From Flower Vase to Film Emperor in Hollywood

Every endeavor successful! Every advance irresistible!

Little Frank's 'criminal life' finally kicked off in full swing. He slowly began to learn how to use his handsomeness and charm to achieve his goals through shortcuts.

He could not only easily captivate beautiful flight attendants but also have pretty bank tellers educate him on the professional knowledge of checks.

Finally, Little Frank purchased a bank check-specific typewriter through a bankruptcy auction. From the ink to the font, he fully entered the professional field, which allowed Little Frank to forge checks more freely and boldly, forging salary and personal checks at will according to his needs.

The principle wasn't complicated; the key was that no one had ever used it before.

In the lower-left corner of the check, there was a set of data, the routing code, specifically used to identify the geographical location of the bank issuing the check.

The coding started with Boston on the East Coast, running north to south along the entire coastline, numbered 01 to 06 respectively; then moving westward.

If a check's routing code was 02, then the check would be sent to the bank's New York branch for cashing; but if the routing code was changed to 12, then the check would be sent to the bank's San Francisco branch for cashing.

In the 1960s, when transportation and communication were not well-developed, it often took two weeks or even longer for a check to be sent from the East Coast back to the West Coast for cashing.

This meant that when Little Frank cashed a check with a routing code of 12 in New York, the bank wouldn't know about the forged check for the next two weeks; he had ample time to change cities, change banks, and continue to cash bad checks under different identities.

This allowed Little Frank to truly become a 'pilot'—

Traveling to different cities, staying in different hotels, entering and exiting different high-end venues, surrounded by beautiful women, spending lavishly, carefree and unrestrained, like a winner in life.

Precisely because of this, Little Frank finally mustered the courage to face his family, and he warmly invited Old Frank to meet at a high-end restaurant in New York.

However, the father in his memory, who was once towering, all-knowing, and all-powerful, suddenly became timid, small, and… old.

He didn't know the correct way to use the restaurant's knives and forks; when Little Frank gave his father the keys to a brand-new Cadillac as a gift, his father was worried about the consequences of the tax bureau finding out and pushed the car keys back; he didn't even have the confidence to win his mother back.

Little Frank was somewhat flustered.

He tried to comfort his father but couldn't offer anything besides money.

In the end, it was his father who comforted him instead.

What Little Frank didn't know was that, just as his father had entered the tax bureau's sights and become a thorn in their side, so much so that they didn't dare to act rashly, he had also attracted the FBI's attention.

Even worse, his unusual behavior in Hollywood had aroused the FBI's attention, and they dispatched three agents to investigate the hotel. He was about to expose himself—

In the screening room, people couldn't help but lighten their breathing.

The reason was that among the three agents who went to Hollywood, there was Carl Hanratty, who would eventually successfully arrest Little Frank.

So, was Little Frank going to be caught so easily?

But the movie had only been playing for less than an hour. If Little Frank was arrested so easily, what would they talk about later? How about a court trial?

A little curiosity, a little tension, a little anticipation made the entire audience stare intently at the big screen.

Then, they weren't disappointed.

Not only that, but there was also a surprise. The entire audience witnessed a magic trick—

Just like a person appearing out of thin air, Little Frank was cornered in a room by Carl, even with a gun pointed at him; Little Frank, however, relied on his wit, calmness, and courage to calmly mislead Carl, control the situation with ease, and fabricate a reasonable law enforcement identity.

“…Barry Allen, U.S. Secret Service.”

Pfft.

Melvin couldn't hold back and almost burst out laughing: Barry Allen, the Flash.

Perhaps, in the distant year of 1964, the Flash comic wasn't that famous; but in 2002, superhero comics already had more and more readers.

Moreover, the Flash was a DC character, while Anson's Spider-Man was a Marvel character.

The intertextuality between the play and reality formed a wonderful contrast.

Melvin wasn't the only one. There was a rustling sound in the screening room, and muffled, light laughter spread through the air.

In the end, Little Frank walked away unscathed.

In the first confrontation of 'Little Frank VS Carl,' the super conman Little Frank achieved a complete victory, making Carl look like a rookie.

The movie suddenly became interesting—

To be precise, the movie was already very interesting, but now it was even more interesting and enjoyable.

On one hand, the FBI superiors believed that Carl's description of the criminal suspect was too vague, and so far, no criminal record had been found. Continuing the investigation would undoubtedly be like searching for a needle in a haystack. Although they didn't stop Carl, they were obviously worried that Carl was humiliating himself.

This instead aroused Carl's arrogance.

On the other hand, Little Frank turned his attention to the retirement checks of pilots, trying to repeat his old trick by interviewing retired pilots to perfect his plan, but he unexpectedly learned that he had become the headline of major news outlets, and his criminal behavior had already attracted too much attention.

“…They call him the airborne James Bond.”

This gave Little Frank inspiration.

He realized that he could no longer continue to commit high-risk crimes. He needed to leave the aviation field for a while. He needed to forge a new identity.

Perhaps, James Bond?

When Little Frank was watching a 007 movie in the cinema to cram on secret agent knowledge, low laughter rippled through the screening room of the Chinese Theatre again.

So, was this some of Steven Spielberg's mischievous fun?

Compared to Little Frank's colorful and lively secret agent life, Carl's life seemed particularly miserable, a poor little office worker's life was pitiful, even on Christmas Eve he was still working in the office.

But Carl also didn't expect that Little Frank would actually call him.

“Little Frank VS Carl 2.0” came sooner than expected.