Released on June 20, 1974, Chinatown has been part of the cultural record for 50 years. In 1991, it was inducted into the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry. In 2010, when Chinatown was 36 years old—the same age as Jack Nicholson when he starred in the movie, when he was, by broad critical consensus, at the peak of his star power—a poll of The Guardian’s top critics proclaimed it “the best film of all time.” So, we might take the occasion of its 50th birthday in 2024 to celebrate a consecrated classic. Or we might notice instead that today, 14 years on from its coronation as best of all time—a ridiculous piece of clickbait anyway—Chinatown seems to have dropped off of a lot of best-of lists altogether. Well into middle age, the film seems now to have passed its prime. Much like a 50-year-old man. Much like me.Click here to enjoy the remainder of Rubenstein’s piece.
If it’s all downhill from here, one can always look back. Even when it was new, Chinatown was a nostalgia machine, generating cinematic pleasure from Hollywood’s 1974 recreation of 1937 Los Angeles. Over the last few years, a couple of fiftysomething Hollywood gentlemen have been conspiring to do the time warp again. David Fincher is rumored to be behind a Netflix series based on Jake Gittes’s backstory as a rookie beat cop in the eponymous district of Chinatown. And Ben Affleck has optioned Sam Wasson’s best-selling 2020 book about the making of Chinatown, The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood; if the film gets made, I imagine we’ll see the next generation of Hollywood royalty claim its inheritance by pretending to be the last one. And if I sound like I’m sneering, rest assured that I will be watching all of it, mouth agape in enraptured abandon.
Because I also love Chinatown. I’m fascinated by both the world it depicts and the world that made it. There is no shortage of writing on these subjects; Chinatown needs no recovering from obscurity. So, what else needs to be said? One thing that does need saying before proceeding is this: the reason for Chinatown’s declining critical reputation is probably not its age. At least part of the reason is certainly because the #MeToo movement has since rumbled the film’s reputation by reminding us that its director is a confessed statutory rapist and a fugitive from the law. That might even be the whole reason, and it might even be a just reason.
Showing posts with label Chinatown. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chinatown. Show all posts
Friday, July 12, 2024
Time to Reconsider “Chinatown”?
In a fine essay for the Los Angeles Review of Books, Michael Rubenstein, an associate professor of English at Stony Brook University and author of the forthcoming book, “Chinatown” at 50 or, Seeing Oil Through Cinema, chews over that 1974 private-eye film’s legacy, its newly shaky place in cinematic history, and efforts to restore it to public prominence. The article begins:
Tuesday, August 11, 2020
Bullet Points: Never a Dull Moment Edition
• Renowned movie and TV composer Billy Goldenberg—who died on Monday, August 3, at age 84—was the son of two musicians and took his first breaths in Brooklyn, New York, in 1936. He began his Hollywood career directing music for TV programs such as Hullabaloo and 1968’s Elvis: The Comeback Special. As Variety recalls, “In late 1968, Goldenberg became assistant to Universal TV music director Stanley Wilson, who assigned him scores for series [such] as Ironside, It Takes a Thief and The Name of the Game. He met [director Steven] Spielberg on Name of the Game and later did the director’s television work, including Night Gallery, Duel and three installments of Amazing Stories in the 1980s.” Goldbenberg wrote the music for 1971’s Ransom for a Dead Man, the teleflick that served as the actual pilot for Columbo, and went on to create the 
music for “Murder by the Book,” that series’ first regular episode. Among his other crime-drama credits are the themes for Harry O, Banacek, Kojak, and Delvecchio. When asked about Goldenberg’s contributions to the TV mystery field, Gary Gerani, a screenwriter and film historian now working on a documentary about the composer, offered these comments:
(Above) The opening scene from Ransom for a Dead Man—with music by Billy Goldenberg—finds a lawyer (played by Lee Grant) assembling a ransom note for her husband (actor Harlan Warde), editing a tape recording to prove that he was indeed snatched, and finally shooting him in their living room.
• Also lost last week: journalist and author Pete Hamill. A longtime, much-admired New York City newspaperman, Hamill also published in The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Playboy, and Esquire. (A variety of his pieces can be read here, with one of his best-known Esquire features available at this link.) On top of all those credits, he penned close to a dozen novels, recalls Jiro Kimura of The Gumshoe Site, “including A Killing for Christ (Little, Brown, 1968), his first novel which was a thriller about a plot to assassinate the Pope in Rome.” Hamill produced, as well, a quartet of action-packed thrillers starring Gotham freelance reporter Sam Briscoe, beginning with 1978’s Dirty Laundry (about which I wrote in CrimeReads) and running through 2011’s Tabloid City. Kimura goes on to note that Hamill’s “mystery short stories include ‘The Men in Black Raincoats,’ first published in the December 1977 issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, and ‘The Book Signing’ (first published in Brooklyn Noir; Akashic, 2004), which was an Edgar nominee. His teleplays include Laguna Heat (1987, based on the novel by T. Jefferson Parker) and Split Images (1992, based on the novel by Elmore Leonard).” Click here to enjoy New York magazine’s fine tribute to Hamill, who passed away from heart and kidney failure on August 5. He was 85 years of age.
• Like so many other crime-fiction gatherings, Belfast, Ireland’s NOIRELAND International Crime Fiction Festival has had its ups and downs this year. A one-day event had been planned for March 28, only to be postponed until October due to the novel coronavirus. And now … “Sadly, it seems we were a little optimistic!” writes festival manager Angela McMahon. “The risk to public health from COVID-19 is still significant and unlikely to change for some time. As the well-being of our audiences, our authors and our many wonderful volunteers is paramount, we have concluded that in the circumstances we cannot go ahead with NOIRELAND this year.” She promises that tickets will be refunded over the next couple of weeks.
• Also cancelled was this year’s Pulpfest. Nonetheless, organizers announced that the winner of that planned convention’s 2020 Munsey Award is Mike Ashley, “the author or co-author of numerous works related to the pulps, science fiction, and fantasy. … Ashley has also edited many anthologies and single-author collections, often drawing work from the pulps. He is currently part of a team compiling an index to the most important British popular fiction magazines published between 1880 and 1950, including all the British pulps.” In 2003, Ashley’s Mammoth Encyclopedia of Modern Crime Fiction captured the Edgar Award for Best Critical/Biographical Work.
• Plans are quite different for another annual get-together, the Crime Fiction Weekend at St. Hilda’s College, University of Oxford. The two-day conference (August 14-15) will take place entirely online. As publicity committee member Jean Harker says in an e-mail note, “This year’s theme is ‘All Our Yesterdays: Historical Crime Fiction’ … and speakers include Andrew Taylor, Mick Herron, Andrew Wilson, Elly Griffiths, Anna Mazzola, etc.” She adds that “St. Hilda’s alumna and Honorary Fellow Val McDermid will preside over some of the proceedings. There will also be a tribute to Dame Agatha Christie as we celebrate the centenary of the publication of The Mysterious Affair at Styles—and a solve-it-yourself Whodunnit playlet written by Andrew Taylor and acted by a cast of crime writers.” Click here to find the full program. Proceedings are supposed to be recorded and made available to ticket-holders for a month. The ticket price is £30, with a discount available to students. You can register here.
• As the coronavirus lockdown continues, you may be curious to know how retired Edinburgh Detective Inspector John Rebus (soon to return in A Song for the Dark Times) is managing the isolation. His creator, Ian Rankin, answers that question in this delightful scripted video short starring Emmy Award-winning Scottish actor Brian Cox. It imagines Rebus coping with the absence of pubs, the need for exercise, the ubiquity of Zoom communications, and much more. (Hat tip to Randal S. Brandt)
• I’m just in the midst of reading Sam Wasson’s The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood (Flatiron), and here comes news that Ben Affleck is spearheading a film based on that character-rich tale about the making of Chinatown (1974). The Hollywood Reporter says he’ll pen the script and direct the picture, and co-produce with Lorne Michaels, “who initially nabbed the rights to the book.” Let’s hope for the best from this project.
• In other story-to-screen news, The Killing Times brings word that Megan Abbott’s next novel, The Turnout—to be published in the summer of 2021—is already scheduled for television treatment. It says the story “is set in the hothouse world of a ballet school led by the Durant sisters, Dara and Marie, and Dara’s husband Charlie. Their connection is intense, forged by a glamorous but troubled family history. But after they hire Derek, a charismatic, possibly shady contractor to renovate the studio, Marie throws herself into an intense affair with him that threatens their tight bonds and brings forward family secrets until an act of violence overturns everything.”
• Meanwhile, it’s been reported that actress Elisabeth Moss (The West Wing, The Handmaid’s Tale) “will be developing Araminta Hall’s forthcoming Imperfect Women as one of the first projects of her new production company, Love & Squalor Pictures.” Publishers Weekly calls that novel a “heart-wrenching psychological thriller.”
• Netflix has chosen September 3 as the debut date for Young Wallander, its six-episode series inspired by Henning Mankell’s tales of Swedish police inspector Kurt Wallander.
• Here’s a show I didn’t expect: HBO’s The Undoing, a psychological drama starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant. Variety explains,
• And Netflix is offering images from its adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 Gothic novel, Rebecca, which was already so well filmed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1940. Netflix’s interpretation will premiere on October 21. As Deadline explains, “Lily James and Armie Hammer lead the cast this time out, playing the aristocratic widower Maxim de Winter (Laurence Olivier in Hitchcock’s version) and his new wife (previously Joan Fontaine), with Kristin Scott Thomas as Mrs Danvers.”
• August brings what would have been Earl Derr Biggers’ 136th birthday, were the creator of Charlie Chan still around to enjoy such festivities. (He perished in 1933, aged 48.) To celebrate, Lou Armagno, who blogs at The Postman on Holiday, has compiled a “musical montage” of compositions and musicians associated with Biggers’ Chinese-American detective, the majority of which relate to the 44 vintage Chan films. Among the many things I hadn’t know before: David Raksin, who created music for the 1941’s Dead Men Tell, starring Sidney Toler as Chan, would three years later compose the eerily beautiful score for that film noir classic, Laura.
• Laura seems to be burning bright in the zeitgeist lately. Otto Penzler placed that 1944 Gene Tierney/Dana Andrews picture at Number 6 in his CrimeReads countdown of “The Greatest Crime Films of All Time.” And in Loren D. Estleman’s new, sixth Valentino mystery, Indigo (Forge), his imperfect film detective is presented with the original Laura Hunt portrait painted for that movie.
• Regarding Penzler’s picks, he’s identified his top two—Chinatown (1974) and The Maltese Falcon (1941)—but we’re still waiting to see which motion picture he thinks belongs at the top of the heap.
• In a new interview with Hollywood Soapbox, Hard Case Crime editor Charles Ardai talks about his company’s initial inspiration, forthcoming works by Ray Bradbury and Max Allan Collins, and the importance of original cover artwork for HCC titles.
• Speaking of Hard Case, Entertainment Weekly has revealed the Paul Mann-painted cover of Later, Stephen King’s third contribution to that paperback line (following 2005’s The Colorado Kid and 2013’s top-selling Joyland). Due out in March 2021, Later is described by Ardai as “a beautiful story about growing up and facing your demons—whether they’re metaphorical or (as sometimes happens when you’re in a
Stephen King novel) the real thing. It’s terrifying, tender, heartbreaking and honest, and we’re so excited to bring it to readers.”
• When it comes to crime- and mystery-fiction blogs, patience is sometimes rewarded. In July 2018, Brooklyn writer, critic, and musician Cullen Gallagher put up what appeared to be the final contribution to his fine site, Pulp Serenade: an interview with author Paul D. Brazill. Given Gallagher’s previous posting prolificacy, though, I hesitated to delete Pulp Serenade from The Rap Sheet’s blogroll—and now my restraint has been vindicated. Almost a full two years after Gallagher seemed to disappear, he suddenly returned in mid-June with a flood of posts, some of them reprints but others new (such as his reviews of S.A. Cosby’s Blacktop Wasteland and Lawrence Block’s Dead Girl Blues). I don’t know how long his renewed commitment to Pulp Serenade will last, but let’s hope it will not flag any time soon.
• So what’s happened to Reviewing the Evidence? Created in 2001 by Barbara Franchi, it has more recently been managed by Yvonne Klein. However, the last time that site saw an update was back in January of this year. I hope the pandemic has not spelled an end to RTE. I recently sent an e-mail inquiry to Klein, but have not yet received a response. If anybody out there knows about the site’s future, I hope they’ll reveal it in the Comments section at the end of this post.
• This could be interesting. From In Reference to Murder:
• Tied to the recent release of Eliot Ness and the Mad Butcher: Hunting America’s Deadliest Unidentified Serial Killer at the Dawn of Modern Criminology (Morrow), which he wrote with A. Brad Schwartz, author Max Allan Collins submits to The Strand Magazine’s blog a list containing “10 Additional Surprising Facts About Eliot Ness.”
• Collins also posted a piece in CrimeReads that answers the question, “Whatever Happened to Eliot Ness After Prohibition?”
• Let me recommend one other story in CrimeReads: Andrew Cartmel’s look back at the “lost classics” of 20th-century hard-boiled author Charles Williams.
• I’m not much for audiobooks, since I can generally read a work faster myself than somebody else can read it to me. However, I have enjoyed listening to Phoebe Judge’s presentations at Phoebe Reads a Mystery, a podcast I first heard about from blogger Dave Knadler. Since the novel coronavirus struck, she’s been recording chapter-by-chapter deliveries of classic works, some of the most recent being Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Anna Katharine Green’s The Leavenworth Case, Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Links, and Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone. While I still shy away from audio versions of new novels, I find that I quite enjoy revisiting books I have already read, transported into another time and place by Judge’s soothing voice.
Billy Goldenberg certainly didn’t invent crime and mystery TV music. But what he brought to the genre was a perverse, transcendent elegance, something missed even by immortal composers like Bernard Herrmann and Jerry Goldsmith. Having followed his career from the very beginning, I think it’s significant that Broadway-based Goldenberg began his TV-film work with supernatural music (Fear No Evil, Ritual of Evil, Night Gallery). This led his aural ideas and arrangements in a darkly surreal direction … ”romantic mysticism” he called it. It was just a short walk from the demonic investigations of Dr. David Sorell (Louis Jourdan) to the insanely upper-class, full of themselves, larger-than-life villains facing Columbo. And in all of this … beauty. Elegance. Class. Billy was able to find an elegant “inner life" even in the bald-headed, lollipop-slurping countenance of Telly Savalas, his Kojak theme finding something eternal in the man and his city.Goldenberg collected almost two dozen Emmy nominations during his lengthy career, winning for such small-screen gems as Queen of the Stardust Ballroom (1975) and for miniseries including The Lives of Benjamin Franklin (1974) and King (1978). The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) carries an extensive list of his work.
What will Mr. Goldenberg be remembered for? The Spielberg collaborations, of course; before John Williams, Goldenberg was Spielberg’s go-to composer, with Duel a very high-profile title on Billy’s résumé. And his Bartok-inspired supernatural music clearly defined the TV-movie flavors of the ’70s. But Columbo, beloved by fans all over the world, is probably the pop-culture property he’s most identified with. [His] Ransom for a Dead Man score was essentially the next step from his more cosmic television movies. This score influenced the “elegant beauty” style of music used in most detective TV shows produced by Dean Hargrove later in the decade, and beyond; even Murder, She Wrote’s harpsichord owes something to what Billy brought to the genre with Ransom. His approach captures the off-center personality of the Columbo episodes themselves far better than Henry Mancini’s [NBC] Mystery Movie theme, which is loads of fun, but clearly doesn’t belong in the same provocative, “perverted melodious” universe as Goldenberg’s creations. So yes, it’s fair to say that Billy Goldenberg’s compositions defined the signature sound of the 1970s mystery movie, and much of what followed in its wake.
(Above) The opening scene from Ransom for a Dead Man—with music by Billy Goldenberg—finds a lawyer (played by Lee Grant) assembling a ransom note for her husband (actor Harlan Warde), editing a tape recording to prove that he was indeed snatched, and finally shooting him in their living room.
• Also lost last week: journalist and author Pete Hamill. A longtime, much-admired New York City newspaperman, Hamill also published in The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Playboy, and Esquire. (A variety of his pieces can be read here, with one of his best-known Esquire features available at this link.) On top of all those credits, he penned close to a dozen novels, recalls Jiro Kimura of The Gumshoe Site, “including A Killing for Christ (Little, Brown, 1968), his first novel which was a thriller about a plot to assassinate the Pope in Rome.” Hamill produced, as well, a quartet of action-packed thrillers starring Gotham freelance reporter Sam Briscoe, beginning with 1978’s Dirty Laundry (about which I wrote in CrimeReads) and running through 2011’s Tabloid City. Kimura goes on to note that Hamill’s “mystery short stories include ‘The Men in Black Raincoats,’ first published in the December 1977 issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, and ‘The Book Signing’ (first published in Brooklyn Noir; Akashic, 2004), which was an Edgar nominee. His teleplays include Laguna Heat (1987, based on the novel by T. Jefferson Parker) and Split Images (1992, based on the novel by Elmore Leonard).” Click here to enjoy New York magazine’s fine tribute to Hamill, who passed away from heart and kidney failure on August 5. He was 85 years of age.
• Like so many other crime-fiction gatherings, Belfast, Ireland’s NOIRELAND International Crime Fiction Festival has had its ups and downs this year. A one-day event had been planned for March 28, only to be postponed until October due to the novel coronavirus. And now … “Sadly, it seems we were a little optimistic!” writes festival manager Angela McMahon. “The risk to public health from COVID-19 is still significant and unlikely to change for some time. As the well-being of our audiences, our authors and our many wonderful volunteers is paramount, we have concluded that in the circumstances we cannot go ahead with NOIRELAND this year.” She promises that tickets will be refunded over the next couple of weeks.
• Also cancelled was this year’s Pulpfest. Nonetheless, organizers announced that the winner of that planned convention’s 2020 Munsey Award is Mike Ashley, “the author or co-author of numerous works related to the pulps, science fiction, and fantasy. … Ashley has also edited many anthologies and single-author collections, often drawing work from the pulps. He is currently part of a team compiling an index to the most important British popular fiction magazines published between 1880 and 1950, including all the British pulps.” In 2003, Ashley’s Mammoth Encyclopedia of Modern Crime Fiction captured the Edgar Award for Best Critical/Biographical Work.
• Plans are quite different for another annual get-together, the Crime Fiction Weekend at St. Hilda’s College, University of Oxford. The two-day conference (August 14-15) will take place entirely online. As publicity committee member Jean Harker says in an e-mail note, “This year’s theme is ‘All Our Yesterdays: Historical Crime Fiction’ … and speakers include Andrew Taylor, Mick Herron, Andrew Wilson, Elly Griffiths, Anna Mazzola, etc.” She adds that “St. Hilda’s alumna and Honorary Fellow Val McDermid will preside over some of the proceedings. There will also be a tribute to Dame Agatha Christie as we celebrate the centenary of the publication of The Mysterious Affair at Styles—and a solve-it-yourself Whodunnit playlet written by Andrew Taylor and acted by a cast of crime writers.” Click here to find the full program. Proceedings are supposed to be recorded and made available to ticket-holders for a month. The ticket price is £30, with a discount available to students. You can register here.
• As the coronavirus lockdown continues, you may be curious to know how retired Edinburgh Detective Inspector John Rebus (soon to return in A Song for the Dark Times) is managing the isolation. His creator, Ian Rankin, answers that question in this delightful scripted video short starring Emmy Award-winning Scottish actor Brian Cox. It imagines Rebus coping with the absence of pubs, the need for exercise, the ubiquity of Zoom communications, and much more. (Hat tip to Randal S. Brandt)
• I’m just in the midst of reading Sam Wasson’s The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood (Flatiron), and here comes news that Ben Affleck is spearheading a film based on that character-rich tale about the making of Chinatown (1974). The Hollywood Reporter says he’ll pen the script and direct the picture, and co-produce with Lorne Michaels, “who initially nabbed the rights to the book.” Let’s hope for the best from this project.
• In other story-to-screen news, The Killing Times brings word that Megan Abbott’s next novel, The Turnout—to be published in the summer of 2021—is already scheduled for television treatment. It says the story “is set in the hothouse world of a ballet school led by the Durant sisters, Dara and Marie, and Dara’s husband Charlie. Their connection is intense, forged by a glamorous but troubled family history. But after they hire Derek, a charismatic, possibly shady contractor to renovate the studio, Marie throws herself into an intense affair with him that threatens their tight bonds and brings forward family secrets until an act of violence overturns everything.”
• Meanwhile, it’s been reported that actress Elisabeth Moss (The West Wing, The Handmaid’s Tale) “will be developing Araminta Hall’s forthcoming Imperfect Women as one of the first projects of her new production company, Love & Squalor Pictures.” Publishers Weekly calls that novel a “heart-wrenching psychological thriller.”
• Netflix has chosen September 3 as the debut date for Young Wallander, its six-episode series inspired by Henning Mankell’s tales of Swedish police inspector Kurt Wallander.
• Here’s a show I didn’t expect: HBO’s The Undoing, a psychological drama starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant. Variety explains,
The six-episode series follows Grace Fraser (Kidman), a successful therapist who discovers that her husband Jonathan (Grant) may be wrapped up in the death of another woman. She must unravel a chain of mysteries to reclaim her family’s life. The limited series, based on Jean Hanff Korelitz’s [2014] novel You Should Have Known, is written and executive produced by David E. Kelley. Susanne Bier, Per Saari, Bruna Papandrea, Stephen Garrett, Celia Costas and Kidman also executive produce. Bier also directs.The Undoing is slated to start its run on October 25.
• And Netflix is offering images from its adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 Gothic novel, Rebecca, which was already so well filmed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1940. Netflix’s interpretation will premiere on October 21. As Deadline explains, “Lily James and Armie Hammer lead the cast this time out, playing the aristocratic widower Maxim de Winter (Laurence Olivier in Hitchcock’s version) and his new wife (previously Joan Fontaine), with Kristin Scott Thomas as Mrs Danvers.”
• August brings what would have been Earl Derr Biggers’ 136th birthday, were the creator of Charlie Chan still around to enjoy such festivities. (He perished in 1933, aged 48.) To celebrate, Lou Armagno, who blogs at The Postman on Holiday, has compiled a “musical montage” of compositions and musicians associated with Biggers’ Chinese-American detective, the majority of which relate to the 44 vintage Chan films. Among the many things I hadn’t know before: David Raksin, who created music for the 1941’s Dead Men Tell, starring Sidney Toler as Chan, would three years later compose the eerily beautiful score for that film noir classic, Laura.
• Laura seems to be burning bright in the zeitgeist lately. Otto Penzler placed that 1944 Gene Tierney/Dana Andrews picture at Number 6 in his CrimeReads countdown of “The Greatest Crime Films of All Time.” And in Loren D. Estleman’s new, sixth Valentino mystery, Indigo (Forge), his imperfect film detective is presented with the original Laura Hunt portrait painted for that movie.
• Regarding Penzler’s picks, he’s identified his top two—Chinatown (1974) and The Maltese Falcon (1941)—but we’re still waiting to see which motion picture he thinks belongs at the top of the heap.
• In a new interview with Hollywood Soapbox, Hard Case Crime editor Charles Ardai talks about his company’s initial inspiration, forthcoming works by Ray Bradbury and Max Allan Collins, and the importance of original cover artwork for HCC titles.
• Speaking of Hard Case, Entertainment Weekly has revealed the Paul Mann-painted cover of Later, Stephen King’s third contribution to that paperback line (following 2005’s The Colorado Kid and 2013’s top-selling Joyland). Due out in March 2021, Later is described by Ardai as “a beautiful story about growing up and facing your demons—whether they’re metaphorical or (as sometimes happens when you’re in a
• When it comes to crime- and mystery-fiction blogs, patience is sometimes rewarded. In July 2018, Brooklyn writer, critic, and musician Cullen Gallagher put up what appeared to be the final contribution to his fine site, Pulp Serenade: an interview with author Paul D. Brazill. Given Gallagher’s previous posting prolificacy, though, I hesitated to delete Pulp Serenade from The Rap Sheet’s blogroll—and now my restraint has been vindicated. Almost a full two years after Gallagher seemed to disappear, he suddenly returned in mid-June with a flood of posts, some of them reprints but others new (such as his reviews of S.A. Cosby’s Blacktop Wasteland and Lawrence Block’s Dead Girl Blues). I don’t know how long his renewed commitment to Pulp Serenade will last, but let’s hope it will not flag any time soon.
• So what’s happened to Reviewing the Evidence? Created in 2001 by Barbara Franchi, it has more recently been managed by Yvonne Klein. However, the last time that site saw an update was back in January of this year. I hope the pandemic has not spelled an end to RTE. I recently sent an e-mail inquiry to Klein, but have not yet received a response. If anybody out there knows about the site’s future, I hope they’ll reveal it in the Comments section at the end of this post.
• This could be interesting. From In Reference to Murder:
Independent publisher Canelo is launching a new crime fiction imprint, Canelo Crime, and has promoted Louise Cullen as publishing director to oversee the list. The imprint will launch with a selection of eight titles, including novels by Rachel Lynch and Nick Louth, due for release on September 24. Cullen is now actively seeking new novels with “bestseller potential” for inclusion in the imprint in 2021 and beyond, with a target of 15–18 new releases next year.• If you’ve ever wondered what it would like to be in the company of prolific Texas author James Reasoner, click over to this YouTube interview he did with Paul Bishop of Wolfpack Publishing and fellow writer Robert Vaughan. By the way, Reasoner just declared that he’s finished work on his 386th novel. I suddenly feel very lazy …
• Tied to the recent release of Eliot Ness and the Mad Butcher: Hunting America’s Deadliest Unidentified Serial Killer at the Dawn of Modern Criminology (Morrow), which he wrote with A. Brad Schwartz, author Max Allan Collins submits to The Strand Magazine’s blog a list containing “10 Additional Surprising Facts About Eliot Ness.”
• Collins also posted a piece in CrimeReads that answers the question, “Whatever Happened to Eliot Ness After Prohibition?”
• Let me recommend one other story in CrimeReads: Andrew Cartmel’s look back at the “lost classics” of 20th-century hard-boiled author Charles Williams.
• I’m not much for audiobooks, since I can generally read a work faster myself than somebody else can read it to me. However, I have enjoyed listening to Phoebe Judge’s presentations at Phoebe Reads a Mystery, a podcast I first heard about from blogger Dave Knadler. Since the novel coronavirus struck, she’s been recording chapter-by-chapter deliveries of classic works, some of the most recent being Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Anna Katharine Green’s The Leavenworth Case, Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Links, and Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone. While I still shy away from audio versions of new novels, I find that I quite enjoy revisiting books I have already read, transported into another time and place by Judge’s soothing voice.
Saturday, July 25, 2020
Bullet Points: Screen Gems Edition
• For the last 20 months, New York City bookseller and editor Otto Penzler has been counting down, in the electronic pages of CrimeReads, a sometimes idiosyncratic list of what he says are the 106 “Greatest Crime Films of All Time.” This week he finally cracked the top five (thanks to The Godfather: Part II and The Godfather), with just three more picks to go. If you haven’t been keeping up, click here to find links to all of Penzler’s write-ups, from Sleuth (oddly numbered at 107) through Bullitt, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Killing, Strangers on a Train, Harper, To Kill a Mockingbird, Mystic River … and well, I’m not going to run through the whole lot here. The question now is, what three big-screeners will round out Penzler’s rundown? Chinatown and The Maltese Falcon, maybe? What else?
• Speaking of 1974’s Chinatown, I had forgotten—until reading Max Allan Collins’ latest blog post, devoted in large part to its sequel, The Two Jakes—that the Paramount Pictures presentation “originally had what is said to be a lousy score, and Jerry Goldsmith was brought in at the last minute to write (in a little over a week) what is now considered one of most memorable film scores of all time.” Interestingly, Phillip Lambro’s initial soundtrack was not always derided, according to the blog J.J. Gittes Investigations (named for Jack Nicholson’s P.I. protagonist). It recalls that, early on, “Robert Evans, Paramount’s head of production and Chinatown’s producer, was impressed with [Lambro’s] music, requesting even more and hinting at a possible Oscar for the score …” A later audience preview-screening, though, “was a disaster, and the one solution everyone seemed to agree on was replacing the score.” Goldsmith, who by that time had created music for TV shows such as The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and Room 222, and for movies including Our Man Flint, Planet of the Apes, and Tora! Tora! Tora!, was brought in to replace Lambro’s score. Nonetheless, Lambro’s music survived in “the theatrical film trailer, TV commercials and radio spots.” Below is, first, Lambro’s proposed main title theme for Chinatown, followed by Goldsmith’s better-remembered opening music.
Eight years ago, Lambro’s Chinatown score was released in CD format by Perseverance Records under the title Los Angeles 1937. “It’s interesting,” concludes Collins, “but not a patch on Goldsmith.”
• The story of Lambro’s missing music reminds me of another episode about which I’ve previously written: How composer Alex North’s soundtrack for the big-budget 1968 science-fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey was replaced only in post-production by “a variety of classical works, among them Richard Strauss’ ‘Also sprach Zarathustra,’ which served as the main title theme.”
• This is most welcome news: Deadline reports that PBS-TV’s Masterpiece “is set to co-produce and broadcast [the] murder mystery Magpie Murders, a six-part drama series based on Foyle’s War creator Anthony Horowitz’s best-selling novel.” Like my colleague Ali Karim, I loved Horowitz’s 2017 whodunit, and am pleased to hear that the author will pen the screenplay for Magpie Murders, which “revolves around the character Susan Ryeland, an editor who is given an unfinished manuscript of author Alan Conway’s latest novel, but has little idea it will change her life.” Deadline quotes Horowitz as saying, “Magpie Murders is my most successful novel and it wasn’t easy to adapt. But I think the result is a completely original drama that will delight and beguile audiences in equal measure.” The series will stream in Britain on BritBox UK.
• While no air date has yet been announced for that small-screen adaptation, we do know that Horowitz’s print sequel to Magpie Murders, titled Moonflower Murders, is due out in the UK in August from Century. A U.S. edition will appear in November from Harper.
• I still haven’t warmed up to Will Davenport, the Anglican vicar-cum-sleuth—played by Tom Brittney—who replaced James Norton’s Sidney Chambers in Season 4 of Grantchester. He’s a far less well layered figure than Chambers, and his inconsistent reluctance, in Season 5, to engage in a romantic relationship with enticing newspaper reporter Ellie Harding (Lauren Carse) tested the bounds of credibility. Nonetheless, I’m pleased to hear learn that this 1950s-set series has been renewed for a sixth season. Maybe more time spent in the company of the great Robson Green, who plays Detective Inspector Geordie Keating on the show, will polish Brittney’s presentation.
• Also given extended life is HBO-TV’s Perry Mason, though it’s still only five episodes into its eight-installment premiere season. The Hollywood Reporter quotes Francesca Orsi, HBO programming executive VP, as saying: “It has been an exciting journey to work with the immensely talented team behind Perry Mason. Viewers have relished being transported back in time to 1930s Los Angeles each week, and we are thrilled to welcome the show back for a second season.” As far as I’m concerned, the jury is still out on this rebooted Mason. I like the period setting and the corrupt fragrances of pre-World War II L.A. that flood through it. I’ve enjoyed, too, watching the immensely talented John Lithgow play a veteran but troubled attorney; Chris Chalk portray African-American policeman (not yet shamus) Paul Drake; and Tatiana Maslany serve up an engagingly melodramatic performance as a religious evangelist and celebrity cut from the same con artist’s cloth as Aimee Semple McPherson. But screenwriters Rolin Jones and Ron Fitzgerald appear more interested in supplying their principal players with unexpected back stories (Mason as once a heavy-drinking, low-rent private investigator living on his family’s decrepit dairy farm; Della Street as a closeted lesbian and aspiring attorney) than they do in capturing the essence of Erle Stanley Gardner’s storytelling. Up to now, at least, this show has only nominally been Perry Mason. Last week’s episode, however, found actor Matthew Rhys’ Mason finally passing the bar (even if we were witness to none of his studying for that qualification), so he can commence his defense of Emily Dodson, a mother allegedly complicit in the abduction and killing of her only child. Maybe over the final three episodes Mason can prove himself worthy of his moniker. If so, I’ll be happy he has another season in which to develop his courtroom prowess.
• TNT-TV’s The Alienist: Angel of Darkness, the eight-episode mini-series follow-up to last year’s acclaimed Victorian-era thriller, The Alienist, was supposed to have premiered tomorrow, July 26. Instead, its kickoff was moved forward by one week, though TNT didn’t explain why other than to say it was “an effort to continuously bring consumers thrilling, event television at a faster pace.” The opening two installments of Angel began streaming last Sunday, though I’ve only had the chance to watch one so far. Collider explains that this sequel, based on Caleb Carr’s 1997 novel The Angel of Darkness, finds “Sara Howard (Dakota Fanning)—previously a secretary for Theodore Roosevelt—now head[ing] up her own detective agency. Meanwhile, John Moore (Luke Evans), previously an illustrator, is now a reporter for The New York Times; and Dr. Laszlo Kreizler (Daniel Brühl) … well, Dr. Kreizler is still putting his expertise as an alienist to good use. When a kidnapped baby turns up dead and displayed in grisly fashion, followed by the kidnapping of another baby, Sara suspects a serial killer may be on the loose. She reconnects with Laszlo and John to try and find this recently
kidnapped child before it’s too late, and as happened in the show’s first season, their investigation leads them down some shady paths.” Two more episodes should drop tomorrow.
• Adrian McKinty’s haunting child-abduction thriller, The Chain, was recently named as the 2020 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, and now it’s bound for cinematic adaptation. Deadline reports that “In a seven-figure deal, Universal Pictures has optioned The Chain … Baby Driver helmer Edgar Wright will direct, while Jane Goldman (Kingsman: The Golden Circle and X-Men: First Class) is writing the script. The novel had been in talks to be acquired by Paramount before it was published last July by Little, Brown/Mulholland, but the deal never crossed the finish line. It has come together quite nicely in this new iteration. Working Title’s Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan will produce alongside Complete Fiction’s Nira Park and Wright, and The Story Factory’s Shane Salerno.”
• Blogger B.V. Lawson brings word that Mad Men alumnus Jon Hamm “is set to star in and produce a feature film reboot of Fletch, the brazen investigative reporter from Gregory Mcdonald’s 1970s and 1980s Fletch mystery novels. The new film adaptation will specifically be based on the second book in the Mcdonald series, Confess, Fletch [1976]. In a mysterious chain of wild events, Fletch finds himself in the middle of multiple murders, one of which implicates him as a prime suspect. While on a quest to prove his innocence, Fletch is tasked with finding his fiancée’s stolen art collection, the only inheritance she’s acquired after her father goes missing and is presumed dead. Zev Borow, consulting producer of the Lethal Weapon TV series, will be penning the feature adaptation.”
• This is coincidental, I’m sure, but less than a week after The Columbophile blog completed its countdown of what it says are “The 100 Greatest Columbo Scenes of the 1970s,” The New York Times’ Elisabeth Vincentelli is out with a delightful essay contending that “Columbo was all about sticking it to the man.” She opines:
• Here’s a bit more nostalgia: To get us through the COVID-19 lockdown, CrimeReads recommends digging into an “iconic” 1970s crime-fiction series, whether it be Robert B. Parker’s Spenser yarns, the Kate Fansler stories by Amanda Cross (aka Carolyn Heilbrun), Donald Goines’ four Kenyatta novels, Manuel Vázquez Montalbán’s Pepe Carvalho books, or half a dozen other choices.
• Are you missing the surprises and camaraderie of crime-fiction conventions? This may be the next best thing. As In Reference to Murder explains, “The virtual Harrogate Festival, ‘HIF Weekender,’ will be available for free this weekend. Events will include interviews with Ian Rankin, Val McDermid, and Mark Billingham; a panel celebrating debut authors; the live-streaming of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, and much more.”
• Who knew there was a Japanese term for “a person who owns a lot of unread literature”? Not that I’m guilty of tsundoku …
• Bloody cool! A Victorian vampire-slaying kit!
• Two podcasts worth tuning in: Episode 53 of the Paperback Warrior Podcast looks back at Kendell Foster Crossen, who—under the pseudonym M.E. Chaber—penned 23 novels starring insurance investigator Milo March. (Steeger Books is currently in the process of re-releasing all of those works in both paperback and e-book formats.) And in her latest edition of Shedunnit, the remarkably sweet-voiced Caroline Crampton considers the many instances of detectives undertaking investigations whilst on holiday.
• One cannot help but wonder at the provocation behind a new “Code of Conduct and Anti-Harassment Policy” from organizers of the annual Bouchercon convention, and applying to “all attendees at future Bouchercon events.” An e-mail note sent out by registration chair Teresa Wilson cites “recent events,” but provides no specifics. Nonetheless, the policy seems clear. It reads, in part:
• While others (including yours truly) announced their favorite 2020 crime and mystery novels—so far—in June, two familiar contributors to the MysteryPeople blog waited until now to weigh in. Meike Alana offers her 10 top choices, among them Scott Phillips’ That Left Turn at Albuquerque, Jennifer Hillier’s Little Secrets, James Ziskin’s Turn to Stone, and Mexican Gothic, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. In the meantime, Scott Montgomery’s 11 picks range from Amy Engel’s The Familiar Dark and Joe R. Lansdale’s Of Mice and Minestrone to Kathleen Kent’s The Burn and Walter Mosley’s Trouble Is What I Do.
• Looking for some crimes in cooler climes to get you through the depths of this coronavirus summer? In The New York Times Book Review, Tina Jordan and Marilyn Stasio recommend works by more than 40 Scandinavian noir writers.
• Canadian journalist Dean Jobb revisits an 1882 murder, in Chicago, that took place at one of that town’s swankest hotels, pitted a singer turned prostitute against the scion of an Illinois banker, featured claims of insanity, and—unusual for the Gilded Age—put not only the accused murderess on trial, but also “her abusive lover,” the deceased. A terrific piece, one that I wish I’d written!
• Speaking of 1974’s Chinatown, I had forgotten—until reading Max Allan Collins’ latest blog post, devoted in large part to its sequel, The Two Jakes—that the Paramount Pictures presentation “originally had what is said to be a lousy score, and Jerry Goldsmith was brought in at the last minute to write (in a little over a week) what is now considered one of most memorable film scores of all time.” Interestingly, Phillip Lambro’s initial soundtrack was not always derided, according to the blog J.J. Gittes Investigations (named for Jack Nicholson’s P.I. protagonist). It recalls that, early on, “Robert Evans, Paramount’s head of production and Chinatown’s producer, was impressed with [Lambro’s] music, requesting even more and hinting at a possible Oscar for the score …” A later audience preview-screening, though, “was a disaster, and the one solution everyone seemed to agree on was replacing the score.” Goldsmith, who by that time had created music for TV shows such as The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and Room 222, and for movies including Our Man Flint, Planet of the Apes, and Tora! Tora! Tora!, was brought in to replace Lambro’s score. Nonetheless, Lambro’s music survived in “the theatrical film trailer, TV commercials and radio spots.” Below is, first, Lambro’s proposed main title theme for Chinatown, followed by Goldsmith’s better-remembered opening music.
Eight years ago, Lambro’s Chinatown score was released in CD format by Perseverance Records under the title Los Angeles 1937. “It’s interesting,” concludes Collins, “but not a patch on Goldsmith.”
• The story of Lambro’s missing music reminds me of another episode about which I’ve previously written: How composer Alex North’s soundtrack for the big-budget 1968 science-fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey was replaced only in post-production by “a variety of classical works, among them Richard Strauss’ ‘Also sprach Zarathustra,’ which served as the main title theme.”
• This is most welcome news: Deadline reports that PBS-TV’s Masterpiece “is set to co-produce and broadcast [the] murder mystery Magpie Murders, a six-part drama series based on Foyle’s War creator Anthony Horowitz’s best-selling novel.” Like my colleague Ali Karim, I loved Horowitz’s 2017 whodunit, and am pleased to hear that the author will pen the screenplay for Magpie Murders, which “revolves around the character Susan Ryeland, an editor who is given an unfinished manuscript of author Alan Conway’s latest novel, but has little idea it will change her life.” Deadline quotes Horowitz as saying, “Magpie Murders is my most successful novel and it wasn’t easy to adapt. But I think the result is a completely original drama that will delight and beguile audiences in equal measure.” The series will stream in Britain on BritBox UK.
• While no air date has yet been announced for that small-screen adaptation, we do know that Horowitz’s print sequel to Magpie Murders, titled Moonflower Murders, is due out in the UK in August from Century. A U.S. edition will appear in November from Harper.
• I still haven’t warmed up to Will Davenport, the Anglican vicar-cum-sleuth—played by Tom Brittney—who replaced James Norton’s Sidney Chambers in Season 4 of Grantchester. He’s a far less well layered figure than Chambers, and his inconsistent reluctance, in Season 5, to engage in a romantic relationship with enticing newspaper reporter Ellie Harding (Lauren Carse) tested the bounds of credibility. Nonetheless, I’m pleased to hear learn that this 1950s-set series has been renewed for a sixth season. Maybe more time spent in the company of the great Robson Green, who plays Detective Inspector Geordie Keating on the show, will polish Brittney’s presentation.
• Also given extended life is HBO-TV’s Perry Mason, though it’s still only five episodes into its eight-installment premiere season. The Hollywood Reporter quotes Francesca Orsi, HBO programming executive VP, as saying: “It has been an exciting journey to work with the immensely talented team behind Perry Mason. Viewers have relished being transported back in time to 1930s Los Angeles each week, and we are thrilled to welcome the show back for a second season.” As far as I’m concerned, the jury is still out on this rebooted Mason. I like the period setting and the corrupt fragrances of pre-World War II L.A. that flood through it. I’ve enjoyed, too, watching the immensely talented John Lithgow play a veteran but troubled attorney; Chris Chalk portray African-American policeman (not yet shamus) Paul Drake; and Tatiana Maslany serve up an engagingly melodramatic performance as a religious evangelist and celebrity cut from the same con artist’s cloth as Aimee Semple McPherson. But screenwriters Rolin Jones and Ron Fitzgerald appear more interested in supplying their principal players with unexpected back stories (Mason as once a heavy-drinking, low-rent private investigator living on his family’s decrepit dairy farm; Della Street as a closeted lesbian and aspiring attorney) than they do in capturing the essence of Erle Stanley Gardner’s storytelling. Up to now, at least, this show has only nominally been Perry Mason. Last week’s episode, however, found actor Matthew Rhys’ Mason finally passing the bar (even if we were witness to none of his studying for that qualification), so he can commence his defense of Emily Dodson, a mother allegedly complicit in the abduction and killing of her only child. Maybe over the final three episodes Mason can prove himself worthy of his moniker. If so, I’ll be happy he has another season in which to develop his courtroom prowess.
• TNT-TV’s The Alienist: Angel of Darkness, the eight-episode mini-series follow-up to last year’s acclaimed Victorian-era thriller, The Alienist, was supposed to have premiered tomorrow, July 26. Instead, its kickoff was moved forward by one week, though TNT didn’t explain why other than to say it was “an effort to continuously bring consumers thrilling, event television at a faster pace.” The opening two installments of Angel began streaming last Sunday, though I’ve only had the chance to watch one so far. Collider explains that this sequel, based on Caleb Carr’s 1997 novel The Angel of Darkness, finds “Sara Howard (Dakota Fanning)—previously a secretary for Theodore Roosevelt—now head[ing] up her own detective agency. Meanwhile, John Moore (Luke Evans), previously an illustrator, is now a reporter for The New York Times; and Dr. Laszlo Kreizler (Daniel Brühl) … well, Dr. Kreizler is still putting his expertise as an alienist to good use. When a kidnapped baby turns up dead and displayed in grisly fashion, followed by the kidnapping of another baby, Sara suspects a serial killer may be on the loose. She reconnects with Laszlo and John to try and find this recently
• Adrian McKinty’s haunting child-abduction thriller, The Chain, was recently named as the 2020 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, and now it’s bound for cinematic adaptation. Deadline reports that “In a seven-figure deal, Universal Pictures has optioned The Chain … Baby Driver helmer Edgar Wright will direct, while Jane Goldman (Kingsman: The Golden Circle and X-Men: First Class) is writing the script. The novel had been in talks to be acquired by Paramount before it was published last July by Little, Brown/Mulholland, but the deal never crossed the finish line. It has come together quite nicely in this new iteration. Working Title’s Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan will produce alongside Complete Fiction’s Nira Park and Wright, and The Story Factory’s Shane Salerno.”
• Blogger B.V. Lawson brings word that Mad Men alumnus Jon Hamm “is set to star in and produce a feature film reboot of Fletch, the brazen investigative reporter from Gregory Mcdonald’s 1970s and 1980s Fletch mystery novels. The new film adaptation will specifically be based on the second book in the Mcdonald series, Confess, Fletch [1976]. In a mysterious chain of wild events, Fletch finds himself in the middle of multiple murders, one of which implicates him as a prime suspect. While on a quest to prove his innocence, Fletch is tasked with finding his fiancée’s stolen art collection, the only inheritance she’s acquired after her father goes missing and is presumed dead. Zev Borow, consulting producer of the Lethal Weapon TV series, will be penning the feature adaptation.”
• This is coincidental, I’m sure, but less than a week after The Columbophile blog completed its countdown of what it says are “The 100 Greatest Columbo Scenes of the 1970s,” The New York Times’ Elisabeth Vincentelli is out with a delightful essay contending that “Columbo was all about sticking it to the man.” She opines:
“Columbo” is one of the very few American series fueled by class warfare. Whether they are driven by coldblooded entitlement, delusions of grandeur or simple greed, the murderers treat the self-deprecating, ostentatiously low-grade cop with seething annoyance, willful condescension or hypocritical benevolence.• It’s been more than a few years since I last sat through the 1974 disaster flick The Towering Inferno. But Andrew Catmel’s recent appreciation post about that Stirling Sillipant-scripted picture makes me think a rewatch might be in order.
It is hard to overstate how satisfying it is to see smug
criminals get caught right now. Imagine the joy of seeing a rebooted Columbo go after hedge-fund managers, big-game hunters, studio chiefs, YouTube influencers, real-estate magnates or celebrity chefs who picked killing as an acceptable problem-solving method.
• Here’s a bit more nostalgia: To get us through the COVID-19 lockdown, CrimeReads recommends digging into an “iconic” 1970s crime-fiction series, whether it be Robert B. Parker’s Spenser yarns, the Kate Fansler stories by Amanda Cross (aka Carolyn Heilbrun), Donald Goines’ four Kenyatta novels, Manuel Vázquez Montalbán’s Pepe Carvalho books, or half a dozen other choices.
• Are you missing the surprises and camaraderie of crime-fiction conventions? This may be the next best thing. As In Reference to Murder explains, “The virtual Harrogate Festival, ‘HIF Weekender,’ will be available for free this weekend. Events will include interviews with Ian Rankin, Val McDermid, and Mark Billingham; a panel celebrating debut authors; the live-streaming of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, and much more.”
• Who knew there was a Japanese term for “a person who owns a lot of unread literature”? Not that I’m guilty of tsundoku …
• Bloody cool! A Victorian vampire-slaying kit!
• Two podcasts worth tuning in: Episode 53 of the Paperback Warrior Podcast looks back at Kendell Foster Crossen, who—under the pseudonym M.E. Chaber—penned 23 novels starring insurance investigator Milo March. (Steeger Books is currently in the process of re-releasing all of those works in both paperback and e-book formats.) And in her latest edition of Shedunnit, the remarkably sweet-voiced Caroline Crampton considers the many instances of detectives undertaking investigations whilst on holiday.
• One cannot help but wonder at the provocation behind a new “Code of Conduct and Anti-Harassment Policy” from organizers of the annual Bouchercon convention, and applying to “all attendees at future Bouchercon events.” An e-mail note sent out by registration chair Teresa Wilson cites “recent events,” but provides no specifics. Nonetheless, the policy seems clear. It reads, in part:
For over fifty years, we have observed all applicable laws and regulations, and have practiced strict adherence to the highest standards of conduct. Harassment of any kind will not be tolerated. We view harassment as any behavior, whether physical, verbal and/or emotional, that threatens, alarms, or makes someone uncomfortable. Examples may include, but are not limited to the following: verbal or written comments and/or innuendos of a sexual or violent nature, unwanted physical and/or sexual contact and/or advances, ethnic and/or racial slurs or epithets, recording or photographing individuals without consent, following or stalking and/or unwanted coercive behavior of any kind.Taking advantage of a limited-time discount deal, I registered for Bouchercon 2021, in New Orleans, way back in March, but was asked only earlier this week to study the new Code of Conduct and respond “with a simple statement saying you’ve read and agree” to its provisions. (Updated procedures now make such compliance part of the regular registration process.) I had no qualms about agreeing. But this all leaves me curious as to what went wrong at some previous gathering to make such a document necessary.
Any member who believes that they have been or are being subject to a violation of Bouchercon’s Code of Conduct & Anti-Harassment Policy, or who witnesses a violation, is encouraged to immediately report any such violation to the event organizer or a Bouchercon® Board member. Contact with the hotel, convention event space owner and/or operator or police is also encouraged. All such reporting shall remain confidential. In the event there is a formal legal investigation, all contact information shall remain confidential and protected against unnecessary disclosure—including the identity of the accused individual, the individual reporting the violation, and that of any witness. Should they desire to do so, individuals may consent in writing to Bouchercon® event Local Organizer Chair(s) to disclose their identities.
Any attendee asked to stop any behavior deemed to be harassing, is expected to comply immediately. If the situation is of an urgent nature, such as the fear of immediate, physical danger, the victim of the harassment should immediately contact hotel staff, convention event leaders, or the police.
• While others (including yours truly) announced their favorite 2020 crime and mystery novels—so far—in June, two familiar contributors to the MysteryPeople blog waited until now to weigh in. Meike Alana offers her 10 top choices, among them Scott Phillips’ That Left Turn at Albuquerque, Jennifer Hillier’s Little Secrets, James Ziskin’s Turn to Stone, and Mexican Gothic, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. In the meantime, Scott Montgomery’s 11 picks range from Amy Engel’s The Familiar Dark and Joe R. Lansdale’s Of Mice and Minestrone to Kathleen Kent’s The Burn and Walter Mosley’s Trouble Is What I Do.
• Looking for some crimes in cooler climes to get you through the depths of this coronavirus summer? In The New York Times Book Review, Tina Jordan and Marilyn Stasio recommend works by more than 40 Scandinavian noir writers.
• Canadian journalist Dean Jobb revisits an 1882 murder, in Chicago, that took place at one of that town’s swankest hotels, pitted a singer turned prostitute against the scion of an Illinois banker, featured claims of insanity, and—unusual for the Gilded Age—put not only the accused murderess on trial, but also “her abusive lover,” the deceased. A terrific piece, one that I wish I’d written!
Tuesday, November 19, 2019
Will Gittes’ P.I. Practice Be Revived?
As someone who really loves period private-eye dramas, I want to have hope for this project. But I remain skeptical. From Deadline:
Netflix has closed deals with Robert Towne and David Fincher to work up a pilot script for a prequel to the 1974 classic film Chinatown, sources tell Deadline. Towne won an Oscar for scripting a drama that mixed fact and fiction to tell the story of a private eye hired to expose an adulterer who instead uncovers far more unsavory things.Between this potential series and HBO-TV’s coming Perry Mason prequel, with Matthew Rhys, it seems we’ll soon be treated to multiple views of life and crime in 1930s Los Angeles.
Fincher will be executive producer along with Towne and Josh Donen. The idea behind the prequel series would be to focus on a young Jake Gittes (played in the film by Jack Nicholson) as he plies his business in a town where the wealthy and corruption involves areas like land, oil and gangs. The hope is that Fincher might direct the pilot, but that is not part of the deal which at this point covers a pilot script. Roman Polanski directed the original film and the late Robert Evans produced it.
Thursday, June 20, 2019
Digging the Art of “Chinatown”
It was 45 years ago today—on June 20, 1974—that French-Polish film director Roman Polanski’s now renowned period detective film, Chinatown, was first released by Paramount Pictures. I didn’t see it until years later, however, when, as a member of my college’s movie-selection committee, I helped bring Chinatown to campus for a two-night showing on a big theater screen. As a result of that effort, I wound up with a copy of the original promotional poster shown above, which is now prominently displayed in my office.
The painting for that placard—which the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) says is “arguably the greatest movie poster of all-time”—is credited to Pennsylvania-born artist Jim Pearsall. His image of Chinatown stars Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway, both of them at risk of being upstaged by a lazy drift of cigarette smoke, was reportedly inspired by a famous 1890s advertisement for JOB cigarette rolling papers, created by Czech graphic artist Alphonse Mucha.
While Pearsall’s Chinatown poster is unquestionably the best remembered, there have been alternative notices created over the last four decades, several recalling a painful-to-watch nose-cutting scene in the flick. I’m embedding a dozen of the most memorable examples below, including the one at the very bottom—a European version created by prolific American artist Richard Amsel.
READ MORE: “The Most Iconic Nose Injuries in the History of (Crime) Film,” by Dwyer Murphy (CrimeReads); “The Big Town” (Pulp International).
Saturday, March 28, 2015
Music to Murder By
Like so many modern crime-fiction fans, I include 1974’s Chinatown among my favorite films of all time. Aside from its noirish story line and its stellar cast of performers (Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston, etc.), one of that movie’s great strengths is its moody soundtrack, responsibility for which belongs to Jerry Goldsmith. I’ve previously showcased that music here, but only today did I happen across the YouTube video below, in which Goldsmith talks about the process of composing his memorable motion-picture score.
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Ending the Real-life “Chinatown” Water Feud
(Above) Frequent dust storms remain an environmental problem on California’s Owens Lake. (Photo from the Owens Lake Project.)
By Anthony Rainone
What can I tell you, kid? You’re right. When you’re right, you’re right, and you’re right.Those lines from the opening scene of Chinatown (1974) are pretty much what the City of Los Angeles is now saying to the many folks who reside in eastern California’s Owens Valley, according to this article in The New York Times. Trouble is, it took more than a century for L.A. to finally make that admission.
Current Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti stated not long ago that his city is culpable for the considerable air pollution that has resulted from the diversion of water, beginning in 1913, from Owens Lake to L.A., 200 miles to the south. “They took the water,” he remarked, acknowledging the actions of his predecessors--and looking forward to efforts by the city to help clean up the long-standing environmental mess. (As a report by National Public Radio explained,
(Left) Jack Nicholson in Chinatown.
As part of my ongoing exploration of art imitating life imitating art, and how various fictional and cinematic characters would respond to current topics, I wondered how 1930s private investigator J.J. “Jake” Gittes (played by Jack Nicholson), who uttered those opening lines, would feel about this final resolution to the controversy. Before the Big Reveal in its second act, Chinatown was all about water. It was Gittes who inadvertently discovered a conspiracy to steal water from the farmers and ranchers living in the Owens Valley and divert it to the fast-growing L.A. metropolis.
Of course, the fictional conspiracy so brilliantly rendered by screenwriter Robert Towne and director Roman Polanksi was based on the true-life theft of water from Owens Valley, perpetrated in the 20th century’s first two decades by William Mulholland, superintendent of what was then the Los Angeles City Water Company (later the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power). Mulholland and his cronies in city government didn’t resort to exploiting an old-age home, as depicted in the movie, but their subterfuge was every bit as damning. As a fictional chamber of commerce official states in Chinatown, the water is necessary to “keep the desert” off the streets of L.A., no matter the cost to farmers in human suffering.
In the film, Mulholland is transformed into the fictional Hollis Mulwray (Darrell Zwerling), who is suspected of cheating by his supposed wife (Diane Ladd). Gittes is hired to investigate, and he tails Mulwray to the Los Angeles River basin and then out to the Pacific Ocean. The first half of the movie is replete with water references: a car overheating, Gittes nearly drowning in a drainage pipe, a client of Gittes who is a fisherman, and Mulwray’s gardener uttering the confounding statement “bad for glass,” while knee-deep in a pond. After the Big Reveal, the imagery shifts to the seedy side of Los Angeles, but it never completely forgoes the significance of water. One could argue that the absence of morality in Chinatown (the downtown L.A. neighborhood where Gittes once worked as a cop, and where
(Right) Mulholland with surveying equipment, circa 1920s.
So what would Jake make of the new agreement to curb pollution in the Owens Valley? First, he’d laugh ironically at how the city stole water from the area only to end up pouring a costly “twenty-five billion gallons of water annually” on Owens Lake, just to control the resulting dust. Then he would wonder why the city has finally come to accept its responsibility. What kind of backroom deal was struck? Who is making money off this arrangement? That is something the self-conscious and proud Jake Gittes would be compelled to investigate, since he was made to look like such a fool in the first go-round.
The Times article suggests that perhaps the water theft wasn’t a total loss to the Owens Valley, because it kept the local population down and preserved the natural beauty of the region. I would add that it also inspired one of the finest films ever made in the noir genre.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Jack the Giant
Today we celebrate the 75th birthday of American actor John Joseph “Jack” Nicholson, born on this date back in 1937. And we’re celebrating it in appropriate style, we think, with previews from Chinatown, the 1974 film in which he plays a sleazy, 1930s gumshoe, J.J. “Jake” Gittes, who gets mixed up in a knotty case involving power, passion, and paternity. The Moviefone blog recently declared Chinatown to be the second best film Nicholson has ever made, following his 1975 comedy/drama, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and we’re not about to disagree.
The first two video frames below feature trailers for Chinatown (a film that was finally followed, in 1990, by a sequel: The Two Jakes). The third offers Jerry Goldsmith’s fabulous Chinatown theme.
The first two video frames below feature trailers for Chinatown (a film that was finally followed, in 1990, by a sequel: The Two Jakes). The third offers Jerry Goldsmith’s fabulous Chinatown theme.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
The Movie You Have to See
With thanks to The Rap Sheet’s Jeff Pierce and blogger-author Patti Abbott, who invented the “Book You Have to Read” (aka “forgotten books”) feature, I offer this cinematic version.
Chinatown (1974) arguably presented Jack Nicholson’s best movie role, director Roman Polanski’s best work, and Robert Towne’s best writing. John Huston and Faye Dunaway weren’t too shabby, either, and Jerry Goldsmith’s music, John A. Alonzo’s cinematography, and Sam O’Steen’s editing were all superb.
I saw Chinatown for the second time this weekend, after watching a preview of a terrific, forthcoming PBS-TV documentary about Los Angeles’ newspapering Chandler family, who--with help from engineer William Mulholland--stole water from Southern California’s Owens Valley and diverted it to the San Fernando Valley. That theft lay at the heart of Towne’s fictional story, and Polanski and his crew created an evocative picture of 1930s Los Angeles to bring it to life.
If you haven’t seen Chinatown recently, do your good taste a favor and rent it. The movie trailer is here.
Chinatown (1974) arguably presented Jack Nicholson’s best movie role, director Roman Polanski’s best work, and Robert Towne’s best writing. John Huston and Faye Dunaway weren’t too shabby, either, and Jerry Goldsmith’s music, John A. Alonzo’s cinematography, and Sam O’Steen’s editing were all superb.
I saw Chinatown for the second time this weekend, after watching a preview of a terrific, forthcoming PBS-TV documentary about Los Angeles’ newspapering Chandler family, who--with help from engineer William Mulholland--stole water from Southern California’s Owens Valley and diverted it to the San Fernando Valley. That theft lay at the heart of Towne’s fictional story, and Polanski and his crew created an evocative picture of 1930s Los Angeles to bring it to life.
If you haven’t seen Chinatown recently, do your good taste a favor and rent it. The movie trailer is here.
Sunday, April 05, 2009
Bullet Points: Oldies and Goodies Edition
• Don’t forget that this is the last day to enter The Rap Sheet’s contest to win a free copy of Jerry Stahl’s fourth and latest novel, Pain Killers. All you have to do is answer one simple question:
• The first-season DVD set of Veronica Mars has recently received enthusiastic acclaim from not just one, but two sources. First, from Pajiba (which is forthrightly subtitled “Scathing Reviews for Bitchy People”). And second, from The Groovy Age of Horror. Writes Pajiba’s Daniel Carlson: “[I]t’s Season One that remains the sharpest crystallization of what ‘Veronica Mars’ promises: A show about a girl solving the mysteries and exploring the dangers of her own life, from the death of her best friend to the truth about her own family.”
• Pajiba’s Veronica Mars write-up, by the way, is just one of its critical looks back at “The Best 20 Seasons of the Past 20 Years” of American television. That series also includes: Murder One, Season One, Twin Peaks, Season One, The West Wing, Season Two, The Wire, Season Two, and Deadwood, Season One.
• Almost two years ago, author George Pelecanos chose to include Don Carpenter’s 1966 novel, Hard Rain Falling, in The Rap Sheet’s expansive rundown of overlooked, criminally forgotten, and underappreciated crime novels. He called it “a stunning, brutally honest entry in the social realist school of crime fiction.” Now, Pelecanos has written the introduction to a long-overdue new edition of Hard Rain Falling, coming from Random House in September. Good for him for reminding readers of this extraordinary novel. (Hat tip to Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind.)
• Uriah Robinson (aka Norman Price) reminds me of another older book worth rediscovering, The Polish Officer (1995), by Alan Furst.
• Judith Freeman, author of the biography The Long Embrace: Raymond Chandler and the Woman He Loved (more on that here), writes in today’s Los Angeles Times about meeting Chandler’s former secretary, Dorothy Fisher, who died in December 2008. You’ll find the Times piece here.
• Tom Bale (aka David Harrison) submits his latest novel, the cinematically told Skin and Bones, to Marshal Zeringue’s Page 69 Test. Click here for the results.
• For Pulp Pusher, Seth “Soul Man” Ferranti interviews gangbanger Terrell C. Wright, author of the new 2 Live and Die in L.A. and Home of the Body Bags (2005).
• And in case you haven’t noticed, novelist Alexandra Sokoloff (The Price) has been writing a terrifically thorough analysis of Roman Polanski’s 1974 private-eye film, Chinatown. “[T]here’s a good reason instructors love to talk about this movie--there’s just no film better to cover ALL the elements of filmic and dramatic structure with one single movie,” she explains. “I never watch it without seeing new things in it, and I always benefit from hearing what other people see in it.” If I have the parts in order, they are here, here, and here, with a character study of detective Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) here. It all makes me wants to watch Chinatown again--for what I think must be the 10th time.
In which other of Stahl’s novels did ex-junkie turned codeine-popping detective Manny Rupert also appear?If you need a clue, click here. Once you have the answer, send it in an e-mail note--along with your snail-mail address--to: jpwrites@wordcuts.org. And write “Pain Killers Contest” in the subject line. The deadline for entering is midnight tonight. One winner will be announced on Monday. Unfortunately, this contest is only open to U.S. residents.
• The first-season DVD set of Veronica Mars has recently received enthusiastic acclaim from not just one, but two sources. First, from Pajiba (which is forthrightly subtitled “Scathing Reviews for Bitchy People”). And second, from The Groovy Age of Horror. Writes Pajiba’s Daniel Carlson: “[I]t’s Season One that remains the sharpest crystallization of what ‘Veronica Mars’ promises: A show about a girl solving the mysteries and exploring the dangers of her own life, from the death of her best friend to the truth about her own family.”
• Pajiba’s Veronica Mars write-up, by the way, is just one of its critical looks back at “The Best 20 Seasons of the Past 20 Years” of American television. That series also includes: Murder One, Season One, Twin Peaks, Season One, The West Wing, Season Two, The Wire, Season Two, and Deadwood, Season One.
• Almost two years ago, author George Pelecanos chose to include Don Carpenter’s 1966 novel, Hard Rain Falling, in The Rap Sheet’s expansive rundown of overlooked, criminally forgotten, and underappreciated crime novels. He called it “a stunning, brutally honest entry in the social realist school of crime fiction.” Now, Pelecanos has written the introduction to a long-overdue new edition of Hard Rain Falling, coming from Random House in September. Good for him for reminding readers of this extraordinary novel. (Hat tip to Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind.)
• Uriah Robinson (aka Norman Price) reminds me of another older book worth rediscovering, The Polish Officer (1995), by Alan Furst.
• Judith Freeman, author of the biography The Long Embrace: Raymond Chandler and the Woman He Loved (more on that here), writes in today’s Los Angeles Times about meeting Chandler’s former secretary, Dorothy Fisher, who died in December 2008. You’ll find the Times piece here.
• Tom Bale (aka David Harrison) submits his latest novel, the cinematically told Skin and Bones, to Marshal Zeringue’s Page 69 Test. Click here for the results.
• For Pulp Pusher, Seth “Soul Man” Ferranti interviews gangbanger Terrell C. Wright, author of the new 2 Live and Die in L.A. and Home of the Body Bags (2005).
• And in case you haven’t noticed, novelist Alexandra Sokoloff (The Price) has been writing a terrifically thorough analysis of Roman Polanski’s 1974 private-eye film, Chinatown. “[T]here’s a good reason instructors love to talk about this movie--there’s just no film better to cover ALL the elements of filmic and dramatic structure with one single movie,” she explains. “I never watch it without seeing new things in it, and I always benefit from hearing what other people see in it.” If I have the parts in order, they are here, here, and here, with a character study of detective Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) here. It all makes me wants to watch Chinatown again--for what I think must be the 10th time.
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
It’s Element-ary, My Dear
A second sequel to the justly lauded 1974 period private-eye film Chinatown? Jack Nicholson, who played Los Angeles gumshoe J.J. “Jake” Gittes in both that movie and its rather confusing 1990 sequel, The Two Jakes, tells the MTV Movies Blog that he’s up for pulling Gittes out of retirement. “We always planned on making three films,” the actor is quoted as saying. “We wanted it all to be tied into elemental things. Chinatown is obviously water. The Two Jakes is fire and energy. And the third film was meant to be about Gittes’ divorce and relate to air.”
Nicholson goes on to say that this elusive third film was to be called Gittes vs. Gittes, and that it “was meant to be set in 1968 when no-fault divorce went into effect in California. It was to be about Gittes’ divorce. The secrecy of Meg Tilly’s character was somehow to involve the most private person in California, [aviator-industrialist] Howard Hughes. That is where the air element would have come into the picture.” Presumably, this means that the crime in Gittes vs. Gittes revolves somehow around the aviation industry.
There’s only one rather peculiar thing about all of this, as Christopher Campbell notes in Cinematical: There’s been lots of talk in the past about another Chinatown sequel, but with a very different plot. “That one,” Campbell writes, “mentioned as trivia on the IMDb and Wikipedia and elsewhere, even had a title, too: Cloverleaf. Set in the 1950s (making sense after the ’30s and ’40s setting of the prior two), this other planned film focused on the building of the Los Angeles freeway system. There was still to be an element theme, though; the sequel was to deal with air pollution. So, did Nicholson just make this story up, or [have] he and screenwriter Robert Towne really always [had] this fourth idea? [Were] there to be four parts for the four elements? Did they change this one to fit with the air theme? It’s all so complicated--which I guess is fitting for Chinatown.”
READ MORE: “DVD Watch: Chinatown--Special Collector’s Edition,” by Rick Klaw (The Austin Chronicle).
Nicholson goes on to say that this elusive third film was to be called Gittes vs. Gittes, and that it “was meant to be set in 1968 when no-fault divorce went into effect in California. It was to be about Gittes’ divorce. The secrecy of Meg Tilly’s character was somehow to involve the most private person in California, [aviator-industrialist] Howard Hughes. That is where the air element would have come into the picture.” Presumably, this means that the crime in Gittes vs. Gittes revolves somehow around the aviation industry.
There’s only one rather peculiar thing about all of this, as Christopher Campbell notes in Cinematical: There’s been lots of talk in the past about another Chinatown sequel, but with a very different plot. “That one,” Campbell writes, “mentioned as trivia on the IMDb and Wikipedia and elsewhere, even had a title, too: Cloverleaf. Set in the 1950s (making sense after the ’30s and ’40s setting of the prior two), this other planned film focused on the building of the Los Angeles freeway system. There was still to be an element theme, though; the sequel was to deal with air pollution. So, did Nicholson just make this story up, or [have] he and screenwriter Robert Towne really always [had] this fourth idea? [Were] there to be four parts for the four elements? Did they change this one to fit with the air theme? It’s all so complicated--which I guess is fitting for Chinatown.”
READ MORE: “DVD Watch: Chinatown--Special Collector’s Edition,” by Rick Klaw (The Austin Chronicle).
Friday, July 28, 2006
Turn It Up, Jake. It’s Chinatown.
There’s no question that motion pictures can be enhanced by the proper music. Think of the da-dum, da-dum, da-dum John Williams gave us in Jaws, or the shrieking violins that accompanied the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. But what about pieces of orchestral music that serve not as an accent, but as accompaniment to the action onscreen? 
And what about music from crime films? I thought about this recently as I pulled Terence Blanchard’s Jazz in Film CD off the shelf for the first time in far too long.
Blanchard was born in New Orleans in 1962, and paid his musical dues playing trumpet with the Art Blakey Jazz Messengers. Unfortunately for Blanchard, that nearly damns him to obscurity, as Wynton Marsalis has nearly an identical pedigree. Blanchard started setting himself apart by getting involved in film music, first as a featured musician on films like Do the Right Thing, eventually progressing to composing scores such as one for Spike Lee’s Malcolm X. Blanchard’s association with Lee continues to the present day, with the 2006 heist-gone-awry film Inside Man.
In 1999, Blanchard released Jazz in Film, which featured his interpretations of classic film scores, three of them from crime films--Anatomy of a Murder, Clockers, and Chinatown.
Anatomy of a Murder, the 1959 Otto Preminger film, featured music by Duke Ellington. The story is the quintessential courtroom drama, and Ellington gave it an urban feel with the driving beat of his score. Blanchard’s take starts with the trombone of Steve Turre, best known to Saturday Night Live fans as the guy who occasionally plays conch shells. The music bustles with activity, and you can almost hear someone say that there are eight million stories in the naked city. It jumbles, it cartwheels, and it propels the listener forward--just like a crime film should.
Blanchard takes his score for Clockers (directed by Lee and based on the Richard Price novel) out for a second spin. Kenny Kirkland sets the stage with ominous left-hand bass chords, followed by Blanchard and tenor sax great Joe Henderson in near unison duet. The restlessness of the characters comes through as Henderson takes over, wailing plaintively and sounding as though he’s sitting on the stoop of a Brooklyn townhouse. Blanchard returns periodically for musical conversations with Henderson. Two friends looking for something to do.
The crown of this CD, though, is the treatment Blanchard gives to Jerry Goldsmith’s main theme from Chinatown. Kirkland once again opens with delicate keyboard work, letting us know the fragility of the story that’s about to unfold. (Kirkland, a ferociously talented musician who worked with band leaders as diverse as Marsalis and Sting, died soon after completing his work on this CD, and it is dedicated to his memory). Blanchard’s soft trumpet fades in and manages to both cry and soar. You hear it all--the hopeless situation of Evelyn Mulwray, the grinning ghoul that is Noah Cross, and the great pawn J.J. Gittes, whose good intentions are not only futile, they’re destructive.
There are other fine cuts on this CD from films as diverse as Taxi Driver, A Streetcar Named Desire, and another Ellington selection from the uncompleted Degas’ Racing World. It’s a marvelous disk, perfect for a summer night with stars in the background and wine in the foreground.
Blanchard was born in New Orleans in 1962, and paid his musical dues playing trumpet with the Art Blakey Jazz Messengers. Unfortunately for Blanchard, that nearly damns him to obscurity, as Wynton Marsalis has nearly an identical pedigree. Blanchard started setting himself apart by getting involved in film music, first as a featured musician on films like Do the Right Thing, eventually progressing to composing scores such as one for Spike Lee’s Malcolm X. Blanchard’s association with Lee continues to the present day, with the 2006 heist-gone-awry film Inside Man.
In 1999, Blanchard released Jazz in Film, which featured his interpretations of classic film scores, three of them from crime films--Anatomy of a Murder, Clockers, and Chinatown.
Anatomy of a Murder, the 1959 Otto Preminger film, featured music by Duke Ellington. The story is the quintessential courtroom drama, and Ellington gave it an urban feel with the driving beat of his score. Blanchard’s take starts with the trombone of Steve Turre, best known to Saturday Night Live fans as the guy who occasionally plays conch shells. The music bustles with activity, and you can almost hear someone say that there are eight million stories in the naked city. It jumbles, it cartwheels, and it propels the listener forward--just like a crime film should.
Blanchard takes his score for Clockers (directed by Lee and based on the Richard Price novel) out for a second spin. Kenny Kirkland sets the stage with ominous left-hand bass chords, followed by Blanchard and tenor sax great Joe Henderson in near unison duet. The restlessness of the characters comes through as Henderson takes over, wailing plaintively and sounding as though he’s sitting on the stoop of a Brooklyn townhouse. Blanchard returns periodically for musical conversations with Henderson. Two friends looking for something to do.
The crown of this CD, though, is the treatment Blanchard gives to Jerry Goldsmith’s main theme from Chinatown. Kirkland once again opens with delicate keyboard work, letting us know the fragility of the story that’s about to unfold. (Kirkland, a ferociously talented musician who worked with band leaders as diverse as Marsalis and Sting, died soon after completing his work on this CD, and it is dedicated to his memory). Blanchard’s soft trumpet fades in and manages to both cry and soar. You hear it all--the hopeless situation of Evelyn Mulwray, the grinning ghoul that is Noah Cross, and the great pawn J.J. Gittes, whose good intentions are not only futile, they’re destructive.
There are other fine cuts on this CD from films as diverse as Taxi Driver, A Streetcar Named Desire, and another Ellington selection from the uncompleted Degas’ Racing World. It’s a marvelous disk, perfect for a summer night with stars in the background and wine in the foreground.
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