THE HYPE VALLEY MOLLS SOME CLASSY LADIES HAVE GRACED THE SCREEN, BUT FOR FANS OF FILM NOIR, THERE'S NOTHING LIKE A DAME.Film noir film noir (French; “dark film”) Film genre that offers dark or fatalistic interpretations of reality. The term is applied to U.S. films of the late 1940s and early '50s that often portrayed a seamy or criminal underworld and cynical characters. was the cynical dark side of Hollywood's sunny-side-up mythology. And its femme femme adj. Slang Exhibiting stereotypical or exaggerated feminine traits. Used especially of lesbians and gay men. n. 1. Slang One who is femme. 2. Informal A woman or girl. fatales had the charm of a cookie laced with arsenic. You've seen these hard-bitten dames in such 1940s and '50s classics as ``The Postman Always Rings Twice,'' ``Lady in the Lake,'' ``Detour,'' ``Kiss of Death kiss of death gangsters’ farewell ritual before murdering victim. [Am. Cult.: Misc.] See : Farewell ,'' ``Out of the Past'' and ``The Maltese Falcon.'' Sinister and sexy, such a woman could usually be found seductively sipping a martini in the corner booth of a dimly lighted nightclub or seated provocatively on a private eye's desk, the shadow of venetian blinds across her face. Or standing in a doorway with a smoking gun in her hand. But there was more to these gals than meets the eye. In the just-published ``Dark City Dames: The Wicked Women of Film Noir'' ($29.95; Regan Books/HarperCollins), film historian Eddie Muller tells the stories of six alluring noir ladies - Audrey Totter, Marie Windsor Marie Windsor (December 11, 1919--December 10, 2000). Sometimes called "Queen of the Bs" because she appeared in so many noirs and b-movies like Cat-Women of the Moon (1953), Marie Windsor was born Emily Bertelson , Jane Greer, Evelyn Keyes Evelyn Keyes (b. November 20 1916, Port Arthur, Texas) is an American actress. Film career A chorus girl by age 18, Keyes was put under contract by Cecil B. DeMille. , Coleen Gray and Ann Savage Ann Savage (born February 19, 1921 in Columbia, South Carolina as Bernice Maxine Lyon) was a motion picture actress for over sixty years who is mainly remembered as the cigarette-puffing femme fatale in Detour - the faces behind the black veil Black Veil, in the Roman Catholic Church, the symbol of the most complete renunciation of the world and adoption of a nun's life. On the appointed day the nun goes through all the ritual of the marriage ceremony, after a solemn mass at which all the inmates of the convent assist. . ``As both predators and prey, they left an indelible impression on a genre widely, and falsely, remembered as the concrete and asphalt domain of lonesome lone·some adj. 1. a. Dejected because of a lack of companionship. See Synonyms at alone. b. Producing such dejection: a lonesome hour at the bar. 2. urban gunslingers like Humphrey Bogart and Robert Mitchum,'' explains Muller, who also penned 1998's acclaimed ``Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir.'' Packed with dozens of black-and-white photos, ``Dark City Dames'' brings us into the lives of these screen dames, including Sherman Oaks resident Totter, whose sizzling siz·zle intr.v. siz·zled, siz·zling, siz·zles 1. To make the hissing sound characteristic of frying fat. 2. To seethe with anger or indignation. 3. bit part in the 1946 John Garfield gem, ``The Postman Always Rings Twice,'' had audiences forgetting about leading lady Lana Turner. Which just goes to prove no matter how big the part, bad girls make for great movies. - Fred Shuster LETTERS FROM THE FRONT Over the years, the friends and families of America's servicemen and women probably craved their missives from the front as much as the soldiers prayed for words of news and comfort from home. Correspondence amassed from the Civil War through Desert Storm, much of it previously unpublished, has been compiled in ``War Letters,'' a new Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster U.S. publishing company. It was founded in 1924 by Richard L. Simon (1899–1960) and M. Lincoln Schuster (1897–1970), whose initial project, the original crossword-puzzle book, was a best-seller. Audio book narrated by Harry Smith and featuring the voices of Joan Allen, Tom Brokaw, Edward Herrmann, Rob Lowe, Juliana Marguiles, Giovanni Ribisi, David Straithairn and Noah Wyle. Editor Andrew Carroll began collecting the letters through an appeal by his nonprofit Legacy Project issued through Dear Abby in 1998. Fifty thousand replies poured into his small mailbox. They are love letters, complaints of homesickness, criticisms of government policy, and vivid descriptions of the sights, sounds and smells of battle, such as a soldier's account of how a chaplain was killed by a shell while blessing foxholes in Okinawa in 1945. The authors are unknown privates, officers, medics, spies, journalists and some historic figures, such as George Armstrong Custer when he was a general's aide in the Civil War. As Carroll says in his preface, the documents run the gamut of emotions: passion, despair, rage, hope, reconciliation and determination. ``One does not mince words knowing each day could be the last,'' he notes. ``War Letters,'' running six hours, comes in sets of four cassettes ($26) or five CDs ($32). - Valerie Kuklenski CAPTION(S): 4 photos Photo: (1 -- 3) no caption (``Dark City Dames'' (4) no caption (``War Letters'') |
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