Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett

(hb; 1929)

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)

 Miller’s Crossing (1990; directors: Joel and an uncredited Ethan Coen)

Last Man Standing (1996; director: Walter Hill; stars: Bruce Willis and Christopher Walken)

The Sentinel by Jeffrey Konvitz

(hb; 1974: prequel to The Guardian)

From the inside flap

“When Allison Parker found the old brownstone apartment it was to be a new beginning─a place where she cold forge the agony of her father’s illness and death, a place where she could quietly recover from that long ordeal. But slowly a sense of mounting terror began to take over. The neighbors─the old man and his cat, the two strange women, the blind priest─seemed to be something other than what they appeared.

“Then the headaches began. They had plagued her as she watched her father die; now they returned with an intensity that left her numb and shaken, threatening her tenuous grip on reality. And then she realized that here on  this quiet street an epic battle was being waged, a battle ordained from the beginning of time; and she was the prize.”

Review

Sentinel is an excellent, often-unnerving horror novel, with some terrifying images and action, and a pervasive sense of dread throughout its run. Its characters range from religious-iconic shallow and evil to fully realized (especially Christina and her boyfriend, Michael)─most of them work in the story. I write “most” because of the way two next-door lesbians are presented: the outsized horror and derision that is shown toward them may raise the hackles of modern-day LGBT+ supporters (Christina, in general, is horrified by them; Michael dismisses them as “vicious”).

I was initially alarmed at the venom Christina verbally and physically displays towards them (she does not just condemn them for being publicly lascivious, she condemns them for being lesbians). Then I checked myself, remembered Christina─victimized by her family and Catholic─is repressed, so any enthusiastic lustful displays are bound to offend her, especially those expressed by a group that most religions have demonized for thousands of years. Not only that, the 1970s, while progressing women’s rights (up to a point), were a period─like now─when aggressive, necessary feminism was getting a lot of scary, verbal and physical pushback not only from men, but gender-traitorous hausfrau women.

I normally would not give this much “airtime” to an issue that should be dismissed with an understanding of presentism (judge a work by the society and time period that produced it) and its protagonist’s paranoid bias. Unfortunately, a lot of knee-jerk social warriors may not take the time to check their biases while reading this hard-to-set-down, no-words-wasted suspense/horror novel, which may be a milestone for many, including myself, in the 1970s.

This vivid-enough-to be-called-cinematic book is worth owning, if you can get past its dated, egregious attitudinal flaws regarding women and LGBT+ issues. Followed by The Guardian.

#

The resulting film was released stateside on January 7, 1977. Michael Winner directed and co-wrote the film. His co-screenwriter was book-source author Jeffrey Konvitz.

Christina Raines played Allison Parker. Chris Sarandon play Michael Lerman. Jeff Goldblum played Jack. Deborah Raffin played Jennifer.

Ava Gardner played Miss Logan. Eli Wallach played Detective Gatz. Christopher Walken played Detective Rizzo. 

Burgess Meredith played Charles Chazen. Sylvia Miles played Gerde. Beverly D’Angelo played Sandra. Kate Harrington played Mrs. Clark.

Martin Balsam played Professor Ruzinsky. Hank Garrett played Brenner. William Hickey played Perry.

Arthur Kennedy played Monsignor Franchino. John Carradine played Father Halliran. José Ferrer played “Robed Figure.” Jerry Orbach played “Film Director.” Tom Berrenger played “Man at end.” Nana Visitor, billed as Nana Tucker, played "Girl at end."

A Behanding in Spokane by Martin McDonagh

(pb; 2010, 2011: play)

From the back cover

"A dingy motel room. Small-town America. Carmichael travels with a suitcase full of hands, but he wants his own back.

"Toby has a hand that he'd like to sell Carmichael for the right price.

"Marilyn wishes that Toby had never stolen that hand from the museum.

"Mervyn thinks Marilyn is pretty hot. He works reception, though he wouldn't call himself a receptionist. Life and death are up for grabs, and fate is governed by imbeciles and madmen in this darkly comic new play from the acclaimed playwright Martin McDonagh. A Behanding in Spokane turns over American daily existence, exposing the obsessions, prejudices, madness, horrors, and, above all, absurdities that crawl beneath it."

Review

McDonagh, the director/screenwriter of In Bruges (2008), Seven Psychopaths (2012) and other films, has written another violent, darkly hilarious and non-P.C. piece that pushes most social boundaries, with its intriguing characters, able sketch-work and take-no-prisoners outlook. This is an excellent play, one worth reading if you are not easily offended, and are a fan of his other output.

When it was staged in 2010, Christopher Walken played Carmichael, the racist sociopath; Sam Rockwell played Mervyn, the snarky hotel clerk; Anthony Mackie played Toby, the sly weed dealer; Zoe Kazan played Marilyn, Toby’s girlfriend.

For Your Eyes Only, by Ian Fleming

(pb; 1959, 1960: story anthology -- eighth book in the original 007/James Bond series)

Overall review:

Good, quirky-for-the-author anthology, with some revealing side-stories (about Bond and M, Bond's boss).

Review, story by story:

“From A View To A Kill”: When a British military dispatch driver is murdered and his documents stolen, Bond investigates the murder/theft. Bond gets tangled up in intradepartmental rivalries and Luger-carrying killers. Okay story, with a lackluster female protagonist, Mary Ann Russell.

“For Your Eyes Only”: In Jamaica, Cuban gunmen in the employ of an ex-Gestapo (von Hammerstein) kill an older couple, friends of M's. Bond volunteers to mete out “rough justice” (Bond's term); along the way, he encounters Judy Havelock, the murdered couple's daughter, who's also bent on revenge.

While the female-seeking-revenge plot set-up is familiar – Fleming used it in the preceding Bond book, Goldfinger – the author's capable writing keeps it thrilling.

“Quantum of Solace”: At a boring Nassau party, surrounded by the filthy rich, the island Governor tells Bond about a government employee (Phillip Masters), his wife (Rhoda), and their spectacularly destructive marriage. All the violence in this chatty tale is second-hand and emotional. Philosophical, honest and different (for a Bond tale), with a dovetail ending.

“Risico”: Less than a year after the events of Goldfinger, Bond goes to Rome to smash up a drug ring. Exciting blast-read, with some cool twists.

“The Hildebrand Rarity”: Bond, stuck on a five-day boat trip with an insufferable, wife-beating American (Milton Crest) who hunts nearly-extinct animals, struggles to keep his cool. Unsettling – on multiple levels – story, with a chilling finish: a welcome variation on the usual Bond adventure, and one not easily forgotten.

Followed by the novel, Thunderball.

#

Three films resulted from this anthology; the only thing they share with the stories are the titles, and some characters.

For Your Eyes Only came out in 1981. It used characters (who appear in altered form) from another anthology story, “Risico,” but the movie is way different than its title- and character-sourced stories.

Roger Moore reprised his role of James Bond. Carole Bouquet played Melina Havelock (story name: Judy Havelock). Topol played Milos Columbo (a variation on Enrico Colombo, from the story “Risico”). Julian Glover played Aristotle Kristatos (another “Risico” character). Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson co-scripted. John Glen directed. (Glen has directed five of the James Bond films, the most times any director has done so.)

#

A View To A Kill came out in 1985. Roger Moore reprised his role of James Bond. Christopher Walken played Max Zorin – a cinematic add-on character. Tanya Roberts played Stacy Sutton, another cinematic add-on character. Grace Jones played May Day, another cinematic add-on character. Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson returned as co-scripters. John Glen returned as director.

#

Quantum of Solace, whose only link to its source story seems to be the title, is set for a November 7, 2008 theatrical release. Daniel Craig reprises his role of James Bond. Mattieu Amalric plays Dominic Greene (I can't remember if that character is actually in the story: will have to re-read it sometime). Jeffrey Wright reprises his role of Felix Leiter. Olga Kurylenko plays Camille, a cinematic add-on character. Giancarlo Giannini reprises his role of René Mathis. Gemma Arterton plays Strawberry Fields, another cinematic add-on character. Judi Dench reprises her role of M. Marc Forster is set to direct, from a script by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Paul Haggis.

An interesting note on Quantum of Solace. . . this, from www.imdb.com: "The producers and writers of Quantum of Solace have stated that the action of the film picks up 'almost an hour after the close of Casino Royale'. They have also said it will be a continuation of the story established in Casino Royale. In this way it can be regarded as a true sequel to Royale and, like that film, is separate in continuity to any of the previous Bond films to come before. While sharing the same continuity of the character, the previous Bond films were more 'stand-alone' adventures of the super spy than sequels that told one ongoing story. It is not clear how long the producers intend to continue this ret-con of Bond films in this manner, but they have already openly stated that they do not intend to re-visit or remake any of the material from the previously released series of Bond films."