On this episode of Scene Missing, we head into shadowy postwar London for a stylish and strange detour in the career of Douglas Sirk. Before the lush Technicolor melodramas of the 1950s, Sirk took a crack at noir with the 1947 thriller Lured. A serial killer mystery wrapped in elegance, obsession, and just a touch of dark humor. Starring Lucille Ball in a rare dramatic role, the film follows a woman drawn into a dangerous undercover game as bait for a killer targeting lonely hearts. Along the way, she crosses paths with a gallery of suspects played by the likes of George Sanders and Boris Karloff, each bringing their own eerie flavor to the mystery.

Joining me for the conversation is Washington D.C. comedian Lady Vee, and we dig into what makes Lured such an odd and fascinating hybrid. Is this a straight noir, or something more playful and subversive? How does Sirk’s later thematic obsession with performance and identity show up here? And where does this sit in the evolution of Lucille Ball before I Love Lucy changed everything?