The Ghost and the Femme Fatale Read Online Free PDF

Features studio were such a hit.
    “While there were many films being produced at that time on the East and West coasts, the cluster produced by Gotham had made a small fortune because they had something the others didn’t: the blonde bombshell Hedda Geist.”
    Dr. Lilly lifted her arm and gave a little wave toward the projectionist’s booth. Suddenly, a new slide appeared on the screen, the 1948 movie poster for Wrong Turn , which featured the arresting image of Hedda Geist’s beautiful face and form. Her hourglass figure was draped in the same shimmering, silver gown that she’d worn in the first scene of the picture, only it wasn’t yet torn. And her big green eyes appeared wide, startled, and a little bit desperate.
    Dr. Lilly fixed a smile on a section of college kids in the audience—the group was mostly young and mostly male, many of them wearing fraternity jackets.
    “So what was it about this type of story and theme that appealed to audiences back in the 1940s and ’50s, and continues to appeal to twenty- first- century film enthusiasts today?”
    “Sex appeal,” one of the young men shouted.
    “Hedda’s killer body,” yelled another.
    “Sadomasochism!” someone else called out, and the audience fell apart.
    “Maybe a bit of that,” Dr. Lilly said with a raised eyebrow. “But the truth is much simpler. The most subversive noir films— Touch of Evil , Pickup on South Street , This Gun for Hire —depict a world that is so morally bankrupt that it’s lost its way. Good languishes and evil dominates, the bad guy has money and power and status and the good guys are lowlifes, social pariahs who live on the raw edge of society.”
    If that’s what this broad thinks, she hasn’t lived on the “raw edge of society” much. Someone should inform her there’s not a helluva lot of “good guys” there.
    “She’s speaking relatively, Jack,” I told the ghost. “You lived on the edge, and you weren’t a bad guy.... Were you?”
    No comment.
    “Although the film movement began in the forties, filmmakers who came after, in the sixties and seventies, embraced its tenets. Movies like Taxi Driver and Chinatown may not have used the same stark, black- and- white palette of the early noir entries, but their cynical narratives were most definitely steeped in the same kettle. By the way, you’ll also find the poster of Wrong Turn on the cover of my brand- new book, Murdered in Plain Sight .”
    Dr. Lilly paused a moment. “While I’ve given overviews of noir in my past publications, this new book of mine is much more specific—and I believe it will be of great interest to all of you, as well as your local media. It’s the first book ever to delve into the details of Hedda Geist’s personal life and career.”
    Dr. Lilly frowned. “I must apologize for the mistake that prevented the publisher from getting my hardcover copies here in time for me to sign for you to night in the lobby, as the festival’s event planners wished—an unfortunate postal delay, I’m told.”
    In the next seat, Brainert turned to me and whispered, “You’re kidding. That’s very disappointing. We were all expecting a signing to take place in the lobby.”
    “I know,” I said with a sigh. “Dr. Lilly made it very clear that she was handling the delivery of her new release, but Buy the Book never received a thing. We’ve already rescheduled her signing.”
    Brainert spun around to glare at Seymour in the row behind us. “What do you know about a postal delay?”
    Seymour raised his hands. “Don’t look at me, Parker. I only lose deliveries when somebody pisses me off, and I never even met that woman!”
    “Shhh!” someone hissed.
    On stage, Dr. Lilly continued: “I spoke to the people at San Fernando University Press, and they promised me that another shipment of my new book will arrive by private ser vice tomorrow morning. The stock will be available at the Buy the Book store, where I’ll be signing