The Detective Tales cover for December

Before this blog starts being covered with pictures of Christmas, I thought I would upload the monthly Detective Tales cover. This one is from December 1943. It reminds me of the one I uploaded back in May. You can see the similarities: a badguy with a gun and a damsel in distress (in distress yet capable) with a mirror which is also used as a tool. In this case, it is to warn the waiter and ask him for help. The surrounding is obviously a restaurant and you can see from the context that she is secretly held by the villain. He his quite an interesting character, as he has characteristics of both the overtly elegant one we see so often and the thug. He is smartly dressed in a grey suit, wearing monocle, but his massive frame and face look brutish, with the crew cut, the squared head and the strong nose. He reminds me of Gert Fröbe playing Auric Goldfinger. He looks quite Germanic I think, which is even more obvious as he is holding what appears to be a Luger. Since this was published during World War II, I suspect it was very intentional.