On May 21, 2007, at 8:14 PM,
DJ-Anonyme@webtv.net wrote:
> The mention of Blood Simple and the sleazy PI played
so well by M.
> Emmet
> Walsh reminded me of a question I've been meaning to
ask. There are
> plenty of noble PIs throughout hardboiled and noir.
What about sleazy
> PIs? I can think of a few, like Estleman's Peeper
and a few with
> unreliable narrators (I'm reluctant to name them, as
the PIs seem
> to be
> noble at first). Others?
Of course you knew I'd jump at this one. I started a list a
while back, but I only have a few on it so far.
Besides Loren Visser in BLOOD SIMPLE, there's Karl Benson (as
played by Dan Duryea) in the 1949 flick MANHANDLED.
He's pretty sleazy, as is Joe Gores' heroin-dealing Neal
Fargo from INTERFACE. I think Gores tried to redeem the
character in a subsequent short story, but I'm not sure if it
took.
And I'd get the snot beaten out of me the next time I crossed
the border if I didn't mention hustler/P.I. John Swan by our
very own Kerry Schooley.
And I see from my notes that I consider Tom Horn one of the
first real-life really "bad" eyes.
There are no doubt a ton more, so I'm anxious to hear who you
guys come up with.
Kevin
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 22 May 2007 EDT