Mario wrote:
It looks more like exorcising Hammett... Blackmailers one of
those stories where everybody runs around like crazy and
everybody multiple-crosses everybody else. Like Hammett's
Couffignal, or some of Paul Cain's stuff. It's interesting
because soon Chandler went in a totally different
direction.
***************
"Blackmailers Don't Shoot" (1933) is bad. And Chandler
struggled for five months writing it. The dialogue is poor
and the writing leans heavily toward cliche. Guns talk and
characters squeeze lead and laugh mirthlessly (a phrase used
repeatedly in Paul Cain's FAST ONE, which Chandler praised).
The hardboiled that Chandler was imitating often had finely
interwoven plots. Chandler was never good at this.
The story doesn't approach the quality of his best work, but
it still contains themes and elements that continue through
his oeuvre. Descriptions of Los Angeles reinforce the story's
atmosphere. A rich and beautiful woman invokes death and
destruction, and there's a crooked cop who the story is not
totally unsympathetic to. There's a big-time gentleman
criminal who's debonair and dangerous. There's the homosexual
theme that would have delighted Leslie Fiedler if he'd ever
gotten around to reading Chandler. Although the story is
written in third person, it's strongly centered on the
protagonist. And the story starts out with Mallory wearing a
powder-blue suit. Was Marlowe wearing hand-me-downs in the
beginning of THE BIG SLEEP?
A year later he wrote "Smart-Aleck Kill". It wasn't much
better. Written a couple months later, he began to show
promise in "Finger Man." It's still fairly poor, but there
were passages that showed Chandler coming around. The first
person narrative allowed the cynical protagonist to get in
some good shots: "I didn't say anything. I was way past the
age when it's fun to swear at people you can't hurt." Or: "He
was the kind of man who liked to have a desk in front of him,
and shove his fat stomach against it, and fiddle with things
on it, and look very wise." And he was warming up to the
simile: "As a bluff, mine was thinner than the gold on a week
end wedding ring." The biggest problem with the story is that
Chandler had a lot riding on a mediocre plot.
His writing continued to mature. "Spanish Blood"
(1935) is a well-done tribute to Hammett's MALTESE FALCON.
"Goldfish" (1936) is excellent. Chandler took a break from
his obsession with the rich folk and worked the other side of
the tracks. Easing off the logistics of a complex plot,
Chandler concentrates on the mood and atmosphere, hammering
out a dirty sordid background. Later he would attach an
esoteric beauty to this ugliness.
Chandler was on a roll when he wrote "Red Wind"
(1938). The story is narrated in first person by a tough yet
romantic protagonist who moves in a dark world. It starts out
with his oft-quoted passage about the hot dry Santa Ana, and
how it touches everyone with madness. It's all there in this
beautiful bluesy piece, the cynicism, the similes, and the
scenery.
I didn't care for "Trouble is My Business." I thought it
sorta backslid towards his earlier cliched stuff. But if you
liked it, Mario, then I suspect I missed something and should
probably reread it.
miker
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