43. The Mad Miss Manton (1938)

Directed by Leigh Jason
Written by Philip G. Epstein
Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, and Sam Levene

The boys laugh at the lieutenant’s threats against Melsa: assault, spanking, illegal detention. But the white socialite knows her status keeps her safe. Ames and his #FakeNews are the real enemy. I’m sure there are dudes who’d pay for a gaggle of women to leave them in a room bound and gagged, a service the reporter enjoys twice for free. Putting your victim’s corpse in the fridge seems downright curteous. It’s weird to imagine a time before the subways were built. The boxy row homes popping up all over Philly, once so conspicuously ugly, now hardly catch my eye. One is going up at the end of my street. It’s not like I’ll miss that tree stump and empty patch of concrete where beer cans and pizza boxes went to die. The new Acme by the Target is so close to opening. Everyone in my neighborhood waits with a strange mix of impatience and resignation: It’ll open when it opens. The mural on the nearby Marshalls features a shopping bag with the words FILL THE VOID. Somehow Ames gets it in his head that Melsa will marry him, even though she’s not disreputable enough to need the cleansing power of marriage. Hattie McDaniel plays a live-in maid, because of course. At least black women actually exist in this universe. A fork in the leg might be a disproportionate punishment for faking an imminent death. I refuse to believe anyone’s favorite song is “Home on the Range.” Still, it takes moxie for a rich, young lady to start sleuthing on her own. A few nights ago, wanting something new to read, I googled “lesbian noir,” forgetting for a moment that fiction doesn’t interest me these days.