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Dark City (Revised and Expanded Edition)
- The Lost World of Film Noir
- Narrated by: Eddie Muller, Erin Bennett
- Length: 12 hrs and 19 mins
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Publisher's summary
This revised and expanded edition of Eddie Muller's Dark City is a film noir lover's bible, listeners on a tour of the urban landscape of the grim and gritty genre in a highly illustrated definitive volume.
Dark City expands with new chapters and a fresh collection of restored photos that illustrate the mythic landscape of the imagination. It's a place where the men and women who created film noir often find themselves dangling from the same sinister heights as the silver-screen avatars to whom they gave life. Eddie Muller, host of Turner Classic Movies' Noir Alley, takes listeners on a spellbinding trip through treacherous terrain: Hollywood in the post-World War II years, where art, politics, scandal, style -- and brilliant craftsmanship -- produced a new approach to moviemaking, and a new type of cultural mythology.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
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Critic reviews
“With its extensive bibliography, index, lavish photos, and dozens of films ranging from the obscure to the well-known, this title will please newcomers to noir and hard-core fans who can’t get enough of Muller’s Noir Alley intros and outros.”—Library Journal
"The book is general enough to appeal to people just beginning to learn about what the French dubbed 'dark movies' but detailed enough to teach even the most ardent film fans things they didn’t know."—The Virginian-Pilot
“Fans will recognize his signature style here, heavy on the self-conscious, tough-guy slang. But the illustrations, from rare posters to vintage stills, are thrilling. And his portrait of noir itself can’t be topped.”—NY Daily News
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- By: William J. Mann
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 15 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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By 1920, the movies had suddenly become America's new favorite pastime and one of the nation's largest industries. Never before had a medium possessed such power to influence; yet Hollywood's glittering ascendancy was threatened by a string of headline-grabbing tragedies - including the murder of William Desmond Taylor, the popular president of the Motion Picture Directors Association, a legendary crime that has remained unsolved until now.
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Everybody's a dreamer...
- By Steven on 01-08-15
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A Bright and Guilty Place
- Murder, Corruption, and L.A.'s Scandalous Coming of Age
- By: Richard Rayner
- Narrated by: Brett Barry
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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In A Bright and Guilty Place, an exhilarating tale of murder in L.A., Richard Rayner finds the source of the city's darkness in real-life events that unfolded in the 1920s, when the booming early years of L.A. started to shade into the Depression, and the city of sunshine revealed the hidden darkness and corruption at its heart.
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Didn't hold my interest
- By Hopesurvives on 11-03-17
By: Richard Rayner
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Save the Cat!
- The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need
- By: Blake Snyder
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Here's what started the phenomenon: This book has been a best seller for over 15 years and has been used by screenwriters around the world! Blake Snyder tells all in this fast, funny, and candid look inside the movie business. Save the Cat is just one of many ironclad rules for making your ideas more marketable and your script more satisfying.
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Don't waste your time
- By Amazon Customer on 02-05-20
By: Blake Snyder
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The Dark Story of Eminem
- By: Nick Hasted
- Narrated by: Nick Landrum
- Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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A ground-breaking story tracing Marshal Mathers' rise to fame from the schools and workplaces of his native Detriot to global superstardom.
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En-n-me
- By Absinthe on 12-10-15
By: Nick Hasted
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Sidney Poitier
- Man, Actor, Icon
- By: Aram Goudsouzian
- Narrated by: J. D. Jackson
- Length: 20 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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In the first full biography of actor Sidney Poitier, Aram Goudsouzian analyzes the life and career of a Hollywood legend, from his childhood in the Bahamas to his 2002 Oscar for lifetime achievement. Poitier is a gifted actor, a great American success story, an intriguing personality, and a political symbol; his life and career illuminate America's racial history.
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The Man, the Star, the Lightning Rod
- By Susie on 01-28-13
By: Aram Goudsouzian
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Story
- Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting
- By: Robert McKee
- Narrated by: Robert McKee
- Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins
- Abridged
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Robert McKee's screenwriting workshops have earned him an international reputation for inspiring novices, refining works in progress, and putting major screenwriting careers back on track. Quincy Jones, Diane Keaton, Gloria Steinem, Julia Roberts, John Cleese, and David Bowie are just a few of his celebrity alumni. Writers, producers, development executives, and agents all flock to his lecture series, praising it as a mesmerizing and intense learning experience.
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Only 5 Chapters
- By Stephen Buck on 02-15-11
By: Robert McKee
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Starmaker
- Life as a Hollywood Publicist with Farrah, The Rat Pack, & 600 More Stars Who Fired Me
- By: Jay Bernstein
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Revealingly candid, this Hollywood memoir is the story of Jay Bernstein, an entertainment industry fixture who helped launch and sustain the careers of many celebrities including Farrah Fawcett and Suzanne Somers. From his childhood in Oklahoma City and his first job in a Hollywood mail room to the ownership of his own public relations firm and his work as a television producer, Bernstein’s life is chronicled in his own words.
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Very Entertaining
- By patrick on 09-27-15
By: Jay Bernstein
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The Curse of Beauty
- The Scandalous & Tragic Life of Audrey Munson, America's First Supermodel
- By: James Bone
- Narrated by: Marianne Fraulo
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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As America was stepping into the modern era, one great beauty became the artist's model of choice. Her perfect form became the emblem of the Gilded Age and appears on the greatest monuments of New York and the nation. Supermodel, actress, icon - her beauty paved the way for a life of glamour, passion, and ultimately tragedy. Her name is Audrey Munson.
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Fascinating
- By Аmazon Customer on 04-06-17
By: James Bone
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Street Poison
- The Biography of Iceberg Slim
- By: Justin Gifford
- Narrated by: J. D. Jackson
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
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From a career as a, yes, ruthless pimp in the '40s and '50s, Iceberg Slim refashioned himself as the first and still the greatest of the "street lit" masters, whose vivid books have made him an icon to such rappers as Ice-T, Jay-Z, and Snoop Dogg and a presiding spirit of "blaxploitation" culture.
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A must read for all Robert Beck fans.
- By JMKIII58 on 09-15-16
By: Justin Gifford
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Pictures at a Revolution
- Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood
- By: Mark Harris
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 17 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Here is the epic human drama behind the making of the five movies nominated for Best Picture in 1967 - Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, The Graduate, In the Heat of the Night, Doctor Dolittle, and Bonnie and Clyde - and through them, the larger story of the cultural revolution that transformed Hollywood and America forever.
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Would It Be Too Much To Ask?
- By Casey Keller on 12-31-08
By: Mark Harris
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Season of the Witch
- Enchantment, Terror, and Deliverance in the City of Love
- By: David Talbot
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 16 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Season of the Witch is the first book to fully capture the dark magic of San Francisco in this breathtaking period, when the city radically changed itself - and then revolutionized the world. The cool gray city of love was the epicenter of the 1960s cultural revolution. But by the early 1970s, San Francisco’s ecstatic experiment came crashing down from its starry heights. The city was rocked by savage murder sprees, mysterious terror campaigns, political assassinations, street riots, and finally a terrifying sexual epidemic.
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Gripping, important history - well told
- By The Companion on 05-21-12
By: David Talbot
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The Devil Finds Work
- An Essay
- By: James Baldwin
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 3 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Baldwin's personal reflections on movies gathered here in a book-length essay are also a probing appraisal of American racial politics. Offering an incisive look at racism in American movies and a vision of America's self-delusions and deceptions, Baldwin challenges the underlying assumptions in such films as In the Heat of the Night, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and The Exorcist.
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A Critical Masterpiece.
- By Ramon McGee on 05-10-18
By: James Baldwin
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An concise assessment of Joan's life
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Tinseltown
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By 1920, the movies had suddenly become America's new favorite pastime and one of the nation's largest industries. Never before had a medium possessed such power to influence; yet Hollywood's glittering ascendancy was threatened by a string of headline-grabbing tragedies - including the murder of William Desmond Taylor, the popular president of the Motion Picture Directors Association, a legendary crime that has remained unsolved until now.
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Everybody's a dreamer...
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Close-Up on Sunset Boulevard
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Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard, a classic film noir and also a damning dissection of the Hollywood dream factory, evokes the glamour and ruin of the stars who subsist on that dream. It’s also one long in-joke about the movie industry and those who made it great - and who were, in turn, destroyed by it. One of the most critically admired films of the 20th century, Sunset Boulevard is also famous as silent-star Gloria Swanson’s comeback picture.
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What listeners say about Dark City (Revised and Expanded Edition)
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Boxing Fan
- 07-09-23
Excellent book on noir
An excellent overview of film noir. Besides the author's encyclopedic knowledge of the subject, the stylized prose and smart, gruff narration make it seem like you're almost listening to a noir character's voice-over film narration. A great touch! This is one of my favorite film books on Audible.
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- Bruce Gehrke
- 09-23-23
Dark City (Revised and Expanded Edition)
Loved Dark City and narrators especially Eddie Muller.Watch him on TCM's @Noir Alley films on Saturday nights.
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- Jeff A.Smith
- 12-15-23
No Noir no Eddie!
Fantastic listen! No buddy know Noir more then The Great Eddie Muller. 5 stars all day & night!!
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- Brian A. Tapia
- 08-27-24
Major Spoilers
I was expecting a discussion of the genre and major films. But most of the book is just telling the whole story of movies including plot twists and endings. If you’re interested in that then it’s a good book. However, if you want to actually see the movies, then I would avoid this book.
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- Buretto
- 03-31-22
Good overview, summary of the genre
Not unlike books about humor or genres of music, a book about film noir seems destined to be a pale reflection of the real deal. Even for Eddie Muller, considered by most to be the definitive authority on the genre, one can't help to sound schlocky when recounting film plots and backstage intrigue. Perhaps that is by design, a nerd in a fedora and trenchcoat, playing Sam Spade.
That being stated, for what it is, the book is quite good. There are short blurbs about several films and actors, though more Marie Windsor and Evelyn Keyes, and less Barbara Stanwyck, Lizbeth Scott and Alfred Hitchcock would have been my preference. If you are familiar with film noir, it's a light summary of the genre, nice but not terribly informative. If you're not, it will give a useful resource of films and actors to research, particularly in this new edition a couple decades after the first, when the films are far more accessible online.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Mary
- 06-01-24
Interesting era and genre of film
It is a great audio to play the discussion about each of the movies before and after they are viewed on TCM or any other linear or streaming platforms.
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- Jeremy W.
- 05-01-22
Too Many Spoilers. Not for beginners
returned this audiobook. I did not like the fact there was no warning on spoilers and that it wasn't more focused. The opening skit was just distracting. I understand what the idea was but this is not something I would recommend to a beginner of film noir like me. It could be more focused and warn you before talking about movies.
the chapters aren't labeled so you don't really know where to find certain information like history of noir or what is noir. It's jumbled together. unfortunately there is not a lot of other options for film noir audiobooks I was hoping this book would give me the guide I needed.
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