Film Noir Friday–Sunday Matinee: Murder With Pictures [1936]

Welcome! The lobby of the Deranged L.A. Crimes theater is open. Grab a bucket of popcorn, some Milk Duds and a Coke and find a seat.

Tonight’s feature is MURDER WITH PICTURES [1936] starring Lew Ayres and Gail Patrick.

Enjoy the film!

TCM says:

Stanley Redfield, defense lawyer for racketeer Nate Girard, who has been accused of murdering a man named Cusick, is murdered during a press party held to celebrate Girard’s acquittal. Among the suspects are two newspapermen, Phil Doane and I. B. McGoogin, and Meg Archer, a mysterious woman who appeared in town shortly after Girard’s release. Free from suspicion is ace news photographer Kent Murdock, who was in a nearby apartment arguing with his showgirl fiancé, Hester Boone, when the murder took place.

ENJOY THE MOVIE!

Film Noir Friday: The Chase [1946]

Welcome! The lobby of the Deranged L.A. Crimes theater is open. Grab a bucket of popcorn, some Milk Duds and a Coke and find a seat.

Tonight’s feature is THE CHASE [1946] starring Robert Cummings, Michele Morgan, Steve Cochran and Peter Lore.

Enjoy the film!

TCM says:

Returning a lost wallet gains unemployed veteran Chuck Scott a job as chauffeur to Eddie Roman, a seeming gangster whose enemies have a way of meeting violent ends. The job proves nerve-wracking, and soon Chuck finds himself pledged to help Eddie’s lovely, fearful, prisoner-wife Lorna to escape. The result leaves Chuck caught like a rat in a trap, vainly seeking a way out through dark streets. But the real chase begins when the strange plot virtually starts all over again…

The Best New True Crime Stories: Partners in Crime–Live Facebook Event

Please join me at Mitzi Szereto’s Facebook page on Saturday, February 12 at 2pm Pacific, 5pm Eastern, 10pm UK, 11pm CEST, and Sunday 9am AEDT, for a special livestream event for “The Best New True Crime Stories: Partners in Crime.” I’ll be chatting with editor Mitzi Szereto about my story, THE WAGES OF SIN: THE BALLAD OF MARGIE AND DALE.


Find out more about the book at: https://mitziszereto.com/the-best-new-true-crime-stories…/

Film Noir Friday: Private Detective 62 [1933]

Welcome. The lobby of the Deranged L.A. Crimes theater is open. Grab a bucket of popcorn, some Milk Duds and a Coke and find a seat.

Tonight’s feature is PRIVATE DETECTIVE 62, starring William Powell and Margaret Lindsay.

TCM says:

In France, United States State Department employee Donald Free is caught trying to steal French state papers and is deported. Because of the publicity, Donald is released from his government job and has a hard time finding another because jobs are scarce during the Depression. One day, he walks into the Peerless Detective Agency, run by the incompetent and crooked Dan Hogan. Hogan does not have customers and Donald does not have a license, so Donald proposes a partnership. 

Enjoy the movie!

Film Noir Friday: Between Midnight and Dawn [1950]

Welcome. The lobby of the Deranged L.A. Crimes theater is open. Grab a bucket of popcorn, some Milk Duds and a Coke and find a seat.

Tonight’s feature is BETWEEN MIDNIGHT AND DAWN, starring Mark Stevens, Edmond O’Brian and Gale Storm.

TCM says:

Rocky Barnes and Daniel Purvis, two policemen working the night shift, have been partners since they served in the war together. Although Rocky believes that even criminals have some good inside, Daniel is more cynical. Daniel is particularly anxious to capture petty criminal Ritchie Garris, but is hampered by the fact that the victims of Garris’ strong-arm tactics refuse to testify against him. Rocky is more interested in the face that belongs to the sultry voice of the night dispatcher than he is in Garris and soon discovers that the attractive voice is that of Katherine Mallory, a policeman’s daughter and the captain’s secretary.

There are some cool shots of Los Angeles.

The Wages of Sin: The Ballad of Margie & Dale

I am thrilled that my story, The Wages of Sin: The Ballad of Margie and Dale, appears in Mitzi Szereto’s latest true crime anthology, The Best New True Crime Stories: Partners in Crime.

Long before Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow began their crime spree, Dale Jones and Margie Celano terrorized the Midwest and West, committing robberies and multiple murders.  

Lean more about Dale and Margie and other criminally inclined couples, by picking up a copy of the anthology—released today.

A shout-out to Dwight Haverkorn. His knowledge of Dale and Margie’s exploits is encyclopedic. He graciously shared his research with me, and I owe him a debt of gratitude.

A Holiday Orgy of Crime

HOLIDAY ORGY OF CRIME

On December 26, 1930, readers of the Los Angeles Times awoke to the dismaying headline: “Holiday Brings Orgy of Crime”. Apparently, not all Angelenos with goodwill toward their fellow man or woman. The article was a litany of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day misdeeds that began with the shooting of a police officer.

Allen G. Adcock of the Hollenbeck Heights division during the early morning hours of Christmas Day. Officer Adcock had been directing traffic during a fire at Macy and Gelardo streets when a car containing two men ignored his command to halt and blew through the intersection at a high rate of speed. Apparently, Adcock “badged” a civilian, Earl H. Pfeifer, and commandeered the man’s auto to pursue the suspects. With Pfeifer at the wheel, Adcock stood on the running board of the car and held on for dear life. One of the fleeing men leveled his weapon at Adcock, who then whipped out his own pistol. The two men fired simultaneously and a bullet from the suspect’s gun struck a glancing blow on Adcock’s head, which knocked the cop off of Pfiefer’s running board.

Pfiefer stopped to render aid to the fallen policeman, and the suspects escaped. A subsequent investigation showed that the two suspects were bandits who had held up Irwin Welborn of West Twenty-ninth Street. They drove him out to Long Beach and then robbed him of $2 and his car.

At Pacific and O’Farrell Streets in San Pedro, someone slugged Zack Zuanich, a local poultryman, on the head with a wooden club. They took Zuanich to the San Pedro General Hospital in serious condition. The attacked appeared random.

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Los Feliz Bridge (aka Shakespeare Bridge) [Photo courtesy of LAPL]

Two cowardly bandits, turned rapists, dragged Maxine Ungeheur (20) and her younger sister Thelma (19) out of a car under the Los Feliz Bridge (aka Shakespeare Bridge) and savagely attacked them. The sisters were being driven home by Roland Oakley, a Griffith Park employee, following a Christmas Eve soiree. Oakley slowed his auto near the bridge, and the bandits stepped out from a clump of trees and threatened the girls and Oakley with guns. Oakley, under threat of death, stood helplessly by as the bandits ravaged the girls. The cops located clues at the scene, in particular a leather glove believed to have been worn by one attacker. Detective Lieutenants Hoy and Kriewald of the Lincoln Heights Division hoped that the clue would lead to the arrests of the men involved in the assaults.

Besides all the other mayhem occurring in and around the city, there was a spate of holiday burglaries for cops to contend with. Two men were discovered plundering a store on Huntington Drive by Officers Cooke and Carter, and a citizen, A. Burke. Upon being found out, the two crooks attempted to high-tail it to freedom. Officer Cooke fired at the fleeing suspects and the citizen, A. Burke, unloaded a charge of birdshot from his shotgun. Both suspects dropped to the ground, but one of them scrambled to his feet and made good his escape. Officers captured the other crook and he gave his name as Bernave Palacios. They held him on suspicion of burglary.

Two bandits held up Benjamin Caldron in his South Western Avenue flower shop on Christmas morning robbed him of $110.

The Ungeheur sisters were not the only women who were victims of rape, or attempted rape, over the Christmas holiday. Mrs. Dorothy Loustanau was walking near the corner of Ninetieth Street and Avalon Boulevard when a man drove an automobile up to the curb and leaped out. Snarling that he would beat her to death if she resisted, he clapped his hand over her mouth and pinioned her arms while he attempted to force her into his car. Dorothy struggled desperately and stayed out of the car. Her attacker, enraged at his victim for putting up a fight, tried to drag her into a vacant lot, but Dorothy broke free and screamed for help. Her assailant fled the scene.

Lillian Rosine, of 1322 Cherokee Avenue in Hollywood, was driving down Las Palmas Avenue with a friend, Earl Marshall, when a bandit leaped onto the running board of her car. The bandit produced an automatic weapon and commanded Lillian and Earl to stick up their hands. Lillian became furious with the brazen bandit and instead of complying with his order, she leaned in front of Earl and shoved the bandit in the face!

Thrown off balance, the crook fired, and the round grazed Earl’s head, inflicting a four-inch wound in his scalp. Lillian screamed and stomped down hard on the gas. The bandit tumbled off of the running board, stood up, and then walked nonchalantly up Selma Avenue. Lillian dashed to the Hollywood Receiving Hospital a few blocks away, where doctors treated and dressed Earl’s wound. The bandit remained at large.

Hollywood Receiving Hospital c. 1936 [Photo courtesy of LAPL]

Hollywood Receiving Hospital c. 1936 [Photo courtesy of LAPL]

I’ll wrap up the orgy of crime with the murder of Jose Lopez (45). Lopez died in Georgia Street Receiving Hospital from wounds received in an attempted hold-up and fight. Lopez’s friend, Jose Ayala, told the cops that two men accosted him and Jose early Christmas morning and beaten with clubs. Ayala did his best to describe the killers, but a blow to the mouth knocked him unconscious early in the struggle.

I hope that your holiday is going better than the unfortunates in the above post. Be well, happy, and stay safe. — Joan

Film Noir Friday–On Saturday Night–Dead End [1937]

Welcome. The lobby of the Deranged L.A. Crimes theater is open. Grab a bucket of popcorn, some Milk Duds and a Coke and find a seat.

Tonight’s feature is DEAD END (1937), starring Humphrey Bogart. The supporting cast is stellar, Joel McCrea, Sylvia Sidney, Wendy Barrie, and Claire Trevor. Among the faces you will recognize from the era, Allen Jenkins and Marjorie Main.

Interesting note–Lillian Hellman wrote the screenplay. If you are not familiar with Hellman, she was the longtime partner of the great noir novelist, Dashiell Hammett, who wrote The Thin Man, and Red Harvest.

IMDB says:

The Dead End Kids are introduced in their intricate East Side slum, overlooked by the apartments of the rich. Their antics, some funny, some vicious, alternate with subplots: unemployed architect Dave is torn between Drina, sweet but equally poor, and Kay, a rich man’s mistress; gangster Baby Face Martin returns to his old neighborhood and finds that nobody is glad to see him. Then violent crime, both juvenile and adult, impacts the neighborhood and its people.

Enjoy the movie!

Film Noir Friday Returns with LADY GANGSTER

Welcome! After a lengthy hiatus, the lobby of the Deranged L.A. Crimes theater is open. Grab a bucket of popcorn, some Milk Duds and a Coke and find a seat.

Tonight’s feature is LADY GANGSTER starring Faye Emerson, Julie Bishop, Frank Wilcox and, in one of his first film roles, Jackie Gleason.

It is a remake of the original 1933 film, LADIES THEY TALK ABOUT, starring Barbara Stanwyck.

The movie is based on a play by actress and writer, Dorothy Mackaye. Dorothy was not a gangster or a gun moll. She took her inspiration from her time in San Quentin for compounding a felony. The felony was the beating death of her husband, Ray Raymond, by her lover, Paul Kelly.

The fatal Hollywood love triangle was headline news, and I plan to cover it in the book I am working on for the University Press of Kentucky. The subject of the book is crime in Prohibition Los Angeles–one of my favorite topics.

Enjoy the movie!

Dot Burton, an aspiring actress, helps a gang of bank robbers to hold up a bank. The men escape but the police are suspicious of Dot’s actions and arrest her. District Attorney Lewis Sinton asks Dot to turn state’s evidence, but she continues to plead her innocence. Radio broadcaster Kenneth Phillips sees a newspaper article about Dot’s case and broadcasts a statement lambasting the district attorney for arresting her while the real criminals go free.

Ellroypalooza

On June 22, 2021, Writer’s Bloc and Chevalier’s Books hosted a virtual event celebrating the publication of James Ellroy’s new novel, WIDESPREAD PANIC.

I was thrilled to participate on a panel with James Ellroy, John Anderson, Grant Nebel and Zoe Dean.

John Anderson and Grant Nebel are Ellroy scholars and enthusiasts who created the Ellroycast, and have written extensively about pop culture, film, and television. Zoe Dean is an award winning short story writer of crime fiction.

I’ve known James for years, and was one of several people who worked with him on the book, LAPD ’53.

If you missed Ellroypalooza, or would like to see it again, here it is for your viewing pleasure.