NOIR CITY: Philadelphia, November 14-16, 2025

 

Coming soon: NOIR CITY: Philadelphia

NOIR CITY: Philadelphia returns to The Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, November 14-16, 2025, for a three-day extravaganza. Join Eddie Muller for a film noir lineup that shines the spotlight on women whose cinematic legacy is entwined with film noir. Several of this year’s films star additional actresses profiled in Muller’s Dark City Dames: The Women Who Defined Film Noir — Ella Raines, Ruth Roman, and Jan Sterling.

Festival highlights include three rarely screened films: tiki-noir Hell’s Half Acre(1954) with Evelyn Keyes and Marie Windsor, John Farrow’s Faustian tale Alias Nick Beal (1949) with Audrey Totter, and Max Ophüls’ suspenseful 1949 film The Reckless Moment featuring one of Joan Bennett’s finest performances.

A 35mm restoration performed by UCLA Film & Television Archive and funded by the FNF will also play: Joseph Losey’s The Prowler (1951), written by Dalton Trumbo with Van Heflin and Evelyn Keyes in the leads.

Festival program schedule, double-feature tickets, and weekend passes (includes all ten films) are available on The Colonial Theatre’s website.

The Thursday Murder Club: Coming to Netflix

I really enjoyed Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club (and the other books in the series), and I'm quite excited about the movie set to  release on Netflix August 28. Just look at the line-up: Story by Richard Osman, Director: Chris Columbus, Producers: Steven Spielberg, Jennifer Todd, Cast: Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Celia Imrie, Ben Kingsley, and Daniel Mays! Wowza. 

FYI: This is a 2 hour movie, not a series.

Storyline: Four retirees spend their time solving cold case murders for fun, but their casual sleuthing takes a thrilling turn when they find themselves with a real whodunit on their hands.

Why not read The Thursday Murder Club before the premiere? You can also continue reading the series. 

And here's an article Richard Osman wrote for Mystery Readers Journal, Senior Sleuths (2020). 

 

NOIR CITY XMAS: Who Killed Santa Claus?

NOIR CITY Xmas is on its way! Join host Eddie Muller on Wednesday, December 18, 7:30 pm, at Oakland's historic Grand Lake Theatre for NOIR CITY Xmas! To darken your Yuletide spirit, the Film Noir Foundation is presenting Who Killed Santa Claus? (L'Assassinat du père Noël), a 1941 French mystery. The evening will also feature the unveiling of the program (and poster!) for NOIR CITY 22, the 22nd year of the world's most popular film noir festival, coming to the Grand Lake Theatre January 24 - February 2, 2025. 

Tickets for NOIR CITY Xmas are available online from Eventbrite for $15 and can also be purchased at the theatre box office on the day of the show. Doors will open at 6:30 pm on the day of the event. What a Great Deal!!!

Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, and Ben Kingsley: Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club

Three of the four leading roles in the film adaptation of Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club have been cast with Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, and Ben Kingsley set to play septuagenarian sleuths in a retirement community. Chris Columbus, whose previous credits include Home Alone, Mrs Doubtfire and the first two Harry Potter films, is set to direct.

The fastest-selling adult crime debut in recorded history (according to The Guardian), the novel is set in the fictional Kentish town of Fairhaven and features the four friends solving the murder of a property developer.

How exciting! Can't wait!

Mysteries, Crime Fiction, Thrillers, and Movies that take place at the New Year

Happy New Year! Wishing you the best for 2024! May Mystery and Mayhem only happen in crime fiction! 

Today's list features Mysteries, Crime Fiction, Thrillers, and Movies that take place at the New Year. This is an updated list. Let me know if I've forgotten any of your favorites! 

Crime Fiction Set at the New Year

Allyson K. Abbott: A Toast to Murder
Alderson, Jennifer: Death on the Danube

Marian Babson: Line up for Murder
Bain, Donald and Jessica Fletcher. Murder She Wrote: Death of a Blue Blood
T. L. Barnett: Murder for the New Year
George Baxt: The Marlene Dietrich Murder Case
George Bellairs: The Case of the Headless Jesuit

Virginia K. Bennett: The Toast of New Year's Eve. 
Nero Blanc: A Crossworder's Gift
Eileen Brady: Last But Not Leashed
Paul Brazil: Guns of Brixton; Cold London Blues
Jon L. Breen: Touch of the Past

Rita Mae Brown: Full Cry
Anna Celeste Burke: Gnarly New Year!
Lynn Cahoon: Have A Deadly New Year.

Alison Cairns: New Year Resolution
Lillian Stewart Carl: The Blue Hackle
C.S. Challinor: Murder at Midnight
Lee Child (ed): Killer Year: Stories to Die for
Anne Cleeves: Raven Black
Anna Ashwood Collins: Deadly Resolutions
Michael Connelly: The Dark Hours

Patricia Cornwell: Cause of Death
Mark Costello: Bag Men
Alisa Craig: Murder Goes Mumming

Isis Crawford: A Catered New Year's Eve
M. Culler: A New Year's Cat-aclysm
Maddie Day: Murder in a Cape Cottage

Jeffrey Deaver: The Devil's Teardrop
Colin Dexter: The Secret of Annexe 3
Carter Dickson: Death and the Gilded Man
Carole Nelson Douglas: Cat on a Hyacinth Hunt
D.B. Elrogg: Murder Again! Happy New Year

Loren D. Estleman: Stress
James Ellroy: This Storm
Janet Evanovich: Plum New Year
J. Jefferson Fargeon: Death in Fancy Dress (aka The Fancy Dress Ball)
Quinn Fawcett: Siren Song
Jerrilyn Farmer: Dim Sum Dead
Lucy Foley: The Hunting Party

Frederick Forsyth: The Fourth Protocol
Janet Gleeson: The Grenadillo Box
J.M. Gregson: The Lancashire Leopard
Kerry Greenwood: Murder in the Dark

Jane Haddam: Fountain of Death
Karen Harper: The Queene's Christmas
Lee Harris: The New Year's Eve Murder
Ellen Hart: Hallowed Murder, Merchant of Venus
Roy Hart: Seascape with Dead Figures
Lauren Henderson: Pretty Boy
Reginald Hill: Killing The Lawyers
Jorn Lier Horst & Thomas Enger: Smoke Screen

Liz Ireland: Mrs. Claus and the Nightmare Before New Year's

Graham Ison: Hardcastle's Traitors

J.A. Jance: Name Withheld

Tonya Kappas: New Year Nuisance
Rufus King: Holiday Homicide

Harper Lin: New Year's Slay
Frances and Richard Lockridge: The Dishonest Murderer; Let Dead Enough Alone
Heather Dune Macadam: The Weeping Buddha
Clair Mackintosh: The Last Party

Ed McBain: Lullaby
Johnston McCulley: New Year's Pardon; New Year's Duty
Ellie McDougan: Homicide and a Happy New Year
Philip McLauren: Scream Black Murder
Elisabeth McNeill: Hot News

Leslie Meier: New Year's Eve Murder
James Melville: Body Wore Brocade
David William Meredith: The Christmas Card Murders
Miriam Ann Moore: Stayin' Alive
Tamar Myers: A Penny Urned

Nick Oldham: Bad Tidings
Leonardo Padura: Havana Blue (starts with a New Year's Eve hangover)
Elizabeth Peters: The Golden One
Edward O. Phillips: Sunday's Child
Denis Pitts: This City is Ours

Ellery Queen: Calamity Town
Craig Rice: The Right Murder
Gillian Roberts: The Mummer’s Curse
Cindy Sample: Dying for a Date
Dorothy L. Sayers: The Nine Tailors (begins on New Year's Eve)

Catherine Shaw: Fatal Inheritance
Sofia Slater: Auld Acquaintance

Paige Sleuth: Cherry Hills Case Files
Joan Smith: Don't Leave Me This Way, Why Aren't They Screaming
Kat Stone: New Years Dog-Tastrophe
Kathleen Suzette: New Year, New Murder

Meg Taggart: Murder at the Savoy
Kathleen Taylor: Cold Front
Charles Todd: A Long Shadow
Carolyne Topdjian: The Hitman's Daughter
Auralee Wallace: Ring in the Year with Murder
Patricia Wentworth: The Clock Strikes Twelve
Valerie Wolzein: 'Tis the Season to be Murdered (aka And a Lethal New Year)

Whiting, J.A. & Nell McCarthy: The Horse Knows the Way
James Ziskin: Stone Cold Dead
Mark Richard Zubro: The Truth Can Get You Killed

Short Story:
Q. Patrick: "Murder on New Year's Eve"

Children's:
Ron Roy: New Year's Eve Thieves

You might also want to check out my Christmas list (Christmas Mysteries, Authors A-Z). Some of the action spills over into New Year's.

Mystery Movies that take place at the New Year.

Happy Viewing!

After the Thin Man (1936)
Better Luck Tomorrow (2002)
Entrapment (1999)
The Godfather Part II (1974)
Little Caesar (1931)
Money Train (1995)
New Year's Evil (1980)
Night Train to Paris (1964) 
Ocean's 11 (1960)
Strange Days (1995)
Survivor (2015)

A HAUNTING IN VENICE: Kenneth Branagh as Poirot

I have not seen a preview of A Haunting in Venice, so come back for my viewing comments. Personally I think David Suchet's portrayal of Hercule Poirot is the best, but I've enjoyed other actor's performances including Peter Ustinov's. I'm easy. I really enjoy Agatha Christie's books, plays, short stories, and movies. That being said, I did not enjoy the 2022 Death on the Nile with Kenneth Branagh. Not sure if I'm in the minority, but I found the sets off-putting. I think because they were sets and not the real thing. I also recall that the film was slow moving and confusing. Oh well, I'll let you know know what I think after I see A Haunting In Venice. Feel free to post comments about the film.

A HAUNTING IN VENICE, featuring Kenneth Branagh as Agatha Christie's Belgian Detective Hercule Poirot, opens in Theaters on September 15. 

Kenneth Branagh reprises his role in A Haunting in Venice after previously portraying Poirot in the 2022 movie Death on the Nile and 2017's Murder on the Orient Express. The movie is set in post-World War II Venice, where Poirot, now retired and living in his own exile, reluctantly attends a seance at an All Hallows' Eve party. But when one of the guests is murdered, it is up to the former detective to once again uncover the killer.