Title: The Fabulous Clipjoint
Author: Fredric Brown
Cover artist: Ed Grant
Yours for: $27
Best things about this cover:
- Her dress
- Her attitude ("What the hell do you want?") - she doesn't look that surprised or threatened, one arm akimbo, the other delicately cradling a lit cigarette. This guy should be menacing, but the whole scenario just makes him seem impotent. The chain stretches across her waist like a metaphorical chastity belt - none for you, young man.
- Good example of cover art convention: keep man in the shadows, nondescript and gray / make the woman pop. Even though the man dominates the frame, all eyes are on the woman (peek through the locked door almost as good as a peek through a keyhole, which was a common paperback cover convention, actually - we'll see several peephole covers in the coming months)
- Guy looks like the "gunsel" from the movie "The Maltese Falcon"
RP
3 comments:
You're right, Rex! The 'gunsel' was Elisha Cook Jr., he of the quivering lips and the pleading, watery eyes.
He does look like him, but this cover boy is a lot better-looking.
I like the door chain that allows the door to open enough for someone to squeeze through. Isn't it supposed to keep people out?
He should look like a gunsel. At one point in the book, the protagonist, an innocent young man, pretents to be a gunsel in order to frighten a potential witness.
David
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