Marie Windsor is fondly remembered by fans of low-budget '50s and '60s thrillers as "The Queen of the Bs" . . . as in B movies. A former Miss Utah who was born and raised in Marysvale, Windsor died in Los Angeles last December on the day before her 81st birthday.
But those of us who love film noir will always remember her fabulous performances in "Force of Evil," "The Killing," "The Narrow Margin" and countless other low-budget films, usually as a sexy, hard-bitten woman of the world with her own agenda.
Windsor still has a large fan base, and members will be delighted to see that she gets the royal treatment in a new book, "Dark City Dames," by Eddie Muller (Regan Books/Harper Collins, 292 pages, $29.95).
A 12-part biography, the book profiles six such "Dames" — twice. In addition to Windsor, Muller interviews Jane Greer, Audrey Totter, Evelyn Keyes, Coleen Gray and Ann Savage.
Most moviegoers — especially younger moviegoers — probably don't know these names. But some of us remember them in such '50s black-and-white film-noir classics as "Out of the Past" (Greer), "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (Totter), "99 River Street" (Keyes), "Nightmare Alley" (Gray) and "Detour" (Savage), among others.
Muller's approach is unique. With their cooperation for extensive interviews, each actress is, essentially, profiled twice — once in the first half of the book, as their careers and personal lives are tracked, and then again in the second half, with an up-to-date look at their lives today.
All of these stories and provide fascinating insight into the inner workings of Hollywood's studio class system in the so-called "golden era" . . . from a side of the class system that is not often explored.
The two sections on Windsor are especially appealing — not just because of the local angle but because Windsor seems to be the most genuine, down to earth and realistic of the group.
JOHN FORD COUNTRY, as Monument Valley is often called, has been the location setting for uncountable Westerns, beginning in earnest after Ford used the area for "Stagecoach" in 1939, the movie that made his mark, and which made a star of a young actor named John Wayne.
So, it's only fitting that cable-TV's premier movie channel, Turner Classic Movies, is saluting Monument Valley and Moab as Ford's favorite moviemaking locations with a 6 1/2-minute mini-documentary to launch "Hollywood in My Hometown," an "interstitial" series to be broadcast between films of varying lengths. (You can see this one Wednesday, June 27, accompanying Ford's southern Utah-shot "cavalry trilogy" — "Fort Apache," "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" and "Rio Grande," all starring Wayne.)
It's a breezy piece, with several locals talking about their experiences with Ford (including Bette Stanton, former head of the Moab to Monument Valley Film Commission and author of "Where God Put the West," a history of southeastern Utah moviemaking). And best of all, it compares scenes from the movies with how the area looks now. Not much difference.
This is great stuff. And so are the movies showing with it.
E-MAIL: hicks@desnews.com