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It goes tick-tick-tick-tick-stop
Who knew Leo Rosten wrote film noir? Lured (1947), by Douglas Sirk; I found it this evening on TCM. Starring Lucille Ball and George Sanders, yet. She's an American taxi dancer in London who takes undercover work with Scotland Yard after her closest friend disappears, all too likely the latest victim of the "Poet Killer" who sends the police a taunting bit of sub-Baudelairean verse as preface to each murder. He's the nightclub owner who takes an interest in her because she wouldn't throw a glass of water in his face if he were on fire. She mistakes him for his secretary, he impersonates the blind date who stands her up, it's all very meet-cute and good chemistry until he comes under suspicion of the murders, which is not as much of a problem as his consequent belief that she seduced him under orders of Scotland Yard. It all gets sorted out in the end. I'd call it more of a mystery-romance than a true noir, despite some intriguingly dark red herrings and a gonzo scene with Boris Karloff as a mad fashion designer, but not at all a bad thing to stare at while recovering from grading. This is the film in which Sanders delivers the line—with inimitable self-savor—"Of course I am. I am an unmitigated cad."
There's no good segue and it deserves its own post, but I don't want to wait another day to recommend it: Read Lila Garrott's "Telling Deaths." It's that good.
P.S. It was Eeyore's birthday today. It is entirely appropriate that I only find out now.
There's no good segue and it deserves its own post, but I don't want to wait another day to recommend it: Read Lila Garrott's "Telling Deaths." It's that good.
P.S. It was Eeyore's birthday today. It is entirely appropriate that I only find out now.
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On the up side, I am out of crazy pills. So I'm looking at my trunked stories.
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*hugs*
I very nearly sent you a card. In the post.
You can, if you like; I'll send one back. I'm trying to be more present in actual correspondence.
On the up side, I am out of crazy pills. So I'm looking at my trunked stories.
Well, that's some benefit. You going to finish the Victorian opium porn?
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I was looking at it, though...
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