The Cocktail Waitress

Following her husband's death in a suspicious car accident, beautiful young widow Joan Medford is forced to take a job serving drinks in a cocktail lounge to make ends meet and to have a chance of regaining custody of her young son. At the job she encounters two men who take an interest in her, a handsome young schemer who makes her blood race and a wealthy but unwell older man who rewards her for her attentions with a $50,000 tip and an unconventional offer of marriage...

A one-time editor at The New Yorker and a lifelong journalist, James Mallahan Cain achieved worldwide overnight fame when he published his first novel, The Postman Always Rings Twice, in 1934.  The classics Double Indemnity and Mildred Pierce followed in 1936 and 1941, reinforcing Cain's reputation as the great chronicler of crimes of passion, typically set against a working-class backdrop during the Great Depression. His books have inspired a number of classic movies, including Billy Wilder's Academy Award-nominated adaptation of Double Indemnity, which was chosen by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 greatest movies of all time.