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Category Archives: 2013 Book to Movie Challenge
2013 Book to Movie Challenge – completed
I had promised myself that in 2013 I would not undertake any new Challenges … but this one created by Katie over at her Doing Dewey blog proved irresistible. I selected the Movie Aficionado level (a dozen books to be reviewed … Continue reading
Callan (1974) – Tuesday’s Overlooked Film
In the 1970s British cinema was at a particularly low ebb following the departure of the American majors. The number of productions fell precipitously and confidence ebbed away. As a result, for the next few years British cinemas seemed to … Continue reading
The Lady from Shanghai (1948) – Tuesday’s Overlooked Film
The story goes that Orson Welles, needing $50,000, rang the head of Columbia Studios and offered to make a film for them from a paperback he had just plucked at random from a book stand near the phone booth. Is … Continue reading
IF I DIE BEFORE I WAKE (1938) by Sherwood King
Later adapted by Orson Welles into The Lady from Shanghai starring Rita Hayworth, this was one of a pair of pre-war mysteries by Raymond Sherwood King. Set among the wealthy elite of Long Island, it is narrated by Laurence Planter, … Continue reading
The Drowning Pool (1975) – Tuesday’s Overlooked Film
Lew Archer, Ross Macdonald’s immortal private detective, had a name change when played by Paul Newman in Harper (1966). The movie was a hit so further attempts were made to transpose the character to the screen. The 1974 TV-Movie of … Continue reading
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN by Lionel Shriver
Columbine, Santana, Pocatello, Virginia Tech … 10 years after its publication and this novel remains as controversial and potent as ever, its distressing subject matter still relevant after the recent events in Sparks, Nevada and Sandy Hook Elementary School last … Continue reading
Posted in 2013 Book to Movie Challenge, Lionel Shriver, New York
Tagged John C. Reilly, Lynne Ramsay, Tilda Swinton
27 Comments
THE WINTER MURDER CASE (1939) by SS Van Dine
This was the snowy swan song for amateur sleuth Philo Vance. It is also, stylistically, Van Dine’s most atypical book, told in a brisk, direct and light manner almost completely free of those adornments (footnotes and expansive digressions etc.) that … Continue reading
THE DROWNING POOL (1950) by Ross Macdonald
This is the second of eighteen books featuring Lew Archer, the California PI created by Kenneth Millar, first published under his soon to be shortened pen-name, ‘John Ross Macdonald.’ It was also the first of the series that I read, … Continue reading
Danger Within (1959) – Tuesday’s Overlooked Film
The late Bryan Forbes co-adapted Michael Gilbert’s wartime mystery Death in Captivity (which I previously reviewed here) into this tight little movie, released in the US as Breakout. Set in an Italian POW camp in the Summer of 1943, it is a … Continue reading
SS Van Dine – forgotten author
Does anyone read the rarefied intellectual puzzles investigated by Philo Vance anymore? I have been looking again at this series written and narrated by ‘SS Van Dine’ mainly with great pleasure (and will provide a couple of reviews here at … Continue reading
DEATH IN CAPTIVITY (1952) by Michael Gilbert
The unusual background for this superb locked room mystery is a POW camp in Italy, loosely based on the author’s own experiences during the Second World War. It was filmed with Richard Todd in 1959 as Danger Within, the book’s US … Continue reading
Payback – Straight Up: The Director’s Cut
When Parker, the Jason Statham / Jennifer Lopez movie was released, they used a rather obscure though witty strapline that only fans would probably enjoy: “Payback has a new name” Why is this amusing? Well it helps if you know … Continue reading
Posted in 2013 Book to Movie Challenge, Donald Westlake, Film Noir, Parker, Richard Stark
Tagged Brian Helgeland, Mel Gibson
32 Comments
THE BIG CLOCK (1946) by Kenneth Fearing
Kenneth Fearing (1902-61), modernist novelist and proletariat poet, was driven by a strong social conscience. When subpoenaed in the 1950s and asked if he was a Communist, he replied, rather splendidly, “Not yet.” Of his seven crime novels, The Big … Continue reading
The Hot Rock (1972) – Tuesday’s Overlooked Film
John Archibald Dortmunder is a professional thief but not always a very lucky one. In his debut comic caper he plans and executes an elaborate jewel heist that quickly descends into farce when one of his team gets caught and … Continue reading
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: Annabel (1962)
During the week David Kelsey lives in a little apartment in Froudsberg but at weekends he drives off to a large secluded house near Ballard to become ‘William Newmaster’, where he dreams of a life with his ex-girlfriend Annabel, now … Continue reading
THIS SWEET SICKNESS (1960) by Patricia Highsmith
If we’re lucky we’ve all been in love at least once – but can it also be a kind of madness? This is the theme of this novel by Patricia Highsmith, whose unconventional suspense fiction used genre trappings to depict … Continue reading
The Four Just Men (1939) – Tuesday’s Overlooked Film
Edgar Wallace was a popular author who, when it came to adapting his works for the cinema, not only opted to produce them himself but even directed a couple! He remains one of the most filmed of all writers, the vast majority … Continue reading
JIGSAW (1970) by Ed McBain
The 87th Precinct series reaches the decade that fashion sense forgot in a quirky and profane story of prejudice and stereotypes where the squad’s only black officer, Arthur Brown, finally takes centre stage. Built around a bizarre treasure hunt, this novel later served … Continue reading
THE FOUR JUST MEN (1905) by Edgar Wallace
Edgar Wallace made a real splash with his debut novel, though perhaps not quite the kind that he had intended. Originally promoted with the offer of a huge prize for anyone who guessed the ending, Wallace eventually had to declare … Continue reading
BADGE OF EVIL (1956) by Whit Masterson
The team of Robert Wade and Bill Miller produced nearly three dozen crime novels between 1946 and 1961, mainly as ‘Wade Miller’ and (in hardback) ‘Whit Masterson’. Badge of Evil served as the basis for the Orson Welles classic Touch … Continue reading
The Carey Treatment (1972) – Tuesday’s Overlooked Film
Based on Michael Crichton’s A Case of Need (which I reviewed here), this was one of Blake Edwards’ occasional excursions into the mystery genre (I profiled some of the others here). Edwards and the screenwriters disowned the released version and it does take many … Continue reading
HEAT (1985) by William Goldman
William Goldman – novelist, journalist and screenwriter – turns 82 today. Not just the author of the bestselling memoir, Adventures in the Screentrade, he won Oscars for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and All the President’s Men and was … Continue reading
Posted in 2013 Book to Movie Challenge, Las Vegas, Private Eye, Ross Macdonald, William Goldman
Tagged Burt Reynolds, Jason Statham
39 Comments
The First Great Train Robbery (1978) – Tuesday’s Overlooked Film
A hugely successful writer, Michael Crichton had a more patchy career as a director. After two high concept hits, Westworld (1973) and Coma (1978), he changed tack with this meticulously researched caper based on a real-life Victorian bullion robbery. It won … Continue reading
THE LIVING AND THE DEAD (1954) by Boileau-Narcejac
Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narjejac’s mysteries in the 1950s and 60s were admired for their great plot ingenuity but not for their plausibility. This is certainly the case with their third novel, a morbid tale with a giant twist adapted … Continue reading
Pursuit (1972) – Tuesday’s Forgotten Film
Ben Gazzara, E.G Marshall and Martin Sheen star in this ticking clock thriller by Michael Crichton in which the countdown is actually shown superimposed on-screen. This was a pretty nifty gimmick for a modest ABC TV Movie of the Week … Continue reading
BINARY (1972) by Michael Crichton
This proved to be the last of the books Michael Crichton published under his ‘John Lange’ pseudonym as his secret identity was pretty much blown by then. After his mutating virus bestseller The Andromeda Strain and the Edgar-winning medical mystery A Case of Need … Continue reading
The Big Night (1951) – Tuesday’s Overlooked Film
This unusual Film Noir, based on the Stanley Ellin book Dreadful Summit (click here for my review) was the last Hollywood project for director Joseph Losey before being forced to flee to Europe to escape the McCarthy witch hunt. Set … Continue reading
A CASE OF NEED (1968) by Michael Crichton
Why doesn’t Michael Crichton (1942-2008) get more street cred as a crime writer? Is it because he was so commercially successful? Who needs respect when your books and movies make you a multimillionaire, right? But his absence from major genre … Continue reading
CAT CHASER (1982) by Elmore Leonard
Today Patti Abbott is celebrating the work of Elmore Leonard over at her fab Pattinase blog. I am chipping in with this review of his Miami-based thriller from 1982. George Moran is an ex-marine, once married into society but now divorced, … Continue reading
