#starting with Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice

[havealotonmymind]

Gonna watch a bunch of noir movies just to help me write this BG3 noir!AU lol

[beachboysnatural]

what old hollywood movie would you recommend me watching (i haven’t really seen any before so whats your favorite ig?? or which do you really like. idk feel free to infodump if you want though)

I'm so excited to answer this okay💞💞💞

So first off my number one recommendation is The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) which is my favorite movie and it is wonderful. If you like The Princess Bride you'll like this too. It's so good please watch it!!

I'm going to list a couple more but I'm gonna categorize them :D (but also as an aside some of these movies definitely have moments that are absolutely not okay but that you kind of have to filter out)

Comedies: It Happened One Night (1934) this movie defined the romcom and it is absolutely wonderful!! Top Hat (1935) not totally a comedy but like. Fred and Ginger Hands Across The Table (1935) I can't make a comedy category without including Carole Lombard! This movie is so sweet It's Love I'm After (1937) this movie deserves so much more praise it's great Bringing Up Baby (1938) HILARIOUS Four's A Crowd (1938) critically panned difficult to understand and a personal favorite of mine Holiday (1938) this movie makes me sad but it's also funny so idk. Hepburn and Grant what more do you need The Philadelphia Story (1940) LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Lady Eve (1941) I don't remember it very well but I remember really enjoying it, especially the first hour! Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) I just watched this and I adored it! Singin' in the Rain (1952) again it's a dance movie but it's so funny Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) this movie is so much fun!!! Some Like It Hot (1959) if you watch one movie from this category let it be this one. You have GOT to watch it

Film Noir:* Double Indemnity (1944) I cannot say enough good things about this movie Laura (1944) spectacular wonderful you will be on the edge of your seat Leave Her to Heaven (1945) very unique for a noir but I really enjoyed it! The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) John Garfield and Lana Turner and it's like good and stuff Gilda (1946) I don't remember the plot at all but Rita Hayworth is so attractive in this movie so if the plot is bad it does not matter Sorry, Wrong Number (1948) WONDERFUL performance from Barbara Stanwyck. Verrrrry tense Sunset Boulevard (1950) again if you watch one movie from this category it should be this one it's one of the best movies I have ever seen

*honorable mentions to Kirk Douglas for good performances that I really like in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) and Out of the Past (1947) which are both good movies but they're not my favorites

Drama/movies that make me really sad: Stella Dallas (1937) watched it with a friend, got home, and cried Four Daughters (1938) singlehandedly launched my John Garfield obsession and ruined my entire day Wuthering Heights (1939) apparently it's not accurate to the book but I adore this movie and cry every time Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939) it's kind of boring but I couldn't function for like a day Waterloo Bridge (1940) when I rewatched it I started crying in the first five minutes so The Little Foxes (1941) tour de force from every single actor Now, Voyager (1942) rewired my brain Gaslight (1944) watch Ingrid Bergman act circles around everyone else ever for two hours The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) three hours of exploring PTSD but it is worth all of the tears I promise The Heiress (1949) three powerhouse actors and a great script and an amazing director!! This movie is AMAZING White Heat (1949) watch James Cagney act circles around everyone else in the movie for two hours All About Eve (1950) very similar to Sunset Boulevard but also different. I love this movie A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) changed my entire life Twelve Angry Men (1957) SPECTACULAR

Hitchcock: Rebecca (1940) wonderful showstopping great I love this movie Shadow of a Doubt (1943) godddd the family dynamics of this movie!!! The suspense!! The acting!!! Strangers on a Train (1951) sooo spooky but sooo good Rear Window (1954) a classic it's very suspenseful you'll love it Vertigo (1958) my best friend my favorite my dearest dear. Truly one of the best movies I have ever seen in my entire life North By Northwest (1959) Cary Grant in yet another situation and it is so fucking good

[dollycas]

Special Guest - Michael Rands - One of the Authors of Crime & Culpability: A Jane Austen Mystery Anthology #AuthorGuestPost #Giveaway - Great Escapes Book Tour

Crime & Culpability: A Jane Austen Mystery Anthology by Regina Jeffers, Riana Everly, Jeanette Watts, Michael Rands, Linne Elizabeth, Emma Dalgety, and Elizabeth Gilliland I am delighted to welcome Michael Rands to Escape With Dollycas today! What is Noir? by Michael Rands This was the question at the heart of a seminar I took in grad school. This class proved to be one of the most enjoyable and memorable, not least because I would frequently sit next to my then crush, now wife. As the old saying goes: Couples who bond over Noir, bond for life. But really what is noir? It is one of the easiest and most difficult genres to define. Easy, because, well, you know when you’re watching film noir. Difficult, because you would have a hard time explaining why you know this. Comedy, you laugh. Romance, you swoon as two people fall in love. Horror is… horrifying. Noir? There’s a guy in a coat and a hat, a seductive woman with evil intentions, and a crime. It’s a rather bizarre definition, but it’s a start. Noir arose quite suddenly, with many of the most famous American noir films shot within a few years, and almost all shot within a decade. Several of the classics were shot during or just after the Second World War: The Maltese Falcon (1941), Double Indemnity (1944), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946). A real darkness permeates these films. Shot in black and white, the images are shadowy, nightmarish. The characters inhabit a dark world. The most famous stock character associated with this genre is the femme fatale—a deadly woman who uses her sexuality to lure men into sin and destruction. The villainous men, it should be noted, seldom require much persuasion. In Double Indemnity (a candidate for the noiriest of noir films) Phyllis Dietrichson, convinces the insurance salesman Walter Neff, to help her kill her husband after she takes out a policy on his life. The story (like many other in the genre) is filled with betrayal, murder, doomed sexual liaisons, and downward spirals that end in the destruction of all the schemers. The world is dark. The characters are dark. The story circles around the sinkhole of nihilism, and yet there is some form of justice. This justice however seldom comes at the hand of a redeemer, a white knight. Instead, the perpetrators of the crimes tend to implode under the weight of their own misdeeds. Agents of order are often as morally dubious as the villains they pursue. Detective Sam Spade of The Maltese Falcon, played by Humphrey Bogart, is the quintessential example of such a man. He smokes, drinks heavily, engages in intimidation and violence. He’s gruff and nasty. He is at least a partial influence for the many troubled detectives we’ve come to love in books and on screen. Spade, like most characters in the “noir-verse” began in the pages of a short novel. Dashiel Hammet (Spade’s creator), along with James Cain and Raymond Chandler, pioneered the genre of Hardboiled Detective Fiction a decade or so before the boom in noir films. Their stories and characters provided the blueprints for most of the classic films, with Chandler additionally writing many famous screenplays. All this is to say that noir, one of the most visually distinctive film genres, has its roots in fiction, in the written word. The city of Los Angeles plays an important role in the Noirosphere. Of course, the early films were shot in the city, but many of the most influential writers including the three mentioned above, spent some time in L.A. Contemporary Neo-noir writers like Walter Mosley have set their stories there too, perhaps in homage to these early pioneers. Despite the short duration of the original crop of noir, the genre has had an outsized influence on film and literature. Every hard drinking detective, femme fatale, and nihilistic double-crosser, owes at least some noirish debt. Writers as un-obviously noirish as Cormac MacCarthy have dipped their toes in noir-blood, and celebrated directors like Quentin Tarantino and the Coen Brothers are openly influenced by the genre. I’m sure it’s obvious to see how Jane Austen fits into all of this.  Born and raised in Los Angeles, the daughter of a private detective and a failed insurance salesman… But no, there is some logic. For one, we’re writing about Jane Austen and Crime. And, if it’s not obvious yet, I am an unapologetic fan of this shady genre. Austen’s famously adaptable characters have taken on countless lives across time, space and genre, and I could not but help see them putting on their noir-garb, and heading out to L.A. Mr. Wickham, the shady, manipulative, semi-criminal womanizer, was all but begging to be cast in a noir retelling of his story. Lydia Bennet, a few years older, jaded and hardened from her earlier experiences hanging out with a sociopath and his rough friends, might find herself noirified, too. As for Lizzie Bennet and Mr. Darcy, I tread carefully, for fear of making enemies. But, there is a place for them. I hope you’ll take a chance on this and see how it all fits together. Thank you! Thank you, Michael, for visiting today with a great topic! _____ Keep reading to learn more about Michael and Crime & Culpability. About Crime & Culpability Crime & Culpability: A Jane Austen Mystery Anthology Cozy Mystery Anthology Settings -  (Regency England, modern-day America) Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bayou Wolf Press (September 10, 2024) Print length ‏ : ‎ 176 pages Digital ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0D6JQN6JL "No one can withstand the charm of such a mystery." - Jane Austen, Persuasion Jane Austen mysteries have become a popular subgenre of Austen variations, but this is more than just a trend. Austen was a masterful storyteller who embedded clues within her stories for her readers to follow, inviting readers to read between the lines and "gather the evidence" to follow her intricate plotlines. In this anthology, various authors who are also fans and admirers of Austen's work have taken the challenge to add some mystery to Austen's stories and characters. From Regency sequels to film noir retellings to cozy art heists, Crime and Culpability: A Jane Austen Mystery Anthology explores the many faces of Austen and all of her enigmas. Featuring stories by Regina Jeffers, Riana Everly, Jeanette Watts, Michael Rands, Linne Elizabeth, Emma Dalgety, and Elizabeth Gilliland, with a foreword by Regina Jeffers and an introduction by Elizabeth Gilliland Rands. About the Authors Elizabeth Gilliland: Elizabeth Gilliland is the author of the Austen University Mysteries series, including What Happened on Box Hill, The Portraits of Pemberley, and two prequel novellas, Dear Prudent Elinor and Sly Jane Fairfax. (Look out for book three sometime next year!) She has written and presented at various academic confer‐ ences on Jane Austen and wrote her dissertation on Jane Austen adaptations, dedicating herself to watch the lake dive scene as many times as necessary for scholarly pursuit. She also writes Gothic horror as E. Gilliland and romance as Lissa Sharpe, and she is the co-founder of Bayou Wolf Press. Author Links Website    Twitter (X)   Facebook    Goodreads   Blog    Newsletter   Amazon   Regina Jeffers - Regina Jeffers writes books about corsets, rakes, daring heroines, dashing heroes and all aspects of the Georgian/Regency era. She is an award winning author of cozy mysteries, historical romantic suspense, and Austenesque vagaries. Jeffers has been a Smithsonian presenter and Martha Holden Jennings Scholar, as well as having her tales honored by, among others, the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense, the Frank Yerby Award for Fiction, the International Digital Awards, and the Chanticleer International Book Award. Author Links:  Every Woman Dreams (Blog)   Always Austen (Group Blog)    Facebook    Twitter    Amazon Author Page   Pinterest   BookBub   Instagram   Regina Jeffers Website  Riana Everly: Riana Everly is an award-winning Canadian author of Austenesque fiction, both Regency and contemporary. Her historical mystery series, Miss Mary Investigates, has quickly become a favourite of Jane Austen fans and cosy mystery fans alike. Trained as a classical musician, she also has advanced degrees in Medieval Studies, and pretended to be an academic before discovering that fiction doesn’t need footnotes. She loves travelling, cooking her way around the world, playing with photography, and discussing obscure details with her husband and children. Possibly in Latin. She can be found in the usual places and loves connecting with readers, so please give her a shout! Author Links: Newsletter   Website   Facebook    Instagram  Amazon Jeanette Watts: Jeanette Watts is a dance instructor, writer, seamstress, actress, and very, very poor housekeeper. With books on historical fiction, modern romantic comedy, LGBTQ romance, Jane Austen-inspired stories, and she is contemplating writing steamier works, what do all these genres have in common? Jeanette writes about people with a secret. Secrets are fun. Keep up with the various parts of Jeanette's brain at her YouTube Channel, “History is My Playground,” and her webpages, Jeanette‐ Watts.squarespace.com and DancingThruHistory.com. Author Links Instagram     Facebook     Twitter      Linked In      Website 1     Website 2     Goodreads     Jeanette_Watts Amazon Author Page Michael Rands: Michael Rands is the author of the novels The Chapel St. Perilous and Praise Routine Number Four, co-author of the economic satire The Yamaguchi Manuscripts, and Kamikaze Economics (a story of modern Japan). He’s co-author of the humorous dictionary Stay Away from Mthatha. He co-created the audio drama The Crystal Set and co- hosted the podcast Detours Ahead. In South Africa he worked in television as a writer, director and producer. He taught English in Japan. He holds an MFA from Louisiana State University, and currently teaches English and Creative Writing at the college level. He is the co-founder of Bayou Wolf Press. He lives with his wife, son, and labrador, in Alabama. His new novel, When the Witch Calls, comes out in November 2024. Author Links Facebook    Twitter    Instagram    Blog Linné Elizabeth: Linné Elizabeth is an English instructor at Utah Tech University, a freelance content writer, and an award-winning author. When she's not devouring chocolate while nose-deep in a book, you can find her playing in the russet desert of southern Utah with her four incredible - sometimes feral - kids and her handsome husband. Check her out on Instagram: @library4one or on Facebook: @linneelizabeth  Author Links Website   Instagram: @Library4One   LinkedIn    Facebook    Blog Emma Dalgety: Emma Dalgety grew up in Mobile, Alabama. She received a BA in Music and English from the University of Mobile in 2023. As a musi‐ cian and a writer, she has performed violin across the Southeast and internationally, finding creative inspiration and filling notebooks with story fragments throughout her travels. When she isn't writing, she is researching interdisciplinary connections in literature as she works towards an MA in English, or teaching music lessons in her private studio. Purchase Link Amazon  TOUR PARTICIPANTS - Please visit all the stops.  September 16 – Mystery, Thrillers, and Suspense – SPOTLIGHT September 16 – Sapphyria's Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT September 17 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – AUTHOR GUEST POST September 18 – Literary Gold – SPOTLIGHT September 19 – Socrates Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT September 20 – Celticlady's Reviews - SPOTLIGHT September 21 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT September 22 – Cozy Up With Kathy – REVIEW, AUTHOR GUEST POST September 23 – Sarah Can't Stop Reading Books – REVIEW September 23 – Reading Is My SuperPower – AUTHOR GUEST POST September 24 – Christy's Cozy Corners – REVIEW, CHARACTER GUEST POST September 24 – Baroness Book Trove – SPOTLIGHT September 25 – Reading, Writing & Stitch-Metic – AUTHOR GUEST POST September 26 – MJB Reviewers – SPOTLIGHT September 26 – Boys' Mom Reads! – CHARACTER GUEST POST September 27 – Books, Ramblings, and Tea – REVIEW September 27 – fundinmental – SPOTLIGHT September 28 – Cassidy's Bookshelves – SPOTLIGHT  September 29 – Maureen's Musings – SPOTLIGHT a Rafflecopter giveaway Have you signed up to be a Tour Host? 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[forbiddenclarissaplanets]

Book of the Month: Mildred Pierce

Earlier this month, I finished reading Mildred Pierce, written by James M. Cain. Cain has written other memorable books that were turned into movies, such as Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice, and Serenade. This was the first book I read by the author, but it was hard to choose which one of the author’s titles to start with. I am such a fan of the 1945 and 1981 movies The Postman…

[honourablejester]

Is this, the anxiety about working women, a common interpretation? I’d never heard it before.

Not an interpretation I’d have come to myself, either. The femme fatales that I think of first aren’t usually working girls, they’re things like wealthy wives wanting to bump off their husbands (Phyllis Dietrichson from Double Indemnity), wealthy heiresses trying to cover up their (/family’s) crimes (Vivian Rutledge, The Big Sleep), itinerant conwomen (Vera, Detour), or ex gun-molls who shot their shady boyfriends and will do anything (and seduce anyone) to make it out alive and with the cash (Kathy Moffet, Out of the Past).

The femme fatale is more … the woman who pretends to love you (or even genuinely does love you) but whose priority is something else, often money, and she’ll use you until she gets it and then go through you for a shortcut afterwards. They’re usually not working girls, they’re bored and murderous wives, alluring crooks, or desperate blackmailers. They’re either rich already, seeking more control over their money, or desperately seeking financial stability via crime. The fear to me feels more like being used and discarded by a woman who wants something else more than you, at least in some of the cases?

Also, a lot of the classic 40s noir movies were based on books that were written much earlier, in the 30s, which would pre-date the post-war economic anxieties (although fit right in for the Depression-era economic anxieties, and the ‘woman willing to kill for money’ might well fit there). Though, granted, a lot of those stories were altered in the book-to-screen transition, and the adaptations likely did reflect more contemporary anxieties.

There was also some real life inspiration for some of the famous femmes fatale. Both Phyllis Dietrichson of Double Indemnity and Cora from The Postman Always Rings Twice, both by James M. Cain, might have been at least partly inspired by Ruth Snyder, a woman who in 1927 murdered her husband with her lover in the hopes of cashing out the insurance policy they’d ‘signed’ in his name.

There’s a lot going on with noir as a genre, it’s a whole melting pot for a bunch of early 20th century anxieties. The class changes coming out of the Belle Epoque, the interwar period, prohibition and rampant crime in the 20s, the massive economic turmoil of the stock market crash and the Great Depression in the 30s, and then, yes, the social changes during and following WWII in the 40s, with so many disaffected returning soldiers, rampant crime, and the skyrocketing rates of divorce that resulted from hasty wartime marriages. Noir as a genre was an attempt to ground Hollywood glamour in some of the darker realities of those very turbulent few decades, and while the femme fatale has certain common traits, she also has a lot of variety, reflecting more than one anxiety of the time. She’s just … the woman who’s just as hard and bleak and dangerous as the men, except men (in Hollywood movies in the 40s) didn’t usually fall in love with other men, but they could (and shouldn’t, and did) fall in love with the femme fatale. She was more a reflection of the general fear that the romance and safety of marriage that society had promised men at this time was no more real than the financial or physical safeties they’d been promised either.

Which, yes, women in the workforce is part of that disintegration of promised safeties, so I can see it as an element, an aspect of the fear. But I wouldn’t have said it was the driving one, just one more facet of the perceived social degradation embodied in the noir genre. Textually, a lot of the classic femmes fatale weren’t even in spitting distance of a factory job. For a start, it’s not exactly glamourous. And for a second, that’s a long, slow way to get what you want, when you can just murder or betray someone for money instead. Or string some poor lovesick sucker along as a patsy for your crimes, or as an escape hatch for your schemes.

Basically, I don't think the fear was of being supplanted, or at least not in all cases, it was more a fear of being used. Controlled. Betrayed. Murdered. The femme fatale wasn't the woman who replaced you, she was the woman who lured you, seduced you, lied to you, hurt you, controlled you, incited you to do things you wouldn't normally do. Instead of being the safe harbour, the soft, righteous reward promised to the hero, she hurt you instead. Used you. Love is a lie, marriage is a lie, and murder might well be the result.

My film noir hot take that I’ve been mulling over for a while is that I really don’t think the femme fatale in noir was an expression of anxiety about women working in the aftermath of WWII. Evil seductresses are present in literature since before the printing press, and in pulp crime fiction since at least the 1920s! And when did you ever see a femme fatale working as a mechanic or on an industrial assembly line? I’m not saying the archetype doesn’t pull from contemporary sexism, but Rosie the Riveter didn’t invent the idea of sexy mean ladies, especially in gritty melodrama.

[autolenaphilia]

Bound (1996)

The 1996 film Bound, directed and written by the Wachowski sisters, is a very interesting lesbian subversion of crime drama and film noir tropes.

It sets up a very stock film noir plot. The femme fatale Violet is unhappily married to a man Ceasar and wants out, so she starts an affair with Corky, who is recently released from prison and now takes menial repair jobs to get by. Caesar works as a money launderer for the Mafia, and comes to store 2 million dollars in his apartment. So Violet suggests to Corky that they steal the money and run away to live happily together. It’s very much a classical film noir plot. The seductive femme fatale offering wealth and sex to a working class lover down on their luck, luring them into crime, and then things aren’t as simple as their plans. It’s James M. Cain’s Double Indemnity and The Postman always rings Twice, the femme fatale’s husband being part of organized crime is straight out of Out of the Past.

Except it’s not like those movies. Corky is a woman, a butch lesbian. The reason Violet hates her marriage to Caesar is that she is not into men, she only married him for money and stability. She is a femme fatale lesbian. This changes a lot of things, and makes this film feel fresh.

It’s a movie about a pair of lesbians, and it actually takes their perspective in a way that is rare in mainstream films about them. Corky and Violet are unquestionably the protagonists, the ones the movie sympathizes with. Bound subverts the misogyny and anti-queerness of the film noir genre. Violet may be dangerous to some, but she is not evil, she doesn’t betray Corky. And the film ends happily for them.

They are treated as sympathetic characters, as humans. There are sex scenes in the film’s beginning, they are sexy, but don’t feel exploitative. And then the movie creates a tense crime thriller in which these women are the protagonists. They suffer violence of course, but it doesn’t feel exploitative either, and they rescue each other from danger.

It’s a movie that is thematically about the evils of the closet for lesbian women, which misogyny, the general vulnerable position of women in patriarchy, and lesbophobia force lesbian women into. It’s a film that treats its lesbian women characters as human.

More so than the men actually. Most films create a male gaze or a male perspective by making the male characters the ones you sympathize with. The men are the ones whose perspective you are supposed to take. The male lead is often a character of masculine wish fulfilment.

And Bound does not do that. The main male character is Caesar and he is a pathetic, disgusting loser. He is utterly devoid of any likeable characteristics, being in it only for himself. And he is so stupid that you can’t really admire him as a villain either. In fact, when Corky’s and Violet’s plan go wrong, it’s precisely because they underestimate his stupidity. His loveless marriage to Violet is an anti-advertisement for heterosexual marriage. You don’t want to relate to him or project unto him as wish fulfilment, and thus the male perspective is avoided. I have to give some praise to the actor playing him, Joe Pantoliano. It takes real acting chops to portray a character this unlikeable.

The other male characters are mainly the other mobsters and they are not actually characters. In fact they are cartoonishly stereotypical italian-american mobsters, very flat. They are not even competent mobsters, as witnessed by the fact that they trust the ultimate idiot Caesar. The reason he has the money in his apartment is because their torturer/assassin decided to headshot a guy at the wrong place and time and spread his blood and brains over the 2 million dollars. So Caesar has to literally clean and launder the money. This is one of the dumbest mobsters in a crime thriller, and it’s great. They are too flat and unlikeable to deny the male perspective and wish-fulfilment that most mainstream movies assume. The movie is delightfully misandristic to further that goal.

Instead the viewpoint characters are undisputably the two lesbian women in the lead, skillfully portrayed by Gina Gershon (Corky) and Jennifer Tilly (Violet).

The Wachowskis are trans women, and even if they didn’t come out until years after this movie’s release, you can sense their trans womanhood in this film. This movie genuinely identifies with the lesbian main characters in a way most mainstream cinema made by men does not. It views the story from their perspective. And these women are clearly a vessel for a kind of wish-fufilment. The film assumes you want to be like this cool lesbian couple. Whereas the men are vile violent losers who you don’t want to be like. And if the Wachowskis were closeted at the time of making this film, a major theme is the horrors of the closet, of Violet being forced into heteronormativity.

It is and feels like a movie by trans women, and that’s beautiful. It’s a great film that treats its lesbian characters as humans and not as objects for the male gaze. And it’s a well-made suspenseful noirish crime thriller. Bound is a modest film, without a high budget and the majority of it takes place in a single location, but it uses the small scope intelligently to create a genuine sense of tension and suspense. And it’s treatment of women and lesbians is genuinely sympathetic in a way that’s rare in the male-dominated film industry.

[esonetwork]

'The Girl With The Deep Blue Eyes' Book Review By Ron Fortier

New Post has been published on https://esonetwork.com/the-girl-with-the-deep-blue-eyes-book-review-by-ron-fortier/

'The Girl With The Deep Blue Eyes' Book Review By Ron Fortier

THE GIRL WITH THE DEEP BLUE EYES By Lawrence Block Hard Case Crime Titan Books 234 pgs

With this novel, Block tips his noir fedora to the late novelist James M. Cain who wrote both “The Postman Always Rings Twice” and “Double Indemnity.” Both are considered crime fiction classics and both revolve around a beautiful femme fatale who seduces her lover into helping her murder her husband.

Doak Miller is a divorced, retired New York cop living in Florida and doing a little P.I. work. When the local sheriff asks his help in setting up a sting, it is to catch a beautiful young woman looking to hire someone to kill her older, rich husband. But once Miller sees a photo of Lisa Yarrow Otterbein, he falls for her like the proverbial ton of bricks. Which poses the immediate problem of extracting from the trap she is in and then convincing the sheriff she actually changed her mind about wanting her spouse six feet under.

Once Doak confesses to Lisa he is on her side and the two become lovers, it is only inevitable they will again confront the same problem; how to get rid of the old man so they can both live high off his riches. Doak, per his experiences as a police officer, knows the odds against them being able to successfully get away with it. The sheriff already has Lisa on his radar and should hubby suddenly drop dead, regardless of how it happens, he would logically focus on Lisa as his primary suspect.

Block is a mean writer and not for the squeamish. His characters are raw unlikeable people and yet still mesmerizing in their own tragic ways. Doak’s dilemma boils down to his being unable to keep “it” in his pants. A subject that comes up all too often and one he never shies away from, even with Lisa; the flesh and blood embodiment of all his past sexual fantasies. Can this be true love?

One can’t help but relish the scenes in which Doak is glued to his TV set watching noir classis on the Turner channel, to include both “The Postman Always Rings Twice” and “Double Indemnity.” He can’t help but reflect that both are versions of his own story and wonders if their calamitous climaxes are fated for him and Lisa as well. Whereas they are only the products of a fevered writer’s imagination, Doak and Lisa are all too real. Once started, you will have a hard time putting this one down.

[tcm]

Nice Guys Finish Last...DEAD Last By Theresa Brown

SHE: “How much do I owe you?” 

HE: “Oh, I’ll send you a bill.” 

SHE: “Got the name?” 

HE: “Prentiss. Nora Prentiss.” 

SHE: “Don’t forget.” 

HE: “I won’t.” 

SHE: “By the way, you were very patient with me. You may not have noticed, but I was a little fresh.” 

HE: “I noticed.” 

SHE: “I don’t know why, but it’s something about you. Next time I’ll be polite.” 

HE: “It’s fine. Next time my bill won’t be so large.” 

And with this verbal foreplay, we’re off to the races in Vincent Sherman’s 1947 film noir: NORA PRENTISS (’47). Now, if I may, I’ll beg to differ with the TCM description of this movie:

“An ambitious singer ruins a doctor’s life.” - TCM

See, it’s all about perspective. She doesn’t ruin his life. I would say the movie is about the unraveling of a married man who lacks the courage to ask for a divorce.

This ‘Marital Noir’, as I like to call it, starts with the typical trope of film noir: flashback and voice-over. Everything is a fait accompli with flashbacks in movies as a vehicle to see HOW we got here. We have your average American married man: a staid predictable doctor with a wife, two kids, a house and car. You can set your watch by him. His wife, like so many in film noir, doesn’t pick up the red flag when he asks to go away together for a romantic weekend. She’s busy tending the house and their social obligations. He’s ripe for the picking, though he doesn’t know it or seek it. He accidentally “meets cute” a woman who is hit by a car. He tends to minor bruises on her leg (and brother, what legs), but there’s no life-threatening injuries. Banter in film noir usually leads to trouble.

The “ambitious singer” of the description is played by one of my classic film favorites: the sultry Ann Sheridan. Her character’s not very ambitious, if you ask me; works in an upscale honky-tonk. She wants what ev’ry girl wants—marriage, a white picket fence—but she’s not giving him the hard-court press to achieve this. She thinks the good doctor will go about it honestly to get their relationship to the next level. She’s rather patient though it is running thin. It’s the doctor who can’t get it together. This is late 1940s Sheridan, still packing a wallop with her copper-voice—the better to throw a wise crack—beautiful mane of hair and most importantly, her easy, natural screen acting. She has been a mainstay of the Warner Bros. studio since the ‘30's and is finally getting chances to carry a picture as the decade ends. But for someone playing the eponymous title character...this isn’t really her story. It’s his. Surprise, surprise.

If you know PITFALL ('48) or DOUBLE INDEMNITY ('44), THE UNFAITHFUL ('47), THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE ('46), THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS ('46), among other marital noirs, you know the apple cart is turned over when one has an affair; things are hidden...fear of discovery is rampant. Well it goes completely and utterly off the rails with what happens to our male lead. The apple cart is smashed and mangled. Don’t worry...NO SPOILERS!

Letting all that ‘oomph’ go to waste with his hemming and hawing and stalling and hiding is actor Kent Smith in the best role of his career. He usually plays rather undynamic, vanilla schmoes supporting the movie’s main leading man; but here he IS the lead and goes through quite a metamorphosis. This unprepossessing, soft-spoken guy becomes jealous, possessive and violent. He begins to drink. He fears being seen together compounding his fear of losing Sheridan. He can’t or won’t look for work. He makes excuses. He’s alone in his hotel all day while Sheridan works at a nightclub. He makes disastrous, fate-altering decisions. It must have been the chance of his career to play this man. You may know Smith from CAT PEOPLE ('42), THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE ('44), THE FOUNTAINHEAD ('49), THE DAMNED DON’T CRY ('50) or THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE ('46). He’s been around and had a career well into the 1970s. He does a great job in this. You might even feel sorry for him. Almost.

There are more stalwart characters from the Warner Bros. stable who also appear in this movie: Bruce Bennett (MILDRED PIERCE ['45] and DARK PASSAGE ['47]); Robert Alda (RHAPSODY IN BLUE ['45] and THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS ['46]); the great character actress Rosemary DeCamp, who can do anything; AND John Ridgely, who seems to have been in every movie ever made and known to mankind. NORA PRENTISS is directed by Vincent Sherman. Now people usually associate George Cukor as a “woman’s director” in a slightly sniping way, but with veteran director Sherman known around town AS a ladies’ man, his being a “woman’s director” takes on a different meaning. Look over his filmography and you can see he worked with the Queens of WB on several occasions: Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Ida Lupino and now Sheridan. And what can I say about the great composer Franz Waxman? Love him. I literally wait the entire movie just to hear the last 30 seconds of Waxman’s score before the credits, a beautiful melancholic dirge.

I highly recommend you watch NORA PRENTISS. It is a taut, tight film noir. We watch a man wrap himself in his web of lies and once entangled, he unravels badly, crashing headfirst into the heart of darkness.

[siriusist]

I want to get started in on classic films: are there any you personally recommend?

Hey, thanks for asking! <3

So from your ask I took you wanted a recommendation of classic films that may be my personal favourites. So I’m going to go with the ones that I personally are current loving and finding the most ‘rewatchable’/ have saved on my computer, as well as ones that I do think everyone should watch/ are fantastic, but tend to be the ones I don’t reach for as often. 

This obviously does not include all the classic films that you can find online in ‘Best of’ Lists (although there obviously is some overlap), but I also tended to do straight up ‘films.’ Classic musicals are another thing entirely, so if you want my suggestions on them, just drop me another line.

My current favourite Classic Hollywood films tend to be along the film noir genre or thrillers/ murder mysteries. In case you didn’t know, film noir is defined as the following:

Film noir (/nwɑːr/; French: [film nwaʁ]) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American film noir. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key, black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography. Many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Great Depression.

This means in terms of ‘horror’ genre movies, I tend to avoid gore/slashers (which were not a thing back in the day, but I felt I needed to emphasise that) I only watch horror movies that don’t rely on cheap jump scares, tricks, and tend to have good psychological motivations, because as Alfred Hitchcock said, the original master of horror, the mind is scarier than anything you can create otherwise.

My Current Favourites:

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir: A widower in the early twentieth century falls in love with the former inhabitant of the house she bought, who happens to be a crotchety old sea captain played by Rex Harrison, king of crotchety old crotchety characters. The film plays out as he tries to emancipate her from her ex-husband’s overbearing family, and get her to ironically accept more of life from beyond the grave. (Literally, I’m not a big romance movie person, but this is the only romance movie I will accept in my life because it involves a ghost and has other elements/ not just is total schmalz).

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope: Two gays commit a murder and host a dinner party over it. Based on the Leopold and Loeb murders of the 1920s (Look them up if you don’t know about them; absolutely mental), the film is coded as hell (because 1940s), but is also homoerotic as fuck, acknowledged as homoerotic by everyone who worked on it, one of the main actors was gay, and it involves Jimmy Stewart being dropped in as a dinner party guest and eventually trying to solve the crime. It’s probably honestly my favourite Alfred Hitchcock, because it’s a quick watch, it takes place inside the entirely same space the entire movie (but never feels like it), and is the perfect example of a murder mystery).

The Postman Always Rings Twice: The quintessential film noir, featuring Lana Turner’s amazing outfits and honestly, a really well-rounded performance by her. I only saw this recently for the first time, and if you don’t know, Lana Turner was considered the ‘blonde bombshell’ of her time, and not much in the acting department (By word of mouth). So going into the film, I assumed she’d be a terrible actress: but she was honestly really fantastic, created a nuanced performance out of the often one-note femme fetale characters given to women in film noir, and you honestly understand her motivations and character, however flawed. I’m now a fan and am searching out more of her work.

Double Indemnity: Another film noir I saw recently, and fell in love with Barbara Stanwyck’s acting and her in general. In real life, she was an adorable bisexual; in film, and this film in particular, she’s a fantastic actress, and I’m searching out more of her work now, even into her sixties and seventies, where she did some fantastic performances in series on TV into the seventies and eighties (This monologue of her being an old woman and having a crush on a young man is both heartbreaking, pitiful, and understandable, and it’s so well acted. It gives you just a taste of her acting talent, and how hard she worked to create a well-rounded character). This is probably my favourite film noir overall, definitely because of Barbara Stanwyck and her crazy wig. xD

The Twilight Zone [Original TV Show Run]: I know this is a TV show, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention it. I love The Twilight Zone, and none of the later revamps have come close to touching it, and the effect it’s had on pop culture cinema. Some of the more ‘creative’ episodes (I.E: The awful ones with cowboys or aliens), I tend to skip, but The Twilight Zone is at its greatest when its creator Rod Serling is able to narrate about problems we all struggle with, and create a twist to really punch home if scenarios were different. Some of my favourites off the top of my head would be ‘Last Stop at Willoughby’ and ‘Nothing in the Dark,’ which are criminally underrated episodes. There’s also a great resource in this AV Club website, which literally reviews each and every plot of the original run and gives it a letter grade. I’m still not fully through the original run (because there’s 150 episodes, yikes), but I’ve watched at least half of the episodes, if not more. Plus it’s where, once you’ve watched more Classic Hollywood material/TV, you’ll begin to recognise a ton of character actors/early up and comers in the episodes, like random!William Shatner (twice), and Baby!Robert Redford (Who’s fucking adorable and I love him so much in his episode).

Twelve Angry Men: Twelve very different men are brought together on a jury to decide the fate of a young vaguely ethnic man. It’s a classic and I swear it should be shown in every school. It’s one of my favourite movies of all time, point stop, and honestly, as a J.D. graduate and someone who just needs to complete their admissions program now to become a lawyer, this is ‘my’ law-based movie (Most people are To Kill a Mockingbird, which by this point, trust me, is cliched to hear other lawyers talk about, even though it’s another fantastic movie you should watch). Even if I can’t turn off my lawyer brain at one point where something happens and I’m like THAT’S A MISTRIAL XD, it’s still one of the best films I’ve ever seen, and I rewatch it at least every two months.

Some of my Other Recommendations (That I don’t rewatch often but still are fantastic):

All About Eve (BETTE DAVIS)

Rebel Without a Cause (JAMES DEAN)

A Streetcar Named Desire (MARLON BRANDO BEFORE HE WAS CRAZY)

On the Waterfront (SEE ABOVE)

Cool Hand Luke (PAUL NEWMAN)

Sunset Boulevard

Psycho (Hitchcock)

Vertigo (Hitchcock)

Leave Her to Heaven (Gene Tierney and her fabulous wardrobe)

Hope that gives you some ideas to start with! If you need any other help, let me know! <3

[olivethomas]

any old hollywood movie recs?? i've seen a couple and i want to get back into them. do you have any favourites?

Ok so it really depends on what you like and what specific decades you wanna get into but ill try to give you some recs.

For silents, if you're unfamiliar with them, Id recommends comedies to start with, so Keaton/Lloyd/ Chaplin films but also Clara bow’s films are wonderful as are Mary Pickfords. In a more serious vein, Lousie Brooks has some wonderful silent films as does Fritz Lang. 

Any Lubitsch film is going to be wonderful but my faves of his are probably Design for Living, Cluny Brown, To Be or Not to Be, and Ninotchka

Baby Face is an essential precode pic

I’m a big fan of the slapstick romcoms of the 30s so My Man Godfrey, The Philadelphia Story, Bringin up Baby, The Awful Truth, and of course, It Happened One Night

THE WOMEN

Noirs- Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Laura, Mildred Pierce, Kiss Me Deadly, A Touch of Evil, Gun Crazy

Casablanca really is all that everyone says it is

The More the Merrier, Ball of Fire, Meet John Doe, Sullivans Travels

Musicals!-Singin in the Rain, An American in Paris, Any of the Astaire/Ginger pics, Band Wagon, Cover Girl, West Side Story, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Funny Face, Daddy Long Legs (1955), Carmen Jones

I really really love Kazan’s work (but he wasn’t the best person tho lol)- On the Waterfront, A Streetcar Named Desire, Baby Doll, East of Eden, Splendor in the Grass

Rebel Without a Cause, A Place in the Sun, The Misfits, THE APARTMENT, The Long Hot Summer, Charade, Where the Boys Are, NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, Roman Holiday, Leave Her to Heaven, The Best Years of Our Lives, Now Voyager, The Thin Man Series,The Golddiggers of 1933, Dance Girl Dance, and M

I could honestly go on forever but ill stop here. I love a lot of movies haha.

[justforbooks]

The story is narrated in the first person by Frank Chambers, a young drifter who stops at a rural California diner for a meal and ends up working there. The diner is operated by a beautiful young woman, Cora, and her much older husband, Nick Papadakis, sometimes called "the Greek".

Frank and Cora feel an immediate attraction to each other and begin a passionate affair with sadomasochistic qualities (when they first embrace, Cora commands Frank to bite her lip, and Frank does so hard enough to draw blood).

Cora is tired of her situation, married to a man she does not love and working at a diner that she wants to own and improve. Frank and Cora scheme to murder the Greek in order to start a new life together without Cora losing the diner.

They plan on striking Nick's head and making it seem he fell and drowned in the bathtub. Cora fells Nick with a solid blow, but a sudden power outage and the appearance of a policeman make the scheme fail. Nick recovers and because of retrograde amnesia does not suspect that he narrowly avoided being killed.

Determined to kill Nick, Frank and Cora fake a car accident. They ply Nick with wine, strike him on the head, and crash the car. Frank and Cora are injured. The local prosecutor suspects what has actually occurred but does not have enough evidence to prove it. As a tactic intended to get Cora and Frank to turn on each other, he charges only Cora with the crime of Nick's murder, coercing Frank to sign a complaint against her.

Cora, furious and indignant, insists on offering a full confession detailing both their roles. Her lawyer tricks her into dictating that confession to a member of his own staff. Cora, believing her confession made, returns to prison. Though Cora would be sure to learn of the trickery, a few valuable hours are gained. The lawyer uses the time to manipulate those financially interested in the trial to have their private detective recant his testimony, which was the final remaining weapon in the prosecution's arsenal. The state is forced to grant Cora a plea agreement under which she is given a suspended sentence and no jail time.

Frank and Cora patch things up and plan a happy future and a family. Then Cora is killed in a car crash while Frank is driving. The book ends with Frank, from death row, summarizing the events that followed, explaining that he was wrongly convicted of having murdered Cora. The text, he hopes, will be published after his execution.

The title is a non sequitur in that no postman appears or is even alluded to. The meaning of the title has therefore often been the subject of speculation. William Marling, for instance, suggested that Cain may have taken the title from the sensational 1927 case of Ruth Snyder, who, like Cora in Postman, had conspired with her lover to murder her husband. Cain used the Snyder case as an inspiration for his 1943 novel Double Indemnity; Marling believed it was also a model for the plot and the title of Postman. In the real-life case, Snyder said she had prevented her husband from discovering the changes she had made to his life insurance policy by telling the postman to deliver the policy's payment notices only to her and instructing him to ring the doorbell twice as a signal indicating he had such a delivery for her.

The historian Judith Flanders, however, has interpreted the title as a reference to postal customs in the Victorian era. When mail (post) was delivered, the postman knocked once to let the household know it was there: no reply was needed. When there was a telegram, however, which had to be handed over personally, he knocked twice so that the household would know to answer the door. Telegrams were expensive and usually the bringers of bad news: so a postman knocking (later, ringing) twice signaled trouble was on the way.

In the preface to Double Indemnity, Cain wrote that the title of The Postman Always Rings Twice came from a discussion he had with the screenwriter Vincent Lawrence. According to Cain, Lawrence spoke of the anxiety he felt when waiting for the postman to bring him news on a submitted manuscript, noting that he would know when the postman had finally arrived because he always rang twice. In his biography of Cain, Roy Hoopes recounted the conversation between Cain and Lawrence, noting that Lawrence did not say merely that the postman always rang twice but also that he was sometimes so anxious waiting for the postman that he would go into his backyard to avoid hearing his ring. The tactic inevitably failed, Lawrence continued, because if the postman's first ring was not noticed, his second one, even from the backyard, would be.

As a result of the conversation, Cain lit upon that phrase as a title for his novel. Upon discussing it further, the two men agreed such a phrase was metaphorically suited to Frank's situation at the end of the novel. With the "postman" being God or fate, the "delivery" meant for Frank was his own death as just retribution for murdering Nick. Frank had missed the first "ring" when he initially got away with that killing. However, the postman rang again and this time the ring was heard; Frank is wrongly convicted of having murdered Cora and then sentenced to die. The theme of an inescapable fate is further underscored by the Greek's escape from death in the lovers' first murder attempt, only to be done in by their second one.

The novel was successful and notorious upon publication. It is regarded as one of the more important crime novels of the 20th century. Fast-moving and brief (only about 100 pages long, depending on the edition), the novel's mix of sexuality and violence was startling in its time and caused it to be banned in Boston.

It is included in Modern Library's list of 100 best novels.

The novel has been adapted as a motion picture seven times. The 1946 version is probably the best known and is regarded as an important film noir.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[meganmonroes]

Sorry if you've answered this before, but how did you get into "Old Hollywood"? I know films with Monroe and Hepburn are easy enough to find on dvd, but have you seen all of the films you reblog? Sometimes I see gifs of a film and think I'd like to see it, but I don't know if I could locate it and if I bought every one (without really knowing if I would like it) it could get pricey. Any tips on where I should get started or maybe 5 old films you like the best? Thanks!

Don’t be silly, you have nothing to be sorry for! I got into Old Hollywood through Marilyn, she started it all and will always be my favourite. I’ve seen the majority of the films I reblog, if I haven’t I usually post in the tag saying how I need to see this etc. It’s tough to say as it depends what genres and actors you like, but I’ll name some of my favourites for you - I’ll leave Audrey and Marilyn out.

Gone With The Wind (1939)

Singin’ In The Rain (1952)

Rear Window (1954)

Valley Of The Dolls (1967)

This Gun For Hire (1942)

Gilda (1946)

Rebel Without A Cause (1955)

Picnic (1955)

It Happened One Night (1934)

The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)

Houseboat (1958)

A Place In The Sun (1951)

The Night Of The Hunter (1955)

Imitation Of Life (1959)

Rebecca (1940)

Vertigo (1958)

Notorious (1946)

In A Lonely Place (1950)

What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? (1962)

Double Indemnity (1944)

The Apartment (1960)

Psycho (1960)

Marnie (1964)

North By Northwest (1959)

On The Waterfront (1954)

The African Queen (1951)

A Street Car Named Desire (1951)

From Here To Eternity (1953)

I hope this helps!

[topmixtrends]

LAURA LIPPMAN’S Sunburn is a noir love story. An unlikely genre blend, but this is a noir that strays from type from the very first page; it’s a summertime noir, trench coats swapped out for sundresses, staging its crimes and misdemeanors not in the anonymous shadows of a big city’s indifference, but in the full glare of small-town nosiness, as though confirming one character’s assertion that “there’s no better way to be found than to try to hide.”

Belleville, Delaware, is the tourism equivalent of a flyover state; with fewer than 2,000 people, it is a town “put together from some other town’s leftovers” through which people pass on their way to more promising destinations. It is here, during the long hot summer of 1995, that Polly and Adam, two strangers with no baggage apart from the emotional kind, will meet and surrender to a passionate romance against their best interests and better judgment. Which all sounds like the beginning of a beautiful relationship, except that it’s clear from the start that Polly and Adam are keeping a number of dangerous secrets, and by the end of the summer, their affair will have a body count.

The novel is divided into two segments, “Smoke” and “Fire.” The story unfolds through the perspectives of several third-person narrators, most frequently Adam and Polly. Neither of them is particularly sympathetic at first, but as the story develops and histories are revealed, the reader’s sympathies will adjust, and while clumsy distinctions like “good” and “bad” remain muddled, the psychological cause and effect of events is wholly satisfying.

But in the beginning, it’s nothing but shadows and questionable behavior. As befits the femme fatale character, Polly has left many men in her past with cause for complaint or grudges, most recently her husband Gregg, whom she has just abandoned along with their three-year-old daughter Jani while vacationing on a Delaware beach in what was not an impulsive decision. Adam’s shade is more straightforward, predatory. A man who prefers his women “thin and a little skittish” like the deer he hunts, he is nonetheless targeting the slim-but-curvaceous Polly; initiating contact, keeping tabs on her movements for reasons as yet undisclosed. It’s clear he knows much more about her than he’s letting on.

They came to this nothing of a town with their own agendas, but both had intended it to be a temporary layover, sharing as little of themselves as possible while planning their next moves. They’re careful people, calculating, skilled in manipulation and self-protection; Polly is deliberate about the name she uses, Adam has a reliable methodology in place: “Tell as few lies as possible, that’s his rule.” And yet there’s something inexorably drawing them to each other; something more than just two restless strangers meeting by chance in a town with nothing to do, where the only entertainment or diversion is each other.

Even Cath the barmaid, who has her own amorous designs on Adam, remarks upon their oddly similar demeanors:

“…you’re like her.” “How so?”

“Mysterious. Not offering up much of anything. Not sure if you’re staying or passing through.”

In part because of this compatibility, and despite their best-laid plans, Polly and Adam decide to stay in Belleville, taking jobs at the same bar as Cath, putting their plans on hold and enjoying a passionate fling during a languid summer in a suspended-animation town. Theirs is a complicated entanglement — a standoff of a love affair between two people whose lives don’t need any additional complications. For them, lust is easy, trust is hard. Polly has been serially disappointed by men, while Adam is suspicious of Polly because he knows certain details of her past. Their liaison is a pause for them both, but it’s a tightly coiled pause, with the two braced for the inevitable breaking-off point of a relationship that can have no happy ending, indulging themselves in what is less a game of cat-and-mouse than a game of chicken, anxiously anticipating the moment when they will have to spring apart or risk mutual destruction.

Sunburn is Lippman’s homage to the legacy of James M. Cain, a fellow Baltimore native and a contemporary of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. Cain’s three most celebrated works, Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice, and Mildred Pierce, were instrumental in expanding the literary purview of noir beyond the realm of the hardboiled detective and into the secret lives of everyday people, laying the groundwork for what would become “domestic noir.” In Sunburn, Cain’s novels make a cameo appearance, inspiring a character to make a life-altering decision, and Cain’s thematic influence is felt throughout in what have become the tropes of the genre: outsider characters who are charismatic but flawed and self-destructive, loveless marriages, the dark side of human nature, women deploying their sexuality against weak or brutish men, secret pasts, nosy investigators, disenchantment, insurance fraud, get-rich-quick schemes and other alternative paths to the American Dream, as well as the occasional trail of dead bodies. In short: Greed, lust, murder, money, all of which Sunburn delivers.

And oh, that noir patter:

He says, “How long you staying over?”

“Who wants to know?”

“Every man in town, I’m guessing […] I’m Adam Bosk,” he says. “Like the pear, only with a ‘k’ instead of a ‘c.’”

“I’m the Pink Lady,” she says. “Like the apple.”

“Think we can still be friends, me a pear, you an apple?”

“I thought it was apples and oranges that can’t be compared.”

That’s some vintage black-and-white dialogue in what is otherwise a full-color noir, opening as it does on a sunburned redhead in a pink-and-yellow sundress before blazing through a wide spectrum of literal and figurative colors: the green of money and envy; the red of blood, flames, and rage; and Polly’s determination to surround herself with pretty, colorful objects all lending Cain’s gloomy themes a defiant optimism.

Sunburn requires a reviewer to be as cautious as its central characters. There are a lot of secrets within, and they start unfolding early in the book; details slipping out as brief as a thought (“When you’ve been in jail even a short time, you don’t like being confined”), facts materializing before their significance can be grasped, clues gradually accumulating until all of a sudden you’re in the thick of it. This process is mirrored in the development of Polly and Adam’s relationship. Falling in love was never the plan for either of them, and what began as something closer to target practice than courtship, with each testing the other, establishing boundaries, going through the motions of a happy relationship while working their own angles, becomes an emotional investment before they realize it.

Or does it? After all, when it comes to noir, things are rarely as they appear; all those unseen mechanisms at work beneath the artificial surface. The reader here has the luxury of knowing more than the participants when it comes to feelings and intentions, but again — trust is hard. It’s tempting to consider this a noir spin on “The Gift of the Magi,” where both characters are making sacrifices out of love — secretly risking their own goals/plans/responsibilities in order to be with the other in Nowhere, U.S.A. But is their love the result of two cynics putting aside cynicism? Or the strategic moves of opponents pretending that they don’t know they’ve been made? Is this love or is it a hunt?

Lippman draws out the suspense on that matter in a wonderfully provocative way. She presents two characters whose every move is an exercise in calculated, fabricated spontaneity, both playing the long game with their own set of rules, both with an immense capacity for stillness, for waiting the other out. Adam has the patience of a bow-hunter who appreciates that waiting is time well spent: “Waiting can be beautiful, lush, full of possibility.” And Polly makes for unusual prey, a woman skilled in silence and immobility: “If there is one thing Polly knows how to do, it’s waiting. It’s her talent, her art.” It has all the makings of a deadlock, and there’s an undeniable appeal to the oppositional romance; resisting intimacy, refusing to cave, Polly’s withholding (“Don’t say too much and people will fill in the gaps, usually to your advantage”), Adam’s aloof scrutiny (“She’s ignoring him, he’s ignoring her ignoring him”). It’s all fun and games, and also some felonies.

Polly is the cherry-red bull’s-eye at the heart of the story; she’s the target and the prize and the thing around which everything else revolves and without her, there’s no game. The femme fatale is invariably the most interesting character, but Lippman has taken her to the next level while staying true to the genre conventions. Polly typifies the coquettish qualities expected of her role, but she’s not enthusiastic about being worshipped, and she’s earned her air of weary realism:

[I]t’s not the first time someone has gone out of the way to pay her tribute. Men have always done things for her. People. And she never asks. That is, she never seems to ask […] It’s a special art, asking people to do things, yet making it seem as if you never asked at all. There are talents she would prefer to this one, because favors often carry a heavy penalty when it’s time to return them, but it’s the skill she was given, the hand she has to play.

She is well aware of her own power, but she also knows how transitory a power it is, and how not to waste it while it’s hers:

Her looks are only slightly above average, her body didn’t come into its own until she had all those long empty days to exercise. Besides, she would never invest so heavily in a commodity that won’t last forever. It’s how she is on the inside that makes her different from other women. She fixes her gaze on the goal and never loses sight of it.

The goal is never a man. Never. Men are the stones she jumps to, one after another, toward the goal.

Polly is layered and adaptable, enigmatic, her motives shadowy, showing only what she wants seen. This chameleon quality allows her to become many things to many people, cast in lights positive and negative and roles often contradictory, but ultimately irrelevant. Appearance, reputation — these are other people’s values and qualities assigned to her, which say nothing about the real Polly nursing her secrets beneath the bait of window dressing and deflection. One character observes wryly that “[s]ome people are like rabbit holes and you can fall a long, long way down if you go too far,” and Polly is shrewd enough to allow the expectations and misinterpretations of others to construct her “rabbit holes” for her. These decoys protect her from exposure while she pursues her own schemes, unruffled by the labels of people who haven’t even begun to scratch her surface. She is called “unnatural” for leaving her daughter, but is she a monster? Or is she just playing a longer game than anyone else can perceive?

“[N]o one knows her whole story. She plans to keep it that way.” And to all but the reader, she achieves her goal.

¤

Karen Brissette is a voracious reader and the most popular reviewer on Goodreads.

The post A Love Affair with a Body Count appeared first on Los Angeles Review of Books.

from Los Angeles Review of Books http://ift.tt/2oLnCM9

[mysteryshelf]

BLOG TOUR - Coney Island Adventure

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THE PULP AND MYSTERY SHELF!

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About the Book

  Coney Island Avenue 

The dog days of August in Brooklyn and the detectives of the 61st Precinct are battling to keep all hell from breaking loose.

Innocents are being sacrificed in the name of greed, retribution, passion and the lust for power—and the only worthy opponent of this senseless evil is the uncompromising resolve to rise above it, rather than descend to its depths.

The heart pounding sequel to the acclaimed novel Gravesend—from Shamus Award-winning author J.L. Abramo—Coney Island Avenue continues the dramatic account of the professional and personal struggles that constitute everyday life for the dedicated men and women of the Six-One—and of the saints and sinners who share their streets.

Interview with the Author

—What initially got you interested in writing?

Reading. I believe that we all have a need for creative outlets—making music, singing, dancing, cooking, gardening, painting, writing. We gravitate eventually to the medium in which we are most comfortable—and in which the creative efforts of others have been most inspirational to us personally.  I have always been a reader—writing was a natural consequence. —What genres do you write in?

I am not a big fan of the term genre fiction.  I believe writing, as all art, is a journey for the artist—a journey which others may also chose to embark upon—and genre is simply the vehicle.  My novels have generally been closest to crime fiction—however Crime and Punishment, Les Misérables, The Count of Monte Cristo and many other classic literary works are also, on the surface, crime novels.  That being said, the Jake Diamond series revolves around a San Francisco private investigator while Gravesend and Coney Island Avenue center on NYPD detectives in Brooklyn.

  —What drew you to writing these specific genres?

I have always been fond of the early crime and detective fiction of Arthur Conan Doyle, Wilkie Collins, Earl Derr Biggers, Agatha Christie and others.  I was first introduced to writers like Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and James M. Cain through the film adaptations of their work—The Big Sleep, The Maltese Falcon, The Thin Man, Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice—and these films led me to the books.  When I began my own writing, I found myself at home in that neighborhood.

—How did you break into the field?

I entered the St. Martin’s Press/Private Eye Writers of America contest for Best First Private Eye Novel and took home the prize for Catching Water in a Net.  The award included publication of the novel by St. Martin’s Minotaur in 2001 and I had my foot in the door. —What do you want readers to take away from reading your works?

My work is primarily about the people who populate the pages and how the manner in which these characters deal with adversity, whether positively or negatively, can determine the kind of persons they will become—heroes or villains—and there may often be degrees or shades of guilt and innocence.  I hope readers will take away the notion that there are choices, very important choices, associated with addressing adversity—and great responsibility for those choices. I also try to express the importance of finding those you trust and accepting their help at every opportunity.  And, of course, I would like readers to find the work entertaining—smart, funny, challenging, intriguing and worthwhile diversions.

  —What do you find most rewarding about writing?

Positive feedback from readers is very gratifying. Catching Water in a Net was released on October 1, 2001 and I received an email from a reader shortly afterwards thanking me for making her laugh for the first time since September 11. Acknowledgment from my peers—the Shamus Award for Circling the Runway meant a lot to me.  Finally, writing allows me to coax my thoughts and feelings out of hiding.

  —What do you find most challenging about writing?

Continuing to surprise myself—if I cannot surprise myself I cannot expect to surprise the reader.

  —What advice would you give to people wanting to enter the field?

Write for yourself first.

  —What type of books do you enjoy reading?

Lately I have enjoyed Michael and Jeff Shaara’s Civil War historical novels—The Killer Angels, Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure.  I enjoy non-fiction history as well—particularly in preparation for travel to other countries.  And I enjoy fiction with a strong sense of setting—where the place is an important character in the novel as is Brooklyn in Gravesend and Coney Island Avenue. —Is there anything else besides writing you think people would find interesting about you?

I have also done a lot of time in the performing arts—acting, directing and producing for the stage and have acted in film and television including Law and Order, Perry Mason and Homicide: Life on the Street.  When I am not reading, writing, travelling or being a nuisance to my friends, I prepare food for a catering company in Denver.

—What are the best ways to connect with you, or find out more about your work?

My website is www.jlabramo.com and a good place to start.  I also have a Facebook Author Page at www.facebook.com/jlabramo.

  Readers can always read samples of the work at bookselling sites like Amazon.  My author page there is:

https://www.amazon.com/J.-L.-Abramo/e/B001HPCCJ4

About the Author

J.L. Abramo was born in the seaside paradise of Brooklyn, New York on Raymond Chandler’s fifty-ninth birthday. Abramo is the author of Catching Water in a Net, winner of the St. Martin’s Press/Private Eye Writers of America prize for Best First Private Eye Novel; the subsequent Jake Diamond novels Clutching at Straws, Counting to Infinity and Circling the Runway; Chasing Charlie Chan, a prequel to the Jake Diamond series; and the stand-alone thrillers Gravesend and Brooklyn Justice.

Abramo’s short fiction has appeared in the anthologies Unloaded: Crime Writers Writing Without Guns, Mama Tried: Crime Fiction Inspired by Outlaw Country Music and Murder Under the Oaks, winner of the Anthony Award for Best Anthology of 2015.

Circling the Runway won the Shamus Award for Best Original Paperback Novel of 2015 presented by the Private Eye Writers of America.

Find J.L. Abramo online …

Website: http://www.jlabramo.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jlabramo/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/JLAbramo Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/J.L.-Abramo/e/B001HPCCJ4/ Goodreads Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/437400.J_L_Abramo

BLOG TOUR – Coney Island Adventure was originally published on the Wordpress version of The Pulp and Mystery Shelf