A catch-all category for reviews of all kinds.
Call for the Dead (1961)
A glimpse at themes the author would refine and build on to write the later Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
Reviews
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (1963, 1965)
Le Carré’s indelibly bleak vision of Dante’s ninth circle.
Underworld USA: America unimagined
In Underworld USA, Ellroy eclipses even weirdness. Moving beyond into a genre and status that is just Ellroy on his own.
The Key Largo hypothesis: Brooks and Huston set the noir context
Huston gives us the essence of film noir on a shoestring.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
The film came close to equaling the intention of the novel and the much earlier BBC adaptation.
The Killers (1946)
Less Hemingway than Huston, the film is a landmark for Hellinger and Siodmak.
Murder, My Sweet (1945)
A worthy Chandler adaptation, and transition for Dick Powell from pretty boy to film tough guy.
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
The film in which Humphrey Bogart made the hard-boiled detective persona his own.
The English Patient (1996)
Beautifully observed and photographed, the story created in me a deep yearning for the innocence and privilege of the world these characters inhabited.
The Godfather (1972)
Michael Corleone is cast as the Nietzschean Übermensch, rejecting the conventions of his times, seizing his opportunities, ruthlessly destroying his enemies.