On Fri, 27 Apr 2001, Mark Sullivan wrote:
> However, I've got
> to wonder how original the loner playing two gangs
against each other
> plot (also at the root of Glass Key, my favorite of
his, also) was when
> Hammett told it. I can't think of any direct
antecedents, but my
> knowledge of pre-20th century literature is patchy
at best. Does it
> show up in older literature?
We've talked about this also in the past. I managed to
present things in a very convoluted manner. I got two authors
mixed up together, Carlo Collodi of the Pinocchio fame and
Carlo Goldoni, the writer of "Servant of Two Masters". It's a
18th century play about the guy who serves two masters at the
same time. This is all I know about the matter, but I have a
feeling I've read somewhere that this is what Kurosawa had in
mind when he made "Yojimbo" and not "Red Harvest".
But, as you might remember, Kurosawa must've had some kind of
an attitude towards American crime literature, since he
filmed Ed McBain as early as 1963 in "High and Low", two
years after he had made "Yojimbo".
Juri
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