James Atlee Phillips's second novel and first mystery was THE
CASE OF THE SHIVERING CHORUS GIRLS (Coward-McCann 1942). A
decade later Phillips would resume his mystery career as a
Chandlerish novelist with PAGODA and SUITABLE FOR FRAMING.
Before and after he would flourish as a story writer for
Colliers and the Saturday Evening Post and for Hollywood,
most notably as cowriter with Robert Mitchum of the classic
drive-in movie "Thunder Road."
But let's drop back to 1942. Phillips was working as a flack
for showman Billy Rose doing submissions for Dorothy
Kilgallen and Walter Winchell when he pounded out CHORUS
GIRLS in ten days. The novel featured a Winchell-like
character and generously drew from Phillips' experience. The
intent was to create a new Nero Wolfe.
Here is the first paragraph of that novel's blurb: "The
success of the sedentary Nero Wolfe, not to mention Duncan
Maclain with his Seeing-Eye dog, has paved the way for the
appearance of Henry Morton Wardlaw, blind detective
extraordinary, who never moves from his penthouse
aerie."
Phillips very efficiently and dramatically sets up the
blinding of Wardlaw, US Ambassador to Turkey, and his later
installation in a New York City Penthouse where he poured
over details of homicide investigations. To help him in his
hobby, he advertises for and interviews candidates for
assistants.
He ends up hiring two: a recent graduate of a Colorado
law school named Emery Landers and a former football beefcake
from Boston College named George Caster "Bopeep" Patterson.
These two become Wardlaw's Archie Goodwin. I can also
envision them cast as characters in a Hollywood B series
circa 1942: Van Johnson and Nat Pendleton playing the
roles.
Let's first deal with what this novel isn't...it ain't the
second coming of Nero and Archie. Wardlaw has a very
promising beginning and I love the image of him brooding in
his penthouse apartment with the sixty foot glass covered
view in the backgound and "Ride of the Valkyrie" on the
record player. But he soon disappears into a very secondary
role. Bopeep and Landers have many enjoyable moments but
Archie Goodwin they ain't. They routinely skip answering
telephone calls that might be from their boss and get
shitfaced drunk when all depends on them. People die because
they would rather drink than do their duty and this is
presented without condemnation.
Hey, I know it was a different era but I can compare them to
Archie if not to modern day characters.
The whole thing is a mix of Nero Wolfe with plot elements
that closely resemble FER DE LANCE and more hardboiled
fiction. In fact, the writing is much grittier than Stout's
Wolfe. The novel includes one of the most graphic third
degree interrogation scenes ever presented in mystery
fiction. This scene is not a backward look at bygone judicial
habits long since abandoned. It is here and now as far as the
readers of 1942 were concerned.
The characters conducting the third degree are not condemned
at all. The man in the hot seat is guilty and the cops are
just doing their job, even though they may be stupid and
brutal. They take off their coats to allow free rein for
swinging their shoulders. "His head was bent downward; time
and time again the hose took it with a distinct thud, and
each time the head bobbed. The man was not young. Blood had
started out of his scalp, and sweat glistened on his face.
First one and then another of the detectives would take the
rubber snake and slap him across the scalp with it."
During the course of this, the detectives would throw water
on him to awaken him and "the pinioned man raised his head
suddenly and, pushing out his lips, tried to trap some of the
moisture cascading down his face. A few drops fell into his
mouth, and his neck jerked convulsively as he swallowed." One
of the detectives began to swab his head "mopping up the
moisture as it came off his forehead so that it would not
reach his mouth."
The scene gets more graphic from this point on but I will
spare you. The fact is that while we are all familiar with
the "third degree" scene and how what are now considered
constitutional rights used to be violated, it is stunning to
see it matter-of-factly done by the "good guys" in a novel
even one published in 1942. Yes, the cops were presented as
corrupt idiots but in this instance they were "doing the
right thing" and what they did was done with the knowledge of
the Nero Wolfe wannabe Wardlaw.
So how do I summarize my opinion? This book is well worth
finding and reading and it is also well worth someone
reprinting. It is a very enjoyable read, although I will say
it was a bit complicated for my tastes as it had about three
plots going at the same time. It is fun on its own terms and
it is also interesting and important as a novel that pushes
the genre into new directions. It is also fascinating as a
period piece that reminds us of where we were not so long ago
in the criminal justice system.
Richard Moore
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