Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: western vs noir, cowboy vs private eye

From: Patrick King (abrasax93@yahoo.com)
Date: 09 Jul 2009

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    A case could be made that A STUDY IN SCARLET is the very first western/mystery cross-genre piece.

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    THE VALLEY OF FEAR also had its motive set in the American west. The villains in that was a gangster-run union rather than Mormons. Both stories are based on fact. THE STUDY IN SCARLET take for its premise the Mountain Meadow massacre of 1857 in which a group of high-level Mormons instigated an attack on an emigrant wagon train, attempting to make it look like a Paiute native attack. THE VALLY OF FEAR fictionalizes the exploits of Pinkerton mole, James McParland who famously infiltrated the mine workers union, The Molly Maguires.

    Patrick King

          



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