Justine Moritz

"Do you think this dress is too 'old'?" "No, you're just too young"--Peyton Place

Last night I screened the DVD of Mark Robson's Peyton Place for the History Meetup. (I was going to show it last year the same month as we were discussing the 1950s, but the place was unavailable.) Too bad that the disc went haywire just ten minutes or so from the end--oh well, you can find the whole thing on Youtube! 

It's the second time I saw it, and I must say it has some fine supporting actors like Arthur Kennedy (as the drunk who rapes his stepdaughter) and Lloyd Nolan (as the wise doctor--you can tell he's wise just from his line delivery!).

That movie climaxes with Kennedy's stepdaughter on trial for killing him, of course. And coincidentally, this week I read two Classics Illustrated comics with girls hanged for a murder they didn't commit.  

One of these was (spoiler!) Esmeralda the Gypsy in Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame; the other was servant girl Justine Moritz in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. (Oops, Phoebus actually survives the stabbing of which Esmeralda gets convicted!) I'll leave off Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde because I've decided to do it in my book club for Halloween.

Today I was googling Justine Moritz. (When did I develop these lurid tabloid tastes?) I found an illustration of her fate that I thought of posting at the top, but decided it would be in bad taste.

Oh, what the heck--here it is!

I tried to scan a similar image in the comic, but for some reason I can't save the scan!