#141 Movietone: Detour- Peter Weltner
Movietone was the name of the black and white newsreels
shown before films during W.W. II. Weltner said that just like some of the
horror movies of that period, these newsreels represented films in which
“…dread and beauty, horror and wonder are nearly indistinguishable.”
Sayler the Sailor (yes, you read that correctly) is on shore
leave. He explores NYC and looks to exploit the local scene to make a little
money. He meets up with other seamen and all goes well until it doesn’t.
Drunken nights, prostitution, gay strip clubs…then murder, awol, on the run,
new identity, etc.
At first this reads like a kind of pulp-noir story, with
writing like:
“The night is stubborn, the stars like pins. Saylor squats
by the shore-end of the pier and watches the day’s second lover disappear
behind the stacks of crates and boxes that had hid them from the streetlight.”
By the end it reads more like a Burroughs or Kerouac Beat
adventure. Either way, I enjoyed it.
Notable Passage: “Dead eyes are as lusterless and scratched
marbles.”
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