"The Grisom Gang" (1971) is somewhat loosely adapted from
Chase's novel, away from the gruesomer aspects of the novel,
even if it retains some of the violence. And is rather long.
It is not a great Aldrich film and certainly not of the same
vein as
"Kiss me, deadly", but for film fans it remains interesting
and well done. There is also some irony found as a watermark
all over the story, and some sequences that reflects Aldrich
real abilities.
(I watched it again recently).
But remember that No Orchids (1939) was basically a deviated
pastiche: Chase taking the already existing clich鳠of Noir/HB
lit of these days and pushing them deliberately to more
violence and more darkness trying to capture the readers'
voyeurism. I read it a long, long time ago (even if I was no
Mr Mish's pupil) and the poor writing was what struck me the
most. Chase just ripped superficially part of Faulkner's
"Sanctuary" story and a certain darkness, not the real
quality of "Sanctuary" and certainly not the art of Faulkner.
You should reread Faulkner, not No Orchids… In my book
Faulkner is one of the great modern novelists. Beyond genre
lit.
Now, you perhaps know that Chase re-wrote No Orchids…, his
first book, this revision being published in 1961. The excuse
was to "modernize" it, but in fact I think that he was a
little annoyed by the writing poorness of one of his best
sellers, certainly his best known, and tried to improve it.
In fact he also softened a bit the more brutal scenes. Do not
forget that during the sixties he was in full glory and
considered as a master of thriller noir, his fame being also
high among the general public… So… softening could have been
somewhat forced. But I read only a translation of the new
version, never the original.
Have a good year's end!
E.Borgers Hard-Boiled Mysteries http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6384
DJ-Anonyme@webtv.net a 飲it:
>I happened to spot a movie called The Grissom Gang in
Borders the other
>day. The cover got me to pick it up and find it was
directed by Robert
>Aldrich, who directed Kiss Me Deadly. I'd never heard
of this 1971 film
>(not too surprising, although a fan, I'm hardly a
film noir scholar), so
>I looked it up. Turns out it's an adaptaton of James
Hadley Chase's
>infamous No Orchids ofr Miss Blandish. Has anyone
seen this? Is it any
>good?
>
>I read No Orchids a long, long time ago, on the sorta
recommendation of
>my favorite professor, CC Mish, who taught a
hardboiled literature
>course at the University of Maryland (the same class
that inspired
>Pelecanos). Although Mish didn't assign the book, he
called it, not
>entirely negatively (Mish loved his trash as much as
his opera), a
>rip-off of Faulkner's Sanctuary. So I read them both.
I only saw
>surface similarities. Frankly, I don't remember much
about either now.
>
>Mark
>
>
>
>
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