The glitz, glamour and grunge of film noir is returning to the Empress Theatre in Vallejo on Saturday with a film showing and discussion.

Event partners Alibi Bookshop, Empress Theatre and experts from the world of film noir and will feature a book signing, live music and a showing of the 1947 film “Johnny O’Clock.”

Film noir, a category of film characterized by cynical, pessimistic crime-solving mixed with the drama of classic Hollywood cinema, is a genre of movie that’s gained popularity in recent years. A lot of that can be credited to Eddie Muller, author and “Czar of Noir,” who is featured weekly on Turner Classic Movies introducing films for the segment “Noir Alley.”

Muller will introduce “Johnny O’Clock” at Saturday’s film noir event. Prior to the film, there will be a book signing of Muller’s recent book publication, a revised and expanded edition of “Dark City Dames,” live jazz music by the Jazz Johnson Trio and a discussion with Muller and Noir City Film Festival’s Music Director Nick Rossi.

Rossi, a longtime musician, discovered a love of film noir nearly 30 years ago in an effort to immerse himself in the history and culture of jazz. “For me, jazz and film noir kind of went hand in hand,” he says.

For nine years now, Rossi has worked with the Noir City Film Festival and is currently the Music Director and announcer.

When film noir first came to Vallejo in December of 2023, Rossi, who was instrumental in the planning, says the idea came from Alibi bookshop owner Karen Finlay. It was her who asked if Muller would be interested in coming out to Vallejo to introduce a film.

“The Vallejo Noir event that we did in December of 2023, we pretty much created,” says Rossi. Although it is similar to how he and Muller operate with the Noir City Film Festival, the structure of the event is really their own making, he says.

The first film noir event in Vallejo was a success, completely selling out the theater, says Rossi. So, for the second installation, they are keeping the format very similar, this time with more of a focus on Muller’s book “Dark City Dames.”

The book follows “The women who defined film noir” and the real conversations Muller had with several of the genre’s most well-known actresses. The actresses and the female characters of film noir is part of what makes the genre special, says Rossi.

“Women are so essential to the genre, it can’t be stressed enough. Often the women characters in film noir are far more complex than in contemporary films,” he says. “Behind the glamour, and there’s a lot of glamour in these films, is a lot of complex characters.”

Muller selected “Johnny O’Clock” in part to highlight the main actress in the film Evelyn Keyes, who he wrote about in “Dark City Dames.”

Prior to the film’s showing, Muller and Rossi will discuss aspects of the book and the film before Muller’s official film introduction.

For Rossi, the complex characters in film noir is just one aspect that makes it a unique, interesting and entirely American genre.

Film noir is a perfect storm of the glitz of Hollywood’s golden age and the pessimism that filmmakers of the time experienced coming out of The Great Depression. As a result, film noir is “always bigger than life, but in a lot of ways it’s much more true to life,” says Rossi.

Learn more and purchase tickets at empresstheatre.org

If you go …

WHAT: An Evening of Noir with Eddie Muller

WHEN: June 21: 6-11:30 p.m.

WHERE: Empress Theatre, 330 Virginia St., Vallejo.