While taking a walk in my neighborhood in Syracuse yesterday, my eyes turned to a white stucco house with three levels sitting on a block of East Genesee Street.

Stucco house on East Genesee Street. Photo by Francis DiClemente.

The architecture seemed out of place for upstate New York, so I transported the structure in my mind to a sun-baked, Southern California setting.

And in the LA film noir projected in my head, I imagined Lauren Bacall or Barbara Stanwyck appearing in the top floor window dressed in a negligee and smoking a cigarette.

Lauren Bacall

The femme fatale drew back the curtains, waved down to me and invited me in for a drink.

Barbara Stanwyck

I then wanted to push past the establishing shot, swing the camera inside the house and find out the rest of the story.