Self-Styled Siren

Susan Hayward in a publicity shot for the movie Happy belated birthday to Edythe Marrener, aka Susan Hayward, born June 30, 1917. In her honor, I’m re-publishing this 2012 essay on the joys of I Can Get It for You Wholesale, one of my favorite Hayward performances. It’s going out with a dedication to my darling friend Steve Hayes, a.k.a. Tired Old Queen at the Movies, the funniest and most charming Youtube movie reviewer you’ll ever encounter. Steve loves Susan Hayward as much as I do.

This essay first appeared in The Lady With the Torch: Columbia Pictures 1929 – 1959, published alongside the Locarno Film Festival retrospective programmed by Ehsan Khoshbakht in 2024. It is reprinted online here for the first time. Steve McQueen with John Sturges, looking at McQueen’s Jaguar Xk Ss, 1960. Photo by Steve Avery During the studio era, a few novice directors were handed the keys to the sportscar right away—a brilliant script for the first film, a great cast, a nice budget.

Marilyn Monroe, 1947; photo by Earl Theisen Exactly one hundred years ago today, on June 1, 1926, Norma Jeane Mortenson was born in Los Angeles. There was a time twenty years ago, back when I started this blog, when I would have shrugged at most things to do with the woman who became Marilyn Monroe. Sure, I loved some of her movies, but girlfriend got quite enough hoop-la, I thought. She didn’t need any more from me.

Rex Reed in dazzling youth, captured by paparazzo Ron Galella like the celebrity he was. I know exactly what many people thought of the late Rex Reed. Short-tempered, careless with facts, close-minded at times. Took unseemly delight in insulting actors’ appearances. Politically incorrect (to put it politely) to an extreme, at times offensive degree. Hell, he offended me more than once. So it’s not that I don’t share those views—all of them.

Rex Reed in dazzling youth, captured by paparazzo Ron Galella like the celebrity he was. I know exactly what many people thought of the late Rex Reed. Short-tempered, careless with facts, close-minded at times. Took unseemly delight in insulting actors’ appearances. Politically incorrect (to put it politely) to an extreme, at times offensive degree. Hell, he offended me more than once. So it’s not that I don’t share those views—all of them.

There was I, looking for classic-film stills, as one does on a Sunday night, or any other night, and the one above brought me up short. It isn’t exactly obscure, but I didn’t recall seeing it before. Surely we all recognize Hedy Lamarr, even with a cigarette dangling from her perfect mouth, but what’s that thing she’s holding? Then I remembered—it’s a c…

There was I, looking for classic-film stills, as one does on a Sunday night, or any other night, and the one above brought me up short. It isn’t exactly obscure, but I didn’t recall seeing it before. Surely we all recognize Hedy Lamarr, even with a cigarette dangling from her perfect mouth, but what’s that thing she’s holding? Then I remembered—it’s a c…

Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray in Double Indemnity At 3:21 a.m. on March 4, 2022, a 911 call was made from a house in a well-to-do suburb outside of Park City, Utah. The caller was Kouri Richins, and her emergency was her husband Eric. She’d been sleeping with one of her three little boys, but returned to the marital bed to find Eric was cold to the touch. He was pale and yellow, and he wasn’t breathing. Paramedics were dispatched, but it was too late. Eric Richins was dead at the age of 39.

Peter Lorre as Dr. Rothe, in a haunting publicity still for The Lost One This is a slightly edited version of the essay I wrote last year for “World Noir Vol. 3,” a box set put out by the splendid U.K. physical-media company Radiance Films. The limited edition of 3000 copies has now sold out, but the site still has a number of excellent and otherwise hard-to-find releases, and a number of them are region-free.

My mother Jeanne; probably Easter Sunday, 1956, when she was 14. I marked ten years without my mother this past November. She left me with a lot of sayings, a lot of memories, and a lot of her vintage clothing, much of it from when she was a secretary at the Federal Reserve. It was the Kennedy Administration, her own “Mad Men” era.