Sorry to impose the following commentaries on everyone, but I
didn't have miker's address at hand. You can delete if you
don't want to read three reviews of Spillane's books.
Bill Crider
*Spillane, Mickey. I, the Jury. New York: Dutton, 1947. (PI)
When Mickey Spillane published I, the Jury in 1947, Hammett's
first novel had been in print nearly twenty years and Carroll
John Daly and Raymond Chandler (qq.v.) were still writing.
Yet there is little doubt that Spillane's book was a seminal
work of tough-guy fiction, inspiring hundreds of imitators in
the booming paperback market of the 1950s. No one, however,
was quite able to match Spillane's unique combination of
action, sex, and right-wing vengeance. The main character of
I, the Jury is Spillane's most famous creation, Mike
Hammer?-tough, implacable, and prone to violence, with
perhaps even a touch of madness. When his war buddy is
murdered, Hammer swears to get revenge: "And by Christ, I'm
not letting the killer go through the tedious process of the
law." Hammer smashes his way through the suspects ("My fist
went in up to the wrist in his stomach") until he determines
the guilty party, whom he has sworn to kill in exactly the
same way his friend was murdered. Along the way, he meets the
nymphomaniac Bellemy sisters, one of whom has a strategically
located strawberry birthmark; Charlotte Manning, a beautiful
psychiatrist; Hal Kines, the improbable white slaver; and of
course he fends off the advances of Velda, his sexy, loyal
secretary. He finally confronts the killer in a slam-bang
ending never to be forgotten by anyone who has read it,
concluding with perhaps the best last line in all of
Spillane's books, most of which have memorable, melodramatic
climaxes. Spillane's novels have been attacked for their
violence and their vigilante spirit, and no doubt these
things are present in the books. But Spillane is first and
foremost a storyteller, and his stories, no matter how
improbable, always work, pulling the reader along willingly
or unwillingly into Mike Hammer's violent world. I, the Jury
was brought to the screen in 1949, with Biff Elliott in the
starring role. Like the novel, it emphasizes violence and has
an ending to enrage the sensibilities of any feminist who
happens to watch it.
Spillane, Mickey. The Long Wait. New York: Button,
1951.
(T) The Long Wait, Mickey Spillane's first nonseries novel,
is the author's variation on the
one-man-against-municipal-corruption theme as found in such
novels as Dashiell Hammett's (q.v.) Red Harvest. The Mike
Hammer-like narrator/hero, whose name is either Johnny
McBride or George Wilson (even he isn't sure), returns to the
town of Lyncastle to clear up a robbery-and-murder charge
against McBride. His motive, as usual in Spillane's work, is
revenge: One man is to get his arms broken, and one man is to
die. Actually, a lot of people die before the narrator
accomplishes his lofty goal, but not before he absorbs more
physical abuse than seems even remotely possible. And
speaking frankly of credibility, it must be admitted that The
Long Wait contains enough coincidence and enough improbable,
even downright incredible, plot devices for four or five
books. There is violence galore, too, and a lot of
voyeuristic sex (the final scene is a rewrite of the
striptease that concludes I, the Jury). None of this affects
the story adversely, however. Typically, Spillane pulls it
off. The pacing and the fierce conviction of the narrative
voice grab the reader and carry him relentlessly along.
Spillane seems to have had a high old time writing The Long
Wait, and the reader who is willing to grin, plant his tongue
in his cheek, and go along with him is in for a hell of a
ride.
Spillane, Mickey. One Lonely Night. New York: Dutton,
1951.
(PI) It's Mike Hammer versus the Red Menace, and it's no
contest. When Mike discovers that there are actual Commies
living and operating in the United States, he goes berserk,
the kill music singing in his head. When they capture Velda
to force Mike to give them the secret documents he has found,
he takes a tommy gun and blows so many of them away that he
doesn't even bother to count. So much for the plot. What most
readers fail to consider about One Lonely Night is the amount
of introspection in the book, which begins and ends with
Hammer seriously questioning both his methods and his sanity.
The fact that he is a killer has finally been brought home to
him by a judge who says that Hammer enjoys killing, that he
is just as bad as those he kills, if not worse. The judge's
remarks haunt Hammer throughout the book, and at one point he
even finds himself agreeing that the judge is correct: "So I
was mad. I was a killer, and I was looking forward to killing
again. I wanted every one of them from bottom to top...." Of
course in the context of the story, as the reader sees, Mike
is not actually quite as bad as he seems, and he eventually
realizes that he isn't. If he is evil, at least he is "evil
for the good." He kills only those who deserve killing,
the
"cancerous Commies" in this case. One Lonely Night is
melodramatic in the extreme and appears so far right that it
comes out of left field, but in the red-scare Fifties it
found a sympathetic audience. It is of interest today chiefly
for the insight it provides into Hammer's character. Mike
Hammer is also in top form in Vengeance Is Mine!
(1950), My Gun Is Quick (1950), The Big Kill (1951), Kiss Me
Deadly (1952), The Girl Hunters (1962), and The Twisted Thing
(1966). The Girl Hunters was filmed in 1963 with Spillane
himself playing Mike Hammer (and doing a fairly creditable
job).
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