----- Original Message ----- From: "Chris Schneider" <
chrisaschneider@earthlink.net>
> P.S. Having expressed my extreme fondness for "On
Dangerous Ground," I
> might as well add that I'd be interesting in hearing
what anyone (Al
> Guthrie?) has to say about the source novel, "Mad
With Much Heart," and
its
> author, Gerald Butler. Did the novel contain much of
what we see in this
> Ray/Bezzerides/Houseman adaptation? Or was the shift
from a UK locale to
a
> US one a signal to create something new?
Sorry for taking so long to reply, Chris. I had to watch the
film before I could comment.
Here's the deal. The first part of the movie isn't in the
book. At all. The book starts with the hunt for the killer,
with big city cop James Wilson
(Robert Ryan) already transplanted to the country. In the
book, he isn't vicious. In the book a second attempted murder
occurs, which acts as a catalyst for the chase (in the movie,
I wondered why the killer was still hanging around). The
father of this girl, not the dead one, accompanies Wilson.
His motivation is obviously not as strong as the father of
the dead girl and the change is a good one. Other than those
modifications, after the first half hour the film adaption is
fairly faithful to the book and the shift from the UK locale
to the US makes no real difference that I could see. Oh, the
ending is different.
Butler's a very fine writer. He's written a terrific love
story wrapped in the garb of a crime novel. He's particularly
adept at maintaining high levels of tension over long scenes.
The interplay between the two main characters is terrific.
There's a lot of dialogue, which occasionally gets into the
fringes of psychobabble. But overall, I'd recommend the book
highly. I recently acquired another of Butler's: "Blow Hot,
Blow Cold," touted as "intrigue and violence on the French
Riviera." The Chicago Herald American claims it's "as racy as
a greyhound."
To answer a previous question, Chris: sadly, I don't know
anyone who has seen the Billy Connelly version of "The
Changeling."
Al
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