The definitive message behind the enthralling but dreary The Friends of Eddie Coyle, which stars an aged Robert Mitchum as a career small-time criminal, is that crime does not pay.

Far from the usual glamorized Hollywood image of criminals, everyone here is a snitch, a backstabber, a thief or about to go down with barely a penny to their name. It's a tough, unsentimental look at the world of crime, the shots are somewhat bleak and harshly lit, and even the action sequences, while still tense, are non-stylized.

Mitchum, who I adore in anything, is superb as the weary and desperate Coyle. Director Peter Yates, whose resume is uneven (he helmed the iconic Bullitt, the weird Mother, Juggs and Speed and Krull but later served time on a sentimental D.B. Sweeney vehicle), is also at his best.

The film is based on a best selling novel by George V Huggins, who was a major influence on James Ellroy.

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Posted on September 21, 2009

When you're dealing with a writer like Jack Vance (probably the most recommended author on this blog), even his minor entries read like major feats of awesomeness compared to most books you will read.?Galactic Effectuator is a slender compilation of two novellas about Miro Hetzel, a private detective willing to take on cases that take him to the furthest reaches of his galaxy.

The first story takes us way out to the absolute edge of the Gaean Reach (the region of space containing planets civilized by humanity) to a planet called Maz, a border planet overseen by an uneasy alliance of alien cultures inhabited by a most interesting and unusual race of native warriors called the Gomaz. Maz is a stopping point for rogues, people who want to disappear and tourists who consider themselves 'adventure travelers' longing to catch a glimpse of the bloody, ritualistic and regular Gomaz inter-tribal battles.

Hetzle heads to Maz to uncover the truth behind corporate espionage and meets a surly assassin driven nearly insane by an elaborate prank and an intriguing lady he wouldn't mind taking out on a date.

The second book concerns a much more personal matter when a man, after being drugged and abducted, realizes his manhood has been surgically replaced with someone else's, making it impossible to sire his own children. immediately (and correctly) suspecting his wife's former suitor, the mad surgeon Faurence Dacre, he turns to Hetzle for help.

Hetzle makes for a charming, witty sleuth in the tradition of Sherlock Holmes. He even gathers all the players in a room at the end as he announces his findings. Set in the always brilliant world of Vance's imagination, the fusion of detective and fantasy genres is absolutely delightful.

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Posted on July 6, 2009

Angel Heart is nothing if not divisive, managing a strange balance between campy, sly humor (DeNiro chews it up as a “Louis Cyphre” – literally, and not too hard to figure out, “Lucifer”) and a dedication to taking itself seriously as a genre piece (the genre in question being?occult noir). It's a film both extremely crude and intricate that splits audiences in half: for every person who does not care for it, you're likely to find somebody else who counts it among their favorite films.

It's overwhelmed by the controversial appearance of a very sexed up young Lisa Bonet in a very un-Cosby like role, a performance as alarming upon the film's release in 1987 as it remains in most viewers' memories. Aside from the very graphic sexuality (which nearly earned the movie an X rating), the particulars of the plot tend to have been forgotten by most viewers over the years; I recalled the mood much more vividly than any plot particulars.

It's too bad, in a way, because the story (which I was really excited to learn was based upon a novel called Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg, author of Brix Pick Gray Matters) is, on one hand, pretty straight forward. It's also pretty compelling, even as the final twists and turns delve into deeper, pulpier areas. When demons reclaim souls with special effect yellow eyes that would have worked fine decades earlier, these days they're just daring you to giggle even as you hunker under the palpable dread and muck that the rest of the movie has so effectively conjured up.

When it comes to building atmosphere and creating beautiful images, director Alan Parker is a master. Mickey Rourke, who, in the late '80s still looked human, is perfect as rumpled private detective Harry Angel. Roger Ebert wrote eloquently of his performance, “Rourke occupies the center of the film like a violent unmade bed.”

You really have to give yourself over to the movie to enjoy it, and roll with both the surprises and the obvious. Once you accept it on its own terms, you'll discover an underrated cult classic that it still (at the very least) far more interesting than most new releases you're likely to come across.

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Posted on May 25, 2009

The Chuckling Whatsit is one of those books that I revisit regularly because it's just so fun to read. Published by the leaders in bringing inventive comics to the masses, Fantagraphics, in the late '90s, the book features the signature genre blending (part horror, part noir, part goth, part melodrama, and part comedy) of artist and author Richard Sala – who you may already be familiar if you happen to recall the spectacular Invisible Hands from Liquid Television.

The plot jumps from mystery to mystery, bizarre and engimatic character to bizarre and enigmatic character at whiplash speed and leaves you a little dizzy at first, wondering just what's going on with all these secret societies, dead outsider artists, murderers and babalicious spies. Just go with it and you'll find yourself satisfied at the end of the last page in no time.

Sala's latest project is a re-imagining of Snow White called Delphine.

See more: Books 1990s Graphic Novels Noir

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Posted on April 6, 2009