Out In The 1940s Film Noir Night- With The Naked City In Mind

 

Sure she was beautiful, she knew it too, everybody back in Hoboken, or Trenton, or whatever Jersey town she was from knew it as well, so she was drawn, drawn like a moth to the bright lights, the bright lights of the big city, New Jack City (had she the price of the Greyhound bus ticket she might have headed to tinsel town, headed out west, but just then, that first decision moment, she was short of cash so New Jack it was). See though beautiful, even drop- dead beautiful, did not pay the rent in the city, the bright light city and so she used other charms, other charms that might not have set so well, even with those guys scheming to get her in the back seat of some late model souped-up car in Hoboken or Paterson, or set well, with some god-fearing parents. And the men noticed those charms or heard about them and took note, and she took note that they took note and before you knew it men were swarming all over her, promising, well, like men will do with a beautiful, promising the moon. The moon, that is, once they unloaded that nagging wife, who however controlled the purse-strings. And so the quest for dough, big dough, Mayfair swell dough or its equivalent drove her, drove her for a while until that one night when that beautiful, that man-hunger, and that dough fever caught up with her and she wound up face down in some bathtub. Murdered, murdered most foul.            

In tough , hard-edged , watch your step, don’t turn your back  New Jack City though murders are a dime a dozen, and many, many cases of average joes with brother-in-law beefs, wife beefs, some drunk who is pushed off a pier in some squabble , or stuff like that don’t get solved or anything but a yawn. A beautiful though is a different proposition, especially one face-down in some forlorn bathtub. People want to know about that, want to know the coppers are moving heaven and earth to find the killer, or to find out why Emma from Hoboken got herself involved in some awful mess, some juicy sex scandal, want to know for a couple of days anyway. And so the coppers will pull out all stops on this one, all stops for New Jack City coppers okay.    

So there is a back story. See our beautiful, our Jane Doe beautiful, really did badly want some real dough and unless you get lucky with the horses or marry some Mayfair swell (who are, as noted, usually sewed up very early by other Mayfair swells and so don’t count on that one) you need an angle. And so our beautiful had this little scam running when some Mayfair swell fell for her, fell for her hard (not hard enough for a divorce and easy street, you know that nagging wife scene, the one who controls the dough but hard enough to be the “finger” man for her little operation). She used the bonzo (her term according to one source) to introduce her to the wealthy of the town in order to steal an odd Hope diamond or two. Then she would steal the stuff, not her of course, no beautiful for Hoboken or even Trenton is built for that heavy work, but her confederates, her rough and ready confederates.      

See though when you go down mano y mano with the dregs of society don’t turn your back on, or better still don’t try to cheap jack your actual “perps,” because labor costs are high in the heist business so spread the wealth or else you will wind up in that damn bathtub very dead, very dead indeed. And so that was the fate of our beautiful and her death made many a man sorry, and left many a New Jack City resident wondering how the world had gone to hell in a hand basket for a few days. As for the coppers, yah, they plucked their man, some grifter who was unhappy with his cut. And so it goes, so it goes in the black and white gritty New Jack City night…