> on 6/28/03 7:41 AM, Dave at
davezelt@attbi.com wrote:
>
> I just rented "Hit Me", which is an awful movie and
a completely
> pointless adaptation of Jim Thompson's "A
Swell-Looking Babe". Other
> than some of the names (although "Dusty" Rhodes
becomes Sonny Rhodes)
> and elements of the rip-off scheme, the movie has
nothing in common with
> the book. Makes you wonder what they were thinking -
to buy the rights
> to such a great crime book and turn it into such
crap? The video box
> lists William Macy prominently on the box - he's got
about a 30 second
> cameo in this. Elias Koteas stars, and I don't think
anyone watching
> this would want to choose him for Marlowe (although
he was good in
> "Exotica" and "A Thin Red Line").
>
> --
You might want to check out a
particularly well-written piece on that film by Jonathan
Lethem in the 10/2/98 issue of Salon.com.
One name you forget to mention is the
man who wrote the screenplay, Denis Johnson. He's a very fine
-- really! -- novelist and sometimes playwright whose tales
can have a decidedly noir feel. I'd recommend his
"Resuscitation of A Hanged Man," which strikes me as a bit of
a Neil Jordan film *manque*.
For what it's worth, as far as
adaptations of "A Swell-Looking Babe" are concerned ... I
once put together the credits for an Alternate Universe Film
Adaptation of Thompson's novel. An adptation, that is to say,
which never occurred yet which I'd like to have seen. Here
are the names:
A
SWELL-LOOKING BABE
Columbia,
1954
dusty
-- John Barrymore, Jr.
marcia
-- Cleo Moore
tug
-- Lawrence Tierney
bill
sr. -- Hugo Haas
bascomb
-- John Qualen
kossmeyer
-- Harry Guardino
*
director
-- Hugo Haas
screenplay
-- Hugo Haas
(actually
an uncredited,
blacklisted
Abraham Polonsky)
*
* *
My two rules, for the Alternate
Universe Film Adaptation game, are: 1) it all must be
reasonably likely, omitting "impossible" combinations of
names; and 2) the fictitious film must be a product of the
same year when, in real life, the book was published. It's a
game that keeps me occupied in idle moments ...
Chris
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