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| Parisian Passions is one of Eddie's earlier novels, but it has all the earmarks of his work. |
"But do not trust to luck, at the full of the moon, when the night is dark. Make a wide path around the unholy grounds of the Night People. Who can say that we do not exist? Can you?"-Criswell, Orgy of the Dead (1965)
Recently, while writing about the numerous recurring characters in Ed Wood's work, I realized I had given short shrift to Sheriff Buck Rhodes. This rugged Texas lawman played a starring role in two of Eddie's novels from the 1960s: Parisian Passions (1966) and Devil Girls (1967). While I already reviewed Devil Girls and its 1999 film adaptation in one of the earliest articles in this series, I hadn't even approached Parisian Passions in the subsequent decade. So let's do that now, huh? Better late than never.
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| Big in '66: the Pigalle Stranger and Robin. |
Published by Greenleaf Classics as part of its Sundown Reader series in 1966 and credited to the nonexistent "J.X. Williams," Parisian Passions is one of Ed Wood's earliest known novels. It is clear, though, that Eddie had already found his very idiosyncratic voice as a writer by this point in his career. There's a phrase I've come to use to describe certain of Ed's books and films: "Wood at his Woodiest." That means he allows his quirks and obsessions to run rampant, no matter what his editors or his readers may want. Well, Parisian Passions is a book like that. In Nightmare of Ecstasy (1992), Rudolph Grey describes it as "alternately absurd, comic and poetic." And it is all those things, though some, uh, other adjectives also sprang to mind.
A mysterious, costumed Jack the Ripper-type madman has been stalking and killing the drug-addicted strippers and prostitutes who frequent the Pigalle, the notorious red light district of Paris. I pictured the killer as looking like the Phantom of the Opera, but the cover painting by Darrel Millsap makes him look more like Robin the Boy Wonder. Either way, Inspector Henri Goulet of the Sûreté (the local police force) is utterly baffled by this case. Fortunately, his department is participating in an exchange program with the United States: they send one of their men to America, and America sends a genuine Texas sheriff to Paris. This gives Goulet an idea.
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| A latter-day reprint of the novel. |
When Sheriff Rhodes finally arrives, Goulet arranges to have him "arrested" in a train station so as not to arouse suspicion from the criminal element of the city. Once Buck is in custody, Goulet unveils his plan to catch the so-called "Pigalle strangler." Buck will pretend to be a visiting Texas millionaire looking for a good time, and he will infiltrate the Parisian underground and root out the killer. Buck has never been anywhere near Paris and knows nothing of the city, but he soon finds a guide named Pierre who is willing to take him to the lowest, scummiest sex clubs or "cellars" in the city.
As Buck becomes familiar with these vile establishments, he sees the same few people again and again at different venues. One such habitué is Jacques, the local pusher who supplied heroin to several of the victims and also had sexual relationships with them. Another is Noreen "Norm" Clampett, a butch lesbian from England who identifies as male. They both seem to be likely suspects. But maybe Pierre or even Goulet is secretly the killer. Or is the true culprit someone else entirely?
After a few more murders, Buck decides to spring a trap for the strangler. He and the French police set up a decoy sex club of their own and recruit Lorry/Lorraine, a female impersonator from America, to perform there. When the killer inevitably attacks, they'll nab him. Surprisingly, this works. In the end, Buck, Goulet, and Lorry celebrate their success in a most unexpected way.
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| The real-life Pigalle red light district in Paris. |
That's a broad outline of what happens in Parisian Passions, but what did I mean when I said that this novel gives us "Wood at his woodiest"? First of all, even though this is an erotic paperback written for the "dirty old man" demographic, Ed still felt the need to explore every twisting path of his own byzantine sexuality in this one story. In other words, Eddie's true audience was always himself. That's why, in addition to a smattering of heterosexuality, we get plenty of homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, and crossdressing.
Naturally, there are numerous references to angora, but Eddie also mentions marabou, silk, and satin. You can bet that the outfits worn by the female characters are described in loving detail, especially sweaters and negligees. And the book's longest extended sex scene occurs between two heterosexual men and an ex-Marine female impersonator with surgically-enhanced breasts. You really can't get more "Ed Wood" than that. But even that barely begins to cover it. When I review Eddie's short stories, I generally compile a list of the "Wood trademarks" I find in each one. Were I to compile such a list for Parisian Passions, it might include:
- phrases "one is considered mad," "it would seem," "a hole in the head," "night people," "more than fact," "evening's pleasure," "animal instinct," and "the world over"
- clumsy two-word neologisms like "manure tour"
- the newspapers having a "field day" with a sensational story
- lots of cemetery and funeral scenes
- man-hating mother who raises her son to act and look like a girl
- numerous references to snakes
- characters studying themselves in the mirror
- female sex workers aging poorly in the harsh, competitive profession
- the economic and social hierarchy of sex workers, ranging from classy to trashy
- entire story framed as a police procedural, a la Dragnet, complete with quasi-fascist cops who treat arrestees and suspects with contempt
- narrative frequently interrupted by random flashbacks to the characters' pasts, including a gratuitous flashback to World War II
- dramatic moments punctuated by thunder and lightning
- contrast of "butch" and "femme" lesbians
- characters getting hopelessly addicted to heroin
- plenty of booze, especially cognac and gin
- character stealing clothes from clothesline
- woman stalked and killed in alleyway
- random diatribe about "automation" and the potential threat it represents
You'll find all of this and more (much, much more!) in the pages of Parisian Passions. All we are lacking here are any supernatural elements and references to circuses and carnivals. I guess even in an overstuffed "Dagwood sandwich" like this novel, you can't have everything. Actually, as far as Ed Wood books are concerned, Parisian Passions is relatively coherent and focused. Despite its many, many digressions and flashbacks, it follows a single criminal case to its conclusion. Perhaps this is why Eddie earmarked this one for a possible film adaptation. (I'll cover the Rue Pigalle film script in a future installment of this series.)
And what of Sheriff Buck Rhodes, the ostensible hero of this sordid saga? For most of it, he's basically a passive spectator who accomplishes very little. Most readers will guess the identity of the killer fairly early on, so they'll wonder why Buck doesn't take action a lot sooner and save some lives in the process. Maybe he has to catch the fiend red-handed, so to speak. On the other hand, Buck barely pretends to be a millionaire playboy looking for some naughty fun while in a foreign land. Pierre dutifully takes the visiting American to various dens of iniquity around Paris, including a place where children and animals perform unspeakable acts onstage, but our noble sheriff-in-disguise generally walks out in disgust without partaking. He won't even go to bed with the topless waitresses at the clubs! So why does anyone believe his flimsy cover story?
By far, the most extraordinary character in Parisian Passions is neither the cop nor the killer but rather the female impersonator, Lorry/Lorraine. Ed Wood gives us a staggering amount of backstory about what would normally be a supporting character. We learn, for instance, that Lorry and Buck met years ago in Texas when Lorry was falsely accused of murdering a young girl. Yes, he was caught wearing the dead girl's soiled underwear, but that was only because he had a panty fetish. He didn't kill her! Buck believed Lorry and somehow helped him beat the murder rap. The two became unlikely friends, and a grateful Lorry was only too happy to fly to Paris (at the police department's expense) and participate in Buck's dangerous plan to catch the Pigalle killer.
Ed Wood includes lengthy flashbacks to Lorry's past throughout the novel. We learn about the character's upbringing, time in the Marines, early sexual experiences, etc. So persistent are these flashbacks that they continue even after the main plot of the novel has been resolved! The author seems much more interested in exploring the psychology of Lorry/Lorraine than he does in describing the novel's actual protagonist, i.e. Sheriff Buck Rhodes. Perhaps he chose the wrong one to be a recurring character in his work!
P.S. This may be a pure coincidence, but in Nightmare of Ecstasy, artist and writer Don Fellman alleges that Ed Wood wrote a spec script for The Beverly Hillbillies (1962-1971) that was "rejected at the last minute." I can't confirm that, but there are (separate) characters named Jed and Clampett in Parisian Passions.