I recently visited an old bookstore with an accompanying antique shop that contained a trove of old novels, many from the 1940s. One such author I uncovered was the obscure Kathleen Norris—the specific book’s title, I don’t remember, only the tagline: she chose love over security, coupled with a melodramatic 1940s picture of a man and woman seated together. Or maybe he was holding her in a rescue pose. The premise, I think, was that the woman decided to run away with a guy who might not have been the greatest, but as long as he’s handsome then all is good. This put me in mind of the 1954 camp classic Creature From the Black Lagoon, and most specifically the character of Kay Lawrence (played by Julia Adams) who, like most women characters of this time, finds herself in need of rescue but not before screaming. The connection, I suppose, is that neither the 1940s novel nor the 1954 camp sci-fi film is particularly complex in its storytelling, yet both manage to bring about hokey entertainment. […]