Wasn't Budd Schulberg's ON THE WATERFRONT actually a
novelization? I think he wrote the script first and then the
novel.
***
The French Jim Thompson movie SERIE NOIRE from 1975 (IIRC) is
a bit difficult one. The guy in the lead (forgot his name) is
awesomely weird, but he's way over-the-top and I've always
thought that Thompson's "heroes", however screwed they are,
are not over-the-top. The film is also very slow, but it's
very much worthwhile if you can spot it.
I understood from the discussion here that it's not on DVD; I
saw it ten years back in a screening of the Finnish Film
Archive. The director went later on to make some pretty big
art-house hits, such as ALL THE MORNINGS OF LIFE (or
something to that effect, about the Baroque composer; an
excellent film, but not anywhere noir or hardboiled). I seem
to remember that the scriptwriter for SERIE NOIRE was Georges
Perec, which may explain some of its weirdness.
***
As for Anders's excellent list, Pike's THE MUTE WITNESS is
quite good on its own, and I'd say that Garfield's DEATH WISH
is way beyond the stupid Winner/Bronson film. Garfield's own
sequel is marvellous (THE DEATH SENTENCE). Garfield seems
underrated now, but I've enjoyed almost everything I've read
by him (except the Churchill novel, what was it called, THE
PALADIN?).
On Woolrich: Truffaut's LA SIRENE DU MISSISSIPPI is a version
of WALTZ INTO DARKNESS.
Juri
PS. Still on Frank Miller: his artwork on the original Sin
City graphic novels is so strong that I was willing to
forgive the weak stories. But when the thing just kept on
going, I got somewhat bored.
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