Sillof's Noir Wars
Sillof is an action figure customizer who often recreates Star Wars characters in various genres. He's done Samurai Wars, Western Wars, Medieval Wars and they have all been great.
His most recent line has been Noir Wars.
I love customizing--don't do it as often as I would like--and this guy is one of the reasons why I enjoy it. This line inspired me to write.
A story treatment for this Noir Wars line:
(Please note, it isn't completed--just wanted to get a head-start.)
Here’s what I came up with:
Dante Victor is a crooked cop paid handsomely by the mob to look the other way in terms of bootlegging, gambling, murder, and other nefarious crimes. He also serves as a special hit man for the crime boss (ala Palpatine). Using his special unit of “enforcers,” Victor makes sure rival gang members go down and the books are purged of his friends’ crimes.
The crime boss has a speak-easy establishment, which boasts the famous and gorgeous singer Lola O’Gannon. She overhears something she shouldn’t have or comes across information she shouldn’t know and seeks out disgruntled cop Benton Karnaby.
However, Victor learns from his mob boss that O’Gannon may know something and he goes after her. Unable to make contact with Karnaby, she passes along the information to two reporters from the SF Sentinel, Chip Pepperdino & Art Deter, and urges them to contact the detective.
While being pursued by the enforcers, Chip and Art run across rookie cop Lash Skylark, a young man who left the farming fields of Modesto, CA to make a difference in the big city like San Francisco. They tell him of the information O’Gannon has and fear that she may have already paid the ultimate price for trying to expose the mob boss’ plans (to rig the next mayoral election in his own personal favor, giving him the run of San Francisco). Lash Skylark has heard of Karnaby but says the word around the department is Karnaby is close to retirement and doesn’t want to be found. Skylark has also heard that one of Karnaby’s favorite watering holes is the Easley Bar, by the pier.
Skylark, Chip, and Art head to the bar and run into private eye Hank Solomon. Hank is investigating the same case; his old girlfriend Lola left a hurried message for him with his answering service to meet. She never arrived and when he and his muscle Chuck Brocco, arrived, there were signs of a struggle. O’Gannon also left behind a pearl earring, a pre-engagement Solomon had given her years before. He tells Skylark, Chip and Art that Lola’s message said she had given information to the two reporters in the hopes that they could pass it along to Karnaby.
When Skylark asks whether they can trust Hank, Hank shows him a photograph of him and Lola together. (Hank was a cop long ago. He and Lola had planned to marry but she suddenly broke their engagement for reasons she would not disclose. He began to drink and got booted off the police force. He got into a bar brawl with some guys and stopped one of them from shooting the quiet Brocco. Brocco and Hank became friends. Brocco even taught Hank Czech, his native tongue.) Hank tells Lash that he has an idea of where Karnaby is. He also thinks Karnaby may know where Victor is holding Lola. He doesn’t care about exposing crooked cops, mob bosses, or evil politicians—he just wants Lola.
The five head just south of town to Karnaby’s house. The detective listens to their tale and says that if Victor hasn’t already killed O’Gannon then he’s holding her in the underground nightclub exclusive for the mob. It’s a fortress, Karnaby warns. “You’re going to need all the guns you can get.”
Hank and Brocco pull out tommy guns. Lash isn’t really comfortable with his sidearm and prefers to rely on his baton. Karnaby warns Chip and Art to stay back. They can use his house to analyze the information Lola passed them. Chip goes over the documents (bribes, money-laundering schemes, plans to take over the city government) and Art looks over the photographs, which include images of government officials in compromising positions, etc.
Karnaby, Lash, Hank & Brocco go to the night club, bluff their way in, and manage to find Lola—who is performing on stage under heavy enforcer guard. They escape amidst a gun battle and make it out. Shots ring out and Karnaby takes it in the back. He tells Lash (who has become attached to the detective) to carry on and protect Lola at all costs. Karnaby dies.
Hank and Lola are tense with each other, mainly because of the stress of the situation and their long and checkered history. They argue over the best place to hide—they have to get Chip and Art away from Karnaby’s place before the enforcers get there. Lash makes a suggestion—his family farm in Modesto.
Hank tells him “it’s a long way from here, kid.” Lola agrees, though. “Perfect.” Lash is impressed that Lola thinks so.
They make the trek out to Lash’s family farm. It’s small, quaint. He introduces them to his aunt and uncle. Chip asks if they have a phone, he needs to contact his editor. Art tells Lola that what she found could not only bring down the mob boss but expose Victor and his enforcers as the crooked cops they are. Hank warns her, though, that she would be forced to testify and that makes her a target. Lola isn’t afraid. She blames Victor for the death of her parents. Hank asks if that’s why she left him. She tells him it isn’t.
Meanwhile, the mob boss tells Victor that he better deal with the lounge singer and the reporters quickly. He’s spent years on these plans and he doesn’t want them ruined. Victor decides to call in a favor with a Chicago contact, a hit man named Bruno Feretta. Bruno has special incentive. Hank Solomon put his father, Jimmy, behind bars years ago. Feretta wants revenge.
At the farm, Lola is getting restless. News arrives from San Francisco, painting Karnaby as a crooked cop who was behind Lola’s disappearance. Dante Victor is credited with exposing Karnaby for what he was and stopping a dangerous “loose cannon” on the police force.
Chip and Art work hard to sort through the materials Lola supplied them. They need to get back into the city, corroborate some of the evidence and contact the district attorney. Lola doesn’t know who to trust. She wants to talk to Hank but Hank returned to the city to do some digging—though he promised to send messages. He hasn’t sent any.
Unable to stand it any longer, Lola sneaks away and hitches a ride back to San Francisco. Desperate to find her, Lash, Chip and Art take Lash’s uncle’s car and make the trek back.
In the city, Lola runs into Feretta, who makes a play for her. To impress her, he tells her he is looking for an old army buddy of his, Hank Solomon. Asks if she knows him. Lola says she does; she tells him that Hank Solomon works for a cop named Dante Victor. She leaves; Feretta follows.
Lola goes to Chuck Brocco’s auto shop. Feretta follows but is stopped by Brocco, who beats him soundly. Lola asks Chuck to take her to Hank. He takes her to his basement apartment; Hank is hiding there. Hank tells Lola that Victor’s enforcers have staked out his place and it’s not safe to go there. She and Chuck tell Hank about Feretta. Hank has her describe him.
“Blond hair, thick glasses, Chicago accent,” she says.
“Green overcoat?” She tells him yes. He says that he knew Feretta’s father. When Lola asks him to explain, he gives her a pointed look and reminds her that everyone has secrets. He then asks about Lash and the reporters. Lola tells him that she had to return to the city—country life is definitely not for her. Where is Lash? Hank asks.
Still at the farm, Lola replies.
“You sure?” Hank asks. “Because my contact at The Sentinel says Art and Chip snuck into the newspaper offices and stole a typewriter and more photography equipment.”
“When?”
“This morning.”
“What about Lash?” Lola asks, suddenly concerned.
“Probably still with the reporters,” Hank says.
Lola asks Hank to find Lash and the reporters, though Hank notices that she mentions the reporters as an afterthought. He asks what is up between her and the rookie. She ignores him and reminds him that the information Chip and Art have puts them all in danger. Hank lets it go and speaks quickly to Chuck. He hands Chuck a slip of paper with an address on it and Chuck disappears.
Lola and Hank are alone for the first time. He offers her a drink but she is nervous, worried about Lash. He fills his glass with water, drinks it like gin. He stares, she notices and avoids. He asks her what’s going on between her and Lash. “Nothing.” “You’re worried about him.” “Shouldn’t I be?”
Hank shakes his head. She sees him glance at the bottle of bourbon he offered her. To distract him, she asks for a cigarette. He rolls one for her. She tells him a story: she is Lash’s older sister, but he doesn’t know it. When she was seven, her father left her mother, not knowing she was pregnant. The birth was hard on the mother, ultimately resulting in her death. Her father returned a changed man. Her mother’s sister hid the baby from him, fearing the man he had become. Learning his wife (and child presumably) died in childbirth, Lola’s father took her back to San Francisco and enrolled her in private school. When she came of age, she went to Europe, discovered her talent for singing and became Lola O’Gannon, which was her mother’s maiden name.
“What of your brother?” Hank asks.
Lola looks at him, her cigarette nothing but ash. “He is now working as a cop on the SFPD.”
“Lash?” Hank asks.
Lola nods. Hank is shocked but also relieved that the feelings Lola has for Lash aren’t romantic. Lola begins to cry. Hank asks if that was the secret that tore them apart. She confesses that it is part of it. The reason she left him is because she wanted to protect him from her father.
“Who’s your father?”
“Dante Victor.”
Unfazed, Hank pulls her into his arms. They kiss.
Meanwhile, Feretta goes to Victor, tells him of what happened. Victor asks him about the girl and he says that given the chance, he will pay her back for lying to him. This doesn’t sit too well with Victor. He tells Feretta he wants the girl alive. The reporters can die but leave the girl alone. Feretta leaves; the mob boss has heard Victor’s order to leave the girl unharmed.
“She knows too much.”
“She won’t speak against me.”
“She will be a threat to you.”
“I can convince her to keep her mouth shut.”
Brocco returns with the two reporters. Hank exits Brocco’s bedroom and asks him where Lash is. Brocco tells him that he told Art and Chip that he needed check in at the police department. Chip intercedes and says that Lash is sure no one knows he is tied up in all of this and that he will be safe.
Lola exits the bedroom, wearing Hank’s dress shirt and asks about Lash. Hank breaks the news to her. “We have to get him.” Hank agrees.
But Lash has other ideas. He has gone to his apartment only to find Victor’s enforcers waiting for him. Some of them recognized him from the shoot-out with Karnaby. They take him to Victor.
Victor questions Lash. He tells him that Lash has all the makings of being a great cop; but if he holds to the twisted idealisms of an old-timer like Karnaby, he’s doomed to fail. Sometimes, Victor tells him, small things have to be overlooked to go after the big score. Lash disagrees.
“The world don’t work that way, kid. There is no black and white, not anymore.” Victor says. “I was like you once. But then I got an education.” Victor gestures to the scar on his face. “This was a mark from my teacher. He took his pistol to my face when I caught him taking a bribe. This was my warning not to snitch.”
Victor has Lash taken and lets a couple of his enforcers beat the rookie.
to be continued
His most recent line has been Noir Wars.
I love customizing--don't do it as often as I would like--and this guy is one of the reasons why I enjoy it. This line inspired me to write.
A story treatment for this Noir Wars line:
(Please note, it isn't completed--just wanted to get a head-start.)
Here’s what I came up with:
Dante Victor is a crooked cop paid handsomely by the mob to look the other way in terms of bootlegging, gambling, murder, and other nefarious crimes. He also serves as a special hit man for the crime boss (ala Palpatine). Using his special unit of “enforcers,” Victor makes sure rival gang members go down and the books are purged of his friends’ crimes.
The crime boss has a speak-easy establishment, which boasts the famous and gorgeous singer Lola O’Gannon. She overhears something she shouldn’t have or comes across information she shouldn’t know and seeks out disgruntled cop Benton Karnaby.
However, Victor learns from his mob boss that O’Gannon may know something and he goes after her. Unable to make contact with Karnaby, she passes along the information to two reporters from the SF Sentinel, Chip Pepperdino & Art Deter, and urges them to contact the detective.
While being pursued by the enforcers, Chip and Art run across rookie cop Lash Skylark, a young man who left the farming fields of Modesto, CA to make a difference in the big city like San Francisco. They tell him of the information O’Gannon has and fear that she may have already paid the ultimate price for trying to expose the mob boss’ plans (to rig the next mayoral election in his own personal favor, giving him the run of San Francisco). Lash Skylark has heard of Karnaby but says the word around the department is Karnaby is close to retirement and doesn’t want to be found. Skylark has also heard that one of Karnaby’s favorite watering holes is the Easley Bar, by the pier.
Skylark, Chip, and Art head to the bar and run into private eye Hank Solomon. Hank is investigating the same case; his old girlfriend Lola left a hurried message for him with his answering service to meet. She never arrived and when he and his muscle Chuck Brocco, arrived, there were signs of a struggle. O’Gannon also left behind a pearl earring, a pre-engagement Solomon had given her years before. He tells Skylark, Chip and Art that Lola’s message said she had given information to the two reporters in the hopes that they could pass it along to Karnaby.
When Skylark asks whether they can trust Hank, Hank shows him a photograph of him and Lola together. (Hank was a cop long ago. He and Lola had planned to marry but she suddenly broke their engagement for reasons she would not disclose. He began to drink and got booted off the police force. He got into a bar brawl with some guys and stopped one of them from shooting the quiet Brocco. Brocco and Hank became friends. Brocco even taught Hank Czech, his native tongue.) Hank tells Lash that he has an idea of where Karnaby is. He also thinks Karnaby may know where Victor is holding Lola. He doesn’t care about exposing crooked cops, mob bosses, or evil politicians—he just wants Lola.
The five head just south of town to Karnaby’s house. The detective listens to their tale and says that if Victor hasn’t already killed O’Gannon then he’s holding her in the underground nightclub exclusive for the mob. It’s a fortress, Karnaby warns. “You’re going to need all the guns you can get.”
Hank and Brocco pull out tommy guns. Lash isn’t really comfortable with his sidearm and prefers to rely on his baton. Karnaby warns Chip and Art to stay back. They can use his house to analyze the information Lola passed them. Chip goes over the documents (bribes, money-laundering schemes, plans to take over the city government) and Art looks over the photographs, which include images of government officials in compromising positions, etc.
Karnaby, Lash, Hank & Brocco go to the night club, bluff their way in, and manage to find Lola—who is performing on stage under heavy enforcer guard. They escape amidst a gun battle and make it out. Shots ring out and Karnaby takes it in the back. He tells Lash (who has become attached to the detective) to carry on and protect Lola at all costs. Karnaby dies.
Hank and Lola are tense with each other, mainly because of the stress of the situation and their long and checkered history. They argue over the best place to hide—they have to get Chip and Art away from Karnaby’s place before the enforcers get there. Lash makes a suggestion—his family farm in Modesto.
Hank tells him “it’s a long way from here, kid.” Lola agrees, though. “Perfect.” Lash is impressed that Lola thinks so.
They make the trek out to Lash’s family farm. It’s small, quaint. He introduces them to his aunt and uncle. Chip asks if they have a phone, he needs to contact his editor. Art tells Lola that what she found could not only bring down the mob boss but expose Victor and his enforcers as the crooked cops they are. Hank warns her, though, that she would be forced to testify and that makes her a target. Lola isn’t afraid. She blames Victor for the death of her parents. Hank asks if that’s why she left him. She tells him it isn’t.
Meanwhile, the mob boss tells Victor that he better deal with the lounge singer and the reporters quickly. He’s spent years on these plans and he doesn’t want them ruined. Victor decides to call in a favor with a Chicago contact, a hit man named Bruno Feretta. Bruno has special incentive. Hank Solomon put his father, Jimmy, behind bars years ago. Feretta wants revenge.
At the farm, Lola is getting restless. News arrives from San Francisco, painting Karnaby as a crooked cop who was behind Lola’s disappearance. Dante Victor is credited with exposing Karnaby for what he was and stopping a dangerous “loose cannon” on the police force.
Chip and Art work hard to sort through the materials Lola supplied them. They need to get back into the city, corroborate some of the evidence and contact the district attorney. Lola doesn’t know who to trust. She wants to talk to Hank but Hank returned to the city to do some digging—though he promised to send messages. He hasn’t sent any.
Unable to stand it any longer, Lola sneaks away and hitches a ride back to San Francisco. Desperate to find her, Lash, Chip and Art take Lash’s uncle’s car and make the trek back.
In the city, Lola runs into Feretta, who makes a play for her. To impress her, he tells her he is looking for an old army buddy of his, Hank Solomon. Asks if she knows him. Lola says she does; she tells him that Hank Solomon works for a cop named Dante Victor. She leaves; Feretta follows.
Lola goes to Chuck Brocco’s auto shop. Feretta follows but is stopped by Brocco, who beats him soundly. Lola asks Chuck to take her to Hank. He takes her to his basement apartment; Hank is hiding there. Hank tells Lola that Victor’s enforcers have staked out his place and it’s not safe to go there. She and Chuck tell Hank about Feretta. Hank has her describe him.
“Blond hair, thick glasses, Chicago accent,” she says.
“Green overcoat?” She tells him yes. He says that he knew Feretta’s father. When Lola asks him to explain, he gives her a pointed look and reminds her that everyone has secrets. He then asks about Lash and the reporters. Lola tells him that she had to return to the city—country life is definitely not for her. Where is Lash? Hank asks.
Still at the farm, Lola replies.
“You sure?” Hank asks. “Because my contact at The Sentinel says Art and Chip snuck into the newspaper offices and stole a typewriter and more photography equipment.”
“When?”
“This morning.”
“What about Lash?” Lola asks, suddenly concerned.
“Probably still with the reporters,” Hank says.
Lola asks Hank to find Lash and the reporters, though Hank notices that she mentions the reporters as an afterthought. He asks what is up between her and the rookie. She ignores him and reminds him that the information Chip and Art have puts them all in danger. Hank lets it go and speaks quickly to Chuck. He hands Chuck a slip of paper with an address on it and Chuck disappears.
Lola and Hank are alone for the first time. He offers her a drink but she is nervous, worried about Lash. He fills his glass with water, drinks it like gin. He stares, she notices and avoids. He asks her what’s going on between her and Lash. “Nothing.” “You’re worried about him.” “Shouldn’t I be?”
Hank shakes his head. She sees him glance at the bottle of bourbon he offered her. To distract him, she asks for a cigarette. He rolls one for her. She tells him a story: she is Lash’s older sister, but he doesn’t know it. When she was seven, her father left her mother, not knowing she was pregnant. The birth was hard on the mother, ultimately resulting in her death. Her father returned a changed man. Her mother’s sister hid the baby from him, fearing the man he had become. Learning his wife (and child presumably) died in childbirth, Lola’s father took her back to San Francisco and enrolled her in private school. When she came of age, she went to Europe, discovered her talent for singing and became Lola O’Gannon, which was her mother’s maiden name.
“What of your brother?” Hank asks.
Lola looks at him, her cigarette nothing but ash. “He is now working as a cop on the SFPD.”
“Lash?” Hank asks.
Lola nods. Hank is shocked but also relieved that the feelings Lola has for Lash aren’t romantic. Lola begins to cry. Hank asks if that was the secret that tore them apart. She confesses that it is part of it. The reason she left him is because she wanted to protect him from her father.
“Who’s your father?”
“Dante Victor.”
Unfazed, Hank pulls her into his arms. They kiss.
Meanwhile, Feretta goes to Victor, tells him of what happened. Victor asks him about the girl and he says that given the chance, he will pay her back for lying to him. This doesn’t sit too well with Victor. He tells Feretta he wants the girl alive. The reporters can die but leave the girl alone. Feretta leaves; the mob boss has heard Victor’s order to leave the girl unharmed.
“She knows too much.”
“She won’t speak against me.”
“She will be a threat to you.”
“I can convince her to keep her mouth shut.”
Brocco returns with the two reporters. Hank exits Brocco’s bedroom and asks him where Lash is. Brocco tells him that he told Art and Chip that he needed check in at the police department. Chip intercedes and says that Lash is sure no one knows he is tied up in all of this and that he will be safe.
Lola exits the bedroom, wearing Hank’s dress shirt and asks about Lash. Hank breaks the news to her. “We have to get him.” Hank agrees.
But Lash has other ideas. He has gone to his apartment only to find Victor’s enforcers waiting for him. Some of them recognized him from the shoot-out with Karnaby. They take him to Victor.
Victor questions Lash. He tells him that Lash has all the makings of being a great cop; but if he holds to the twisted idealisms of an old-timer like Karnaby, he’s doomed to fail. Sometimes, Victor tells him, small things have to be overlooked to go after the big score. Lash disagrees.
“The world don’t work that way, kid. There is no black and white, not anymore.” Victor says. “I was like you once. But then I got an education.” Victor gestures to the scar on his face. “This was a mark from my teacher. He took his pistol to my face when I caught him taking a bribe. This was my warning not to snitch.”
Victor has Lash taken and lets a couple of his enforcers beat the rookie.
to be continued
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