Feweras continue to obsess moviemakers like the Los Angeles boom yearsafter World War II, a time when Hollywood made some of its greatestmovies and filmmakers would have you believe the city was filled withnoble gumshoes, women in trouble and glamour tempered only by despair.

The noir tradition continues this month with the release of"Hollywoodland" and "The Black Dahlia." While the first film dramatizesthe death of "Superman" star George Reeves, the "The Black Dahlia"revisits the brutal murder and bisection of 22-year-old ElizabethShort, whose death bred decades of investigation and false confessions.

The noir fixation doesn't just persist in film: Round-toedheels fill women's shoe racks. Pinup girls and burlesque are all therisque rage. Christina Aguilera has dropped the "Dirrty" act for avampy noir-influenced personae, and "The Black Dahlia" star ScarlettJohansson often seems delivered to red carpets by time machine.

"It's that whole thing about romanticism masked with cynicism,and all the glamour that goes with it," says Ricki Kline, designer forLos Angeles's 213, Inc., which builds bars that emulate a noir moodwithout aping postwar lighting and furniture. "It's modern, so it'saccessible, but it's far enough away that they can romanticize it."

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