Alfred Hayes's slender grasp on posterity rests on having penned a song recorded by Joan Baez in the 1960s, alongside a single screenwriting credit in Halliwell's film guide which gives his name as Arthur. But the English journalist also produced this minor, noirish masterpiece which combines a plot that prefigures Indecent Proposal with the desolate milieu of an Edward Hopper painting. An unnamed young woman lives in a single-room apartment in New York, licking the wounds of an unsuccessful marriage and failed dancing career. Her life is transformed by a faceless millionaire's offer to pay up to $1,000 for a single night's assignation.

Log in to favorite or list