Eddie Muller (born October 15, 1958) is an American writer based in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. He is known for writing books about movies, particularly

film noir Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...

, and is the host of Noir Alley on Turner Classic Movies (TCM).

Early life and education

Muller is the son of a famous San Francisco

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

writer of the same name. Muller studied with filmmaker

George Kuchar George Kuchar (August 31, 1942 – September 6, 2011) was an American underground film director and video artist, known for his "low-fi" aesthetic. Early life and career Kuchar trained as a commercial artist at the School of Industrial Art, now kn ...

at the

San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...

in the late 1970s.

Career

Muller is the founder and president of the Film Noir Foundation and is co-programmer of the San Francisco Noir City film festival. Muller is considered a noir expert and is called on to write and talk about the film genre, notably on wry commentary tracks for

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

's film noir series of DVDs and introducing

Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie channel, movie-oriented pay television, pay-TV television network, network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasti ...

's weekly "Noir Alley" movie block. Every Saturday, Noir Alley visits classic noir films featuring some of the best set-ups and shake downs involving iconic antiheroes and the unforgettable, fatalistic dames they fall for. Laura Sheppard, director of events at Mechanics' Institute in San Francisco, dubbed him "The Czar of Noir" (as recounted by Muller in conversation with

Angie Coiro Angie Coiro is an American talk radio host. She is the host and senior producer of ''In Deep with Angie Coiro'' (formerly known as ''The Green Show''). Prior to that, she was the host of '' Mother Jones'' Radio on Air America Radio. The program wa ...

on the In Deep radio show recorded March 20, 2019, at Dragon Theater in Redwood City, California;) the quote is often misattributed to the novelist

James Ellroy Lee Earle "James" Ellroy (born March 4, 1948) is an American crime fiction writer and essayist. Ellroy has become known for a telegrammatic prose style in his most recent work, wherein he frequently omits connecting words and uses only short, ...

. Muller based the character of Billy Nichols in his period crime novel ''The Distance'' after his father. The novel was named the Best First Novel of 2002 by the

Private Eye Writers of America Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

. Billy Nichols returned in the 2003 novel ''Shadow Boxer''.

Books

Nonfiction

*(with Daniel Faris) ''Grindhouse: The Forbidden World of "Adults Only" Cinema'' (1996); *''Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir'' (1998); *''Dark City Dames: The Wicked Women of Film Noir'' (2001); *''The Art Of Noir: The Posters & Graphics From The Classical Era Of Film Noir'' (2004); *(with

Tab Hunter Tab Hunter (born Arthur Andrew Kelm; July 11, 1931 – July 8, 2018) was an American actor, singer, film producer, and author. Known for his blond, clean-cut good looks, Hunter starred in more than forty films. He was a Hollywood heartthrob of t ...

) ''Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star'' (2005); *''Gun Crazy: The Origin of American Outlaw Cinema'' (2014); *''Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir (Revised and Expanded Edition)'' (2021);

Fiction

*''The Distance'' (2002); *''Shadow Boxer'' (2003);

References

External links

Official web site
*
Interview with Matthew Sorrento at ''Bright Lights Film Journal''Interview with Rudy Cecera for ''Screen Comment''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Muller, Eddie 1958 births American film historians American male non-fiction writers Film theorists Living people American film critics Shamus Award winners Writers from San Francisco