Whether he's as "influential" as Cain is another matter. I,
for one, am
pretty tired of all the Cain influenced noir back then, and
since. I
believe McCoy almost wrote as many good novels as Cain --
since many of
Cain's are downright awful. Obviously, "Mildred
Pierce,""Double
Indemnity," and "Postman" are deserving masterpieces.
McCoy wrote an excellent Hollywood novel called "I Should
Have Stayed
Home," which captures the seediness, manipulation and
desperation of the
town in the 1930's.
As for Woolrich, he's been discussed before. I think much of
his short
fiction is tremendous -- and much of it has been used and
reused on
television. He was the master of a "gimmick." But his novels
are almost
impossible to get through. Once again, Woolrich's main
contribution is
his noir, doom-laden atmosphere. In this way, he's probably
as
influential as Cain in the film world. "Phantom Lady," and
"The Window"
are standouts in that department.
BTW, I've seen the movie of "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye," and it's
pretty
good. Cagney, who also produced, is the right actor for the
job. Whether
it can be updated today, for audiences who have grown-up on a
diet of
"Taxi Driver," and Jonestown is a whole other thing.
Dave
--
"An hour ago, Rudy Linnaker had this town in his pocket ..." "Now you can strain him through a sieve."
-- Touch Of Evil
# # To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to majordomo@icomm.ca. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.vex.net/~buff/rara-avis/.