<P>Smoke. Shadows. Moody strains of jazz. Welcome to the world of "noir musical" films, where tormented antiheroes and hard-boiled musicians battle obsession and 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. </P><P>In her pioneering study, <I>Music in the Shadows</I>, film noir expert Sheri Chinen Biesen explores musical films that use film noir style and bluesy strains of jazz to inhabit a disturbing underworld and reveal the dark side of fame and the American Dream. While noir musical films like <I>A Star Is Born</I> include musical performances, their bleak tone and 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.</P><P>While many musicals glamorize the quest for the spotlight in Hollywood's star factory, brooding noir musical films such as <I>Blues in the Night, Gilda, The Red Shoes, West Side Story,</I> and <I>Round Midnight</I> stretch the boundaries of film noir and the musical as film genres collide. Deep shadows, dim lighting, and visual composition evoke moodiness, cynicism, pessimism, and subjective psychological points of view.</P><P>As in her earlier study of film noir, <I>Blackout: World War II and the Origins of Film Noir,</I> Biesen draws on extensive primary research in studio archives to situate her examination within a historical, industrial, and cultural context.</P>