Published in 1946, Dorothy Hughes's RIDE THE PINK HORSE is a
true hardboiled noir from back when you couldn't name a
half-dozen women writing in the genres. The mood is dark, the
characters are tough, and the scenes are memorable.
The story opens with tough guy Sailor getting off the bus in
a small Mexican-American bordertown. The town is having a
multi-day fiesta, and the town is flooded with people there
for the celebration. It's apparent from the beginning that
Sailor is not there for fun. He's been cheated out of money
for some dirty work he did for his former boss, the Senator,
and now it's time to pay up. Sailor is helped by an Indian
girl named Pila and a Mexican carny he calls Pancho, but his
efforts to get his money are complicated when a cop who
suspects foul play enters the picture.
A common plot in noir involves a protagonist making a mistake
and then doing whatever he can to protect himself from the
dire consequences. Of course, nothing he does saves him from
doom. The first mistake seals his fate. Charles Williams's
RIVER GIRL and Geoffrey Homes's BUILD MY GALLOWS HIGH are
good examples.
But there's a different noir flavor where it appears that the
protagonist could turn around and walk away any time, but
instead he continuously makes decisions that keep him on the
road to perdition. William Lindsay Gresham's NIGHTMARE ALLEY
falls into this category, and so does RIDE THE PINK HORSE.
The cop pleads with him to make a clean break and free
himself, but Sailor is determined to blackmail the
Senator.
I like this moth-to-a-flame plot. There is a strong will to
survive built into people. It takes some powerful motivation
to cause a person to self-destruct, and it takes a good
author to explore these motivations. Hughes has got what it
takes.
My only complaint is that Hughes developed dynamic and
interesting relationships between Sailor, Pancho, and Pila,
but their parting seems to have no significance.
Dorothy Hughes was born in Kansas City, Missouri, in
1904, and from an early age she knew she wanted to be a
writer. She graduated from the University of Missouri with a
journalism degree in 1924, did graduate work in New Mexico
and New York, and worked as a journalist for several years.
Although she published a book of poems in 1931, her first
novel, THE SO BLUE MARBLE, did not come out until 1940. Aside
from being a successful mystery writer, her literary
criticism garnered her a 1950 Edgar Award from the Mystery
Writers of America.
Her two most notable novels are RIDE THE PINK HORSE,
published in 1946, and IN A LONELY PLACE, published the
following year. Both books were made into successful Film
Noirs. From 1940 to 1979 she reviewed mystery novels for
several newspapers and in 1978 she received the double honor
of being named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of
America and, 28 years after her first, winning her second
Edgar for her critical biography of Erle Stanley Gardner,
author of the Perry Mason series. Hughes died in 1993.
miker
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