Movie Reviews: This Woman Is Dangerous

This Woman Is Dangerous
directed by Felix Feist

This Warners Bros. film wasn't that good. But it wasn't designed to be. It was the last film that Joan Crawford owed the studio under her contract. Supposedly the studio offered Crawford this role hoping that if she took it the film would hurt her box office appeal and if she didn't take it (the studio's preference) then the studio executives could suspend her, further damage her reputation, and prevent her from moving on to different film productions. 

Well nobody ever accused Crawford of being dumb or not being keenly attuned to her own best interests. Surprising the studio, Crawford accepted the film's lead role and gave it the old college try. Crawford would later claim that this was among her worst films, if not the absolute worst.

Crawford was miscast. Although Crawford was something of a babe in her youth, by this point in her career, the only reminder of fading beauty was her large (almost oversized) expressive eyes. Crawford's face and persona had become very hard, almost masculine. It's this version of Crawford that was later (cruelly??) parodied by Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest and which is likely best known by movie fans. 

Detroit Police Officer Suspended For OnlyFans Account--Resigns From Force

There are some jobs, schoolteacher immediately comes to mind, where the person so employed is responsible not just for doing his or her job for the agreed upon time and salary but also must avoid conflicts of interest and appearances of less than classy or responsible behavior off the clock. The Detroit Police Department suspended one of its rookie officers for having an OnlyFans account. The officer resigned.

DETROIT (FOX 2) - A Detroit police officer is off the force after a racy OnlyFans page she was running was found by the department. "One of our officers through her Instagram account had a paywall set up and was posting pornographic videos on the other side of the paywall," said Chris Graveline, the director of the Detroit Police Department's Professional Standards section.

Chief James White learned about the page with porn Tuesday morning, launched an investigation, and suspended Janelle Zielinski, only to find out she resigned a day earlier. She graduated from the police academy and started her career with DPD in March. Her resignation letter was effective Sept. 23, but since she was suspended, she will no longer be working.

Movie Reviews: Killer's Kiss

Killer's Kiss
directed by Stanley Kubrick

Killer's Kiss was Kubrick's second film. A taxi dancer was an entertainer-usually female-who would dance in clubs with a customer-usually male-for a set time which depended on the ticket(s) that the customer purchased. Taxi dancing wasn't prostitution, but it wasn't necessarily NOT prostitution either. 

In both professions a woman would provide a man some paid physical and emotional intimacy. The dancer received a commission from the customer's tickets. Dancers could get/solicit tips from satisfied customers. In both taxi dancing and prostitution providers and clients could sometimes cross the lines of appropriate "business" behavior. 

Taxi dancers were exploited or harassed by dance hall owners, police, or moral busybodies who were convinced that dancing led to more sinful behavior. 

Book Reviews: 24/7 Demon Mart: The Graveyard Shift

24/7 Demon Mart: The Graveyard Shift
by D.M. Guay

This book is the first in a series. It's similar to books like Monster or Monster Hunter International. 

Imagine yourself thrown into a world where things go bump in the night, the supernatural is real, and what's surreal for anyone else is just a normal day at the office for those in the know. 

The story includes absurdist and gross out humor for which YMMV. The book reminded me of 80s era straight to video B horror movies that are best watched late night or on Saturday afternoons. 

This is an acquired taste. I liked it but I won't claim that this was deep reading. It's not. I never thought that the author was aiming for that. The story is written in first person from the viewpoint of a young male slacker/loser. 

The author is a female (Denise Marie Guay) non-loser who also writes young adult paranormal romance books. It was interesting to see how well the author wrote men. With some notable exceptions the male characters' motivations and emotions were believable.

Movie Reviews: They Live By Night

They Live By Night
directed by Nicholas Ray

Countless movies feature lovers on the run, two against the world, a man and woman who as the song goes "have been up and down this highway and haven't seen a goddamn thing." These stories often conclude with one or both of the lovers dying, usually going out in a blaze of glory. The archetype predates film. My earliest exposure to it was in the poem, "The Highwayman". But this stuff is older than dirt.

The star crossed lovers die because fictional or not, the establishment wants to demonstrate the dangers of actual outlawry or socially transgressive actions. I think this story's best modern example is Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde. 

Although the titular outlaws weren't as intelligent or decent as the film portrayal, they really did die together in a hail of bullets. Oliver Stone (with an assist from Quentin Tarantino) took the opposite tack in Natural Born Killers, in which the killers are shown to be awful--but somehow cool--people who survive.

Movie Reviews: The Unsuspected

The Unsuspected

directed by Michael Curtiz

This 1947 film straddles that line between noir and murder mystery. It's entertaining though there isn't that much mystery about the murderer's identity. Back then, some people still accepted Freud's/Jung's theories of a child's initial subconscious sexual attraction to his or her opposite sex parent. 

My non-expert understanding of these theories is that many have been discredited and disproven or are out of favor for other reasons. Even so this film references them, suitably repressed and hidden for the mores of 1947 America. But they're hard to miss. 

Even though the story is not original the film's shadow, smoke, and fog cinematography is simply too cool for words. And the dialogue, written largely by Bess Meredyth, Curtiz's wife, again gives the lie to the idea that successful women characters were only to be found in our modern day and/or only talk like or act like men.

Book Reviews: 2034-A Novel Of The Next World War

2034-A Novel Of The Next World War

by Elliot Ackerman and Admiral James Stavridis

Speaker of the House, Representative Nancy Pelosi, recently led a delegation of US politicians to Taiwan. China, which views Taiwan as a rebel province in need of forcible reunification, lost its collective s***. 

China issued many poorly worded ridiculous sounding threats (that I must assume sounded more menacing in Mandarin instead of the bad Bond movie villain speak that the English translations invoked) against Representative Pelosi in particular and the US in general. 

One official government Chinese paper (not that the Chinese have independent media) suggested that China should shoot down Pelosi's flight. 

When Pelosi completed her trip the Chinese threw a more dangerous temper tantrum, putting in a near blockade of Taiwan and holding multiple days of live fire exercises that involved lobbing missiles over Taiwan and into Japanese territorial waters.

China also reduced communications with the US, sanctioned Pelosi and her associates, and issued ominous statements about how upset they were and that real soon people (read the US) would regret messing with them.