This tale of thieves falling out is lifted out of the ordinary by Thompson’s uncanny ability to create chillingly credible portraits of criminals, misfits, felons and psychopaths at the extremes of human behaviour. He then caps it all with a hellish finale that goes where no pulp paperback had gone before, which was predictably excised from both movie versions .. but which unexpectedly surfaced in a George Clooney movie written by Quentin Tarantino …
I submit this review for Bev’s Vintage Mystery Challenge; Rich Westwood’s Crime of the Century meme; and (in hope, and admiration) Tuesday’s Overlooked Film meme hosted by Todd Mason over at Sweet Freedom.
“Got him right through the heart,” Doc told Carol. “One of those very rare instances where a man actually dies laughing.”
“Just so he died,” Carol grimaced.
At the heart of story is the relationship between Carter “Doc” McCoy, a career criminal, and his much younger wife Carol, an ex-librarian. Unusually for hardboiled crime fiction such as this, they are neither a faithless husband nor a scheming and castrating femme fatale. Doc spent several years in the slammer and she has had to do a lot to get him out, offering herself to Benyon, the head of the parole board, along with money off the top from the proceeds of the bank job they will pull as soon as Doc gets out. The bank robbery goes according to plan but their partner Rudy Torrento tries a double cross (no surprise, Doc was planning the same) and fails. But unfortunately for Doc and Carol, Rudy doesn’t die despite being shot in the chest and soon he is chasing his ex-confederates to get his hands on a quarter of a million dollars. Ultimately the McCoys head to Mexico to ‘El Rey’, a refuge for criminals that proves anything but a sanctuary. In fact, it is utterly terrifying …
“Doc,” she raised her eyes. “I’ve changed a lot, haven’t I? You think I have.”
Original paperback edition with cover art by Robert Maguire.
What makes this book so memorable is the way it takes take a well-worn scenario (it is worth comparing with another notable paperback original of the time, Gil Brewer’s The Vengeful Virgin) and turn it inside out, with characters we should hate but instead are transfixed by. Rudy is a psychopath who giggles away while doing truly terrible things and the McCoys are unrepentant about the murders they commit to keep themselves going – and yet, we follow them regardless, all the way to hell on earth, and beyond … On top of this are suspense set-pieces as dark and gripping as anything created by Cornell Woolrich, including a sequences set in caves that should not be read by anyone who suffers even a little from claustrophobia. And this brings us to the finale set in El Rey, which is utterly brilliant in its glacial and horrible irony and which it would be wrong to discuss in a spoiler-free forum such as this. It may just be the best thing about the book but it being so extreme and nihilistic meant that of course it got cut from both the movie versions, though it does get alluded to in Quentin Tarantino’s horror thriller, From Dusk Till Dawn (1996).
Carter ‘Doc’ McCoy: “Punch it, Baby!” (1972 film version)
Walter Hill’s screenplay (used in both films) may omit Thompson’s original finale and soften the ending in general, but is otherwise pretty faithful to the novel, with Steve McQueen brilliantly cast as the unsparing Doc. Ali McGraw however gets a bit of a raw deal as Carol, which is very thinly written. Sam Peckinpah handles the plentiful slow-mo action with his usual mastery, while Al Lettieri steals the show as the loathsome Rudy. The film was a really big hit in its day, so it was no big surprise when it got remade, though it was interesting that they kept the bulk of the original screenplay rather than start again. This may, on reflection, not have been such a great idea though, because star cinema had moved on a lot in the intervening decades …
The 1994 remake, tailored for another off-screen actor couple, this time Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger, had Hill’s script updated by Amy Holden Jones, who also beefed up Carol’s part, which is just as well because the first film is more than a tad chauvinistic. In fact, it is downright Cro-Magnon-like in its depiction of relations between the sexes! The remake gives Basinger much more to play with as Carol, while Michael Madsen can’t hope to match Lettieri in the original, but does OK in a typical role for him. The same goes for Baldwin, who is good casting but is in fact too convincing as an ice-cold criminal and so doesn’t really give you enough reason to root for such a nasty piece of work. More honest then, but is that really what we want in a thriller such as this? Needless to say, James Woods mops the floor with all of them in the small role of Benyon. Roger Donaldson, who directed the superb No Way Out, does a fair if rather mechanical job of orchestrating the action but … one wishes that perhaps Hill could have been invited to direct it as he would have made it look much more distinctive and would certainly have delivered a much grittier movie overall. Frankly, as good as they are, Basinger and Baldwin always look much too beautifully coiffed and attired to be believable given the situations in which they find themselves.
The Getaway (1972)
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Producer: David Foster
Screenplay: Walter Hill
Cinematography: Lucien Ballard
Art Direction: Ted Haworth and Angelo Graham
Music: Quincy Jones (after Jerry Fielding)
Cast: Steve McQueen (Doc), Ali MacGraw (Carol), Ben Johnson (Benyon), Al Lettieri (Rudy), Sally Struthers (Fran), Jack Dodson (Clinton), Richard Bright (the thief), Bo Hopkins (Frank), Slim Pickens (Cowboy)
The Getaway (1994)
Director: Roger Donaldson
Producer: David Foster, Lawrence Turman
Screenplay: Walter Hill and Amy Holden Jones
Cinematography: Peter Menzies Jr
Art Direction: Joseph Nemec III
Music: Mark Isham
Cast: Alec Baldwin (Doc), Kim Basinger (Carol), James Woods (Benyon), Michael Madsen Rudy), Jennifer Tilly (Fran), James Stephens (Harold [Clinton]) Scott McKenna (Red Shirt [the thief]), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Frank), Richard Farnsworth (Slim [Cowboy])
I submit this review for Bev’s 2017 Golden Age Vintage Mystery Scavenger Hunt in the ‘car’ category:
Tipping My Fedora 
Trust Thompson to create that sort of character, Sergio – the kind who’s despicable in many ways, but whom you can’t help following. That’s hard to do. I’m not surprised to learn that Thompson ‘went there’ with this novel, too, nor that those parts weren’t included in the films. Talk about a no-nonsense writer… I’d put some of Thompson’s noir up there with the darkest. Thanks, as ever, for the fine review.
Thanks Margot – bleak but thrilling!
Peckinpah’s film is somewhat primitive in some of the attitudes but I still like the movie overall, and it’s a better film, in my opinion, than the remake. Mind you, I don’t dislike the remake – it just lacks a little of what makes the 1972 version memorable.
I haven’t read the book and I want to do so now, particularly with the allusions to the ending. To say I’m intrigued would be understating things.
Thanks Colin – I think we are of like mind here 😀 I reckon you would really like the book. The sheer macho charisma of the original is undeniable!
Two worthwhile versions of the story suggests it has too have something going for it, and I haven’t actually read a lot by Thompson – one or two books only, I think.
Which ones? He was at his best in the 1950s, by a wide margin, when he was churning books out in a white heat. Was really fascinating to see how in the 90s when all of a sudden he was re-discovered.
The Killer Inside Me, grim, and something else which I can’t recall off the top of my head now, maybe something that was filmed when he was reassessed but not The Grifters as I think I’d remember that.
There was a wonderful brief little surge at the time – The Kill-Off (1989), After Dark My Sweet (1990), The Grifters (1990, and maybe my favourite) and then the remake of The Getaway in 1994. I do think the 2010 version of The Killer Inside Me, as hard as it is to watch in parts, is a brilliant piece of troubling cinema.
I think you’re right, tough going at times but a helluva movie too.
There really was a kind of boom in neo-noir thrillers there at the tail end of the 80s and beginning of the 90s, wasn’t there? It’s easy to forget how much stuff was coming out at that time.
I bet there are whole books devoted to the reasons why but Noir, whether it be proto-, neo-, or 40s and 50s Classical, is always cool!
Quite true, it never goes out of fashion – there may be lulls or periods of less activity/popularity but it never stays away long. With the appalling state of things just about everywhere in the world right now you’d be forgiven for thinking another revival was just round the corner.
All I want is light comedy four at least 4 years Colin!
Motion seconded!
😀
The Killer Inside Me is quintessential Thompson — I maintain that I read that book without blinking, it’s just the most horribly compelling portrayal of insanity yet recorded. Pop. 1280 is much the same — if you’re looking for somwhere to go next, that’s probbaly his masterpiece.
Cheers, JJ, suggestion noted. Mind you, I’m in the mood for something a tad lighter than Thompson at the moment 0 hardcore noir is something best dipped into at the right time I find.
Aaah, see, I can never get enough Thompson, the man was a genius. You might also consider Nothing More Than Murder — a sort-of heist gone wrong — if you want a lighter hue of Thompson’s bleakness; it might be the blackest comedy ever written, but it legitimately funny at times if you can get on board with it…
OK, that might be a better fit for me just now – noted once again, and thanks.
Not read NOTHING MORE actually…
More Rex Stout I see in your future 😀
You may well be right but for the present I just started The Saint Plays with Fire the other day so I shall be ambling through that for the next week or thereabouts.
Was just thinking of reading a Saint book from the 1930s in fact!
PS The Saint in Action is the one I was looking at as I know the chap who wrote the intro for a particular edition.
I have that under the alternative title of The Ace of Knaves, not read it though. I’m guessing your edition will be the reissue with intro by a certain Hammer expert?
Yes, the very amusing intro is by Jonathan Rigby, who I know.
I have his American and English Gothic books, and will probably get the Euro one in time – excellent stuff.
I’ll tell him you said that 😀
Do so, it’s work to be proud of.
🙂
Not going to disagree on either.
Those may be my two favourites though I need to re-read POP
Masterful write-up regarding this title, Sergio. Yeah, that, “…hellish finale that goes where no pulp paperback had gone before” really threw me for a loop (though, in a good way) when I finally read this Thompson classic. And I hadn’t connected this with FROM DUSK TILL DAWN at all till you gave that away. 😉
Bravo.
Agreed, the Peckinpah version is the more chauvinistic of the two film adaptations, but my preferred. As it is for Colin, the remake I hold in no disdain, still. Just another reading that has some things to further glean from. At least I know now, whenever I re-screen either, to make it a double-feature and put it to bed with FDTD. 🙂
Thanks very much Michael. I thoroughly enjoy all the various iterations for their own virtues – but the book is the most distinctive!
Sergio, I have seen the 1994 version of THE GETAWAY though I don’t remember much. And now I’d like to see the original, as much for Steve McQueen as for the story. Not having read Jim Thompson, the novel sounds gritty with a whiff of promiscuity.
Promiscuity would be an odd way of looking at it to be honest – not much sex in the book frankly. But I hope you read it – its savage intensity is pretty hypnotic!
I interred Thompson as a King of Crime for a plethora of reasons, not least because the guy writes the sort of text that sears your eyeballs as you comprehend just how badass it is; The Getaway is possibly his most lyrical writing, and he has some beautiful reflections on the process and necessity of flight and betrayal here that I can’t help but feel nails those concepts for all time.
The movies…meh. I like McQueen as much as the next guy, but he played Steve McQueen in virtually everything, and there’s a fundamental alchemy about McCoy that neither Hill nor the two fine gentlemen who played him quite caught. And without that final chapter, you’re telling a very different story…!
Again, were are of very luck mind here. I think GRIFTERS and KILLER INSIDE ME (2010) come closest but he really only works on the page.
The Grifters os an odd book and an odder film — the various overlays of misogyny, misandry, nepotism, incest, and obsession are weirdly out of kilter on the page, almost like Thompson didn’t realise what he had written until he was done and then didn’t want to rework it. The film removes most of it can casts John Cusack, one of the most passive actors ever to work in Hollywood, in a role that requires the dynamism and self-disgust of the page to be even slightly workable. Still, Angelica Huston works hard to salvage it, and this was back in the period of her career where she really could turn herself to anything. But it’s a weird brew all the same.
I thought the film worked really well on its own terms and I thought Donald Westlake (aka ‘Richard Stark’) did a really good job of making the most of the various oedipal themes, etc etc. I like Cusack a lot and thought the contrast between the three protagonists (Benning is sensational is such an eye-catching role) was especially good and the occasional flashbacks surprisingly successful. But you know what? I need to re-read and re-watch this comic. You’ve inspired me JJ, another Thompson duo on its way (probably in a couple of months though – hope you can wait that long :))
Y’know what? If I can track the movie down I might do the same…
Just ordered the blu-ray 20 minutes ago as I realised I don;t seem to have it on video at all – bit of a shock actually …
Excellent write-up on a masterful novel — it made quite an impression on me, though it’s been ages since I read it and I’m due to re-read it. I should say I’m overdue to read more Thompson in general, but I try pace myself reading his oh so bleak but compelling novels… so good, but so grim.
Thanks Chris, I feel the same. It’s the same when I read James Elroy as you can have too much of a good thing.
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I am not looking forward to a “hellish finale” but I am definitely reading the book. I wasn’t sure how much I would like it but you have convinced me of its merits. Also would like to see the movie but depends on availability and cost.
Would love to know what you think!
One of a handful of his that I haven’t read yet. I’m funny about reading favorite authors that are dead. I have a reluctance to come to the end of it all and know there’s nothing new left. Having a few holdouts gives me comfort in a twisted way.
Thanks for that Kelly – I do exactly the same. In the case of Graham Greene, for instance, it’s the two books he never allowed to be reprinted and which are very hard to find. But one day, when I’m on my deathbed …
Really good stuff Sergio – love the story, and the climactic ‘hideaway’ scene you mentioned was shocking and extremely claustrophobic back in the day. It felt like a classic, much told story being taken a visceral notch up. Of the film versions, I think McQueen and McGraw were very close to what I thought the characters looked like, especially the latter, but there’s capacity for really recreating the darker elements of the novel, rather than latching onto the romantic, BONNIE AND CLYDE vibe.
Thanks for that Mike – ultimately, one wonders if a version will attempt to really bring the book, in all its darkness, to the screen intact – I’m not holding my breath on that one though!
Sergio – Thompson is a favorite, but because the 1972 movie was so vivid, I never read this one. And, I agree, Al Lettieri steals the show. All the scenes with him, Sally Struthers and Jack Dodson are evil, painful and hilarious. He also nearly stole a key scene from Al Pacino in “The Godfather,” when Michael meets him in a restaurant with the corrupt police captain, played by Sterling Hayden. Lettieri died in 1975 at age 47.
Thanks Elgin – I always get shocked when I hear about people dying young – always seems such such a waste of course. But fate is a really cruel so and so, as Thompson did keep telling us 🙂 The 1972 movie works well, the book is much better though, honest!
My copy is on a shelf behind my desk. I am going to dust it off and dig in. Just hope I can read it with fresh eyes and not see Ali MacGraw on every page. (Whoa! What am I saying?! Even though Ali was too beautiful and classy for that part, that did not bother me one bit.)
It’s a shame her period of movie stardom was so brief – always liked her too.
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