The Mammoth Book of Movie Detectives and Screen Crimes edited by Peter Haining

The Mammoth Book of Movie Detectives and Screen Crimes is indeed big, but not mammoth when compared to Otto Penzler’s Big Lizard books on pulp mysteries. Also it’s a fast reading book.

Let’s first talk about what this book isn’t, though, because there’s a little misrepresentation here. The back cover states “Here are original stories of crime and detection that were the inspiration behind some of the best-loved screen successes.” By this I thought these stories were actually the bases for TV and movie mysteries. In reality, these stories were written by authors who created TV and movie detectives, but the stories themselves were not necessarily the basis for the movie or series.

Having gotten that out of the way, The Mammoth Book of Movie Detectives and Screen Crimes is an worthwhile book, now that your expectations are set. Peter Haining, who has written much about pulp fiction of all genres knows what he’s doing.

The best story in the book was It Had to be Murder by Cornell Woolrich which was the basis for Alfred Hitchcock’s Read Window. However, this story has no romantic plot to it; no Grace Kelly blond tending to the wheelchair bound James Stewart. The film basically followed the story and I kept picturing Raymond Burr as the would-be murderer.

The second best story which immediately follows Rear Window is Forbidden Fruit by Edgar Lustgarten and is a James M. Cain-esque story of a man and woman plotting her husband’s murder—think The Postman Always Rings Twice. It has the same darkness to it and a similar ending. Lustgarten introduced the British series, Scotland Yard, but this story was not a part of the series.

Authors included in the anthology count as a partial who’s who of mystery writers: Edgar Wallce, Eric Ambler, George Harmon Coxe, Evan Hunter (aka Ed McBain), Erle Stanley Gardner, Georges Simenon and Ruth Rendell. Hunter’s story was the basis for the movie the Blackboard Jungle which certainly is not a detective/mystery story and Rendell’s excellent story has no corresponding TV or movie.

The authors are credited with creating some of the great detective series or movies including Columbo, Little Caesar, Naked City, Perry Mason (although this was not one of the better stories), and Maigret. A lot of the series are British and the dates range from the 1920s to the 1990s. At the beginning of each story is a short bio of the author and an explanation of the series for which he/she is credited.

The Mammoth Book of Movie Detectives and Screen Crimes is not your run of the mill mystery anthology. It contains stories and authors you may not have heard of and mentions series that you may be unfamiliar with. It’s a nice way to broaden your mystery horizons. I think the next mystery author I’m going to tackle is Cornell Woolrich. I’ve read some of his stories but not enough. So move over Hammett and Chandler, I’m going to dig up some Woorich.

I highly recommend this book.

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Noir Movies-Round Three

This is the weekend of duplicitous, murderous women: The Lady from Shanghai with Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth and The Man Who Cheated Himself with Lee J. Cobb and Jane Wyatt.

The Lady from Shanghai was a great noir movie with a totally ‘noir’ ending, although it didn’t have that dark, mysterious locale. The murder plotting takes some unpredictable turns. As in Gilda, Rita Hayworth is manipulative, alluring and wonderful. Orson Welles has changed his persona yet again from Touch of Evil and The Third Man. Now he’s seaman Michael ‘Black Irish’ O’Hara, with appropriate Irish brogue, who takes a job aboard Hayworth’s and her crippled husband’s yacht. In Touch of Evil, he was the bloated, misguided sheriff in a U.S./Mexico border town. In The Third Man he was the suave, confident black marketeer in Europe. I find it so hard to reconcile these Orson Welles images with the cigar smoking man who appeared on TV talk shows back in the day. Although I’m sure the other actors in The Lady from Shanghai were well known in their day, they were unknown to me, but they were cast superbly. This is a movie to watch.

I also liked The Man Who Cheated Himself with Lee J. Cobb and Jane Wyatt. It was a totally different kind of movie. I thought they were both well cast, Cobb as the Detective in love with socialite Wyatt who ‘mistakenly?’ shoots her estranged husband and has Cobb clean up the mess. According to the blog Film Noir of the Week, however, Wyatt was not considered up to femme fatale standards, “Completely miscast as the object of Ed’s (Cobbs’) desire is Jane Wyatt. No perfect housewife Margaret Anderson is Ms Wyatt in her role as the femme fatale, Lois Frazer. Her performance can politely be called “over the top.” Some have referred to her performance as the worst ever by a femme fatale.” Personally, I thought she did a pretty decent job.

Suffice it to say, I’m in total agreement with Dani Callanzano of Dani Noir…the only real femme fatale so far is Rita Hayworth, in both Gilda and Lady from Shanghai. (However, please note that I do have 11 more movies to go, including Gene Tierney in Laura. She may give Rita Hayworth a run for her money.)

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Gilda with The Postman Always Rings Twice

So, the other night I watched the noir movie Gilda with Rita Hayworth and a very young Glenn Ford. It was one of the movies mentioned in the book Dani Noir (https://2headstogether.wordpress.com/2013/12/01/dani-noir-by-nova-ren-suma-2/) by Nova Ren Suma. I really enjoyed it. I don’t think I’ve ever watched a Rita Hayworth movie. I could definitely watch more. And Glenn Ford was so young in it. They were both excellent and the on-screen chemistry was palpable. If Rita Hayworth isn’t the ultimate femme fatale, then no one is.

The movie definitely had that ‘noir’ feel to it from the dark, foggy Argentinian dockside beginning to the very end. However, the ending wasn’t noir-ish. I read another review which basically said the same thing–it called the ending a cop-out. I’ve been trying (unsuccessfully) to see if the movie ending was changed from the original story by E. A. Ellington.

If you are a noir movie fan, a pulp mystery fan, or merely a movie fan, Gilda is one movie that you should see. I’m contemplating adding it to my meager collection, that’s how good it is. Thank you Nova Ren Suma and Dani Noir for putting me on to these classics.

I watched The Postman Always Rings Twice (original great book by J. M. Cain) last night. It stars Lana Turner and John Garfield. Unlike Gilda, the movie setting isn’t dark, although the story is. The ending, however, is as noir-ish as you can get. Amazing. The only thing is: Lana Turner as a blonde doesn’t do anything for me. I don’t know why. As femme fatales go, Rita Hayworth beat her hands down. This is another great movie.

The next on my list is The Lady from Shanghai starring Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles.

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