WHAT WAS THE PURPOSE OF A “VAMP” WHEN SHE ASKED AN UNKNOWN MAN TO GIVE HER A LIGHT?

A wicked purpose. In the 1930s and 1940s, when a man was walking down the street and suddenly came across a seductive woman with an unlit cigarette on her lips, he knew he was already a goner: he had just fallen into the evil networks of a “vamp”. “Will you give me fire?” she would say seductively. Movies had warned the man about it, but vamps’ fatal attraction was utterly beyond him. Women like Louise Brooks, Marlene Dietrich, Ida Lupino, Barbara Stanwyck, Rita Hayworth were too seductive not to give them a light. The man was defenseless before them, he could do nothing but take out the Zippo lighter. Although the vamp pretended that the fire was to light a cigarette, he knew it was only a pretext. Actually, she wanted fire for a shadier and unspeakable purpose, like setting fire to his house, or making poached eggs that she will later rub in his face till leaving him blind, or swallowing the fire like a fakir and then spitting it in his face. He knew that one way or another he would end up singed, but what could he do? He was just a helpless man in front of a maneater in stilettos asking for fire. He was too idiotic to do anything.