I remember thinking when these came out that they would be
good starter kits. I liked all of these novels when I first
read them and thought they were good choices for inclusion in
such volumes. I think that all the novels in both volumes
would be on everybody's top 50 list.
The Big Clock was made into two different films, both good,
the last of which was No Way Out with Kevin Costner.
Actually, all the books in these volumes were made into
movies. The Woolrich is excellent. It was made into a movie
with Ricki Lake called Mrs. Winterbourne. Not bad, but not
great.
All the books in the 50s volume are classics as well. Ripley,
of course, was Highsmith's best novel. Any of the Himes
Harlem novels are equally good. You can't argue about The
Killer Inside Me, a great Jim Thompson novel.
Jeff
> Of the others, I liked The Big Clock the least. It
was ambitiously
> told from about six different characters' points of
view in
> alternating chapters. Their tone didn't vary a whole
lot, though.
> And the motive for the murder seems somewhat flimsy,
especially
> now. I guess they sometimes are, aren't
they?
>
> My favourite was Thieves Like Us, which is about
three guys who
> escape from prison and start robbing banks together.
Each of them
> has a different goal in mind, but none of them
really imagines
> himself ever doing anything but robbing. One of the
guys falls in
> love with a 14-year-old (much more mature than he
is), whom he
> calls his Little Soldier, and they start travelling
together. She
> thinks he has given up thieving, but she is sadly
mistaken. It's
> very moving and very well written.
>
> Nightmare Alley is great, as miker and others have
already said.
> It's about a young man who starts out doing sleight
of hand in a
> "ten-in-one" show, rises to performing at private
parties, then
> sets his eyes on a really big con. Along the way he
loses any
> scruples he might ever have had and starts drinking
heavily. I kept
> wondering how much lower he could go. And of course
I had known
> from the beginning, but ...
>
> I also really liked They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
I've never seen
> the movie.
>
> I'll have to go back to the Woolrich one of these
days. Volume 2 is
> also on the horizon.
>
> Karin
>
> On 09 Mar 2004 Marc Seals wrote:
> In addition to the excellent suggestions of Hammett
and Chandler
> (which is chock full of the kind of humor that you
seem to like), a
> good introduction would be _CRIME NOVELS: American
Noir of the
> 1930s and 40s_ (Library of America, 1997). It
contains James Cain's
> _The Postman Always Rings Twice_, Horace McCoy's
_They Shoot
> Horses, Don't They?_, Edward Anderson's
> _Thieves Like Us, Kenneth Fearing's _The Big Clock_,
William
> Lindsay Gresham's _Nightmare Alley_, and Cornell
Woolrich's _I
> Married a Dead Man_.
>
> The companion volume is _CRIME NOVELS: American Noir
of the 1950s_
> (Library of America, 1997). It contains Patricia
Highsmith's _The
> Talented Mr. Ripley_, David Goodis's _Down There_,
Jim Thompson's
> _The Killer Inside Me_, Charles Willeford's
_Pick-Up_, and Chester
> Himes's _The Real Cool Killers_.
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