Film Pairings – For The Love Of A Woman

Here are two black & white crime films set in L.A.  One of them reflects the 1950s, the other the 1940s. Both are shot in black and white. Both are based on works by legendary crime writers.  Plot summaries would make them seem more similar than they are. 

My Gun Is Quick; A friend of mine enjoyed it and thought I would too.  He warned that it was low budget.  “Well not exactly low-budget,” he said, “but another fifty bucks might have helped.” Though a little flat in the cinematography department, the film worked. Based on Mickey Spillane’s novel the celluloid rendering seemed right for the material. It was a story of a good man, private eye Mike Hammer, tempted by a beautiful woman and a bag of jewels to compromise his ethics.  One of the movie promotional posters has the temptress saying, “What will it be Mike honey? Me and a million dollars in hot diamonds or a cheap funeral?” One might fault the dialogue as clichéd until one remembers this is the original — from which clichés are made. Phil Victor directed and a relatively unknown actor Robert Bray played the legendary Hammer. Something else to keep you busy:  Count the number of 1957 Fords you see on screen. You’d think Chevys were outlawed in L.A. in the ‘50s. I think this was a fairly early example of product placement.

Double Indemnity: This is a different kind of story. Then again, it isn’t.  This is regarded as a masterpiece and who am I to argue?  The plot is similar. A no good woman wants some help to knock off her husband. Barbara Stanwyck seduces her insurance broker Fred MacMurray, who doesn’t quite see good and evil as clearly defined as Mike Hammer. Billy Wilder directed and worked with Raymond Chandler on the screenplay. The dialogue crackles.  The two masters, according to reports, didn't get along, but had quite a bit to work with as they brought James M. Cain’s classic noir novella to the screen. Edward G. Robinson played the savvy insurance investigator. Cinematographer John Selz showed how great black and white film could be.

The two films provide an interesting contrast in crime films. My Gun Is Quick (1957) relies completely on the strength of Spillane and Hammer and finds a way to deliver a tough but morally acceptable story. The film is simple and straight forward, almost like panels in an adventure comic book. Double Indemnity (1944) brought significant risk and resources to its project. MacMurray played against type. Robinson took third billing for the first time in his career, though he needn’t have worried. All of them made a movie in which there were no good guys, just variations on nasty. They dodged the code that made final approval by the censorship board difficult. And they turned the typical Hollywood ending upside down.

Both films could be described as hard-boiled. To accompany such tough stuff, I suggest no more than one ice cube, if that, in your glass of bourbon or Scotch. If you’re feeling a little deceitful and want to stay sober, but want your fellow filmgoers to think you’re tough as Mike hammer or Barbara Stanwyck, a little flat ginger ale would do the trick.

Film Pairing — Phillip Marlowe At His Best, Mike Hammer At His Worst

If you read through my blog, you’ll notice that while I’d like it to help market my books, I’ve not avoided subjects that might alienate a portion of the population. The only exception is that I won’t write about new books that I don’t like. I don’t feel I have the credentials to judge, especially in cases where such judgments might affect sales and therefore livelihoods.

Kiss Me Deadly

Old movies are different. And I’m sure I’m on my way to offend a great number of noir lovers.  I think Kiss Me Deadly is a horrible movie.  While Mike Hammer is not my favorite kind of private eye, the fault lies not with Mickey Spillane or the legendary character he created.  The director apparently decided to turn a P.I. story into science fiction and redefine Hammer.  No longer merely a tough guy, Hammer (Ralph Meeker) becomes a sociopath.  I wanted someone to kill him early on.

I’m in the minority here.  Rotten Tomatoes gives it 97 Percent.  The only thing I would give it is that if you want to take a trip back to the U.S.A.’s paranoid fifties, this is worth unearthing from the time capsule. One other plus: Cloris Leachman makes her first big-screen appearance in one of the film’s most interesting scenes.

Murder My Sweet

Admittedly, Raymond Chandler’s Phillip Marlowe is a more personally appealing P.I.  More wit, more humor. Over the years the character has been blessed with portrayals by Humphrey Bogart, Robert Mitchum, James Montgomery, and James Garner. He’s also been played by Dick Powell, an actor whose films and TV shows I tried to avoid from my post adolescence to the onset of my senility. Cry Danger (1951) changed my mind.  Fortunately so or I might not have watched Murder My Sweet (aka, Farewell My Lovely), in which he plays a wonderfully complex Marlowe, at once vulnerable, dogged, tough and funny.

Both films are set in LA.  Kiss Me Deadly shows you the city in 1955.  Murder My Sweet, which co-stars Claire Trevor, was released in 1944.  For those who wish to imbibe, the night’s cinema, no matter how you pour it, suggests some sort of whiskey — on the rocks if you’re a dame or a dandy.

Special Release — Penguin Group’s New Mystery Imprint & My Blatant Self Promotion

I am honored to participate in Dutton’s re-launch of Guilt Edged Mysteries.  Penguin, through this Dutton line, is celebrating the 65th anniversary of the imprint that had among its original writers — Mickey Spillane, Frederic Brown and Gore Vidal (writing as Edgar Box) — by publishing new works that reflect the tough, fast reads of the early books, but with a decidedly fresh, contemporary sensibility.  

The launch of the e-book line includes the novella by NPR editor Krishnadev Calamur, Murder in Mumbai as well as “Skin,” a Mike Hammer short story begun by Spillane and completed by the legendary author’s respected collaborator and award-winning mystery novelist Max Allan Collins.  These two are available now.  I’m pleased to announce that my own novella, Death in the Haight, is next in the series of new books released by Dutton as part of this revival and will be available August 21.  Dutton Guilt Edged Mysteries plans to release many more short stories and novellas in the months to come. 

My contribution is a new work that features private eye Noah Lang from the Paladino/Lang San Francisco mysteries.  When Michael Vanderveer goes missing in San Francisco Lang assumes it’s just another runaway escaping to the Haight, San Francisco’s home to the displaced… until the homicide cops pay him a visit. Fifteen-year-old Michael has been implicated in the murder of a prostitute, and the police don’t want Lang mucking up their investigation — especially Inspector Stern, who has strong opinions about Lang’s questionable past. But Lang becomes inextricably involved when Michael’s parents hire him: Michael is being ransomed, and they want Lang to ensure the exchange goes smoothly.   As everyone waits for the kidnappers to make their next move, Lang struggles with the Vanderveers, who are far from their Michigan home; confused by the twisted details of the case; and wrestling with the moral implications of rescuing Michael, only to have to turn him in for murder. All the while, Lang must deal with Stern, whose increasingly volatile behavior may just put Lang’s life in as grave danger as Michael’s.

Death in the Haight will be available August 21 from the usual e-Book sources.