The killer inside me

and readers can see hints of his family history throughout his work, most notably the disgrace of his lawman father. It’s tough to give a cursory overview of Thompson, given that he wrote in excess of thirty novels, to say nothing of his writing for film and television. With that in mind, here are a few highlights, most of which have, conveniently, been adapted to film (some more than once).some, toe-scuffing, aw, shucks veneer of Lou Ford (as brilliantly portrayed by Casey Affleck) and cranked it to eleven with Sheriff Nick Corey, who narrates  with an exaggerated Li’l Abner cornpone dialect that belies his recreational bloodletting. So pronounced is Nick Corey’s hillbilly persona that the only thing more frightening than his appetite for blood (and everything else; both his libido and table manners are formidable [the amount he eats throughout the novel verges on science fiction]) is how much he revels in ripping off his metaphorical mask when confronting a victim. I’m particularly fond of, because I think it has one of two particular passages (both Thompson’s) that sum up the noir genre so neatly, it could almost be a manifesto: “I’d been in that house a hundred times, that one and a hundred others like it. But this was the first time I’d seen what they really were. Not homes, not places for people to live in, not nothin’. Just pine-board walls locking in the emptiness. No pictures, no books—nothing to look at or think about. Just the emptiness that was soakin’ in on me here. “And then suddenly it wasn’t here, it was everywhere, every place like this one. And suddenly the emptiness was filled with sound and sight, with all the sad terrible things that the emptiness had brought people to… Because that’s the emptiness thinkin’ and you’re already dead inside, and all you’ll do is spread the stink and the terror, the weepin’ and wailin’, the torture, the starvation, the shame of your deadness. Your emptiness.” That's pure noir, right there. Buy it.
.....Baby Face is a 1933 American dramatic film directed by Alfred E. Green, and starring Barbara Stanwyck and George Brent. Based on a story by Darryl F. Zanuck (under the pseudonym Mark Canfield), this sexually charged, Pre-Code Hollywood film is about an attractive young woman who uses sex to advance her social and financial status. Marketed with the salacious tag line, "She had it and made it pay",the film's open discussion of sex made it one of the most notorious films of the Pre-Code Hollywood era and helped bring the era to a close. The New York Times quotes Mark A. Vieira, author of Sin in Soft Focus: Pre-Code Hollywood as saying, "'Baby Face' was certainly one of the top 10 films that caused the Production Code to be enforced." Plot Lily Powers works for her father in a speakeasy during Prohibition in Erie, Pennsylvania. Her life is miserable; since the age of 14, her father (Robert Barrat) has had her sleep with many of his customers. The only man she trusts, a cobbler who admires Friedrich Nietzsche, is upset with her lack of ambition and counsels her to try for greater things. When Lily's father is killed when his still explodes, she sheds no tears for him. She visits the cobbler, who tells her to make for the city and use her charms to her advantage. She and her African American co-worker/friend Chico (Theresa Harris) hop on a freight train out of town but are discovered by a railroad worker who threatens to have them thrown in jail. She says, "Wait ... can't we talk this over?" It is strongly implied that she has sex with him during a filmmaking fadeout to get him to change his mind. In New York City, Lily sees the soaring Gotham Trust tower and asks a security guard about jobs. He directs her to the personnel department, where an aide asks Lily, "Have you had any experience?", to which Lily replies, "Plenty!" She then entices him into his absent boss's office to demonstrate. She lands a job in the filing department. Her progress, sleeping her way to the top, is shown in a recurring visual metaphor of the movie camera panning ever upward along the edifice of the Gotham Trust's skyscraper, accompanied by the saxophone wail of "Saint Louis Blues". In the filing department she begins an affair with Jimmy McCoy Jr. (John Wayne), who recommends her for promotion to his boss, Brody (Douglass Dumbrille). She quickly seduces Brody and lands a job in the mortgage department. Brody and Lily are caught together in flagrante delicto by Ned Stevens (Donald Cook), a rising young executive. Brody is fired, but Lily saves her job by claiming Brody forced himself on her. Stevens believes her, and gives her a new position in his accounting department. Although Stevens is engaged to Ann Carter (Margaret Lindsay), the daughter of First Vice President J.R. Carter (Henry Kolker), Lily quickly seduces him. When Carter calls the office and tells the secretary she'll be visiting, Lily schemes to have Carter walk in on her locked in an embrace with Stevens. Carter runs crying to her father. J.R. attempts to rescue the marriage by having Stevens fire Lily, but he refuses and J.R. tries to do it himself. Lily pretends she had no idea about Carter and the engagement, and claims to be heartbroken as this is her first boyfriend. J.R. is distressed by this story, believing she is being thrown out on the street because of his to-be son-in-law's bad behaviour. J.R. takes pity on Lily, and promises to come up with a solution. He is soon seduced as well, and installs her in a lavish apartment, with Chico as a maid. Stevens can't let Lily go, and manages to track her down on Christmas Day, but she spurns him. He becomes depressed and begins to ignore his work. When J.R. asks him what is wrong, Stevens admits to still being in love with Lily. He arrives at the apartment to ask Lily to marry him, but when he finds J.R. there, he shoots the older man, then himself. Courtland Trenholm (George Brent), the playboy grandson of the company's founder, is elected bank president to deal with the resulting public scandal. Lily explains herself to the board of directors, saying she is a victim of circumstance who simply wants to get started at a new job away from the scandal. To fund her move, she agrees to sell her diary of her time at the bank to the press. The board almost agrees to give her $15,000 in return for withholding her diary. Trenholm, however, sees through her story; he seizes on her claim that she simply wants to restart her life and isn't really interested in selling her story, and instead offers her a position in her branch office in Paris. To maintain her appearance as a victim, she has little choice but to accept. When Courtland travels to Paris on business some time later, he is surprised and impressed to find her not only still working there, but promoted to head of the travel bureau. He soon falls under her spell and marries her. While on their honeymoon, Courtland receives an emergency call and has to rush back to New York. He returns to find bank has failed due to mismanagement, which the board pins on Courtland in spite of his having nothing to do with it. He is indicted, and returns to his penthouse apartment in the bank building where he tells Lily he has to raise a million dollars to finance his defense. He asks her to help by cashing in the bonds, stocks and other gifts he's lavished on her. But Lily can't bring herself to part with the money, and books passage to Paris. While waiting for the ship to leave she realizes she has fallen in love with him, and rushes back to the apartment. When she arrives she discovers that Courtland has shot himself. On the ride to the hospital, the attendant assures her that Courtland has a good chance of survival. Courtland opens his eyes, sees Lily, and smiles at her as the movie ends.