Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: Thompson and other novelists who wrote screenplays

From: Nigel Algar ( montana@dircon.co.uk)
Date: 05 Nov 2004


Vince Keenan wrote:
>
> For an in-depth look at this subject, I'd recommend Woody Haut's HEARTBREAK
> AND VINE. He focuses specifically on the work noir writers did for Hollywood
> and how it reflects on their literary output. I don't agree with Haut on
> everything, but he always knows whereof he speaks.

I'd recommend this book too, but would advise readers to be on the lookout for typos and howlers, eg Haut says that Samuel Goldwyn tried to lure Chandler to MGM in 1946. However Goldwyn had had no connections with MGM since 1923. To be fair to Haut, the various Chandler bios are confused on this - and maybe Chandler himself thought Goldwyn was at MGM - but it does seem unlikely that Goldwyn would try to lure Chandler to work for a studio with which he had broken off relations years before. On the same page Ophuls' film noir is retitled THE RESTLESS MOMENT instead of THE RECKLESS MOMENT, and, more importantly, Haut later suggests that there is a Goodis novel called RAVING BEAUTY. This produced a tremor of excitement - why hadn't I heard of this? - but reference to the Goodis biography (listed as a reference in Haut's bibliography) confirms that this is an alternative title for SOMEBODY'S DONE FOR, his last novel.

Caveat lector.

Nigel

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