Jim Beaver (JUMBLEJIM@prodigy.net)
Mon, 1 Nov 1999 01:41:38 -0800
><<But we still don't know if Kurosawa knew
Hammett.
>But in the early sixties he filmed Ed McBain's novel
-
>in Finland the film is called "Heaven and Hell",
but
>just now I don't remember what McBain novel it
was.
>Maybe Kurosawa did know American hard
boiled
>literature.>>
>
>This hast to be the one I called "The Bad Sleep
Well".
>I've only seen this movie once, a long time ago, so
my
>title is approximate. I recall that Toshiro
Mifune
>played a very serious police detective in a suit.
The
>movie had a definite "noir" feel.
>
>Did Kurosawa ever write his memoirs? I bet they
would
>be as interesting as his career. As I write
about
>Kurosawa, I realize what an irreparable loss his
death
>has been. A truly independent thinker and
film-maker.
I'm catching up on about two weeks of unread emails, so
forgive me if someone has since answered this. THE BAD SLEEP
WELL is not the Mifune-as-a-detective film known in Japanese
as NORA INU. That film is (and translates as) STRAY DOG. It's
about a police detective who loses his gun to a criminal, and
the ramifications of that event. THE BAD SLEEP WELL is about
high-level corporate corruption and the death of an
executive. Mifune is another executive, not a detective, in
this loose adaptation of HAMLET. The Ed McBain novel KING'S
RANSOM was the source material for Kurosawa's HIGH AND LOW,
with Mifune as a wealthy businessman who learns that
kidnappers have taken not his son, as they think, but his
chauffeur's son. As for THE LAST MAN STANDING, I think the
film's credits clearly spell out that the picture is based on
Kurosawa's YOJIMBO. There is no mention of Hammett or RED
HARVEST in the credits of LAST MAN STANDING (or, for that
matter, of FISTFUL OF DOLLARS or YOJIMBO). Kurosawa did write
his autobiography, entitled SOMETHING LIKE AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
He does not mention Hammett, but the book only covers his
earliest works and does not discuss YOJIMBO except in a
passing reference to its music.
Jim Beaver
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