Gene gasped and quickly put down the script. "Goodness!" she said to no one in particular. "She is really Madame Owatabi Chai Yum's daughter! I would never have guessed..." Monolithic's script department had just sent Gene her copy of its latest film endeavor, Shanghai Lowdown. The film would mark a big departure for Gene--playing a seemingly innocent girl in the power of the mysterious Madame Owatabi Chai Yum...but in truth, she is Madame's lovechild, eagerly doing her mother's bidding and luring unsuspecting men into a web of depravity and ruin. Of course, as all evildoers do in the movies, she comes to an untimely end--and her final scene was a doozy! Quite a stretch for a little girl from Cos Cob--but a challenge that Gene jumped to meet. Standing in front of her dressing room table mirror, Gene held up the studio artist's brilliant drawing showing two half portraits--one of Gene and one of costar Madra Lord--merged together to show the complex nature of the characters' relationship. She tried to mimic the picture's sultry stare. Then she looked at the costume renderings the studio had sent along with the script. The red suit had caught her eye earlier; now she held it up in front of her and squinted her eyes, imagining herself dressed to seduce... Just then the phone rang and Gene picked it up. "Gene Marshall...oh, hello, Madra! I was just reading the script--you, too? Isn't it wonderful. But you playing my mother! I mean cousins perhaps, but..."

• SKU: 92190 Released: 2003 Edition: 2003 Circa: 1942 Designer: Company: Ashton Drake

SKU: 92190 Released: 2003 Edition: 2003 Circa: 1942 Designer: Company: Ashton DrakeAshton Drake