Monday, June 09, 2014

The Outfit, by Richard Stark

(pb; 1963: third book in the Parker series)


From the back cover:

"When the Outfit tries to kill him, Parker declares war. Ripping off the syndicate is easy, but going one-on-one with Bronson, the Outfit's big boss, is the hard part. Hard for anyone but Parker, because the entire underworld understands that whatever Parker does -- he does for keep."


Review:

Outfit, which takes place three months after the events of The Man with the Getaway Face, is as word-lean, intense, entertaining and character-intrinsic as its preceding novels, achieving that last warm-familiar effect by featuring characters from them, namely: Handy McKay (from Getaway) and Bronson and Fairfax (from The Hunter).

Outfit's ending is a direct, promising lead-in to the next Parker novel, The Mourner.

This series is worth owning thus far.

#

The resulting film was released stateside in October 1973.  John Flynn, who directed the film, also wrote the screenplay for it.

Robert Duvall played Earl Macklin (cinematic stand-in for Parker).  Karen Black played Bett Harrow.  Timothy Carey played Jake Menner. 

Joe Don Baker played Jack Cody.  Robert Ryan played Mailer.  Joanna Cassidy played Rita Mailer.  Robert Jaeckel played Kimmie Cherney.  Bill McKinney played Buck Cherney.

Marie Windsor played Madge Coyle.  Elisha Cook Jr. (billed as Elisha Cook) played Carl.  Jane Greer played Alma Macklin. 

Sheree North played "Buck's Wife".  Henry Jones played a "Doctor".  Tom Reese played a "Hit Man".   An uncredited Lee De Broux played Walter Kinney.  Army Archerd played Butler.  Roy Jensen played Al.

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