Lavender Lights

Almost every actor will tell you that it’s fun to play the villain. It’s a chance to let go – the chance to take a dare and see where it will take you; a chance to be something you definitely aren’t. In 1944’s Red Venus, Gene Marshall got her chance to play the bad girl – and seeing their movie sweetheart playing a role usually reserved for Madra Lord delighted fans, and it gave Gene the opportunity to show the world that she was one of the most versatile actresses around.

At the beginning of the picture, Gene is first seen as Morgan O’Day, a singer in a small nightclub. Stretched out on top of a piano, she sings of lost loves and melancholy moods amid spirals of cigarette smoke and lavender lights, fanning herself with a yellow feather fan. But in the back of the club, a loud voice interrupts her reverie.

Abruptly, she signals her piano man to stop. The crowd quiets as she slides form the piano and sidles her way across the club, stopping at the talker’s table. Sharp in his pinstripe suite, he ignores her repeated “Hey!” Finally, she picks up a glass of water and flings it in his face.

Sputtering, the talker rises from his seat. “Nobody treats Billy Rocco like that,” he shouts, brushing drips from the tip of his nose.

Hands on her hips, Morgan replies, “I ain’t nobody – I’m Morgan O’Day. And you better remember that for the rest of the night!”

And the movie audiences went wild!

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