The jaunty promise of spicy glamour in the caption is seriously undercut by the facial expressions on display on this postcard from south of the border in Tijuana. These demi-mondaines confront the camera with disconcerting neutrality and distance. A solitary ghost of a smile hardly lifts the mood of sullen menace. The barman’s reptilian stare does nothing to dispel the feeling that we have entered a David Lynch universe. Some industrious retouching has taken place with the usual dubious results – most of the redrawn faces resemble inept female impersonators. For Tijuana this was the era of Agua Caliente, a place to escape Prohibition and over-indulge in alcohol and gambling, when the city was a playground for the Hollywood elite.
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