Re: RARA-AVIS: Great Article on Goodis

From: Nathan Cain (IndieCrime@gmail.com)
Date: 12 Aug 2008

  • Next message: Allan Guthrie: "Re: RARA-AVIS: Goodis and his legacy"

    Don't go ruining a good story with facts. It's much more dramatic if the man who wrote about broke, drunken losers so eloquently was one himself.

    On Tue, Aug 12, 2008 at 8:58 AM, Allan Guthrie <allan@allanguthrie.co.uk> wrote:
    > It might be very eloquent but I can't get past those opening lines.
    > "Cirrhosis of the liver. That's how Goodis died." I don't know where this
    > idea that Goodis was an alcoholic comes from, other than Wikipedia.
    > Certainly not from anyone who knew him. And certainly not according to his
    > death certificate, which states that he died of a 'cerebral vascular
    > accident' in the Albert Einstein Medical Center (this happened three days
    > after he took a beating from a bunch of thugs he refused to give his wallet
    > to, so the story goes). While I'm on my high horse, there's also a widely
    > spread belief that Goodis died in poverty (largely on account of the
    > obituary that appeared in Sight & Sound in Winter 68/69). Bill Sherman, who
    > wrote the offending obituary, has subsequently admitted he made a mistake.
    > Goodis left a considerable estate -- by today's standards he'd have been a
    > millionaire. Yep, the drunken penniless loser actually he died a sober and
    > wealthy man. Since I'm on a run, there's also a rumour that Goodis was
    > paranoid, as most obviously manifested by him suing Warner pictures over The
    > Fugitive, the TV series which he believed was based on his novel, Dark
    > Passage. In fact, there was never any doubt about this. The argument was
    > about whether Warner owed him money in addition to the movie rights they'd
    > already paid for. Warner eventually settled with the Goodis estate,
    > posthumously.
    >
    > If you want to get some impressions of Goodis, the man, that bear some
    > relation to reality, check this out:
    > http://homepage.mac.com/babaganouj/microbrewjournalism/page11/page20/page20.html
    >
    > Um, carry on...
    >
    > Al
    >
    > ----- Original Message -----
    > From: "cinemart_temp" <cinemart_temp@yahoo.com>
    > To: <rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com>
    > Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 2:40 AM
    > Subject: RARA-AVIS: Great Article on Goodis
    >
    >> Another celebration of the Goodis film series - very eloquent:
    >>
    >> http://www.movingimagesource.us/articles/no-exit-20080811
    >
    >



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