"There was a rat in the cell with me. I came down hard with the stool. It caught him on the side, just as he reached the bars. He dragged himself on, stunned but still fighting. I grabbed him by the tail. Now-now! I swung him around my head. He curved back to bite my hand. I smashed his head against the wall. Blood and brains splattered. He was dead."
Another pulp I've had kicking around for a while. I only realized that this was the basis for The Lady From Shanghai after watching the opening credits of the film. I immediately read it since I loved the movie so much. It was a bit of an experiment really. Normally I wind up seeing movies based on books that I've already read and it usually annoys me the way the stories get so mangled on their way to the big screen, not the other way around. I found that I actually enjoyed the film better than the book this time. I can understand the changes that were made to make the film version more captivating. really, the only similarity between the book and film here is the basic caper and the court case. The rest of the film was completely fabricated. The one thing that bothers me, and this bothered me about the film as well, is that the basic caper is so unbelievable. If you haven't seen the film or read the book, without giving too much away, the idea is that the protagonist - Laurence Planter here, Mike O'Hara in the film is supposed to pretend to kill someone, that someone is busy actually killing someone else and then he splits the country. Planter/O'Hara admits to killing the guy who leaves the country but since he isn't actually dead and no body can be found, no charges can be laid and neither will be a suspect of the actual murder. He does this for a paltry $5000 which is even small potatoes for 1938 which is the original publication date of the book. It all just sounds far too unlikely to come off properly and even if it did, he's still going to get caught and likely get a beating from the cops and do some jail time and go to court for a death penalty case and the stress of it all Sheesh! No thank you! Of course running away with the femme fatale, beautiful and, as it turns out, quite deadly Elsa Bannister is part of the prize as well although King doesn't quite make the sale on the irresistibility of Mrs. Bannister as well as Welles did with the help of Rita Hayworth. None of this ruins the book though, It's fully enjoyable classic noir fiction. Certainly worth the read.
I've been pretty happy with the way these crime Ace Doubles have been turning out. really enjoyable stories. Sadly Ace only did a relatively small number of crime books, focusing more on westerns and for the most part science fiction. I was really looking forward to reading Decoy. The inside cover boasts "Gigolo Racket In The Movie Colony! " and "Romance Racketeers, Blackmail and Homicide in Hollywood!" I was sold! Sadly my copy was pretty beat up and falling apart as I read the other story and Decoy was missing the first 60 pages so I was out of luck. Keeping my eye out for a better copy.
