DJ,
Re your comments below:
> So I watched the movie. It was interesting to see
the changes that
were
> made. First, the locale was shifted. Second, a major
subplot was
> deleted, and the rules were stretched more than
broken. Everything
was
> stripped down (except for a young Jacqueline Bisset,
alas, who
played
> the added-in small role of the cop's girlfriend).
The book was very
> detailed about what was going on in the cop's mind
and
investigation.
> The movie had long spaces with no words whatsoever,
using just
visuals.
> In other words, each played to its medium's
advantages, which
rendered
> them equally satisfying.
>
> One other thing: the movie changed a few names.
Clancy became
Bullitt,
> of course, I guess to make it harder, more
catchy.
The book was originally bought as a vehicle (no pun intended)
for Spencer Tracy, who was going to play an NYPD squad
commander in late middle-age named Clancy. In other words, he
was going to play the character as written.
When Tracy died, it was decided to keep the bare bones of the
plot, but change the lead character into the young, "hip"
detective played by Steve McQueen.
Interestingly, Fish dropped the Clancy series after the
success of BULLITT and started a new, San Francisco-set
series of procedurals about an SFPD lieutenant named REARDON,
which was also the the title of the first book in the series.
Reardon was a young, handsome red- head given to wearing
turtleneck sweaters and corduroy sportscoats. In other words,
he was Bullitt with the name changed. Even more
interestingly, that first novel about Reardon was expanded
from a short story that had originally featured Clancy.
> The name change I
> found most interesting, though, was that of the two
brothers in the
> "Organization." In the book, they were Rossi.
However, the movie
drops
> the "i," making the name less Italian (though the
roles were still
> played by actors whose names and looks were
Italian). And they
changed
> one of the cop's names from whitebread to Italian. I
don't remember
> Italian anti-defamation leagues starting until a few
years later,
with
> The Godfather movies. Were the studios already
answering complaints
> about the stereotyping of Italians as mobsters in
the '60s? Man,
they
> really lost that battle.
Actually the Anti-Defamation League started years earlier
when THE UNTOUCHABLES was such a hit on TV. Something of a
false alarm, really. In the first three episodes of the
series, the main villains were, respectively, Jewish (Jake
Guzik played by Nehemiah Persoff), Irish ("Bugs" Moran played
by Lloyd Nolan), and southerh poor white trash ("Ma" Barker
played by Clair Trevor). Eliot Ness was an equal- opportunity
gangbuster.
JIM DOHERTY
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