From
the inside flap
“Blackmail
runs rampant in a town policed by badged bootleggers in blue who turn a blind
eye to protect the Old Man who runs the town.”
Review
Harvest’s
narrator/protagonist (an unnamed Continental Op, who also appears in other
Hammett works) goes to Personville─nicknamed Poisonville, because of its shady
denizens─to investigate a murder, but ends up getting hired to “clean up” the
dangerous, lots-of-crime town. He then utilizes some questionable setups to pit
some of the big players against each other to achieve said cleansing.
This
is a masterful, complex, immediately gripping and fast-moving work, one of the
best novels in the pulp genre. Lots of gunplay, clever twists, dead bodies,
quotable dialogue and colorful characters─i.e., elements that Hammett excels at─make
this one of my all-time favorite crime reads, one worth reading. This one
really packs a punch.
#
Several
films have resulted from this novel, only one of them a Hammett-credited work.
The
first, La ciudad maldita, was released in Italy on November 29, 1978.
Juan Borsch directed the film, from a screenplay by him and Alberto de
Stefanis.
Chet
Bakon played OP. Diana Lorys played Dinah. Roberto Camardiel played Sheriff
Noonan. Daniel Martin played Max Thaler.
#
Other
films, which do not credit Red as a source, include:
Yojimbo
(1961; director/co-screenwriter: Akira Kurosawa)
For a Few Dollars More (1965;
director/co-screenwriter: Sergio Leone)
The Last Round (1976, director: Stelvio Massi)
When the Raven Flies (1984, a.k.a. Revenge of the Barbarians)
Last Man Standing (1996; director: Walter Hill; stars: Bruce Willis and
Christopher Walken)
No comments:
Post a Comment