A guide to noir films and their California settings, illustrating how the films use LA's diverse cityscape and architecture to convey a unique vision of urban corruption and existential fatalism. Dozens of noir and neo-noir films are featured, including classics such as Crimson Kimono, Double Indemnity, Kiss Me Deadly, Sunset Boulevard and Touch of Evil. Recent films like Mulholland Drive and Pulp Fiction have also made the list. More than 150 photographs, many of which appear for the first time, further illustrate the rich and constantly changing City of Angels.

Alain Silver is the author of The Samurai Film and has co-written fifteen other books, including Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles, and two screenplays. He has written numerous articles for the Los Angeles Times, DGA Magazine, Film Comment, and Photon. He has also produced nine independent features and over fifty soundtrack albums. Silver is a member of the Directors Guild of America and Writers Guild of America. He lives in Santa Monica, California.

James Ursini has contributed to various publications including Cinema, Femme Fatales, Mediascene, and Photon. Together, they are the co-authors of eleven books, among them the Film Noir Reader series, Film Noir: An Encyclopedia Reference to the American Style, and The Noir Style. Ursini lives in Santa Monica, California.