> Published in 1946, Dorothy Hughes's RIDE THE PINK
HORSE is a true
hardboiled
> noir from back when you couldn't name a half-dozen
women writing in
the
> genres. The mood is dark, the characters are tough,
and the scenes
are
> memorable.
>
> The story opens with tough guy Sailor getting off
the bus in a small
> Mexican-American bordertown. The town is having a
multi-day fiesta,
and the
> town is flooded with people there for the
celebration. It's apparent
from
> the beginning that Sailor is not there for fun. He's
been cheated out
of
> money for some dirty work he did for his former
boss, the Senator, and
now
> it's time to pay up. Sailor is helped by an Indian
girl named Pila
and a
> Mexican carny he calls Pancho, but his efforts to
get his money are
> complicated when a cop who suspects foul play enters
the picture.
>
> A common plot in noir involves a protagonist making
a mistake and then
doing
> whatever he can to protect himself from the dire
consequences. Of
course,
> nothing he does saves him from doom. The first
mistake seals his
fate.
> Charles Williams's RIVER GIRL and Geoffrey Homes's
BUILD MY GALLOWS
HIGH are
> good examples.
>
> But there's a different noir flavor where it appears
that the
protagonist
> could turn around and walk away any time, but
instead he continuously
makes
> decisions that keep him on the road to perdition.
William Lindsay
Gresham's
> NIGHTMARE ALLEY falls into this category, and so
does RIDE THE PINK
HORSE.
> The cop pleads with him to make a clean break and
free himself, but
Sailor
> is determined to blackmail the Senator.
>
> I like this moth-to-a-flame plot. There is a strong
will to survive
built
> into people. It takes some powerful motivation to
cause a person to
> self-destruct, and it takes a good author to explore
these
motivations.
> Hughes has got what it takes.
>
> My only complaint is that Hughes developed dynamic
and interesting
> relationships between Sailor, Pancho, and Pila, but
their parting
seems to
> have no significance.
>
> Dorothy Hughes was born in Kansas City, Missouri, in
1904, and from an
early
> age she knew she wanted to be a writer. She
graduated from the
University
> of Missouri with a journalism degree in 1924, did
graduate work in New
> Mexico and New York, and worked as a journalist for
several years.
Although
> she published a book of poems in 1931, her first
novel, THE SO BLUE
MARBLE,
> did not come out until 1940. Aside from being a
successful mystery
writer,
> her literary criticism garnered her a 1950 Edgar
Award from the
Mystery
> Writers of America.
>
> Her two most notable novels are RIDE THE PINK HORSE,
published in
1946, and
> IN A LONELY PLACE, published the following year.
Both books were made
into
> successful Film Noirs. From 1940 to 1979 she
reviewed mystery novels
for
> several newspapers and in 1978 she received the
double honor of being
named
> a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America
and, 28 years after
her
> first, winning her second Edgar for her critical
biography of Erle
Stanley
> Gardner, author of the Perry Mason series. Hughes
died in 1993.
>
> miker
> --
I haven't yet read any of her books but at least 2 excellent
film versions have been based on them - RIDE THE PINK HORSE
& IN A LONELY PLACE, both excellent films noirs.
Rene
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