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21 Jul

Devil in a Blue Dress written by Walter Mosley’, a review.

Posted by fenlandphil in Blood Sympathy, Book, Devil in a Blue Dress, Reginald Hill, Walter Mosley. Tagged: Detective crime fiction, Devil in a Blue Dress, Los Angeles, Luton, Raymond Chandler, Walter Mosley. 5 comments

**Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley**

I had read only one other crime novel featuring a black hero, Reginald Hill’s, Blood Sympathy. As far as I can tell Reginald Hill was white. Blood Sympathy is set in Hill’s version of Luton England and was first published in 1985, Devil in a Blue Dress, 1990. Blood Sympathy’s, Joe Six Smith and Devil in a Blue Dress’s, Easy Rawlins have both lost their jobs forcing career changes onto them. Similarities end there.

Walter Mosley is a year younger than me, neither of us, at 72 and 73 years old respectively, were alive in 1948. Mr Mosley no doubt had family to tell him how things were then. From what I am told by friends who have visited the States more recently, the attitudes and prejudices mentioned within Devil in a Blue Dress haven’t changed much and certainly haven’t gone away.

The author has no doubt had his thinking about Los Angeles, at the time of the book coloured by contemporary literature and films made in that period. In terms of American detective crime fiction Raymond Chandler is probably a go-to point of reference, both in time and location. That most of Chandler’s novels have been made into films, with Playback the only exception, reinforces this view.

Devil in a Blue Dress, is written in the first person, that of Ezekiel Rawlins, “Easy” Rawlins, the hero. Recently unemployed, war veteran, Easy is engaged to search for a white woman Daphne Monet, who is known to frequent the coloured jazz clubs and bars of Los Angeles. Easy’s, employer, Dewitt Albright, a white man is introduced to Easy by his bar owner friend and ex boxer, Joppy.

In 1948 as many places were segregated and Albright feels he can’t search for Daphne himself, because of this colour bar existing at the time. Easy knows the places where Daphne might be found, is familiar with the people who frequent them and is of course the right skin colour to visit these places without a problem. Devil in a Blue Dress shares characteristics of US detective fiction of the period but the perspective from someone of black ethnicity is different. The body count is high, the plot is interesting the ending, unpredictable.

I thought Devil in a Blue Dress was an excellent read and I really enjoyed it.

14 Mar

The Black Eyed Blond by Benjamin Black, a review.

Posted by fenlandphil in Benjamin Black, Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler, The Black Eyed Blond. Tagged: Book, Book Review, California, Humphrey Bogart, Los Angeles, The Big Sleep. 3 comments

The Black Eyed Blond.

A beautiful, black eyed, blond woman; walks into Philip Marlowe’s office and into his life. The blond, Mrs Clare Cavendish, daughter of a fabulously rich perfume maker, hires him to find a missing man, a man who is not her husband. Will he find this man, and what is this man’s connection to the woman looking for him? It is an intriguing story seeing Marlowe tangling with the rich, famous and the criminal underworld of Los Angeles, some of the characters fall into more than one category, some of them into all three.

As long as I can remember I have been a fan of Raymond Chandler and his hero Philip Marlowe. I don’t know if my first encounter with Marlowe was in a book, watching Humphrey Bogart play him in the Big Sleep on the silver screen or Chandler’s books dramatised on Radio 4, with Ed Bishop as Marlowe. Since then, Marlowe has lurked in my subconscious.

Chandler’s style is something I admire the one line descriptions are brilliant, the plots are tangled and interesting Philip Marlowe is always in the thick of the action, there is usually a fascinating woman involved, often a femme fatale.

Poodle Springs was partly written when Chandler died, it was finished by Robert B Parker, his completion of Poodle Springs is seamless Parker wrote some other Marlowe Novels I haven’t read any these yet but they are on my “To Be Read” list.

Parker and I are not the only people who think there is more in the tank where Marlowe is concerned. I have read one or two Marlowe books by other authors; I can’t say that any I had read were anywhere near as good as Chandler’s originals. That is until I read The Black Eyed Blond; Benjamin Black’s Marlowe is a damn good likeness to Chandler’s, even when stood next to him in the bright California sun.

We can’t visit the time when Marlowe walked the mean Streets or even those Streets themselves as they were then but they seem real in our imagination as we turn the pages, both in Chandler’s originals and in Black’s, Black Eyed Blond. I hope we see some more Philip Marlowe novels from Benjamin Black.

4 Sep

The Big Sleep

Posted by fenlandphil in Film, Film review. Tagged: Film, Get Carter, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Los Angeles, Michael Caine, Novel, Payback, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep. 3 comments

The Big Sleep 1978 poster

Recently I watched the 1978 film remake of the Big Sleep. There has probably been a bigger waste of acting talent than that squandered by Michael Winner but nothing comes to mind.

Bogart as Philip Marlowe and Lauren Bacall as Vivian Sternwood Rutledge in Howard Hawkes 1946 film of the Big Sleep.

The original 1946 version starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall was obviously made at a time nearer that of the novel, (published 1939). Raymond Chandler’s novels like the Sherlock Holmes stories of Conan Doyle occupy a particular time and place, in my opinion, this is, even more, the case with Chandler.

Setting the action of the Big Sleep in 1970s England didn’t work for me. In the Big Sleep, Chandler’s writes of Los Angeles, Hollywood, California and America at a time before it was touched by war, in the aftermath of Prohibition during the dying embers of the Depression. His novels are steeped in that sense of time and place. The characters who populate his stories are products of this period and like some fine wines, they do not travel well.

Michael Caine as Carter

A similar situation but travelling geographically in the opposite direction was the remake of Get Carter. Set originally in 1970’s Newcastle with Michael Caine playing Carter the 2000 remake with Sylvester Stallone in the title role was a poor shadow of the original. Get Carter was as was the Big Sleep comfortable in its own time and place the lack of Geordie accents didn’t diminish its quality. Stallone’s outing couldn’t and didn’t match Caine’s London hard man. Caine was totally credible, it is, in my opinion, the best ever British crime film.

Chandler’s only novel not to be made into a film. Playback is set in the early fifties and a different part of California. I hope it will find its way onto the silver screen, set in its correct time and place.

Fenlandphil's Blog A blog from the low country

Posts Tagged ‘Los Angeles’

Devil in a Blue Dress written by Walter Mosley’, a review.

The Black Eyed Blond by Benjamin Black, a review.

The Black Eyed Blond.

The Big Sleep

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