by George Axelrod

The Vengeful Virgin

by Gil Brewer
Hard Case Crime
$6.99


Occasionally, I like to take one or a pair of Hard Case Crime title(s) and wax poetic about their superb packaging, from the logo to the original paintings done in the noir style most of us love (come on, admit it to yourself). Noir literature happens when crime fiction takes a dip in the horror pool, you might say. There don't have to be any monsters—humans are monstrous enough. Often in a true noir there are few sympathetic characters, if any. It takes a special kind of talent to write edge-of-your-seat fiction about people nobody likes, but it happened all the time in the golden age. That's why the Hard Case re-issues, apart from the excellent originals, seem to shine even more now that they're being rediscovered.

Here we have two titles, from 1952 and 1958 (yes, they both predate me). The cover paintings are superb. Sexy, sultry, edgy, classic noir. (I'd pay for posters of most Hard Case titles, by the way.)

In Blackmailer (1952), a partner in a small-time publishing house, Dick Sherman, is offered the undiscovered last novel of a brilliant, Hemingwayesque author, a recent suicide. A leggy dame makes the offer, but how did she acquire the manuscript? Before long, Sherman is offered the same book, by somebody else. Who has the real single copy? Is the book a hoax? Sherman's dragged in further by his old flame, a now-famous Hollywood starlet. He's roughed up by a gangster now acting as a literary agent, and he's played for a sucker by a society maven whose parties sparkle with celebrity—except that at this party, someone is murdered. Sherman bounces from suspect to suspect, coveting the book, but trying to stay a step ahead of everyone interested in cashing in on the literary and film property. The race to own the manuscript is a deadly one, and while the plot turns on a bit of farfetched business, it's still a tense read. All you really need to know is that Axelrod wrote the screenplays of The Manchurian Candidate, The Seven-Year Itch, and Breakfast at Tiffany's. You have to figure the man knew his dialogue. Had an ear for it. Blackmailer is an unassuming little classic.

In The Vengeful Virgin (1958), TV repairman/installer Jack Ruxton is called out on a job. The lovely young vixen, Shirley Angela, wants some TVs and an intercom installed in the house where she's taking care of her dying stepfather, wealthy, tough old bird Victor Spondell, lying there on a hospital bed. Stop me if you've heard this one before. Jack is immediately caught in her web and succumbs with nary a fight. Kill the stubborn old fool and then we can be together with his money? Sure, sign me up. Take a taste of the forbidden in other rooms, locked rooms, and try to think of a way to off the old man. "The minute conscience stepped in," Jack narrates, "you were in trouble." Trouble also means old girlfriends and nosy neighbors. Yes sir, one tough noir. Another bull's-eye.

You might ask, are they still relevant? They're old. There are no computers, or cell phones, and people smoke—they smoke a lot, and drink a lot—and the televisions are color as in that new-fangled color. Still relevant? The themes in these morality plays are that humans are greedy, callous, opportunistic creatures with little or no remorse—basic scumbags—we were then and we still are, only our methods and slang have changed. You bet they're still relevant. You bet they're still tough. And still great reads, even after all these years.