In mid-October 2013 the publisher Limelight released my book A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Film Noir: The Essential Reference Guide
. The book has entries on well over 3,000 films noirs and related movies from all over the world, including over 2,000 from the US alone.
The purpose of Noirish is to act as an extension to the Encyclopedia -- an annex, if you like -- where I can add entries for movies that for one reason or another didn't make it into the printed book.
In some instances, this is just because the movie concerned was released too late for inclusion.
Most often, though, the reason was logistic. Although the Encyclopedia takes the broadest possible view of film noir, there were some movies that were either too obscure or too tangential to the theme to merit the use of precious page space: 800+ large-format pages -- nearly 700,000 words -- may seem a lot but, when you're trying to cover in excess of 3,000 movies, you soon learn to appreciate the constraints.
That's why this enterprise has the title it has: Noirish. Many of the movies here are very borderline noir, and some aren't noir at all but have associational interest.
Just because a movie's obscure doesn't mean it's lousy . . . although there'll be some lousy movies covered here. There'll also be plenty of movies that are, shall we say, undistinguished -- which is not to say they're without at least some points of interest, and certainly isn't to say they're not lots of fun to watch.
After posting a bunch of entries to get myself started, I'll be adding new movies to Noirish as and when I watch them.
Noirish 
Thanks very much, I am glad you brought this to my attention. Did some more research on the artist and shared it with my husband and son.
He really was an exceptional artist in all sorts of fields. At the opposite end of the spectrum from the astronomical/space art, he did a fabulous series of paintings of Spanish missions in California.
Last night after I read this reply, I saw online that there was a book with his paintings and wondered whether my husband had that book. He has a LOT of books about California history. He does have the book: The Golden Era of the Missions with text by Paul Johnson and paintings by Bonestell. Very cool.
That’s the one. It can fetch a hefty price, although we were lucky enough to find one for not to much.
Bonnetstell is one of my favorite SF illustrators. His work was kind of a change of pace from the typical bug eyed alien type illustrations used in the 30’s and 40’s. I’ve been trying to remember when my favorite Bonestell cover appeared on Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine. Finally found it thanks to a link from ISFDB.com. Hopefully this link works, it’s the March 1953 cover, titled ‘The Fleet Leaves Mars’. He takes the fairly common motif of a fleet of planes flying in formation and transfer it to Mars.
An interesting illustration — many thanks. I’ve seen a lot of Bonestell’s work, but I don’t recall having come across that one before.
If you get a chance to take a look at the Ron Miller book I mention, grab it. The sheer range of Bonestell’s work in addition to the astronomical/space/sf art he’s most commonly associated with is really quite extraordinary.
I only know his sci-fi work, I’ll have to check out his other work too!
Hope you have fun on the voyage, so to speak!
I backtracked you from your comment in the latest schlock-value, and that led me to find this post. Chesley Bonestell was a favorite of mine when I first discovered science fiction back about 1960. I will certainly track down the Ron Miller book and the new movie. Thanks for the heads-up. SL
Welcome here, Syd: how very good to come across you. Your name is very familiar (and I’ve just been checking in the SFE), but I can’t recall if we’ve met at a con or something. If we have and I’ve forgotten, please forgive an old man’s dwindling braincells.
I must have been discovering Bonestell about the same time that you did — about 1960. My (much) older brother had a book of his work — Conquest of Space, I think — and of course I filched it for a read.
Dave Hardy tells a great tale of how, as a kid, he took a Bonestell pic of the lunar surface in to school to show the art teacher . . . who started telling him how photography was all well and good but painting was the real potatoes. It apparently took Dave some while to get it through the teacher that the Bonestell pic wan’t a photograph. His proof? At the time no one had been to the moon to take a photograph . . .
Dear John,
Many thanks for bringing some added awareness to “Chesley Bnestell: A Brush With The Future” and for posting the comments from your followers. We’ve been busy as bees trying to finish the film by the end of the year. It runs 95 minutes and is quite a fascinating account of Chesley’s life and works as told by people whom he influenced. Ron Miller and Melvin Schuetz are the Co-Producers and have been providing invaluable help throughout its production. Will post some concrete news “when it hardens”`
Very gratefully,
Doug Stewart
Producer/Director/Writer
“Chesley Bonestell: A Brush With The Future”
Congratulations on having the movie so near to completion, Doug! By all means post the “concrete news” about release dates, etc., here; alternatively, send it to me direct — Ron has my e-address — and I’ll make a post out of it.