Fag Noir









PHANTOM LADY (1944)



and then, of course—
there’s elisha cook’s
orgiastic drum solo
climaxing the wordless
sexual jazz climax in the
basement with ella raines
intercut and interweaved
with furious innuendos
of siodimak’s expressionistic
fusing of german noir décor
with the american idiom style

the look on cook’s face—
having a crazed orgasm
as the film’s mad drummer
all expressed by one of
cornell woolrich’s pulp novel
plots thick with campy fag
noir mise en scène nuances
hinted at during the nightclub
“chick-ee-chick” hysterical
act by aurora in her vera west
phantom lady rakish hat

like” born to kill” (1947)—
with claire trevor, ester howard,
elisha cook jr. & walter slezak
doing their business with offhanded
depictions of perturbed sexuality
and extreme brutality or is it
quickie quirky depictions of
perturbed brutality and elisha’s
extremely orgasmic sexuality?

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