This character made her indelible mark in a novel from the 1950s and then again when she appeared in a movie adapted from the book.
We meet her in the novel on a sunny day in a green city park when she encounters a former schoolmate.
Our mystery character had been expelled from that school and her maliciousness is immediately evident.
Even her clothes are a clue to her nasty nature:
“She was wearing a tight-fitting emerald dress several ropes of rubies and an absolutely simple white mink cloak, which reached to the high heels of her ruby red shoes…”
In fact, our character revels in her gleeful malevolence, transgressing all standards of kindness and decency.
She is fabulously rich, ridiculously pampered and endlessly self-absorbed. And her family history includes some notoriously terrifying ancestors who were despised by their neighbors.
When this character first came to life on the screen, she had a signature hairstyle, long red gloves and the famed white cloak.
Early drawings of her show a woman who wears a witch-like expression. One reviewer said she enters the action “like a blow torch.”
Her appearance would evolve as the films evolved with veiled hats, high-heeled boots and bright red lipstick.
She is beautiful in an icy, frightening, villainous way.
Does this character sound familiar? And can you name the book in which she first appears
When you have the answer, email me at kmiller@mpr.org
— Kerri Miller | MPR News
