Thursday, July 8, 2010

Paperback 332: The Cruel Dawn / Alfred Viazzi (Popular Library 440)

Paperback 332: Popular Library 440 (1st ptg, 1952)

Title: The Cruel Dawn
Author: Alfred Viazzi
Cover artist: Uncredited

Yours for: $14


Best things about this cover:

  • "I said, I'm gonna wash that gray right out of your hair! Hold still!"
  • "Demon, I cast thee out!"
  • Gloria liked to end every dance with a vicious take-down.
  • Normally I find things like garter belts and cleavage quite hot, but between the dowdiness of that nightgown and the oddly porcelain quality of this woman's skin, this lady just isn't doing it for me. Also, maybe it's just me, but she seems a bit standoffish.


Best things about this back cover:

  • Her body is blonde? That's more info than you usually get in an opening description.
  • Oooh, a "lusty bordello." Not one of those Puritanical bordellos you see from time to time. Those are sooo annoying.
  • A decent, non-wanton actress would, of course, have taken the time to get properly dressed before shielding a man with her body. Pfft. Whore.

Page 123~

The last thing he remembered was the thud and pain of a boot kicking hard into the side of his head.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

5 comments:

DemetriosX said...

There's two things I see that make the woman on the cover somewhat off-putting. First is that here right breast should not be in that position. There's nothing holding it in place. Breasts move and that one should have slipped out of the nightgown. Obviously there's something artificial about them or her.

Second, her mouth. There's something about it that screams "savage vampire about to feed".

Deschanel said...

It's a book of proven merit, dammit!

The back cover is all talking about a hot blonde (body) playing a dangerous game with Italian men in Naples, yet the illustration looks like a raven-haired lady being ravished by an Irishman. You can see his whiskey glass!

Tulse said...

"Second, her mouth. There's something about it that screams "savage vampire about to feed"."

Yep, it looks a Fifties version of True Blook.

LindzL said...

What you all forget to mention is that his name is Fulvio. Fulvio!

al boraq said...

"The last thing he remembered was the thud and pain of a boot kicking hard into the side of his head."

...until he heard his yoga instructor screeching, "How many times've I got'o remind y'u - ALWAYS take your boots off FIRST!"