BEg2 ch26 refs

[Michael Bailey]

Maxine and Randy the wine purloiner sit down at

“a settee beneath a mural-size screen grab from the opening of The Letter
(1940) in which Bette Davis is pretending to pump six rounds into an
uncredited though perhaps not altogether unthanked “David Newell.”

         Thematic for the shooting range - very.

The Letter (1940) - based on a Somerset Maugham short story about the wife,
played by Bette Davis, of a rubber plantation manager who shoots her lover;
the action revolves around her lawyer using husband’s funds to buy back an
incriminating letter so that her self-defense plea will succeed.

The expense puts a crimp in the husband’s plans to buy himself a
plantation; the widow of the murder victim kills the Bette Davis character
but gets immediately caught.

Colonialism, class (husband attempting to progress from manager to owner),
infidelity, revenge.


David Newell (1905-1980) - character actor who after the late 1940s
transitioned to makeup artist due to his own looks were ruined by a car
accident. Being killed off immediately - the ultimate bit part.


Randy dishes:

“I guess you heard about ol’ Westchester Willy [Vip Epperdew from the
videotape] by now?”


         “On the run’s the last I heard.”

         “He’s out in Utah.”

         “What?”

         “The three of em, I got some snail mail yesterday, they’re getting
married. To each  other.”

             “They didn’t just skip, they eloped?”

         “Here, check this out.” An engraved card featuring flowers,
wedding bells, cupids, some kind of not-all-that-easy-to-make-out hippie
typeface.

  So, seemingly a happy ending for those parties anyway.