The Ghost and the Femme Fatale Read Online Free PDF Page A

noir . . . but what is film noir? And why is this American cinematic style described with the French words meaning black film ? To explain, I’ll have to take you back to the summer of 1946. For years, the French had been cut off from American cinema. Now that the war was over, ten American films were brought over to Paris and released in one six- week period: The Maltese Falcon ; Laura ; Murder, My Sweet ; Double Indemnity ; The Woman in the Window ; This Gun for Hire ; The Killers ; Lady in the Lake ; Gilda ; and The Big Sleep .”
    Dr. Lilly gestured to the screen behind her where a slide show of old movie posters was being projected. “The release of these movies in a concentrated time period caused a sensation. The French critics immediately recognized that a new style of film had begun to be made before and during the war. These were darker- themed pictures that dealt with crime, detectives, and middle- class murder. The films were sometimes based on, or similar to, the novels of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and James M. Cain—novels that the French already had labeled serie noire or ‘black series.’ ”
    I knew all of this already, but I listened patiently.
    “As part of that movement,” Dr. Lilly continued, “ Wron g Turn was produced in the late 1940s by Irving Vreen’s Gotham Features—a Poverty Row studio, operating out of Queens, New York. The film’s leading lady, Sybil Sand, played by Hedda Geist, shows us one of the genre’s most powerful archetypes, the femme fatale. Tonight, in Sybil, you’ve seen the same kind of ‘sexy but dangerous woman’ that you’ll also be seeing in other films scheduled this weekend.”
    “Hear that Jack?” I silently whispered, still wondering if the ghost was with me. “You’re not the only one who remembers your filmmaking friends in Queens.” I waited for Jack to reply. “Jack?”
    The ghost still wasn’t answering me, and I wondered if maybe he couldn’t. I grabbed my purse off the seat’s armrest, shoved my hand inside, and searched the tiny soft pocket sewn into the lining. The moment I felt the hard, smooth coin, I breathed a sigh of relief. Jack’s nickel was there. I hadn’t lost it.
    What’s the matter, baby? Miss me that much?
    When the ghost first started haunting me, he couldn’t seem to travel beyond the four walls of my bookshop. Then I got hold of his case files and found an old buffalo nickel inside one of the dusty folders. Jack had carried that nickel around with him in life. And, now, whenever I carried it with me, he seemed to be able to travel in death.
    “Jack.” I swallowed my nerves. “I thought I’d lost the nickel. Why didn’t you answer me?”
    Dames , he said in a disgusted tone. Didn’ t you tell me to button my gabber?
    “Yes, but . . . I changed my mind. I mean, the movie’s over. So it’s okay if you want to talk.”
    The broad on stage is that boring, huh?
    “It’s not that she’s boring. It’s just that I already know what she’s telling me. There are dozens of books in my store that say as much.”
    Okay, baby, I’ve got an idea. Let’s blow this joint.
    “What?”
    I keep telling you, sweetheart, I can take you out on the town, if you let me. How about it? Dinner at the Copa? A room at the Plaza, just you and me . . .
    I felt a thin, cool column of air swirl around me, tickle the back of my neck, brush past my cheek.
    “Stop it, Jack,” I whispered. “You’re being silly now.”
    Am I? When you thought I’d beat it, you couldn’t reach for that nickel fast enough.
    “I was simply worried about purse snatchers.” I folded my arms and rubbed them, trying to ward off Jack’s little chill. “I hear it happens in movie theaters, you know? And there’s a lot of people here to night from out of town.”
    The exasperating sound of decidedly smug male laughter rolled through my head as Dr. Lilly continued her lecture. Now she was explaining exactly why those noirs shot by Gotham