Bill, I thought you didn't want us to discuss movies here?
What happened?
(Actually, any interruption of the "HB Sports Comedy Channel"
is welcome. That was a lot of one-liner posts today.)
JULIA is a slightly hardboiled chick flick. The Hammett
scenes are good, but few. Screenwriter Alvin Sargent copped
the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay of 1977 for the
adaption of the Hellman "memoir" PENTIMENTO. It's worth a
look, if only for Jason Robards' take on Hammett (also an
Oscar winner Best Supporting Actor). Vanessa Redgrave also
picked up the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Her presence
nearly caused a riot out front of the auditorium, and her
comments about Zionist Hoodlums during her acceptance speech
was a real crowd pleaser. That was one hell of an awards
show!
Alvin wrote a follow-up screenplay entitled TWO LIVES which
was based on other Hellman writings and the Diane Johnson bio
of Hammett. It is more along the lines of DASH AND LILLY, but
a far superior take on the material (although structurally I
thought the TV movie had some suspicious similarities to the
Sargent script that I had read back in the eighties). TWO
LIVES has been in and out of development hell for almost
twenty years now. I hope it gets made one day, but it doesn't
look likely.
A rare On-Topic aside: I just finished reading my first James
Sallis, BLUE BOTTLE. I found it unusual (and interesting),
but I've read some reviews that state it is one of his lesser
works. How does it rate with the rare birds out there? Is it
not one of his better books? What would be a preferable read?
Sallis seems to use literary references in much the same way
Pelecanos uses music (to riff on a recent thread). Sometimes
it gets a bit overbearing. His use of time is very odd as
well, but it's kind of refreshing, even if I had to go back
once in a while to figure out what frame we were in. Another
positive note: It was Gold Medal short (to tie in yet another
thread). But it was also much more self conscious than any
Gold Medal book (of course, that is the point of it in the
first place). I want to read another Sallis, but I'd like it
to be one of the best he has to offer. I need rara
assistance, please.
And speaking of HOT SPRINGS (a title that came up on the
Crumley short story thread) this is also the title of the new
Stephen Hunter novel. It's all about Bob Lee Swagger's father
Earl and his attempts to clean up mob-run Hot Springs,
Arkansas, in 1946. I've just started reading the ARC and it
is, as usual for Hunter, terrific. Hunter is stepping into
Ellroy territory here and I think this will be a book that
could convert even the Hunter hold-outs on the list. Keep an
eye out for it.
TL
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