RARA-AVIS: Re: Glass Key, Blood Simple


Victoria Esposito-Shea (vmes@northnet.org)
Fri, 10 Sep 1999 08:23:12 -0400


: wow. that really, really surprises me, because i've always thought it
very
: obvious that miller's crossing is unacknowledged glass key. i'd seen
: miller's crossing many times before i either read or saw the glass key,
but
: i remember reading it and being completely stunned by familiar much of it
: was. obviously, the alan ladd film is much closer to the novel, but
: miller's crossing has always struck me as very sinificantly influenced,
if
: nothing else, by the hammett novel (but not red harvest!)....anyone else?

I've never seen "Miller's Crossing", though it's on my semi-permanent "to see" list (maybe when the kids leave home I'll get around to all of them), but I remember being irked by the Alan Ladd "Glass Key" because of the way the subplot with Janet, Paul and Ned was handled, i.e. on an amicable-to-the-point-of-romantic-comedy note. I thought the movie ending really got deflated by this.

: I seem to remember the Coens referring to Blood Simple as their James M.
: Cain movie, also.

I'm probably belaboring the obvious with this group (hey, someone has to do it!), but the title comes from "Red Harvest", which seems to me to set it up to be read as a Hammett film(even though the movie is far, far more reminiscent of Cain, and arguably of Thompson).

And Chris--"Nick and Nora" pajamas may not be hardboiled, but as a proud owner I can certify that they're warm.

Best, Vicky

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