Peter Cheyney

I've seen a lot of women in my life.All sorts and conditions of women in all sorts of places.But I'd never seen any one like this one. There was some odd, indefinable quality about her, something , that got you like a punch between the eyes, and it wasn't only that she was absolutely lovely, that everything about her matched her loveliness. There was something else. An essentially womanly, very defenite, Allure that was all the stronger because she was quite unconscious of it.

Women could be the devil, he thought.They deflected you.You were going to do something or go somewhere and some woman turned up and so you didn't do what you were going to do or where you intended to go. They were soft and attractive and alluring. They were perfumed, charming and seductive. They were hell!

A suggestion of her perfume came to his nostrils!

She was a mixture of decency, violent desires, utter recklesness and a certain ability to take life as it came without making a song and dance about it.

Any man who's fond of a woman and realises that she's engaged to somebody else always thinks she's making a fool of herself.

Beginning

Mr. M.V.Krishnaswamy, observing my keen interest in movies, asked me to document how and when i got interested in films. A good friend of mine thinks that i am prejudiced for i have such a low opinion on current day indian films, with the exception of some bengali and malayalam films.

I think once you enter the dark cinema hall, it matters little where the movie was made.If the movie has any merit it transports you to a different world.

Perhaps the first movie i saw was an american movie called "OneMillionBC", http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=36385 starring Victor Mature.Saw this at Mysore Olympia Talkies, do not remember the year, maybe 1948 or 1949.just last week walked in front of olympia talkies and they were showing the kannada movie "Mr. Bhakra".And that says a lot in itself.I better leave it at that because this is not about the state of indian films.

My mother took me to see "Quo Vadis" at Gayathri Talkies in Mysore.Other films that i saw during that period were "Raja Vikrama", "Jagan Mohini" both at RajKamal Talkies in Mysore.I think i went with my mother.During those days there was a separate section for ladies in the theater.One Mr.Kempa Raj produced "Raja Vikrama" and later he also made a movie called "Jala Durga" based on "Count of Montecristo" by Alexander Dumas.I could not see "Jala Durga".

Those days going to movies was really a big problem.It was considered a big waste of time and money.

The one movie that really impressed me was Raj Kapoor's "Sri 420".Went with my maternal uncle one Mr. Rama Ballal to the night show at Olympia Talkies.And that was my first night show.Year was 1953 or 1954.Perhaps that was when i got hooked.

Next prominent movie that made a very strong impression was Fred Zinneman's From Here To Eternity.Those days i was in the habit of collecting Heralds of American and British Movies.Would go to both Gayathri and Ganesha talkies and ask them for the heralds.Had a very big collection.The names became very familiar.I had this herald of Hitchcock's "Notorious", I only saw the movie later after i migrated to America.That was just one example.Now my collection is lost,woud give a thousand dollars if i could get hold of them heralds.

TO BE CONTINUED