Peter Rozovsky asked his readers their favourite caper novels and films. My list:
In books: Duane Swierczynski's The Wheelman, something by Lionel White, something by that Stark guy (sorry, can't pick up a specific title). By White, probably Clean Break, but mainly because it was made into The Killing by Stanley Kubrick. But anything by Lionel White is great, especially The Big Caper.
Still books: Al Conroy's Devil in Dungarees. Brian Garfield's Relentless. Zekial Marko's Scratch a Thief. The first two Earl Drakes by Dan Marlowe and also Four For the Money by the said writer.
In films: Jean-Pierre Melville The Red Circle (Le cercle rouge or some such in French). Melville must have some other films I'm overlooking, but that has had the best-staying effect. Reservoir Dogs. Still Tarantino's best and still one of the best crime films ever made. The Killing, if it only were not for the voice-over narration! The Asphalt Jungle. The caper scenes in Gun Crazy, which are just superb, superb, superb.
A Fish Called Wanda has a good caper scene in the beginning, too, so we shouldn't forget the Ealing film I Stole a Million. Nor The Ladykillers!
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9 comments:
You should teach a course on capers. That's a good list.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
“Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home”
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
But, Peter, I'd have to see RIFIFI or the Italian film everyone's been mentioning over at your blog before the course. I have seen Jacques Becker GRISBI, but it was 20 years ago on VHS.
Big Deal on Madonna Street, you mean? It's Rififi with a sense of humor, and a better movie, I think. But here's a secret: Professors don't know everything. You can teach the course.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Yup, that one. Actually I've delivered some more academic papers on the subject and talked about the Parkers and Conroy's Devil in Dungarees. (I don't actually know whether it's a caper novel, since it starts straight when the heist is on. There's no planning of the gig.)
Word up: "Boisqu" is one of the disappeared Western European languages, spoken mainly in the northern Andorra.
I don't know Devil in Dungarees. Thanks for the recommendation, professor.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
I think Bill Crider (or James Reasoner or August West or...) mentioned Conroy's novel in his blog. It's a Crest original from the late fifties or early sixties.
But if The Wheelman is a caper novel, then Devil in Dungarees sure is.
Ah, The Ladykillers, I saw it tonight for the first time in many years, and I must admit I had forgotten the sheer perfection of it.
It was quite interesting to see how they had Herbert Lom play his tough guy role totally straight - there's not even a hint of parody in his performance and it's all the better for it.
I also realized how much it seemed like one of those comical caper stories that Donald E. Westlake would later excel in. Was Alec Guinness the original Dortmunder?
For a straight caper novel/movie, I'd like to recommend the excellent THE BIG GRAB by John Trinian, which was adapted in France in 1963 as "Mélodie en sous-sol" (which I haven't seen). Any info on Trinian? All I know about him is this novel.
Anders, that's a pertinent comment about Herbert Lom's playing is role straight. One of the things that made the remake of The Ladykillers so unbearable is Tom Hanks' scenery chewing and mugging. And one reason Dortmunder has not translated well to the screen is actors' tendencies to clown, which shows that directors lack all understanding of the Dortmunder novels. And yeah, Alec Guinness would have made a good Dortmunder.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
“Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home”
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Anders, you haven't been paying attention. There was quite a lot of stuff about Trinian on this blog and MysteryFile's blog, when it was found out that Trinian died - this wasn't even a year ago.
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