I've been away from a computer for a few days and
missed the discussion of hardboiled sports. With all the talk
about horseracing, I was surprised that nobody mentioned the
Dick Francis novels. Some of them, especially the early
titles like "Dead Cert" and "Odds Against" are very strong
and very violent. "Whip Hand" has as its hero a hardboiled
private eye whose hand was crushed in a racing accident.
Nearly all of them have dark and sometimes depressed
heroes.
Jockeys are very tough guys. Have to be, considering their
size and the size of the horse. I discovered how tough they
were working with Bill Shoemaker on his mystery books (which
are not exactly cozies, by the way). We were in the middle of
the first, "Stalking Horse," when his vehicle flipped and he
broke his neck. Paralyzed from the neck down, he not only
finished the contracted three books, but continued to work as
a trainer at the track. Still was out there as of a year
ago.
As for dogfight mysteries, which someone asked about, I don't
know of any other than my first, "Sleeping Dog," which I
suppose is as hardboiled as a book can be with a teenage girl
as co-narrator.
The information about the scripts for "Red Harvest" is
fascinating. Many years ago, I had dinner with Marilyn Golden
when she and Bertolucci had just finished a draft (which one,
I don't recall). She said that they had changed the warring
gangs into Pinkerton strikebreakers versus the miners and
their union. She felt Hammett would have applauded this
attempt to make the story more realistic. I remember thinking
at the time that if Hammett had wanted the story to be that
blatantly political, he probably would have written it that
way. But then again, who knows?
By the way, weren't "Yojimbo" and, consequently, "Fistful of
Dollars," uncredited versions of "Red Harvest"? Not to
mention the Walt Hill/Bruce Willis "Last Man Standing"?
Dick Lochte
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