In the novel, Geiger's bookstore does in fact deal in Rare Books, but only
as a front for the pornography being dealt out of the back room.  The
novel explains this and the film, obviously, doesn't.  The fact that the
film DOES show that the Rare Book angle is a fake (by showing that the
woman at the counter knows nothing about rare books -- a scene lifted
straight from the novel) and shows people mysteriously and shame-facedly
leaving an unseen back room, but doesn't/can't explain these things -- is
what helps make the film so deliciously incoherent.  Thank the Production
Code for that, as well as for the wonderful anecdote about Hawks,
Brackett, and Faulkner trying to find out who killed the chauffeur.  But
that, as they say, is another story.
 
JRG
 
______________________________________________________________________________
John R. Groch <[log in to unmask]>            |  "Work!  FINISH!  THEN sleep."
English Department/Film Studies Program    |     -- The Monster,
Univ. of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260  |        "Bride of Frankenstein"
______________________________________________________________________________
 
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