Retro Review: Knights of the Open Palm (1923) by Carroll John Daly

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 This book collects three stories: Knights of the Open Palm (1923), Dolly (1922), and The False Burton Combs (1922). All first appeared in Black Mask Magazine but come to us now from Steeger Properties which is an agent for Daly's estate.

I happened upon this book via a review in Paperback Warrior and decided to give it a try having read one of Daly's Race Williams novels several years ago.

Paperback Warrior credits Daly with creating the hardboiled detective genre. Indeed, this first Race Williams story appeared before Hammett's Continental Op hit the pages. Race is also the direct inspiration for Spillane's Mike Hammer. In fact, the first use of the term "hardboiled" that I've found is in the 1927 Black Mask publication of the Race Williams novel, The Snarl of the Beast.

Race is approached by Ernest Thompson, a wealthy farmer from Clinton, whose son Willie had recognized some of the Klan tarring and feathering a woman. He's abducted before the trial and the case disappears. Without a prosecution, the father expected to see Willie returned but that doesn't happen. Earnest is relieved to learn that Race isn't afraid of taking on the Klan and offers him a large paycheck.

Race finds a bitter ex-member of the Klan who gives him the secret passwords, handshake, and salute. Armed with this information and his two trusty automatics, Race heads to Clinton where he immediately ruffles feathers. Three Klansmen, in robes, appear at his hotel room to warn him away but Race is not intimidated, faster at the draw, and sends them packing. With some needed information from a townsman with no love for the Klan, Race is soon hot on the trail of young Willie and his fate.

Race is brash, supremely confident in his ability to come out on top no matter what, quick with a wisecrack and his guns. Race tells us he isn't a murderer but if someone pulls on him you bet they're going down ... with a bullet between the eyes (his preferred target). With his vainglorious posturing, Race is practically a caricature of the hardboiled detective but he carries it off making a memorable character and a great way to launch a genre. I would also say that Race is a direct descendant of the old west gunslinger hired to ride into town and sort things out. If you think about it, 1923 wasn't that far removed in time from the American frontier.

Daly's take on the Klan is pure parody. He portray's them as conmen and thieves out to make a buck using their "lofty" ideals as a cover. You really can't read the depiction of their salute without smiling. Honestly it reminded me of the high sign in the Little Rascals. I don't know how bold it was to ridicule the Klan in 1923 but Daly doesn't hold back. Race, of course, has no respect for Klan and has no qualms about taking some of them down. I do like Race's wry comment on the influence of the Klan in town that some of the Klan were actually in jail for as much as ten minutes.

I'd definitely recommend this story particularly if you want to see the origins of the hardboiled detective.

There are two other stories in this book, Dolly and The False Burton Combs.

Dolly is very different than the Race Williams stories. Here, a medical student falls in love with a showgirl and they come up with a devious way to convince his father to let them marry. It doesn't go well. The story is predictable and read-and-forget. It does verge on Poe-like horror with its theme of insanity and the narrator's creepy obsession with the Dolly's throat

The False Burton Combs is much better. The first person narrator (don't think he's named) makes his living conning the conmen. He comes across as a Race Williams prototype, brash, confident, good with a gun, He's not a bad guy, he isn't after the innocent, but has no friends in law enforcement. He is hired by Burton Combs to impersonate him and his father's hotel on Nantucket. It seems that Combs ratted on some very bad people, some of which went to prison. He needs to lay low and our narrator is very capable of taking care of himself. Like Race, he is quick and sure with a gun. It looks like young Combs might be in the clear but then three men who don't blend with the holiday crowd show up and it gets messy. This is a pretty good story that has a neat little twist.

So two out of three stories isn't bad. Overall, this is a worthy read and at $2.99 for the Kindle version a steal.

Keywords: crime fiction, hardboiled detectives, Ku Klux Klan in fiction

Graphic Novel Review: The Department of Truth: The End of the World (2021) written by James Tynion IV

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A good percentage of my YouTube viewing is watching videos debunking conspiracies, mostly the flat earthers,  space deniers, and the moon landing hoaxers. The idea of elaborate conspiracies is fascinating and the conspiracies around Antarctica are a particular favorite of mine.

The Department of Truth: The End of the World takes on conspiracies in a bold way by positing that all the conspiracies are real. The Department of Truth is tasked with managing the conspiracies. Their job is "making sure that conspiracy theories remain theories." The danger is that 

The more people believe in something, the more true that thing becomes, the more reality tips in favor of that belief.

Cole Turner was was a fairly low-level agent charged  mainly with monitoring "funny" memes and discussions among right-wing nationalists and their conspiracy theories. While attending a flat earth conference, he has a shocking experience and subsequently finds himself conscripted into the ultra secret organization, The Department of Truth. He also has PTSD from his involvement in a conspiracy when a child which makes him ripe for work within the Department.

But the Department of Truth has another organization working against them, The Black Hat which is bent on exposing The Department. They claim they are the good guys which sets up an interesting dynamic where the Department's claim to truth is denied us. Cole seems doomed to being pulled in different directions.

 

This book consolidates the first five issues of this title, each of which looks at a different conspiracy. That Tynion steeped himself in the worlds of conspiracies is evident. The psychology of conspiracy theorists is pretty much spot on and how he describes the belief in conspiracies is unsettlingly close to the rhetoric you hear from conspiracy theorists. One issue dissects how you would go about constructing a conspiracy.

I'm not sure how to characterize the art work except that it isn't photo realistic.The panels often only hints at what is being depicted. We also get collages of elements that create a nightmare image.

If you have any interest in conspiracy theories then this is a must read but besides that the story, art work, lettering, and design are excellent making it my favorite graphic novel of the past several years. I can't wait for the next issues.

Keywords: conspiracies, secret organizations, graphic novels

Retro Review: The Bride Wore Black (1940) by Cornell Woolrich

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 This is my first Cornell Woolrich (1903-1968) novel and, given how much I enjoy noir fiction, I don't know why I've waited so long. Woolrich's writing career began with his jazz-age novels, published between 1926 and 1932. Apparently these were frothy little romances revealing the giddy social life of pretty young people and getting them published wasn't easy; he wasn't taken as a serious writer with these books. He reinvented himself as a pulp and detective fiction writer and his output took off. He had to use pseudonyms he was publishing so many books. The Bride Wore Black is the first in the new phase of his writing and is also the first in his six books in the "black series" which are: The Bride Wore Black, (1940), The Black Curtain, (1941), Black Alibi (1942), The Black Angel, (1943), The Black Path of Fear, (1944), and Rendezvous in Black (1948). 

Wikipedia lists 48 Woolrich stories which were turned into films, four of which are from the black series (original title/film title): Black Alibi/The Leopard Man (1943), Black Angel (1946), The Chase/The Black Path (1946), The Bride Wore Black (1958). One of his stories that made it into film should be instantly recognized: in 1954 Hitchcock filmed Rear Window starring Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly which was adapted from the Woolrich story, "It Had to be Murder".

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By itself, The Bride Wore Black would be a pretty good novel to start a career as a writer of pulp and detective stories but to have the first book a noir is even better. Eddie Duggan (link below) sees psychological instability as an attribute of characters in noir and combine that with Otto Penzler's dictum that there are no happy endings for the noir protagonist then The Bride Wore Black fits into the genre nicely.

This is a female revenge story. For most of the book, we don't who the woman is or why she is bent on revenge against men between whom there is no evident connection. The title gives a clue but no idea how it relates to her victims. 

Woolrich hit upon a structure for the novel that I think is as bold as choosing to start with noir. The book has five section and each section has three chapters all with the same titles: The Woman; chapter named for the victim; and Post Mortem. The first is the setup, the second is the assassination, and the third is Detective Wanger's report. The Woman is shown to be beautiful, ruthless, a master at disguise, and a meticulous planner — a genuine femme fatale. Wanger is the only one to see a connection between the seemingly unrelated murders. The events in the book are spread over several years and Wanger is obsessed with finding connections ... and The Woman. In the end it is a chance remark that makes the pieces come together.

The revelation comes at the end when the reader finally gets the whole story and what a story it is. I'll only say it is the icing on the noir cake. It is a very satisfying read and I recommend it. Now I need to get my hands on the film made from the book, The Bride Wore Black directed by Francois Truffaut in 1968. I have to see if it keeps the noir flavor but considering it's Truffaut I imagine it will.

Cover of my copy

I enjoy Woolrich's style of writing and given when it was written it holds up very well and I would't consider dated for modern readers. I did learn that women wore wimples back then which I had only associated with nuns. He has a nice flowing style that is a pleasure to read. He is excellent with descriptions and developing characters. My favorite might be Part Two, Mitchell, The Woman, where he describes Miriam, a maid at the Helena Hotel, and her routines. I took a lot of pleasure in the way Woolrich put the words together.

Duggan, Eddie, "Writing in the Darkness: The World of Cornell Woolrich".

I liked all the covers and couldn't decide which to use so I used them all.

Keywords: crime fiction, noir fiction, police detective, murder, femme fatale, female revenge

Review: The Guest List (2020) by Lucy Foley

Cut to the chase: Would I recommend reading The Guest List? Sure, it's an easy afternoon read with a twist that has wide appeal from what I've read about the book in social media. For me, I really wan't invested in any of the characters (disliked most of them).  I would say it is good but not great and a mostly enjoyable take on a particular type of mystery (described below). 

As always, if you loved the book and think I got it totally wrong, tell me. 

Links to other (better) reviews at the bottom.

The premise of The Guest List is simple. Guests arrive on Cormorant Island off the coast of Ireland for a wedding held at a renovated manor called The Folly. The bride, Jules, is the driven publisher of a successful online magazine, The Download, determined that this will be a perfect wedding. The groom, Will, is the star of a reality TV show, Survive the Night, where he is left at night, blindfolded and tied up, and has to make his way to civilization. He is also knee-tremblingly handsome to the ladies.

Among the guests are Charlie, long-time friend of Jules and his wife Hannah, Jules' half sister Olivia, and five of Will's mates from Trevellyan, a public school, Johnno, Angus, Femi, Duncan, and Peter. The wedding is managed by Aoife, the wedding planner and co-owner of The Folly. Some of these guests harbor dark secrets that will emerge.

The story is mostly narrated in first person by Johnno, Hannah, Jules, Olivia, Aoife, and Will (toward the end) with some third person narrative bridging past and present events. The bridging chapters are set Now with the personal narratives taking place around Now. I don't mind the shifting voices structure because it allows more to be revealed as the story moves along and it steadily builds tension. I wish there had been another voice, the photographer. This is a wedding and Jules would have wanted lots of images for her publication. I can imagine the photographer moving around, capturing revealing moments.

The majority of the book is building backstory and defining characters. The most sympathetic are Hannah and Olivia. The message is rather pointed: the men are pigs and the women suffer. This really becomes obvious when we experience Will's five mates from Trevellyan. They are all fairly loathsome jerks who revert back to their disgusting schoolboy selves when they get together. The way they act, their attitudes, their  cruelties, goes back to their time at school which they describe as a cross between a prison and Lord of the Flies. This tells you something about their life there — survival of the fittest. I think the author intended them as caricatures of English public school Old Boys. For most of them, it was the best time of their lives. 

The book is compared to some of Agatha Christie's works which is a stretch. It isn't the locked room mystery some have called it; a locked room mystery is both a whodunit and a howdunit. It is in the tradition of English country house mysteries where a group of people bearing dark secrets come together in a remote location where SOMETHING happens. The book has a melodramatic start: the lights go out and there is a scream of terror. 

The author weaves clues for where the story is going within each character's narrations and these clues will come together at the end. About three quarters of the book is taken up with this. The last quarter of the book ups the pace considerably and all the clues are revealed in their proper place. 

The authors strings the reader along and you don't know what happened or indeed if anything happened until the end of the book. The clues dropped along the way are pretty clever, though, and at the end, you realize they they were right there in our faces. I did guess the twist though I confess I mostly didn't see what was going on until near the end. I do think the story relies on a few too many coincidences to come together. The resolution is ok, though it felt to me like the story just sort of trailed off. 

 I liked the description of the island but I kept getting distracted wondering who insured The Folly. The place appears to be a death trap. There are cliffs over a crashing sea, crumbling remains of houses near the manor, a dangerous battlement accessible to the guests, and a bog that will suck you down to join the bodies of inhabitants slaughtered by Vikings if you step off the unmarked path. I can't imagine bringing children to the island and turning them loose. I know I would have been in the crumbling houses and up on the battlement like a shot.

 Smart Bitches, Trashy Books loves it.

Positive review on Book Club Chat,

Another positive review on Read This, Not That. Careful, it does tell you what happened.

Keywords: crime fiction, country house mysteries, wedding mysteries

Review: The Midnight Library (2020) by Matt Haig

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The Midnight Library by Matt Haig is an easy read but one that can give you much to think about. I enjoyed it myself but it probably won't be for all readers. I'm not sure why I picked it up but having "library" in the title is sure to get my attention.

Nora Seed has given up on life. She lost her job, her cat died, and she has a lifetime of regrets. For her, 

Regrets don't leave. They weren't mosquito bites. They itch forever.

She decides to end her "useless" existence but instead of oblivion she finds herself in a library of endless shelves, all containing books bound in some shade of green. She is met by a woman identical to her old school librarian, Mrs. Elm.  Mrs. Elm explains

Between life and death there is a library, she said.  And within that library, the shelves go on for ever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be different if you made other choices ... Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?

Nora is presented with a very heavy book, The Book of Regrets. The bulk of the book deals with Nora's explorations of what ifs. In the process, Nora explores, multiverses, quantum wave functions, and philosophy — Nora studied philosophy at university. Nora gains insights about herself along the way but I'd rather not go into detail because it would be a disservice to the reader.

A book like this has the potential to be painful or affirming. I think it would be very difficult to not think what your personal Book of Regrets would contain. How heavy would it be.

The Midnight Library could have been one of those new age self-motivation Hallmark moments books that I avoid. It really isn't one of those books that deliver a message drenched in saccharin. A blurb from The Washington Post on the book's Amazon page call it "A feel-good book guaranteed to lift your spirits." I wouldn't characterize it that way at all. Personally I dislike the phrase "feel-good" in most cases. I found The Midnight Library an engrossing read that will have me thinking about it for some time. A commenter on a Facebook book group said what I was fumbling toward: "Easy to read but encouraged a lot of deep thinking and reflection on the side. For me, it was painfully reaffirming - a book I needed to read at a particular point in time." She nails it and I will add that I found it impossible not to see something of myself in Nora. Heather Caliendo over on the Book Club Chat has a good review. She calls it "a very heartfelt and touching novel" which I guess is close to feel-good but not quite. I would also apply a phrase Heather says about another of Haig's books, How to Stop Time which she calls "a little melancholy". That works for The Midnight Library as well. Read Heaher's review here.

I expect opinions will vary wildly. I would really like to hear from someone who didn't like the book.

Oh, and as a retired librarian, Nora says something to Mrs. Elm that I got a kick out of

Librarians are soul-enhanced search engines.

I never thought of us exactly that way before.

Keywords: self-realization, multiverses, quantum wave functions, fantasy, libraries

Review: Good Girl, Bad Girl (2019) by Michael Robotham

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This was an accidental but fortunate book find. I was looking in the library catalog for Good Me, Bad Me (2016, Ali Land) and checked out this instead. It was a good mistake to make because it reminded me how very good Robotham is at telling a suspense story. This is part one of a four part Cyrus Haven series. The second book, When She Was Good  is reviewed here. 

Our protagonist, Cyrus Haven, is involved in two story lines. One involves a murder case and the other a teenager confined to an institution.

Cyrus is a forensic psychologist working with with the Nottingham (UK) police service. He gets a call from a case worker he knows at Langford Hall, a secure facility for troubled youths. One of the residents is Evie Cormac who is petitioning to be released to live on her own. The case worker believes that neither Evie nor the world are ready for her release. He wants Cyrus to evaluate her. One reason he asks Cyrus is that he thinks that Evie might be a "truth wizard", someone who knows immediately if someone is lying or telling the truth. Cyrus studied the possibility that "truth wizards" might exist for his PhD but remains skeptical that these people actually exist. but the case worker reminds him that he wrote that someone

who wan't disrupted by emotions or lack of familiarity with the subject; someone who functioned at a higher level

could develop greater skills at identifying liars.

Making Evie's case more interesting is that she is actually a complete unknown. Her name and age were given her by the Home Office six years previously after she was found hiding in a house which was the scene of a brutal torture/murder. Evie was filthy, starving, and completely uncommunicative. She becme known to the public as Angel Face but she never revealed her real name, age, parents, where she was from, what had happened to her. All attempts to trace her had come up blank. She compensates for her PTSD by being completely incorrigible, lying as a matter of course, and enjoying being a disruptor. Pretty much she scares everyone, fellow patients and staff alike. She is also bright and has dry, sarcastic wit.

Cyrus is drawn to her, her story, and her psychology. Is she a sociopath or psychopath or a young women no one has been able to understand. Cyrus was also damaged by childhood trauma. His parents and two sisters were murdered by his brother. He becomes fixated on finding the truth about Angel Face/Evie.It's safe to say that Cyrus wouldn't have been drawn to Evie without her traumatic backstory.

Cyrus is brought into another case by Chief Inspector Lenore (Lenny  Parvel who as a young constable was the first on scene when Cyrus' family was murdered and found the shocked boy. A fifteen year old girl, Jodie Sheehan, has been found sexually molested and murdered. Jodie was a popular , pretty, and a driven ics skater. But when Lenny and Cyrus start looking deeper, a dark side of Jodie emerges and she isn't the wholesome girl next door everyone thought she was.

Cyrus has some interesting comments when asked how to address Jodie's death at school. I hadn't thought of it this way before but Cyrus cautions against bringing in bereavement counselors because they can reinforce the idea that people should be traumatized.

I didn't know this was going to be a series and I hoped for a sequel to find out more about Evie. it was pretty obvious that Evie's story was the most important thing to Cyrus and the second book in the series proves that. Good Girl, Bad Girl is mostly a book of psychological suspense with Cyrus attempting to break through to Evie and the constant presence of his own childhood trauma. Cyrus' observations as a psychologist made for a large part of my enjoyment of this book.

Keywords: crime fiction, psychological suspense, childhood trauma

Review: When She Was Good (2020) by Michael Robotham

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 When She Was Good is the second book in the Cyrus Haven series. The the first series book, Good Girl, Bad Girl is reviewed here. As with the previous book, the tory is told in first person narratives from the viewpoints of Evie and Cyrus.

I need to warn potential readers upfront, if you can't take novels that portray violence against children then this isn't your book. Robotham handles the topic very well but it does get rough.

Evie Cormac is still in Langford Hall, the secure facility for troubled youth, still disrupting things and provoking reactions. This time she might have gone too far and case worker Adam Gutherie is determined to have her sectioned and sent to a mental hospital. In large part this is because he has been victim of Evie's (justified?) ire. Oddly, Gutherie seems to have forgotten that Evie was the little girl known as Angel Face, found in a house where a horrific murder had taken place, who was given a new identity by the Home Office. He's the one who told Cyrus who she is. I would have thought he would have been a bit more accountable to the Home Office.

I don't know what it would be like to be around someone like Evie all the time but as a reader I can't help but like her, She has a dry, sarcastic wit that appeals to me. But Evie is a "truth wizard" someone who can spot lies nearly 100% of the time which causes trust issues; if people lie to her, why should she tell the truth.

Where Good Girl, Bad Girl was psychological suspense with Cyrus attempting to get through to Evie, Robotham moves into full on thriller territory with When She Was Good with Cyrus assuming the role of detective, trying to get to the bottom of what happened to Evie, hoping he can fix her. What he begins to uncover takes him to a very dark place.

In his effort to find out more about Evie's origins, Cyrus tracks down Sacha Hopewell, the special constable who found Evie in the murder house. She dropped out of sight because of the publicity and reactions against her personally after finding Evie. But Evie has never been out of her mind and she finds herself pulled into Cyrus's investigations. Meanwhile, Evie is determined to keep her secrets fearing that revealing anything would put others is grave danger, particularly Cyrus.

Cyrus' police boss, Lenore (Lenny) Parvel calls him to the scene of the suicide of a retired. police detective Hamish Whitmore. But it's obvious to Cyrus that it's murder, not suicide. When they start looking into the detective, they find out that he was making an in depth review of his investigation and capture of a child molester and child murderer, Eugene Green. Green was killed in prison but Whitmore didn't think he was working alone. Cyrus is alarmed when he sees that Whitmore had written Angel Face on a white board. How is Evie connected to Whitmore's unofficial investigation. And what about the unknown, shadowy, very dangerous figures working to thwart this reinvestigation of Green.

As Cyrus begins to uncover connection the danger begins to ramp up and the unseen forces will go to any lengths to preserve their secrets. I hate to use review cliches like heart racing action but Robotham knows how to keep raising the tension the Cyrus gets in his investigation.

When She Was Good answers a lot of the questions we were left with at the end of Good Girl, Bad Girl. Evie is a heartbreaking character, someone who is not likely to ever be made whole, someone who has been left feeling dirty inside and out, unworthy of love. 

I'm really looking forward to seeing where Robotham takes this series in the next two books.

Keywords: crime fiction, psychological thrillers, child abuse, childhood trauma

Review: Build My Gallows High (1946) and Out of the Past (film, 1947) by Geoffrey Homes

I like to link my reviews to Amazon in the event someone wishes to purchase the book. Guess what, Build My Gallows High is out of print and available copies are very expensive. I was fortunate to get my copy through a paperback exchange. Why this noir classic is out of print is a mystery ... and a crime. 

I am a staunch Penzlerite when it comes to noir. In the article Noir Fiction is About Losers, Not Private Eyes Otto Penzler says 

Look, noir is about losers. The characters in these existential, nihilistic tales are doomed. They may not die, but they probably should, as the life that awaits them is certain to be so ugly, so lost and lonely, that they’d be better off just curling up and getting it over with. And, let’s face it, they deserve it.

While you might find yourself rooting for the protagonist of Build My Gallows High, you're pretty sure it isn't going to turn out well for him.

I am also going to write about Out of the Past, the film adaptation. Be aware, I am not going to avoid spoilers. If you want to read the book or watch the film without foreknowledge, stop now.

At only 154 pages, this is a remarkably complex yet compact story, full of double-crosses. Red Bailey isn't the bad man you find in most noir but he still finds himself in a noir downward spiral to doom.

When the book opens, Red is running a gas station in Bridgeport, California (a real place). It seems idyllic existence, a business hat pays the bills with a little left over and a young, local, innocent woman, Ann Miller, who is in love with him. Red hold her off, telling her he is unworthy. He isn't very forthcoming about himself and he evidently has a darker past. He tells himself

The past was dead. Ten years dead, and buried deep.

complicating their relationship is Jimmy Caldwell who has known Ann since childhood and desperately wants to marry her. He is bitter about Ann's relationship with Red.

But the past does catches up with him when he finds Joe Stefanos waiting for him at the gas station. Joe works for Guy Parker who Red knows from when Guy was a police chief. Guy has a job for Red and sent Joe to fetch Red, at gunpoint if necessary. Before he leaves with Stefanos, Red finally professes his love to Ann telling her he wants to get his past behind him once and for all.

Guy wants Red to go to New York and sort out a fellow, Lloyd Eels, who is bothering a friend of his. He insists that Red is the only person for the job. Red used to be a private detective and he once helped out Parker in San Francisco when parker was a police chief. A woman joins them, Mumsie McGonigle, someone else from Red's past. This leads to a flashback.

Red had been hired by a gangster/gambler named Whit Sterling to locate Mumsie who had shot Whit and left with a lot of money. Red does track her down in Acapulco Mexico but falls for her hard. Instead of taking her and the money back, Red returns to NY, tells Whit he couldn't find her, sells out to his partner, Fisher, and he and Mumsie settle in Los Angeles where he opens a detective agency and meets Guy for the first time.

Their idyllic life comes to a crashing end when Fisher tracks them down to a rustic cabin they rented for a get-away. He wants the money Mumsie stole from Whit and in return he won't tell Whit where they are. There is a struggle, a gun goes off, and Fisher is dead, accidentally shot. Red buries Fisher but Mumsie takes off. Despite her denials, Red knows she has the money but he has a fatalistic attitude:

He'd get over it, he knew. He'd be lonely for a while, lonely for a myth. And Mumsie,? With that wad of money she should be very happy, Money was something you could hold and count, Love? Hell, you could pick that up in a Mexican cafe when you needed it.

Red betrays Whit for Mumsie and Mumsie betrays Red for money and to escape anything blowing back on her from Fisher's death. When Red meets Mumsie again with Guy, it come out that Guy knows everything about Red, Mumsie, and Fisher. Mumsie tells Red she didn't sell him out but Red doesn't believe her. Red thought he had a good and settled life with Mumsie but it crashed. Now he hopes for a good life with Ann. His life seems to be repeating itself.

In NY, Red figures out that this isn't a simple strong-arm job. He's being put in the frame as part of a larger scheme. Eels was an accountant who had record that would put Whit away. Eels is killed and an affidavit left in his safe implicating Red in Fisher's death. He's being framed as an act of revenge by Whit. Red gets the records but before he can get the affidavit out of the safe, the police arrive at Eels' apartment. Soon it's in the news which reaches Bridgeport. Red is a murderer and the subject of a manhunt.

Red makes his way back to Guy and blackmails him  and Whit to get the affidavit retracted and set up Joe Stefanos and Mumsie for the murders. Whit agrees to give money to go away and plane to take him to Mexico. When Red returns the next night for his money he finds Joe and Whit dead and with them his chance at a future.

Well, build the gallows higher. You couldn't frame a dead man and you couldn't make deals with a dead man. The web was spun more intricately, more perfectly than ever.

Standing above the body of the man who could have given him freedom, Red knew the spinner of that web.

Red goes to Mumsie's bedroom to get the money she stole from Whit but Mumsie shoots him. He staggers outside and dies as Guy shoots him again.

Mumsie is a true femme fatale, orchestrating double-crosses while at the same time acting the victim and leading Red on. Red knows that she is treacherous but is unable stop her. His second chance at an idyllic life has ended with him lifeless in the dirt. Mumsie is one of the great femmes fatale. Her survival instincts have left a trail of bodies and a —mostly —decent man losing his happy life.

OUT OF THE PAST

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Out of the Past was written by Daniel Mainwaring who wrote Build My Gallows High under the pseudonym, Geoffrey Homes. There are significant differences between the film and the book but it is a noir classic itself. It even might be a bit more noir than book. It is a masterful adaptation.

Robert Mitchum plays Jeff Bailey, Red in the book and Jane Greer is Kathie Moffat, thankfully renamed from Mumsie McGonigal. Mitchum is perfect as a former private detective caught up in a web of double-crosses. Mitchum's laconic, fatalistic Bailey, with his delivery of snappy, wry, sarcastic dialog using minimum of words is wonderful to watch. More on Jane Greer below.

If you are new to film noir this would be a good introduction. It has all the basic techniques we associate with film noir:

• High key lighting
• use of shadows
• low camera angels
• two shots
• snappy, sarcastic, cynical dialog
• philosophy
• characterization
• a femme fatale
• voice-over narration

It is beautifully done and really makes you appreciate what can be done in black and white films.

I'm sure this is deliberate but when goes from his peaceful life as the owner of a gas station to resuming his darker past, he dons the trench coat and fedora common in hardboiled, noir films. Also, he is seldom without a cigarette.

One difference from the book is that the character of Guy Parker is eliminated entirely and Bailey deals entirely with Whit Sterling. Sterling is play by Kirk Douglas in only his second role. Initially I thought an actor like Richard Widmark would have been better. in the role but after watching the film twice I recognize how well Douglas filled the role. He can be smooth one minute and flair into violence in the next. The film works well without trying to fit in Guy and his history with Bailey.

A significant difference is with Kathie Moffat. Her femme fatale nature really stands out on film. She cold bloodedly shoots Fisher in the cabin rather than having him die in a struggle for the gun. I think this indicates a need make her an obviously evil character. The film code wasn't going to allow her to survive so her perversity was amped up. Her manipulations awhile maintaining a cool, sensual attitude makes for a remarkable, layered, character who is a pleasure to watch. Kathy has power that she uses in ways that might not be obvious to the other characters. At the end she comes right out and tells Bailey that she has power, that she's calling the shots, and that they are going away together.You can compare her to Phyllis Dietrichson in 1944's Double Indemnity. The film code wasn't going to allow her to survive either.

Bailey died in the book and he needed to die in the film well though the circumstances are very different. Bailey sees that his chance at a happy life is gone in the face of Kathie's control of his future and he tips off the police who set up an ambush. When Kathie sees to roadblock and realizes what Bailey has done, she snarls and shots him before dying in a hale of machine gun bullets. We see Kathie's dead hand on the money that was so important to her and Bailey's lifeless body falls out of the car.

Hollywood was operating under the Hayes code and having characters escape justice.wasn't allowed. It was the same in Double Indemnity where a character couldn't escape justice through suicide. Since Bailey hadn't actually stolen anything or deliberately killed anyone, he could probably have been allowed to fly off and have Ann join him in Mexico but I applaud the screenwriter for sticking to his noir guns and having die in the film as well.

There is some redemption for Bailey. I read into the story that Bailey, realizing that his future was over and he was doomed to be with a woman who and betrayed him on multiple occasions, decided to free Ann. By setting up the ambush and knowing he would probably die, Bailey wanted to release Ann from her feelings for him. In the last scenes, Ann goes to The Kid who worked in the gas station (this character had no name other than The Kid) with Bailey.  She asks if it's true that Bailey was going to leave with Kathie. The Kid nods sadly and Ann leaves with Jimmy who will realize his dream of a life with Ann. The Kid the looks up at Bailey's name on the gas station and sketches a salute. I suspect we are meant to think that The Kid was just doing what he know bailey would want. I, on the other had, wonder (and prefer that) if Bailey had time to see The Kid and ask him to tell Ann he was leaving with Kathie and severing their relationship. 

This is a terrific pairing of a noir book and a noir film.

Here are some excellent reviews.

Lost Classics of Noir: build My Gallows High by Geoffrey Homes on Criminal Element Blog

Build My Gallows High (1946) by Geoffrey Homes on Dead Yesterday Blog

Interesting bit of trivia, part of the film was filmed in the actual town of Bridgeport, California.

Keywords: noir, film noir, crime fiction, femme fatale

Review: The Inugami Curse (1951) by Seishi Yokomizo

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SeishiYokomizo began writing mystery fiction after WWII. He wrote in the classic/Golden Age style of detective fiction and he became known as the Japanese John Dickson Carr, an author he greatly admired. 

He introduced his private detective Kosuke Kindaichi in locked room mystery, The Honjin Murders. Reviewed here. Yokomizo love for classic mystery fiction is demonstrated here with a discussion about locked room mysteries and a chapter titled A Conversation About Detective Novels. Could this be considered meta, a fictional detective discussing detective novels? Kindaichi, we learn, is a detective of the Holmes and Poirot variety, using logic, deduction, and his little grey cells.

The Inugami Curse is the 6th of Yokomizo's detective novels and in it he takes on another staple of classic mystery fiction with a group of people gathered together in a manor house for the reading of  the will of wealthy industrialist Sahei Inugami. It is set in post-war Japan. This becomes important because two of the possible heirs were both drafted and went to war in the Burma theatre.

His three daughters, born to different mothers, despise each other and are fiercely protective of the rights of their children. Who will take over the business interests. Readers of these mysteries know that things won't turn out well for someone(s).

Kindaichi is brought in by a lawyer from the law firm representing the Inugami estate. The lawyer has seen the will and recognizes that disaster is sure to follow. Unfortunately, his only appearance is as a corpse, poisoned before he can meet with Kindaichi. The local police are initially skeptical about Kindaichi but upon checking him out his reputation cements his place in the investigation. As in The Honjin Murders, Kindaichi gathers facts as uncovered by the police and observed by him and uncovers the truth. This book is fiendishly complicated and, like The Honjin Murders, is both a whodunit and a howdunit. We get a wonderful set of circumstances making up this mystery: impossible murders, a family curse that appears to be coming true, an unknown figure flitting around the scene and confusing everyone.

Yokomizo uses an omniscient narrator who relates the events. This narrator throws out tantalizing tidbits to let the reader know that if this question had been asked or if this event had occurred, Kindaichi might have solved the case sooner. I enjoyed this technique in the storytelling. I don't think it's quite enough to solve the case but it does help the reader focus on what is going on in Kindaichi's mind.

The author does very well at rendering the physical settings in the story including the weather which has an important role. The description made me wish I could visit locations.

This is a translation by Yumiko Yamazaki who did, I believe, an excellent job. Really, the translator deserves nearly equal credit with the author because they are essentially rewriting the story.

Unfortunately for the reader, only two of Yokomizo's Kindaichi novels have been translated and he featured his detective in 77 novels. The Hojin Murders and The Inugami Curse are excellent first choices to bring to English readers but I hope more are published soon. Go buy these book so publishers think it worthwhile to pursue.

Keywords: Japanese detective stories, classic detective fiction, private detectives, translations