come along too often.

Outstanding documentary, captures the dark L.A. mystic that drew a lot of us hopeless romantics here to immerse in the drama around every corner. You can still experience one activity from that period where the only thing modern is people's clothing and the automobiles in the parking lot...…..Santa Anita race track. Thanks for the list of must see movies.

Grew up in Lincoln Heights and I watch these style of movies and I feel right at home.

Noir films recommended by James Ellroy and Eddie Muller: CLASSICS Double Indemnity D.O.A. Impact Laura The Big Combo This Gun for Hire The Postman Always Rings Twice The Big Heat The Maltese Falcon Sunset Boulevard Criss Cross Out of the Past Angel Face Leave Her to Heaven Crime Wave He Walked By Night Act of Violence On Dangerous Ground Odds Against Tomorrow Crossfire Gilda MODERN NOIR Chinatown L.A. Confidential Mullholland Drive

a little Ellroy goes a long way...

The Bradbury building also features heavily in the tech noir of Bladerunner.

A great documentary about a great time in cinema! It showed how human nature isn’t always good guys vs bad guys, but instead amoral, grey characters that showed the cynicism of life, men as well as women.

Best film noir cities New York city, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Really enjoying this....thanks so much for posting.

This was just fantastic. Thank you so much. James Ellroy is an American original.

Damn, listening to Ellroy narrate is a cannabis high.

Thank you for posting ❤😊 Could watch this over again a few times, and will!

Ellroy's always a hoot!

Yeah great documentary and Ellroy is a great writer

Omg I love you for posting this!

Thanks for uploading this interesting documentary.

Love this! Thanks so much.

Thank you. Fascinating.

LA is indeed Noire city. I can attest to it. I LIVED it. I slinked and slithered all over that city wild, drunken, loaded, awash in cash and flat broke. I don't know what I was looking for all those years. It was was exciting, I was younger...I had NOTHING to lose. It was also very dangerous. Thats all in the past now. My life is calm, quiet. These days I seek peace above all things. I've ammassed a considerable FN collection in the last several years. I still very much in a sense live vicariously through these films. The beast in a sense has been greatly subdued..however the propensity for the dark, the shadowy and forbidden is all ways there. To a greater or lesser extent it is in all of us.

Thanks for uploading!

Great documentary. I love James Ellroy

Great documentary which brings you film noir a little bit closer

This is soooo on the money.....but only for the people who hear the chaos and know how overwhelming it is.......great stuff!!!!

I dont care what anyone says - James Ellroy is a Star - And so long as he does'nt buckle withIn his 'Next 30 years ' - And inbetween him chasing those 'ladies' he use's his knowledge of the darkside of L..A.'s under belly - And he puts his well used pen to paper - I will be more than happy to buy whatever novels he writes ! - I love Noir - I read obviously - But watch the movies too ! - Mr Ellroy is the Czar of Noir

This is FANTASTIC!

This is why I love L.A. soooo much

Fantastico! James Ellroy is such a character. Loved it.

Thank you,,,,,love this

very special scenes love it.

This is so good, thank you

I think Earl Stanly Gardner was The first to write about Las Angeles. And Hammet's stories took place in San Francisco.

Rita Hayworth. What a Babe.

Very good, I enjoyed it...thank's

2015 doc. I wish I could give it 2 thumbs up.

Really interesting stuff!

"Double Indemnity" did not start it all! It was "This Gun For Hire" that started it all. I love "Double Indemnity" as much as the next person, but "This Gun for Hire" (a full two years before "Double Indemnity") was the beginning of Noir as we (Americans) know it. And if you want to get really technical regarding American noir, start with "Stranger on the Third Floor", 1940, with Peter Lorre.

I really wish that The Black Dahlia got a better adaptation and that The Big Nowhere was also made into a movie.

Raymond Chandler made the noir eternal. Like a Drug addiction. A Social study of declione and human extinction. Memory of Sodom and Gomorrha.

No one mentioned L.A. City Hall when talking about sexual symbolism in film noir. If there was ever a phallic building design, this is it (51:21).

"It's always midnight in L.A." "The Dead Fisherman - Honeymoon For 3" sequel to Frisco The Dead Client.

I enjoyed your docu tremendously. Also I loove femme fatales.

Excellent.

Love film noirs . L A Confidential, Mulholland Dive and The Long Goodbye are awesome movies and Classic film noirs. The greatest impact of those movies is the fact, that the characters are hunted or haunted and because of that, project an immediate emotional intensity which instantly engages the viewer. That's the secret, Babes.

What's the music at the beginning of the documentary, please

I was nine and pooped my pants in the film noir toilet

when did this documentary come out ? for reference purposes

When soundtracks required no Autotune or Pro Tools, scripts were written for thinking people and not a single bared tit or f bomb or CGI effect was needed.

Good .Thanks.

very cool

13:27 what's that piece of music from?

what is the music at the intro? its amazing :)

I hope James Ellroy meets "That Woman", but that the Governor gives him a reprieve at the last minute.

awesome

What film is the clip at 32:20 from? I've racked brain and can't recall...

This guy sounds crazy!

33:26 Is that Elizabeth Short (aka the Black Dahlia) standing in the car to the right of the flag, waving at a sailor?

This is superb . Have you ever looked at the LANoirish website?

I saw the 1980s remake of DOA.

Can anyone recommend any other high quality documentaries as good as this one?

Commentary 5:00-6:00 is flat out wrong as if you can separate the impact of both the depression and WWII. In fact, he contradicts himself talking about one of the many impacts of WWII which is the great watershed of american history.

"The only problem with making a Noir in Buenos Aires is that its too easy."

I'm 61, born in westwood, native for forty-one years. as the man said, "This is weird shit". He is creepy and weird shit, but, it is a good production w/ creepy narrative. very noir.

If you love film noir, come see IRTE NOIR, starring the award-winning Improvisational Repertory Theatre Ensemble, as we take on the genre with our latest fully improvised show at the Producer’s Club in Manhattan … Fridays & Saturdays, May 18 & 19 and June 1 & 2, 2018 @ 8:00 p m. Join the dicks and the dames for a night of crime, passion, intrigue, betrayal, drama, deception, twists, turns, mood lighting, and inner dialogue -- and a loaded load of laughs! The Producer’s Club is in midtown at 358 West 44th Street, right in the heart of New York City’s theatre district. Our musical guest will be the one and only Tym Moss. IRTE Noir was conceived and directed by Curt Dixon; technical director is Anne Carlton, and the show stars Robert Baumgardner, Izzy Church, Nannette Deasy, Sam Katz, Jamie Maloney, and Connie Perry. Tickets are a steal at $15, and season’s passes and group discounts are available. Due to the improvisational nature of the shows, there may be adult content, so parental discretion, and permission from your parole officer, is advised.

The original opening scene in Double Indemnity was Fred staring out the gas chamber but the studio didn’t like it

Read an interesting analysis that stated that Hard Boiled Detective Fiction and Noir Fiction are two seperate things but Hard Boiled Detective Fiction is sometimes defined as Noir Fiction because Hard Boiled Fiction movies are filmed in the noir STYLE??!!!

According to this video the 1941 “The Maltese Falcon” with Humphrey Bogart & Peter Lorre was not an influential noir movie? That’s strange.

31:30 Bradbury Building!

NOIR CITY

MORE DRUMZ PLEASE LAS VEGAS / HOLLYWOOD YU ROCK

baldy has some serious issues

48:34 THE ROCKFORD FILES did it better.

33.57

World War was over and men returned to the movie theaters...

if you go down hollywood and take a left on cherokee you will end up at one of the apartment buildings that betty short lived in.

Do bad Billy Wilder directed a Philip Marlowe movie.

In those days, you could drive up to the Griffith Observatory late in the evening. You could sit on the parapet of the observation alcove and think "James Dean filmed that knife fight here. He was right here!" In the late evening in L.A. mist and low clouds come in from the ocean. The cool, damp air would smell of honeysuckle and ocean and old, wooden houses. It always got quiet at that time of night...and sitting there, the city lights below looking like an endless carpet of black velvet studded with diamonds, you seemed to notice the faint scent of perfume drifting in the air. Is it her? Did she know you'd be up here? Did she decide not to leave after all? You dare not turn around, but you can almost hear light footsteps behind you. Will you feel her arms wrap around your shoulders, her warm breath on your neck? Will that aching loneliness that seems to sum up life in Los Angeles finally be wiped away?

Edmond O'Brien King of Film Noir !! Hate that he ended up looking bad ie " The Wild Bunch" but then again so did his fellow contemporaries ! Hard living ,hard loving and just Father Fucking Time !!🖕💩😠 My favorite " Shield for Murder ",least favorite " The Hitchhiker" where he played basically a coward that even at the Only hit psycho played by Hamilton Burger from Perry Manson fame while he was " HANDCUFFED !" 🤔😤😵

Suomi mainittu, torilla tavataan!

James Ellroy is a creepy guy. That man is living "Noir" everyday of his life, and it ain't pretty.

I would have liked to get slapped by Gilda

Ren noir

Does anyone think Barbara Stanwyk was ever hot? Does nothing for me....

Hip shit

I love noir, and I love Elroy's books. But I can't stand him in this. For me, it feels like Elroy is trying to hard...his dialogue is too practiced, too forced. He knows his subject, and he's sharing great information...I just don't like his delivery in this.

Sorry, but way too much analysis by uninteresting people, not enough film footage.

L A. Today is nothing but a sewer dump.

This guy is sad

What the hell is he saying? "Kiddy noir?" What prattle. Speak up!

Man, James ellroy is pretty annoying to listen to

"viable part of the work force"? what an utter garbage take.

They manipulated the film censors and then it was a quick slide to pornographic hell. The film censors were trying to do their art a favour.