What are you reading?

Films, TV shows, and books of the 'modern' era
User avatar
JackFavell
Posts: 11926
Joined: April 20th, 2009, 9:56 am

Re: What are you reading?

Post by JackFavell »

Oh golly! I never knew that about the movie! I've heard the title before but never put them together!

The original title is Busman's Honeymoon, and Sayers wrote it as a play first, only after as a mystery novel. Fantastic! I have to check it out now, I am dying to see it... I cant quite imagine Robert Montgomery as Wimsey, but I know he'll be good, and the rest of the cast is scrumptious!
User avatar
MissGoddess
Posts: 5072
Joined: April 17th, 2007, 10:01 am
Contact:

Re: What are you reading?

Post by MissGoddess »

Is Wimsey like Sherlock Holmes?
"There's only one thing that can kill the movies, and that's education."
-- Will Rogers
User avatar
movieman1957
Administrator
Posts: 5522
Joined: April 15th, 2007, 3:50 pm
Location: MD

Re: What are you reading?

Post by movieman1957 »

After much resistance The Bride will be getting a Kindle for her birthday. She liked holding a book. Then one of her customers showed her his Kindle and she changed her mind. I was trying but would she listen to me? NO!!!!!!
Chris

"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."
RedRiver
Posts: 4200
Joined: July 28th, 2011, 9:42 am

Re: What are you reading?

Post by RedRiver »

"80 Days" is one of the world's great yarns. As book, movie or Classics Illustrated! What child (ahem...) doesn't dream of exotic travel, excitement waiting at every turn? The "under the gun" concept makes it that much more thrilling. Will they make it? Oh, no! Another obstacle. My siblings and I created scenarios like this as we played. Not based on Jules Verne's story. Drawn simply from our unbridled imaginations.

This is the only Verne classic I could sink my teeth into. "Center of The Earth" is too clinical. A lot of people like "20,000 Leagues." I couldn't finish it. But the adventure so clearly gripping Wendy's daughter, and dare I say, Wendy, is hard to resist.
feaito

Re: What are you reading?

Post by feaito »

I'm reading Dashiell Hammett's "The Thin Man" and I realize how faithful the 1934 film adaptation was to the book. Will watch the film one more time after finishing it.
RedRiver
Posts: 4200
Joined: July 28th, 2011, 9:42 am

Re: What are you reading?

Post by RedRiver »

I don't know many people who have read "the other" Dashiell Hammett novel. I like THIN MAN at least as much as MALTESE FALCON. The story twists and turns relentlessly. The tone, while not nearly as glib as the movie, is refreshingly light for a streetwise murder tale. The main characters are happily married, well adjusted, and free of dark, brooding protagonist syndrome.

The movie is true to the plot, as you say. Maybe even to the relationships. But it's a lot sillier than the book. Hammett's Nick and Nora have a sense of humor. But they're not Burns and Allen. Likewise, the supporting cast. The parade of loveable louts through Powell and Loy's living room is downright cuddly compared to the gunsels of Hammett's vision.

THE THIN MAN is a good book and a good movie. But while the film leans toward the comedic, the novel is firmly planted in classic crime.
User avatar
MichiganJ
Posts: 1405
Joined: May 20th, 2008, 4:37 pm
Contact:

Re: What are you reading?

Post by MichiganJ »

feaito wrote:I'm reading Dashiell Hammett's "The Thin Man" and I realize how faithful the 1934 film adaptation was to the book. Will watch the film one more time after finishing it.
Interesting that you are reading Hammett. I'm currently making my way through the Raymond Chandler novels and short stories, reading The Little Sister right now. So far, all of the books I've read are written in first person, from the perspective of Marlow. Naturally it's Bogart's voice I hear in my mind's ear, which is fine by me because Chandler's writing is as droll and sarcastic as Marlow's is as presented on the screen. Only more so. Highly recommended.
"Let's be independent together." Dr. Hermey DDS
User avatar
CharlieT
Posts: 403
Joined: May 7th, 2007, 8:28 pm
Location: Warren G. Harding's hometown

Re: What are you reading?

Post by CharlieT »

I recently finished The Prairie - the last book of James Fennimore Cooper's Leatherstocking series. I was wondering if anyone knew if the dialogue he used for the plains indians - with phrases like "happy hunting ground" and "white man speaks with forked tongue" and "great white father" (referring to the President) - were his own creations or actual phrases used by indians in the 1820s. Is this where script writers from the westerns of the 30s and 40s got their idea of how indians spoke? Are there any experts out there who can shed a little light on this?
"I'm at my most serious when I'm joking." - Dudley

Don't sweat the petty things - don't pet the sweaty things.
User avatar
JackFavell
Posts: 11926
Joined: April 20th, 2009, 9:56 am

Re: What are you reading?

Post by JackFavell »

MissG -

Wimsey
does have some of Holmes' qualities - an innate sharpness and keen eye, a renaissance man's broad knowledge, and trim habits and dress. He plays piano and knows music, but is also quite athletic. He is witty and debonair, much friendlier on the surface than Holmes, and often puts on an act of being a complete ass when it is useful to his investigations, or he wants someone to perhaps, underestimate him. So he's far more genial than Holmes.

There is a dark side hinted at in the books, however, though it rarely comes out...Wimsey, like other men of his era, went into WWI and came out with a case of shell shock, which he is embarrassed by, and from which he has since almost fully recovered. In fact, he took up sleuthing as a cure, to distract his mind from his problems. It is hinted at occasionally, and Wimsey finds that sometimes, this sensitivity leads him into depression about having played a part in certain investigations, when decent people are affected adversely. One suspects that Lord Peter might not have come through his post war problems as well, nor would he be able to confront his demons with as much strength without his man Bunter's firm but gentle care and friendship.

In the first book, Wimsey comes off as just a little over the top, more Bertie Wooster than he is in any of the other books. Sayers was creating her character and he comes off as just a bit forced initially. She corrected the problem by the second book though, and I find him charming but with more depth than one expects of someone of his veddy upper class. That jovial nature he puts on hides a very interesting, deeper man and his wit seems to be used to keep the 'black dog" of depression at bay, though Sayers, rightly so, gives us only the merest mention of Wimsey's bouts with despair. I find him endlessly fascinating, maybe more for what isn't said than what is.

Red - 80 Days is all that you said, and I agree, the time factor really adds so much suspense! I am enjoying the revisit very very much, since this was the last book my mom read to me before I got too old and could read for myself.

Everyone has such great descriptions of the Hammett and Chandler books! Yes they are darker and certainly grittier than the movies, but for the most part, most of the movies made from the books are pretty accurate, and almost all of them are great. It's not often that movies follow their books so well, or are as good as the books, but in these cases, I think they do and they are.

Gosh, talking about all these writers makes me realize how important it is for books to entertain, even the classics - since these were all probably looked down on at one time or another as cheap entertainment.
feaito

Re: What are you reading?

Post by feaito »

RedRiver wrote:I don't know many people who have read "the other" Dashiell Hammett novel. I like THIN MAN at least as much as MALTESE FALCON. The story twists and turns relentlessly. The tone, while not nearly as glib as the movie, is refreshingly light for a streetwise murder tale. The main characters are happily married, well adjusted, and free of dark, brooding protagonist syndrome.

The movie is true to the plot, as you say. Maybe even to the relationships. But it's a lot sillier than the book. Hammett's Nick and Nora have a sense of humor. But they're not Burns and Allen. Likewise, the supporting cast. The parade of loveable louts through Powell and Loy's living room is downright cuddly compared to the gunsels of Hammett's vision.

THE THIN MAN is a good book and a good movie. But while the film leans toward the comedic, the novel is firmly planted in classic crime.
Very good analysis RedRiver. I'll have it in mind when I revisit the film.

Kevin, I haven't read anything by Chandler yet :? I should...
User avatar
Lzcutter
Administrator
Posts: 3149
Joined: April 12th, 2007, 6:50 pm
Location: Lake Balboa and the City of Angels!
Contact:

Re: What are you reading?

Post by Lzcutter »

Chris,

I'm betting The Bride ends up loving her Kindle as much as I love mine. Still love to read books (every day at lunch) but the Kindle makes it possible to read even in places you wouldn't easily read a book. I've sat at the bar reading my Kindle waiting for friends to show up.

Right now, I'm reading the latest police tome from Joe Wambaugh, Hollywood Hills. I love his characters (Flotsam, Jetsam, Hollywood Nate, the Oracle, etc) in this series and his turn of phrase. Been a fan of Wambaugh's all the way back to Police Story and his first book, The New Centurions
Lynn in Lake Balboa

"Film is history. With every foot of film lost, we lose a link to our culture, to the world around us, to each other and to ourselves."

"For me, John Wayne has only become more impressive over time." Marty Scorsese

Avatar-Warner Bros Water Tower
User avatar
JackFavell
Posts: 11926
Joined: April 20th, 2009, 9:56 am

Re: What are you reading?

Post by JackFavell »

Did you ever read Serpico, Lz, by Peter Maas? It isn't as colorful as the Wambaugh books sound, but I remember it being a gripping book.
RedRiver
Posts: 4200
Joined: July 28th, 2011, 9:42 am

Re: What are you reading?

Post by RedRiver »

phrases like "happy hunting ground" and "white man speaks with forked tongue"

Wow! I haven't read Cooper. Didn't know he used phrases such as these. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if this was a source for the now legendary Hollywood chracterization. But you asked for an expert. You don't want to be stuck with me!
User avatar
CharlieT
Posts: 403
Joined: May 7th, 2007, 8:28 pm
Location: Warren G. Harding's hometown

Re: What are you reading?

Post by CharlieT »

Thanks for responding, RedRiver. It came as a surprise to me, too. I read all of the Leatherstocking series in chronological order per Natty Bumppo's life and the forked tongue phrase didn't show up until this book that was published in 1827. The Deerslayer, which covered Bumppo's early life, was actually written last and didn't use the same phrasing - only the plains indians in The Prairie.

Reading James Fennimore Cooper is akin to reading Dickens, but I recommend the series to anyone who enjoys stories of the early days of the colonial wilderness.
"I'm at my most serious when I'm joking." - Dudley

Don't sweat the petty things - don't pet the sweaty things.
User avatar
Lzcutter
Administrator
Posts: 3149
Joined: April 12th, 2007, 6:50 pm
Location: Lake Balboa and the City of Angels!
Contact:

Re: What are you reading?

Post by Lzcutter »

Jacks,

I fell in love with Al Pacino a thousand years ago when I saw Serpico on the big screen on its original release. (yeah, I'm as old as dirt).

After seeing the film, I went out to the local bookstore in Las Vegas, probably Dana McKay Books, and bought the paperback.

I, too, remember it being a well-written book.

But when it comes to writing about cops in the City of Angels, no one is better than Wambaugh!
Lynn in Lake Balboa

"Film is history. With every foot of film lost, we lose a link to our culture, to the world around us, to each other and to ourselves."

"For me, John Wayne has only become more impressive over time." Marty Scorsese

Avatar-Warner Bros Water Tower
Post Reply