Tuesday, 16. January 2007, 03:57:39
The Republic of Bullshit, Rocky Horror Picture Show, the black dahlia
Elizabeth Short
"The Black Dahlia"
Dr. Frank N. Furter
"Sweet Transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania"
Hmmmm. A curious rememblance.
This could open up a whole new chapter in the mystery.
In, uh, some way that I can't really think of -- but it might.
The Black Dahlia Revisited
(in the style of James Ellroy)
Elizabeth left the hotel. A crazy week. Madness takes its toll. "Keep it
under control" she whispers. She walks down the street, having a think. The
blackness hits her like a void. An old pickup truck pulls up. Two girls,
a couple of snakes, later she'd call them Magenta and Olympia. They call
out the window, give her an evil wink. Just a couple girls out to have a
good time. Looks good. A party, someplace to stay for the night. That's
more like it. Elizabeth jumps in.
Up at the castle now. A couple of drinks. Wild music starts up, like
music from another planet. And it is from another planet. The planet
Transsexual. "Jump to your left!" they tell Elizabeth. "What?" she says.
She's confused. "Just jump to your left!" they say again. Elizabeth thinks
about it, jumps. "Now step to your right!" Elizabeth goes along with it.
Why not. Looks like fun. "Put your hands on your hips!" they say next. She
puts her hands on her hips. "Bring your knees in tight!" She does it, and
a spaced out sensation hits her. But it was those pelvic thrusts that really
drove her insane. Insane. Yeah, like a time warp. Insane.
Like a time warp. Again.
In the laboratory. Like an old science fiction movie. And you just know
what always happens. A laboratory experiment gone wrong, gone horribly
wrong. Dr. Frank N. Furter. Just a sweet transvestite? Yeah, right. He's
from another galaxy, idiot, the galaxy Transylvania. Warning clues right
there. Elizabeth gets into one of the transfer pods anyway. Like in
The Fly, you've seen that one. This is close. Dr. Frank N. Furter
gets into the other pod. A loud buzzing sound, lots of strange lights.
A fusion reaction taking place between the two pods. Elizabeth's genetic
material gets mixed in with Frank's. Process: Irreversible. Too late.
Elizabeth ends up in two pieces. Furter emerges looking like some dream
altered version of Elizabeth. He likes the new look. Yeah, it suits.
A string of pearls, a leather corset. Yeah, that's the ticket.
What to do. Rif-raf loads Elizabeth, both halves, into the pickup truck.
They take her back to the city, dump her.
Next day. A woman innocently walks with her daughter. Stumbles across
Elizabeth's lifeless forms. Reporters show up. Then the cops. The city
explodes. A vicious crime, apparently. The work of a psychopath, apparently.
Little did they know. They didn't think to check the castle up on the hill.
"Hell, that castle belongs to Errol Flynn" the cops erroneously tell themselves.
"Lots of strange goings-on. But it's Flynn, so..."
Idiots. Case file history: Unsolved.
Wednesday, 6. September 2006, 17:36:27
scarlett johansson, the black dahlia, James Ellroy
This is a site devoted to private-eye fiction, and as such I felt I
ought to put something up about Brian DePalma's new movie "The Black
Dahlia," based up on the infamous 1947 L.A. murder case and upon its
retelling by author James Ellroy -- an honor to help Ellroy out if I
can. The Black Dahlia also deals with cops, not with P.I.'s.
But I have to be honest. This is mainly just a good excuse to post more
photos of Scarlett Johansson. This will not be a normal P.M.P.I. review
and I'm not going to rate it.
So here's Miss Scarlett smoking a cigarette. I don't like this photo
much as she's looking too skinny and with the face-on shot she ends
up looking like Charlize Theron.
Okay, back to the movie. De Palma said of the movie "They don't do many
of them today: these obsessive stories, these femmes fatales, these dark
depressive characters leading into hell."
Well said. Now another photo of Miss Scarlett. I like this one much better. She
just looks, well -- how can I put this? -- "riper and juicier."
There's a kind of old fashioned video trailer here and an L.A. Times deal that is affiliated
with the movie and which is worth a look here. Be sure to check the photos link out
on the last one. As a new photo comes up, there is a old-style flash-bulb
sound that goes off which is pretty cool.
Now back to Miss Scarlett. This one is of Miss Scarlett getting bopped on a
dining room table.
Now I think that Miss Scarlett has been bopped before in some of her
movies. But I would like to emphasize that this isn't just your
regular, run-of-the-mill, standard bopping. This is a good old 1940s
noir-style, hardboiled bopping. Which is totally different than getting
bopped by, say, the Flemish painter Jan Vermeer. Or so I would imagine.
James Ellroy seems pleased with DePalma's adaptation. Although most
critics are saying that it isn't as good as "L.A. Confidential." In any
case Ellroy will certainly make some really good money off of it. Good
for him.
Here's one of Miss Scarlett wearing a dress with the fur of an innocent,
defenseless animal, which they did back in those days. These days we
only kill animals for pretty much everything else. But fur? No.
Well unfortunately those are the only solo stills of Miss Scarlett that
I could get, except for one that's pretty much identical to the first.
So that's it for this "review."
There is also a c. 1959 murder mystery coming out dealing with the death
of George Reeves called Hollywoodland and which features a lot of
blockbuster stars. Unfortunately, Miss Scarlett is not among them, so
I'm not going to "review" that one.
I should probably mention that all the stills in this post are from the
official Black Dahlia the movie web site. The Black Dahlia, the
brilliant and stylish new film by Brian DePalma that will be opening in
theaters September 15th and which you should pay money to go see six or
seven times. And I hope that is enough out-and-out ass-kissing to cover
myself legally.
And I would also like to thank Scarlett Johansson. Just for existing,
really.
WIDGETIZE