"Noir Bar" by Eddie Muller

Being labeled “the Czar of Noir” isn’t anything new for Eddie Muller. The San Francisco-based author and TCM film host has been writing and talking about film noir for more than 25 years.His 1998 release, “Dark City: the Lost World of Film Noir,” was just selected as one of the top 100 movie books by the Hollywood Reporter (the book will soon be rereleased from TCM). Muller has produced an entire noir library including “Dark City Dames” (look for a revised edition next year), a book on noir posters and several original novels but this year he’s pushed noir limits even further, publishing the “Noir Bar,” a book of mixed drink recipes and the films that inspired them (Eddie’s first professional job was as a bartender) and, most recently a children’s book, “Kid Noir: Kitty Feral and the Case of the Marshmallow Monkey” (with Jessica Schmidt and Forrest Burdett).Film noir, that genre made up of those gritty black-and-white crime films mostly from the 40s and 50s, has no better proponent than Muller who not only introduces viewers to films on TCM’s “Noir Alley” ( Saturdays at midnight) but organizes and hosts film festivals all over the country—both for TCM and his own film-restoring foundation —to keep classic noir films in front of the public. Next summer, Muller hosts a film noir fest in Paris, au fait.What was Muller’s first noir? What old movie led him to a life of crime (movies)? “It was probably ‘Big Heat’ but ‘Thieves’ Highway’ makes a better story,” he told Steve Tarter. “(‘Highway’) could be called agri-noir because it’s about a man who goes to the open San Francisco farmers’ market to avenge his father who he believes was done in by a conniving fruit peddler (played by Lee J. Cobb). There are also a lot of scenes of San Francisco with buildings that are no longer there,” he said.While he hosts film noir fests from Seattle to Detroit throughout the year—including the granddaddy of them all, the 21st annual Film Noir Foundation festival set for Oakland in January—Muller says he never tires of all the hoopla or the genre, itself. “I’m an enthusiast before anything else,” he said.So are there still any old chestnuts to pull out of the film noir fire we haven’t seen? Muller said studio releases have been largely tapped but he’s still on the lookout for those independent films released (but not owned) by Hollywood studios back in the day that may have disappeared. There are also films overseas that need to be added to a film noir fancier’s collection, he said. Muller said he's been turned on to some great ones from Argentina.“Crime shows are a great unifier. I think Americans broaden their horizons with crime fiction such as the present interest in Scandinavian mysteries,” said Muller.Expressing concern over dangers presented by Artificial Intelligence, Muller said the issue comes down to basic plagiarism. “There’s no way to stop it. Everything today gets on the internet and that’s where AI finds its material." Muller recognized AI as a problem that looms larger in the future. "By its very nature, it keeps improving. It’s very much an existential crisis,” he said.The hope is that AI won’t progress to the point that a revamped version of “Big Sleep” might be released that actually makes sense of that film’s convoluted plot. Meanwhile Muller prepares for the annual TCM Classic Cruise this November. If they wind up shorthanded, the czar can always help out at the bar. Here is Eddie’s recipe for the Last Word, a popular Prohibition-era cocktail revived by Murray Stenson at the Zig Zag Café in Seattle: (Coupe glass chilled/ Shaker, strained): ¾ ounce gin; ¾ ounce green Chartreuse; ¾ ounce Luxardo Maraschino liqueur; ¾ lime juice, freshly squeezed; Garnish: Luxardo Maraschino cherry.