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'City of Noir' polls a variety of sources, including other San Franciscans who are devoted to the genre, and it's appropriately accompanied by 'Ten on the Dark Side,' a listing of local intriguing, impressionistic crime dramas from noir's 1947-1952 peak.
"The wave really hit in 1946, and it crested in 1949…and was over by 1953," declares Muller.
Financial journalist Therese Poletti observes that "it just adds this whole mystique" when a noir is set in San Francisco. Living in the Castro (with her husband whom she met at the Noir City fest), Poletti adds of the city, "It has this glamor side and it has this really gritty side."
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"San Francisco has always been a colorful town, built on the rambunctious riches of the Gold Rush," opines another frequent visitor to Noir City, legal secretary Marco Place, adding, "By mid-century it was considered a metropolis of sophistication mixed with a bohemian underground."
What's that, Louis? Oh, that artifact rescued by Muller and Monga? Well, that would be 'Woman on the Run,' a vivid 1950 noir set in S.F. that Muller first saw on "a really bad VHS tape" and surmised, "I think this is a good movie, but I can't really tell."
Thus began a detective caper for the two film buffs that climaxed in pairing the soundtrack for a flawed print from Universal Studios with the duplicated negative found in the British Film Institute archives.
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The restored 'Woman on the Run' debuted at the inaugural Noir City festival at the Castro in 2003 and became the first of some 30 films noir restored by their non-profit, the Noir City Foundation. Although the festival has likewise grown into an eight-city annual road show, cultural tragedy gives the story a melancholy finale.
"We were driving out of [L.A.] when we saw the smoke from the fire," recalls Monga of the 2008 studio lot inferno that claimed a staggering wealth of recordings and more than 40,000 film prints—including their 'baby.' Learning later what damage the fire wrought, she says, they knew the truth: "Had it been sitting, not in an [archivist's] office, but in the vault, it would have survived the fire."
So whaddya think, boss? Look, Louis baby, you don't have to decide now. Why not check out 'City of Noir' in the new Winter 2020 issue of CA-Modern?" I tell ya, it could be a smash.