Wed 26 May 2010
GYPSY ROSE LEE – The G-String Murder. Avon T258, reprint paperback, 1958. Hardcover edition: Simon & Schuster, 1941. Also published as: Lady of Burlesque, Tower, hardcover, 1942. Other paperback reprints include: Pocket #425, 1947; Pop. Library Eagle A3635, 1954; Penguin, 1984; The Feminist Press at CUNY, 2005. Possibly ghost-written by Craig Rice. Film: United Artists, 1943, as Lady of Burlesque, with Barbara Stanwyck as Dixie Daisy.
The famous stripper helps solve two “impossible” crimes occurring in the rundown burlesque theater where she’s appearing. While extremely mild today, for 1941 this book must have been something else, bawdier and racier than almost anything — except for Thorne Smith’s “Topper” books, of course. The detective work which fills the second half is awfully weak, though — both confused and confusing.
COMMENT: I’ve re-read the final couple of chapters a couple of times now, and I’ve finally decided it’s just not worth the effort.
I’m not alone, either. Because of the locked room aspects, the book is included in Bob Adey’s book on the same, but when it comes to an explanation, here’s what he says: “The solution could be a second door, an open window, or simply the removal and replacement of the original seal — take your pick.”
I didn’t read any of this in the book I read. [WARNING] What I thought happened was that the body was put into the room before the wax seal was put on the lock. The second murder, with the body found inside a locked prop room, has an even simpler solution. The killer had a key. (Bob Adey doesn’t even mention this one.)
[UPDATE] 05-26-10. The comment above was published at the same time (and place) as the review. I didn’t go into the provenance of the book then, but Bill Deeck did when he also reviewed the book, a review that will be posted next.
May 26th, 2010 at 10:28 pm
[…] Comment: My own review of this book immediately precedes this one; or in other words, right here. […]
May 27th, 2010 at 12:24 am
Granted the book has an amateurish feel to it, as does the sequel, MOTHER FINDS A BODY, but I think the conceit that informed both books was the idea of a literate stripper. Lee was something different in burlesque, intelligent, self aware, and self parodying. That she also brought a touch of class to burlesque and made it ‘respectable’ was a large part of her appeal, but she also held herself above and apart from the other women in the business as reflected in her book and the musical GYPSY.
Stanwyck played strippers in two movies, notably in this and Howard Hawks BALL OF FIRE with a screenplay by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett and a story based on SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS. In this one she even copied a famous strippers routine.
LADY is an entertaining film that makes a good deal more of the on stage presence of its leading lady and the other performers, but like the book doesn’t present a very favorable view of the profession compared to Carl Hiasson’s more sentimental STRIPPER or some of the fifties novels I’ve read with the setting, but then Lee always held herself above and beyond the rest of the crowd, justified or not.
Still the book is more interesting as a curiosity than a mystery leading me to believe Lee likely did write both books, though it is certainly possible that the publisher or Lee herself had Rice on this one and Brackett on the other read it and even clean up the manuscript for publication.
Manuscripts by celebrities can get passed around a good deal by nervous publishers, and it is possible that everyone involved is telling the truth from their own perspective about who did what. The book could easily be Lee’s work with some dialogue or even a scene or two contributed by Rice and or someone else. The book was a fairly big success and as the old cliche goes success has a plethora of parents.
May 27th, 2010 at 12:38 am
Jeffrey Marks, Rice’s critical biographer, goes with Lee.
Is the DVD version of this film decent? I think it is a public domain production and those vary. I’ve never seen to this day, but it sounds entertaining.
May 27th, 2010 at 9:25 am
Curt
The DVD depends on which one you buy. I recorded mine off of TCM and it’s a nice print, but some of those $1 copies you find are fairly soft — though for a $1 … I don’t think there is a restored edition, but none of the copies I’ve seen are awful just some softer than others.
Incidentally Stanwyck has some nice numbers here and in BALL OF FIRE (with Gary Cooper and Dana Andrews and a great cast of character actors), a playful and sexy Stanwyck you may be surprised by if you only know her from noir and dramatic roles.
If you like the comedic Stanwyck also check out the comedy mystery THE MAD MISS MANTON with Henry Fonda, Preston Sturges THE LADY EVE, Capra’s MEET JOHN DOE, CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT, and REMEMBER THE NIGHT.
May 27th, 2010 at 12:13 pm
I wasn’t a big fan of hers when I was younger, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve discovered that you can’t go wrong with any movie that Barbara Stanwyck is in.
While I haven’t watched it, I think your best buy for LADY OF BURLESQUE on DVD is the one available on oldies.com:
http://www.oldies.com/product-view/3168D.html
I don’t think they do much in the way of remastering, but they don’t put out anything that’s in really bad shape, as far as I’ve been able to tell.
You can get the same DVD on Amazon, too. Just look for the one put out by Alpha Video.
Like David, the one I’ve watched most recently was a tape I made from TCM, but given the overall low price at Oldies, I’ve gradually been replacing many of my tapes with their DVDs.
May 27th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
Ball of Fire was actually the first Stanwyck film I saw. Liked it a lot, also Lady Eve, where she plays a con artist (she cast perfectly against poor Henry Fonda). Stanwyck had this brassy, tough quality, which translated well to crime elements in films.
May 27th, 2010 at 3:39 pm
Back when she made BABY FACE for William Wellman he told her she could be an ingenue for a couple of years or a tough broad all her life. Stanwyck clearly made the right choice.
And for my money BALL OF FIRE and THE LADY EVE are two of the sexiest roles in golden age Hollywood films. That scene in EVE when Fonda helps her on with her slipper in her stateroom gets me every time.