NO BED OF HER OWN was already the 28-year-old Russian émigré writer's sixth attempt at literary recognition, and sixth new publisher, on its release in 1932. His first effort – a book of poetry, intriguingly titled Panther Skin and Grapes – had bombed when he was only 19, so its hardnosed, pot boiling subject matter reflected his defiance as much his heroine’s.

It is the height of the Depression and Rose Mahoney has been sacked from her job at the typing pool. But, Rose is not the type of dame to succumb to victim hood. No, sir! If anything, she overcompensates; first by kicking out her seemingly decent boyfriend whom she anticipates will consign her to such; then by deciding she can easy live on the remaining twenty dollars that accrued in their bank account, simply by having a good time.

This fatalistic approach comes unstuck when the money soon runs out and she resigns herself to bumming around New York. First, for a tentative search for agency work. Then, to look up girlfriends who might let her stay a night. While Rose can sometimes appear her own worst enemy, she is no Lulu. Offers from monied ‘gentlemen’ come and go, but Rose will have no truck. She’d sooner be poor than cheap. When she does have sex, it is simply on a whim, not because she must.

Lewton’s own view of Rose feels ambiguous. Initially, we think he’s drawing a young woman so self-serving as to be deserving of the ultimate fall. Yet, subsequently, she’s as often right in her impulsiveness as she is wrong. Where she might turn her back on an opportunity for work, she faces off those who might lead her astray. She was a good time girl on a meagre wage, and this had grounded her enough to know how – if not always when – to draw the line.

Apparently, NO BED OF HER OWN caused quite a stir in ‘32, above the usual hype saved for the typically sensationalist pulp novel underground. Its resonance reached out - for the first time for Lewton via imprint - to eleven other countries and an abandoned movie vehicle for Miriam Hopkins that would have changed Bed to the safer Man, and ditched its controversial plot. (A great pity as Jean Harlow would have been the true model of the deprecating bottle blonde Rose).

Today, the tale’s depiction of unapologetic casual sex and Rose’s equally casual indifference to her plight feels dated and tame. What remains is Lewton’s apparent wish to leave judgements of right and wrong to the reader and his or her intelligence. Then, it was this very ambivalence that would become a trademark of Lewton’s. Three years later, he joined RKO Studios as a scenarist, rising to write and produce such great, ambiguous horrors as 'Cat People,' 'I Walked With A Zombie' and 'Isle of the Dead.'