Film Noir

[MattHelm]

I wish they had started by making The Big Nowhere first, that way the heroin racket that Dudley Smith was involved in, in L.A. Confidential, would have made more sense. And Buzz Meeks wouldn't have been such a nothing character. But I love L.A. Confidential, and as is, they did a good job tying up the peices to make a coherent movie out of it. Showtime did a series years ago based on Buzz Meeks, Mickey Cohen and Howard Hughes, called Fallen Angels ... did you ever see it? I haven't, but would love to even though Gary Busey plays Meeks. I'm a bit skeptical of the Dahlia's cast ... I can't imagine bucked teeth on Hartnett.

[constarkel]

I had never heard of the "Fallen Angels" but now that I have, I will have to check it out. I agree that they should have made "The Big Nowhere" first. Heck, they should have just made the entire quartet in order. Of course Hollywood never does that though. Start in the middle, then hit them with a sequel and follow it up with the prequel. They'll love it in Poughkeepsie! As far as Hartnett having the bucked teeth, he had better! If done properly, this franchise could rival the Godfathers I and II. They are starting out with better source material at least.

[Rickspade]

>

> The Black Dahlia is based on the James Ellroy book,

> which I've been waiting to come to the screen for

> ages. So far, we only have one Ellroy book made into

> a movie, L.A. Confidential, which was done very well,

> though it was a LOT different from the book. But I'm

> worried about De Palma because I think he's

> incredibly overrated and has made a career out of

> mimicking other directors' styles. I just hope he

> mimics a good noir director this time around.

>

> I thought I'd put my two cents in here since I'm a big James Ellroy fan, too (at least up until he decided to adopt a writing style that seemed more like sending a telegram), and loved the adaptation of L.A. Confidential. I also share your reservations about DePalma and you're exactly right, he's way overrated and mimics other directors--usually not very well. I just hope he doesn't butcher The Black Dahlia, because if he pulls out some of his usual tricks, he's going to ruin it. Speaking of the Dahlia, I read one of the many nonfiction books about the case last year, the one called Black Dahlia Avenger, written by Steve Hodel, a former L.A. cop who winds up being convinced that his own father was the murderer. Ellroy wrote the foreword to the book. It?s very, very good, and contains a lot of information about people like John Huston and Man Ray, who were good friends of the author?s father. Are you familiar with the book?

 

BTW, I?m intrigued by you?re posting name, Matt. Are you a fan? When I was in my late teens, I must have read about ten of the Matt Helm series by Donald Hamilton, and remember them being very good (Of course I was pretty easily influenced then by sexy dames, spies, and an American version of James Bond.) I was very disappointed when Hollywood chose Dean Martin to play Helm and ruined the entire hard-boiled nature of the character and the stories. What about you?

[MattHelm]

Thanks, I wasn't familiar with Hodel's book but I'll check it out. I wonder if it can ever really be solved. I don't mind Ellroy's writing now, since I read American Tabloid and the sequel before the older books. I saw online that a 16 year old made an indie version of AT with the oldest kid in it being 19, and that they mispronounce some of the names. That ought to be a laugh.

 

I never read the Matt Helm books, I'm a fan of Dino and love the films ... you have to be to love these movies. Aside from ruining the books, half of these flicks are really nothing other than greeting cards to Sinatra, which make them even funnier, with the not-so-private jokes. In a couple of them, it's obvious that Dino never even saw the script, nevermind read it. Now that Ausitn Powers has pretty much ripped off the Matt Helms, it would be nice to see straight versions of the books made into movies.

[scarlett96]

There was also two other film adaptations of Ellroy's books: 1988's Cop with James Woods was a rather bad adaptation of Blood on the Moon and the more recent Brown's Requiem. There was also a failed televesion version of LA Confidential with Keifer Sutherland. I'd read production costs were too expensive and it was never aired on network televesion. The Trio network has aired the few episodes that were filmed, though who gets Trio? One final note, there was also a film version of Ellroy's personal memoir My Dark Places that was filmed in 2003, but I can't seem to find out what happened to the film. David Duchovny played Ellroy, but it's not listed on IMDB.