Title: The Lineup
Author: Frank Kane
Cover artist: Victor Kalin
Condition: 6.5/10
Estimated value: $10-12
- So gorgeous. Victor Kalin with that insane take on the police interrogation lamp, but instead of the perp being all sweaty and nervous, this lady's like "What the fuck do you bozos want?" It's not a harsh light of intimidation, but a warm, caramel light revealing the real power in the room. "Keys? ... What keys?"
- That dress! That posture! Sorry, bullet point 2 is just gonna be an extension of bullet point 1. She is all style and attitude. Those dough-faced dudes are inconsequential and marginal and now they know it. I love her.
- Whenever anyone tells you that smoking can be sexy, this is what they're talking about. It allows people to reveal themselves gesturally. Her hands are mesmerizing. Also: lips, nails, dress—all on point. The Drab Twins don't know what to do.
- Mid-century S.F. = So Hot. This is the S.F. of "Vertigo." Do the cable cars still run? They were iconic in my youth (I was born in S.F.).
- Wait, what? MY name is Ben Guthrie!!!!? Second person!? Hoo, boy, sign me up. And thanks for not making me "Matt Greb," as Greb is a name you'd make up in a panicked haste if you were really bad at making up names
- Today, November 5th, Guy Fawkes Day...
- "... you put your cop phone to your cop ear, sit on your cop ass, and say with your cop mouth, 'What?'"
- What, a novelization of a TV show!? O please O please (checks youtube...) Oh, cool. Looks like its name got changed to "San Francisco Beat," but here ya go!!!
Page 123~
"I"d say you were all trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey, Doc," Greb added. "Must feel a little foolish taking the fall alone.""Metaphor? check! Cop patter? check! Man, I am killing it at my job today!"—Greb, in his head, probably.
~RP
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]
3 comments:
I was thinking the guy in the back looked like Gene Hackman, but given the TV show connection I think he's Tom Tully (Greb). That makes the guy in front Warner Anderson (Guthrie). It looks like the show was to SF what Dragnet was to LA, with stories based on real cases. Seems to have been a big hit and even had a movie made starring Eli Wallach.
Also, Sharon Stone should have studied this cover intensively before filming that scene in Basic Instinct.
The ultimate in 60s SF cool.
Now I need to go to James Lileks to try to track down the background music. That is the soundtrack of my TV-watching youth.
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