Desperate Divas

It seems like—

I’ve always been a

Desperate Diva

Even now, my dear—

I’m nothing but a

Tired old Movie Queen

Lacking the class—

Of the Major Divas

Like Bette Davis

Or Joan Crawford—

I go more for the

Grade B Scream Queens

Sulking there in the—

Film noir darkness

Of my tacky Discontents

_______________

Jan Sterling

The way she—

Schleps & slouches

Down the Staircase

On the outside of—

The dumpy dingy

Desert gas station

Her has-been husband—

Trapped in some cave

Looking for lost treasure

As she hobbles down—

The rickety stairs trying

To get out of town fast

Escaping from the—

“Big Carnival” (1951)

Billy Wilder’s nightmare

_______________

Linda Darnell

The way she—

Schleps into the

Two-bit dingy diner

Owned by her—

Worrisome sugar daddy

Poor whiny Percy Kilbride

Slouches down—

Into a chair, slips off

Her high heels sighing

Plop the shoe goes—

Onto the diner floor

Her feet are killing her

“Fallen Angel” (1945)—

Another one-night stand

“So what?” she snaps

 ______________________

Peggy Cummins

Roles get reversed—

John Dall plays the

Nelly Gangster’s Moll

Butchy Peggy Cummins—

Plays the tough Carnival

Shoe-em-up Cowgirl

Sucks Dall into Crime—

Corruption, armed robbery

The usual film noir thing

They’re fast and smart—

Like Bonnie and Clyde

But not fast enough

Peggy Cummins—

“Gun Crazy” (1951)

Femme fatale lover

_____________________ 

Ann Savage

Ann Savage—

Sizes up Tom Neil pretty

Fast in “Detour” (1946)

The car is “hot”—

The owner dead back

Along the highway

A classic film noir flick—

Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer

Dark and Streamline Slinky

Ann Savage is Tom Neil’s—

Tawdry Double, his tacky

Claustrophobic Other

The Detour is his own—

Tragic fate caused by his

Own flaky femme fatale

______________

Audrey Totter

Taking up from where—

Detour leaves off there’s

“The Set Up” (1949)

Lonely marquee lights—

Outside the hotel window

Another fixed fight

Robert Ryan as her—

Has-been aging boxer lover

On the sad downhill skid

She pauses on a bridge—

Looking down at all the

Busy traffic at night

Wanting to leave him—

Her boxer lover beat up

For not taking the fall

______________________ 

Gloria Talbott

Nobody believes her—

That her handsome young

Husband is an Alien

He’s cute on the outside—

But inside he’s an ugly

Pulsating slimy Creature!!!

Poor Gloria Talbott—

Ends up “Married to a Monster

from Outer Space” (1958)

The look on his face—

When she realizes the awful

Horrible ugly fucking Truth

It’s Tom Tryon’s turn—

To be the fatal Femme Fatale

Earthgirls are Easy!!!

_____________

Natascha McElhone

Most moviegoers are—

Familiar with a movie’s

Mise-en-scene layout

But not necessarily—

Andre Gide’s idea of

A film’s mise-en-abyme

His novel “The Counterfeiters”—

Portrays the idea instead of

The movie within a movie

Such a possible setup—

With “Matrix” and “Solaris”

Portrays synthetic quantum worlds

Most people have had such—

Dreams within dreams scenarios

Inside their own Bijou dreams

George Clooney experiences—

A cloned former lover who’s

Actually an Alien doppleganger

Such a mise-en-abyme plot—

Can be tres convoluted and

Very surrealistic to experience

Counterfeiting the supposed—

Real like a series of Russian dolls

One inside the other