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I love the Thin Man films. They are a hilarious send-up of the noir genre, answering the question, "What if the stock hardboiled detective was happily married?"

I read both Hammet and Chandler last year. The bleak cynicism seemed a bit exaggerated, but they certainly are genre defining. As for the films, Humphrey Bogart was to hardboiled private eye what Errol Flynn was to swashbuckling hero.

I have a Lego Film noir detective minifigure. It is black and white, complete with fedora, turned up collar, and magnifying glass. The other hand holds a red fish, i.e. a red herring. Makes me laugh everytime I look at it.

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Nick and Nora are a hoot!

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I just read my first Hammett: The Maltese Falcon and Red Harvest. The Thin Man is up next. I was intrigued by how his detectives are a bit morally indeterminate - they rarely kill someone, but they're not always honest or loyal. Not the profile I was expecting. I need to watch at least one movie now, you've convinced me!

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Love this piece.

I had never heard of any of pulp fiction in the literary sense until I stumbled on Trouble is My Business in a bookstore in Toronto between gigs. I couldn't put it down. I went on to devour everything Chandler wrote and than Hammett. And then Cain. The mixture of language and plot blew me away. I didn't know it was possible to marry language and story so well. I have been hooked ever since.

As always, love your work. Thanks for sharing.

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Good one, Joel. FYI, for anyone interested in reading or watching film noir: Check out TCM at midnight Saturdays and 10 a.m. Sundays, where the deeply smart, always entertaining Eddie Muller proves why he is known as 'Czar of Noir.' As far as I can tell, film noir is an inexhaustible resource and Muller is both a fan and a critic who strip mines the archives. In b&w, with tough broads and lots of good & bad cops, rough & tumble criminals and heroic & slippery newspaperman, these post-WWII films were shot by great cinematographers on small budgets and were gritty and often very cleverly written. Some are not good or have plots that fall off cliffs every ten minutes, as Muller usually subtly hints at. But most of the noir films you've never heard of before are in many ways better than the big-budgeted Hollywood movies of the era. Here's a list of Muller's top 25 picks. https://www.eddiemuller.com/top25noir.html

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Thanks, Bill! Correction, though: This was by Adam Hill—guest post.

And thanks for the film list!

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Sorry. Congrats to him. Congrats to you for contracting him.

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Thanks, Bill! Adam’s a fun writer!

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I read my first Raymond Chandler books a couple of months ago, The Big Sleep and Farewell, My Lovely. I had to read with a pencil to underline the brilliant, pithy lines. They are great detective stories and paint a vivid picture of post war Los Angeles however, the big win for me is his dry wit. I laughed out loud. A couple of priceless examples:

"Uh-huh," the voice dragged itself out of her throat like a sick man getting out of bed.

It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained glass window.

In the past I have read the Thin Man books, Dashiell Hammet, James Ellroy and does, Dorothy Hughes fit here? A Lonely Place is way too dark for me. WAY.

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I have A Lonely Place on my to read list. I have seen the film it's based on and that was very dark. I think the vibe and feel is akin to Noir for sure.

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The Petrified Forest! The best line was Slim Thompson’s, “Ain't you heared about the big liberation”

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Chandler had attended an English public school, Dulwich College, and it is thought that his ethics of chivalry and toughness were developed in his Dulwich years. Most of his books include a reference to “cornflower blue”, a Dulwich school color.

I find that Chandler differs other crime writers. Noir, yes, but with a moral compass and sense of higher purpose.

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good taste on your son's part! I used to do a mean Columbo impression in the days of my youth

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We binged those over and over during Covid. Man, I love it when the crook realizes that Columbo is not the simpleton they assumed.

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Love the Thin Man films. Picked up Osborne’s Only to Sleep to try.

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Loved Osborne’s Only to Sleep. Well done! Kudos.

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Oh well done!

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Bogart and Powell were interesting male role models watching their movies on tv in the 1950s and 1960s. I lean more towards procedurals but did a loop backwards to read Chandler, Christie, and others in order to understand the roots of modern detective novels. With the loss of Philip Kerr and his Bernie Gunther novels, my current favorite is Tana French who hooked me half way down the first page of her first novel. I especially enjoy novels set in other countries (good novels set in Ireland in particular) such as James McElroy’s series set in apartheid South Africa. Streaming the two seasons of Dark Winds has finally gotten me off the dime to read Tony Hillerman’s novels set on a Navaho reservation and following the tribal police. A friend who grew up on a Navaho Reservation where his parents worked said that these books are very much approved by the Navaho.

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I have picked up but not started Hillerman because of the Dark Winds show. It's excellent.

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