Noir vs. Noir

You're sitting in a darkened theatre with Gothic ceilings and one exit watching the latest Alan Ladd film with William Bendix and Veronica Lake. Next to you eating popcorn is a woman from Romania named Anna. She is smiling but at all the wrong scenes. You put your arm around her and smile yourself. Yesterday's plastic surgery has been a complete success. The fingertip skin grafts feel the best they ever have. Bendix, a narrative madness in his eyes, is suffering from a war wound. He holds both sides of his head and bellows, "Turn off that monkey music!" The movie's good, but you don't like being in the dark. You motion to Anna to go, a shade brutally perhaps, and drag her down the aisle. In the lobby, empty but for the concessionaire, she says wait, she has to relieve herself. "Hurry it up," you mutter and pass the time staring at your face in the mirrored walls. It's not your face and that suits you just fine. "Where is she?" you wonder. At that moment she returns. "What took you?" you rasp and begin walking. "Hey, wait," she calls, running up to your side. She's pressed up against you as you push open the glass door and walk out. Something smells funny in the night. It's your future, but no one will be able to convince you of that.

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Author's Note

This poem was published in the anthology Aeolian Harp Volume One (Glass Lyre Press 2016).

http://www.amazon.com/Aeolian-Harp-Anthology-Volume-1/dp/1941783163

This poem conflates two stories—the story of the last hours of John Dillinger and the 1946 film "The Blue Dahlia." Dillinger was shot to death on July 22, 1934 by FBI agents as he exited the Biograph Theater in Chicago where he and Polly Hamilton had been watching "Manhattan Melodrama." The references in the poem to skin grafts and plastic surgery are real. In "The Blue Dahlia," a famous noir written by Raymond Chandler and directed by George Marshall, Buzz Wanchek (Bendix), does hold the sides of his head and bellow, “Turn off that monkey music!”

"Noir vs. Noir"appears in THE VIG OF LOVE (Glass Lyre Press, 2016).

Comments

Gary Hardaway, May 10, 2016

Nice little movie, this.

Mathew Paust, May 10, 2016

The suspense hovers close, building, building...and then, "Something smells funny in the night. It's your future, but no one will be able to convince you of that." *