Even in work-wear Miss Lake's sexiness is very evident but its the latter hairstyle which made her famous.
In the film The Major and The Minor (1942) there is an hilarious scene when the boys from an academy attend a dance with a local girls school. One boy comes out and warns the other boys that the girls are all Veronica Lake lookalikes. As they enter the dance hall the walls are lined with said girls all with their long hair over the right side of their faces all attempting sexy sultry stares!
During the 1970's Kim Basinger co-starred in a show called Dog and Cat (1977), Miss Basinger was the cat (female police officer) in her first leading role, unfortunately it was cancelled after only 6 episodes. Years later she played Lynn Bracken in L A Confidential (1997). Miss Basinger's character is a prostitute who's hair has been dyed blond to make her resemble Veronica Lake for her starstruck clients. She won an Oscar for the part.
As you would expect I love the clothes in the film, especially the outfit worn by Miss Bracken when attending the police station. The trench coat, two tone brogue shoes and beret look is a favourite of mine.
I don't know if the writers or producers of L A Confidential had ever seen a film called Crime Wave (1954. A.K.A The City is Dark) but to me the similarity of these two films is striking. Both are set in Los Angeles and have plots which centre around the killing of a police officer; nothing unusual there but the feel of them is like a black & white and a colour vision of the same film with different character names.
The poster for L A Confidential always makes me smile, maybe they didn't think the film would appeal to women so the majority of advertising space is Kim Basinger's breasts!
