Noir Musical Films
Sheri Chinen Biesen - buy BN Amazon
Johns Hopkins University Press - Kindle
Film noir expert Sheri Chinen Biesen explores how noir musical films use film noir style and bluesy strains of jazz to reveal the dark side of fame and the American Dream.
Smoke. Shadows. Moody strains of jazz. Welcome to the world of “noir musical” films, where tormented antiheroes and hard-boiled musicians battle obsession, struggle with their music and ill-fated love triangles. Sultry divas dance and sing the blues in shrouded nightclubs. Romantic intrigue clashes with backstage careers.
“Continuing the groundbreaking work on film noir in
her first book, Blackout, which uncovered the origins of noir in World
War II, Sheri Chinen Biesen’s Music in the Shadows traces another
unlikely, understudied connection – between film noir and the Hollywood musical. Blending archival research, textual analysis, industrial and cultural
history, Biesen builds a fascinating and quite convincing case for a genre
hybrid, the noir musical, that took root in the 1940s but has continued to
evolve ever since – from post-classical masterworks like The Red Shoes
and West Side Story to New Hollywood gems like All That Jazz and Moulin
Rouge. In the process, she challenges and fundamentally changes our
understanding of both film noir and the film musical.” – Thomas Schatz, The University of Texas at Austin
“Highly recommended. Breaking new ground in film noir studies, Biesen explores the symbiotic relationship between film noir, jazz, and the blues and offers extensive, well-documented research to prove the musical roots of film noir. Through myriad examples, she illustrates the overarching importance of jazz and the blues, revealing that
music as a stylistic element is as necessary to film noir as low-key lighting, femmes fatales, and darkened city streets. She convincingly links film noir to musicals—albeit dark, relentless, decidedly hopeless musicals—that reflect the reality of the times: the Depression, WW II, and, later, the Vietnam War. Drawing attention to the use of jazz and blues music as a representation of the seedier side of life, Biesen pulls examples from classical and contemporary films noir—ranging from A Star Is Born and Casablanca to All that Jazz and Bird—demonstrating the importance of music to the genre and music's continued impact on neo-noir films such as Chicago and Black Swan. Biesen’s relevant study provides new insight and proves a welcome addition to film noir studies.” — Choice
expressionistic aesthetic more closely resemble the visual style of film noir. Their narratives unfold behind a stark noir lens: distorted, erratic angles and imbalanced hand-held shots allow the audience to experience a tortured disillusioned perspective. Crisscrossing beams of light splinter a black Los Angeles sky as a self-destructive screen idol wreaks havoc backstage, shattering glass and assaulting performers. Terrified dancers scream in the wings. Chaos ensues. Although this episode might suggest film noir, it is a scene from the 1954 noir musical film A Star is Born.
Sheri Chinen Biesen is an associate professor of radio, television, and film studies at Rowan University and author of Blackout: World War II and the Origins of Film Noir, also published by Johns Hopkins.
“The author is to be congratulated on producing an exemplary study in empirical film history.” – Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television, reviewing a previous edition or volume
“A film noir aficionado, Biesen provides the most detailed and thoroughly researched interpretation of this era’s American film noir.” – American Historical Review, reviewing a previous edition or volume
Praise for Biesen’s Music in the Shadows: Noir Musical Films
“The book’s examination of 1941’s Blues in the Night illuminates how the then-nascent noir genre and established backstage musical genre came together to form the noir musical, which subsequently influenced film noir, ‘A’ musicals and musical dramas in the following decades as outlined in later chapters. Biesen’s examinations of A Star is Born, The Red Shoes, New York, New York and ‘Round Midnight are particularly potent, successfully presenting these familiar films in a new light and placing them on a continuum previously unexplored.” — Anne M. Hockens 
“Film noir has been an important part of American film history. But there is a part of noir that has been overlooked: the noir musical. Author Sheri Chinen Biesen examines this little known area of film in Music in the Shadows: Noir Musical Films, published by Johns Hopkins University Press. Biesen takes a look at several musicals that have a noir style and influence, starting with Blues in the Night
from 1941. Released prior to the U.S. entering World War II, the film
contains great jazz and blues numbers mixed with a dark plot that
strayed from the cheerful escapist musicals audiences were used to
seeing. She then moves on to The Red Shoes,
a British film from 1948, known for its 17 minute ballet within a film.
The Technicolor film about a ballerina torn between her lover and her
career includes moody silhouettes and showcases post-war realism
reflecting women’s roles in society. Then she looks at what she considers a “musicalized film noir,” A Star is Born
from 1954. Considered Judy Garland’s comeback role, it has a noir style
in the relationship between the rising star and the washed up has-been.
Biesen talks about the best known number “The Man That Got Away” by
beautifully describing the scene’s color scheme. 
West Side Story
from 1961...was a product of its time, according to Biesen, as it
came out around the time of the civil rights movement, and after the Red
Scare when many in Hollywood were blacklisted for supporting Communism.
Biesen also analyzes other films noir that have musical pieces in
them, from the 1940’s to the present. Her love of film noir and musicals
shows, it’s well researched, and it is a delight to read from start to
finish.” — Stacy Sobotka, Detroit Film Examiner
Sheri Chinen Biesen, Ph.D. is a film historian and professor of radio, television, and film studies at Rowan University, and author of Blackout: World War II and the Origins of Film Noir and Music in the Shadows: Noir Musical Films at Johns Hopkins University Press. Educated at the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television (B.A. 1987, M.A. 1995) and University of Texas at Austin (Ph.D. 1998), Professor Biesen is the recipient of numerous research awards and teaching honors and has taught cinema history at the University of Texas at Austin, University of California, University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television, and University of Leicester in England. She has worked as a writer and script analyst for The American Film Institute Alumni Writers Workshop and contributed to the BBC documentary The Rules of Film Noir, Film Noir: The Directors, The Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Film Noir Reader 4, Film and History, Gangster Film Reader, Film Noir: The Encyclopedia, Literature/Film Quarterly, Quarterly Review of Film and Video, The Historian, Television and Television History, Popular Culture Review, Turner Classic Movies Public Enemies in the Warner Bros. Gangster Collection, and edited The Velvet Light Trap. Blackout interview
