Let’s Talk About Cases Solved Over A Singapore Sling With A Blue Umbrella On Top!

Statistics, Lore and  Anything Else That Flips My Writer’s Lid.

Excerpt one From “The Golden Book On Writing” By David Lambuth Circa 1923

” A Pale Green Mermaid Blog “

David Lambuth was a Professor at Dartmouth College, he and his colleagues compiled this book on “common sense “rules for writing.  Professor Lambuth stated that ” make a picture with the nouns and make that picture move with verbs.”

INITIAL ADVICE

 

“Use your eyes and ears. Think. Read . And then when you have found your idea, don’t be afraid of it – or of your pen and paper; write it down as nearly as possible as you would express it in a speech; swiftly, un-selfconsciously, without stopping to think about the form of it all.  Revise it afterwards – but only afterwords.

Clear thinking and not a mastery of rules makes good writing,  set down in simple natural speech and afterwards  revised in accordance with good usage.

The particular difficulties which always come up by the score have to be wrestled with as special problems by the man who is trying to capture his own ideas  and get them down on paper.

Read… read and still read.

 

Dashiell Hammett prose,

He came away from the telephone frowning. ”Wynant’s back in town,” he said, “and wants me to meet him.”

I turned around with the drinks I had poured. “Well, the lunch can–”

“Let him wait,” he said, and took one of the glasses from me.

“Still as screwy as ever?”

“That’s no joke,” Macaulay said solemnly. “You heard they had him in a sanatorium for nearly a year back in ‘29?”

“No.”

He nodded. He sat down, put his glass on a table beside his chair, and leaned towards me a little. “What’s Mimi up to, Charles?”

“Mimi? Oh, the wife–the ex-wife. I don’t know. Does she have to be up to something?”

“She usually is,” he said dryly, and then very slowly, “and I thought you’d know.”
He came away from the telephone frowning. ”Wynant’s back in town,” he said, “and wants me to meet him.”

I turned around with the drinks I had poured. “Well, the lunch can–”

“Let him wait,” he said, and took one of the glasses from me.

“Still as screwy as ever?”

“That’s no joke,” Macaulay said solemnly. “You heard they had him in a sanatorium for nearly a year back in ‘29?”

“No.”

He nodded. He sat down, put his glass on a table beside his chair, and leaned towards me a little. “What’s Mimi up to, Charles?”

“Mimi? Oh, the wife–the ex-wife. I don’t know. Does she have to be up to something?”

“She usually is,” he said dryly, and then very slowly, “and I thought you’d know.”

 

Bye,  ” She ran her nails through her blonde red hair as she pulled the knife from her stocking top, placing it underneath the telephone.”

 

 

Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. from wikipedia

Writing A Hardbolied Detective Book – Advice From 1923

” A Pale Green Mermaid Blog “

 

For the next three months I will be posting excerpts from a book I picked up at a library sale fro a quarter, written in 1923.  It is called ” The Golden Book On Writing ” by David Lambuth a professor at Dartmouth College. 

It is a great little book ( 79) pages that gives you an option on how to THINK about writing since no one can honestly teach you how to write, or as Professor Lambuth would say, ” Writing must be instinctual and un-selfconscious before it is of the slightest value.”

After each excerpt I will include a small section of prose from Dashiell Hammett.

 

‘” The thing spoke, though I could not say that I actually heard the words: It was as if I simply became, through my entire body, conscious of the words:

“Down enemy of the Lord God: down on your knees.”

I stirred then, to lick my lips with a tongue drier than they were.

 

FROM “The Dain Curse ” One of Five Novels by Dashiell Hammett

 

Bye, ” She closed the refrigerator with a slam.  His eyes watched her as she put her coat on and walked out with his gun in hand.”

 

Dashiell Hammett
Dashiell Hammett
Born	Samuel Dashiell Hammett May 27, 1894(1894-05-27) Saint Mary’s County, Maryland, United States
Died	January 10, 1961 (aged 66) New York City, New York, United States
Occupation	Novelist
Nationality	American
Writing period	1929–1951
Genres	Hardboiled crime fiction, detective fiction

Columbo, Confused, Sloppy, Dotty – That Was His M.O.

 

Columbo was the epitome of the 60’s version of the hard boiled detective.  He was shrewd and had a mind like an ipod tune selector, yet he camouflaged his skills in a aura of interruptions mistakes and apparent bungling.

He usually arrived on the crime scene late asking for a cup a’ joe, then proceeded to ask the most basic of questions always noticing what others had not.  One of his favorite traits was to say goodbye to the suspect, then turn up five minutes later to ask a forgotten question.

He was a walking detective koan, filled with mystery that covered a well of deeper meaning.

Police Lieutenant Columbo!

Peter Falk as Lt. Columbo
Format	Television movie Mystery Police procedural
Created by	Richard Levinson William Link
Starring	Peter Falk
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of episodes	69 (List of episodes)
Production
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	30 x 73 minutes 39 x 98 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Picture format	Film
Audio format	Monaural Stereophonic Sound
Original run	February 20, 1968 – January 30, 2003 Image from Wikipedia

Columbo is an American crime fiction TV series, starring Peter Falk as Lieutenant Columbo, a homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. From Wikipedia

 Columbo’s car

Lt. Columbo’s battered car is a 1959 Peugeot 403 Cabriolet convertible, which Falk selected personally, after seeing it in a parking lot at Universal Studios.^[5] When Columbo boasts that it’s a rare automobile, he isn’t kidding: from June 1956 to July 1961 only 2,050 were produced,^[6] and only 504 were produced for model year 1959.^[7] In the episode “Identity Crisis”, Columbo tells the murderer that his is one of only three in the country.

Columbo damages the car at least four times: in Make Me a Perfect Murder when he t-bones one police car and is hit from behind by another while trying to repair his rear view mirror; in A Matter of Honor when he rear-ends another car; in Caution: Murder Can Be Hazardous to Your Health when it takes him three tries to crash into the killer’s car; and in Old Fashioned Murder when he crashes into the back of a police car as he arrives at the murder scene. He also has many other problems with the car.^{[8]        FROM WIKIPEDIA}

 

Columbo’s Raincoat, From  www.columbo-site.freeuk.com

(an in-depth discussion appears on this site and it is hilarious!)

“Every once in a while I think about gettin a new coat, but there’s no
rush on that.  There’s still plenty of wear in this fella!” Candidate For Crime
     
Columbo is almost inseparable from his raincoat. We think of the raincoat as a part of Columbo himself. The raincoat almost seems to lend Columbo a sort of mystical power.

When he is forced to replace it in Now You See Him Columbo finds, to his great
frustration, that without his old raincoat, he cannot even think. Without that coat,
he is like Samson with a bad haircut.

In our mind’s eye, the immediate image is that the coat is  tattered, wrinkled and
stained, scarred with the long years of battle and too many bowls of chili.

What we tend to forget, is that when we first meet Columbo, the coat is quite
new (…cheesy-looking, but new).  And that we have watched this remarkable garment   evolve over the years. And so over the decades of episodes,  we  watch Peter Falk grow more comfortable and familiar in the role of Columbo, just as we watch Columbo himself grow more comfortable and familiar in the battered old raincoat. 

Columbo’s raincoat is more than clothing.  It is more than a symbol of his humble, eccentric image.

Columbo’s raincoat is an old friend.

Bye,  ” As he swept up the flour on the floor that he had spilt in the dark, five pairs of leather shoes surrounded him.”

Pre- Hardboiled Detective – Sherlock Holmes – A Thinking Man’s Detective

” A Pale Green Mermaid Blog”

 

“When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever that remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

If one sentence ever summed up a  detective the above quotation does that for Sherlock Holmes.   Conan Doyle created a figure that emblazed himself on the mind of the reader.

Erudite urban singular and tough as nails – he trusts only his intellect .  These qualities make Sherlock Holmes a full member of the hardboiled dick club.

Monument of Sherlock Holmes in London

 Selected quotes from Sherlock Holmes

The adventure of the three Garridbes,

Well, Watson, we can but possess our souls in patience and see what the hour may bring.

• Page 1053

The Adventure Of The Devils Foot,

Sterndale “How do you know that?”
Holmes “I followed you.”
Sterndale “I saw no one.”
Holmes “That is what you may expect to see when I follow you.”

• Page 967

Note:

Holmes describes himself as “Bohemian” in habits and lifestyle. According to Dr Watson, Holmes is an eccentric, with no regard for contemporary standards of tidiness or good order. In an early story, Watson describes Holmes as:

“

The worst tenant in London…[he] keeps his cigars in the coal-scuttle, his tobacco in the toe end of a Persian slipper, and his unanswered correspondence transfixed by a jack-knife into the very centre of his wooden mantelpiece… He had a horror of destroying documents…Thus month after month his papers accumulated, until every corner of the room was stacked with bundles of manuscript which were on no account to be burned, and which could not be put away save by their owner.[12]

”

What appears to others as chaos, however, is to Holmes a wealth of useful information. Throughout stories, Holmes is depicted as diving into his apparent mess of random papers and artifacts only to retrieve precisely the specific document or eclectic item he was looking for.   FROM WIKIPEDIA

 

Bye,  “She closed the door to the wine cellar and walked softly away- a loud crash sounded and she lurched up the steps.”

James Rockford: The Hardboiled Detective That Retired And Moved To The Beach

“A Pale Green Mermaid Blog”

 

A trailer, the beach, and an answering machine -who would imagine that these elements could produce such a erudite, funky, middle of the road, offbeat, everyman detective.  It was the contradictions in his persona that intrigued, one a taco loving/ limping (later edisodes - the reason for the limp changed every show) football watching/ semi recluse with a huge formal desk and leather chair in a rusting trailer on the edge of a parking lot next to the beach.

He was and is what all great hardboiled detectives are one of a kind – they allow themselves to be themselves.  There tough,smart and live by their own code.

I learned all I know about losing a tail (car following you) from Jim Rockford!

(James Garner played the Jim Rockford character effortlessly, a seamless actor)

Here are some answering machine messages from the first season,  -

from  The Rockford Files Homepage       www.thesandbox.net

First Season
————
The Kirkoff Case [101] Jim, It’s Norma at the market. It bounced. You want us to tear it up, send it back, or put it with the others?

 

The Dark And Bloody Ground [102] Hey Jim, this is Louie down at the fish market. You going to pick up these halibut or what?

Exit Prentiss Carr [104] It’s Morrie. Got a call from Davis at the IRS. You were right. They bounced your return. Call me.

 This Case Is Closed [106] Really want Shimbu in the seventh? C’mon, that nag couldn’t go a mile in the back of a pickup truck. Call me.

The Big Ripoff [107] It’s Aundra. Remember last summer at Pat’s? I’ve got a twelve hour layover before I go to Chicago. How about it?

Find Me If You Can [108] This is the blood bank. If you don’t have malaria, hepatitis, or TB, we’d like to have a pint of your blood

.In Pursuit Of Carol Thorne [109] This is the message phone company. I see you’re using our unit, now how about paying for it?The Dexter Crisis [110] I staked out that guy only it didn’t work out like you said. Please call me. Room 234, County Hospital.

Caledonia–It’s Worth A Fortune [111] It’s John Jones. What did you do the hand, son? Three fractured knuckles! You hit somebody?
  

Tall Woman In Red Wagon [105] It’s Laurie at the trailer park. A space opened up. Do you want me to save it or are the cops going to let you stay where you are? 

     

ALEX McEWAN
Screen Captures and phone messages compilation

 

The Rockford Files
Title sequence showing the famous answering machine
Format	Drama Mystery
Created by	Roy Huggins Stephen J. Cannell
Starring	James Garner Noah Beery Jr. Joe Santos Gretchen Corbett Stuart Margolin
Theme music composer	Mike Post Pete Carpenter
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	6
No. of episodes	122 plus 8 TV Movies (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Stephen J. Cannell
Running time	60 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Original run	September 13, 1974 – January 10, 1980

 

Jimmy, Angel and Rocky

Rockford’s scheming former San Quentin cellmate, Evelyn “Angel” Martin (something of a comic relief character portrayed by character actor Stuart Margolin), would almost always get Rockford in trouble, usually by involving him in hare-brained scams, which as often as not would result in either his arrest or being placed on somebody’s hit list. In spite of this, however, Jim considered Angel as one of his best, if most exasperating, pals.

Images and Text from WIKIPEDIA

  

Bye,    Watching from behind the bush she saw the mark get in his car and drive away, as she rushed to get into her spitfire – splat, went her taco into the dirt…”Crap.” 

 

Raymond Chandler’s “Philip Marlowe” The Ultimate Private Dick

“A Pale Green Mermaid Blog”

 

The most vivid memory I have  of Raymond Chandler’s Detective “Philip Marlowe” was Humphrey Bogart’s portrayal in the movie  “The Big Sleep” from  the novel of the same name.  He was cool, calm, nervous and always a little distant from what was happening around him.  Yet Mr. Chandler always mixed the mood with a wry senese of humour.

The Big Sleep
First edition cover
Author	Raymond Chandler
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Philip Marlowe
Genre(s)	Detective, Crime novel
Publisher	Alfred A. Knopf
Publication date	1939
Media type	print (hardback & paperback)
Pages	277 pp
ISBN	978-0-14-010892-7
Followed by	Farewell, My Lovely

 FROM WIKIPEDIA

 

Below is an excerpt from another Marlowe novel ” Red Wind”

The first paragraph says it all,  mood and characer -wise,

 

“There was a desert wind blowing that night.  It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch.  On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight.   Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husband’s necks.  Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge.”

 

Raymond Chandler

IMage from Google gallery

Note:

The Big Sleep (1939) is a crime novel by Raymond Chandler, the first in his acclaimed series about hardboiled detective Philip Marlowe. The work has been adapted twice into film, once in 1946 and again in 1978.

The story is noted for its complexity and is heavily influenced by classic Greek tragedy, with many characters double crossing each other and many secrets being exposed throughout the narrative. The title is a euphemism for death; it refers to a rumination in the book about “sleeping the big sleep”, and is not descriptive of the plot.

 FROM WIKIPEDIA

 Bye, “The melting sun  dried her eyes red as she walked over the pool of blood forming around his torso.”

Nancy Drew and Her Blue Roadster! Hardboiled Dick-ette For 1930’s Young Readers?

“A Pale Green Mermaid Blog”

 

An amatuer sleuth whose father let her run free (with cash) and a boyfriend who was willing to wait while she doggedly checked out  her cases and clues.   A tough cookie who always got her man/woman. 

She emerged during the depression as a can do, smart, fun loving , analytical, young pre-hardboiled dick?   Yes!

(Mildred Augustine Wirt Benson was the author of the first 23 Nancy Drew Novels)

The Secret of the Old Clock
Author	Carolyn Keene
Illustrator	Russell H. Tandy
Cover artist	Russell H. Tandy
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Nancy Drew Mystery Stories
Genre(s)	Juvenile literature
Publisher	Grosset & Dunlap
Publication date	1930
Media type	print (hardback & paperback)
ISBN	NA
Followed by	The Hidden Staircase

The Secret of the Old Clock is the first volume in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series written under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene. It was first published in April, 1930.

  FROM WIKIPEDIA

Additional info from wikipedia -

the character has proved continuously popular world-wide: at least 80 million copies of the books have been sold,^[7] and the books have been translated into over two dozen languages. Nancy Drew has featured in five films, two television shows, and a number of popular computer games; she also appears in a variety of merchandise sold over the world.

A cultural icon, Nancy Drew has been cited as a formative influence by a number of prominent women, from Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor^[8] and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton^[9] to former First Lady Laura Bush^[10] and recent Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. Feminist literary critics have analyzed the character’s enduring appeal, arguing variously that Nancy Drew is a mythic hero, an expression of wish fulfillment,^[11] or an embodiment of contradictory ideas about femininity.^[12]

 

Bye “Wind crashed against the shack as she watched the figure  drag a limp blonde  over the rocks and into the waiting swirls of water.”

 

 

Hercule Poirot – Hardboiled Dick?

” A Pale Green Mermaid Blog “

 

Good old Hercule Poirot, hated by writer Agatha Christie so much she killed him off in a story long before the public would allow her to end their favorite detective’s life. 

Some might say he is not hardboiled but let’s look at the attributes of a HB dick.

Eccentric Check!

Loner  Check!

Delving into psychological  landscape of victims   Check!

 

Well …maybe he is soft- bolied but Christie’s mastery of  character evolution and understanding of everyday motivation’s for murder, are unparalleled.

Let’s listen in,

Somewhere on  the River Nile, Egypt…

 

Poiroit gazed with interest at the subject of the remarks of his companions.  He murmured, “She is beautiful.”

“Some people have got everything,” said Rosalie bitterly.

There was a queer grudging expression on her face as she watched the other girl come up the gangplank.

Linnet Doyle was looking as perfectly turned out as if she were stepping onto the centre of the stage of a Revue.  She had something too of the assurance of a famous actress.  She was used to being looked at, to being admired, to being the centre of the stage wherever she went.

She was aware of the keen glances bent upon her–and at the same time almost unaware of them; such tributes were part of her life.

 

Excerpt from  “Death On The Nile” novel.

Hercule Poirot
David Suchet as Hercule Poirot
First appearance	The Mysterious Affair at Styles
Last appearance	Curtain
Created by	Agatha Christie
Portrayed by	David Suchet Peter Ustinov Albert Finney See below
Information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Private Dectective  · Former Retired Detective  · Former Police officer
Religion	Christianity (Roman Catholic)
Nationality	Belgian

 

Bye,     “After the door was shut, the room closed in on them, surrounding their forms in a dark molasses of  fear.”

Rex Stout’s Portly, Orchid Loving, Detective ” Nero Wolfe ” Takes Flight In The 2002 A+E Presentation

” A Pale Green Mermaid Blog “

 

Rex Stout’s quirky, routine obsessed detective ” Nero Wolfe ” predates the likes of ” Colombo “and ” Rockford “ each with their own funky take on life, unique way of living and approaching the art of detecting.  The A & E  presentation of  Mr. Stout’s character stands out in its clean crisp dialog,  authentically beautiful period wardrobe, and densely enjoyable music track. 

Every aspect of that production was true to the writer’s vision but tweaked one step up to produce a campy flow of  the writer’s visual intention mixed with his unstoppable patter of  dialog. 

A true treasure of mind altering fun and 40’s swing.  Check it out if you can on DVD.

Here is a dialog sample between Archie (Nero Wolfe’s long suffering, tough, wise cracking secretary/screener) and Mr. Wolfe,  

 

Archie speaking -

” When I had finished, Wolfe said, ” Mr. Pohl has telephoned again, twice, from the Keyes office.  He’s a jackass.  Go there and see him.  The address-”

” I know the address.  What part of him do I look at?”

” Tell him to stop telephoning me. “

” Right.  I’ll cut the wires.  Then what do I do?”

” Phone in again, and we’ll see.”

 

From ” Bullet for One ” a 1950 collection of Novelettes.

Images from the A&E series,

Cast

Maury Chaykin as Nero Wolfe

Timothy Hutton as Archie

  Production

The Manhattan Brownstone used for exteriors in A Nero Wolfe Mystery

IMAGES FROM WIKIPEDIA

 

Bye,     “She shook her head, stopping briefly to count the alligators floating around his corpse.”

Ross MacDonald And “Lew Archer” Detective Extraordinaire

 

Writer’s of the 1940’s period, the golden era of hard boiled detective fiction, really understood how to express themselves.  What I admire so much is their brevity, their modicum of  prose flourish.

Here is a favorite excerpt from Ross MacDonald’s short story ” Midnight Blue “,

 

While I was loading it, something caught my eye–something that glinted red, like a ruby among the leaves.  I stooped to pick it up and found that it was attached.  It was a red-enameled fingernail at the tip of a white hand.  The hand was cold and stiff.

 

  

 

Macdonald is the primary heir to Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler as the master of American hardboiledmysteries. His writing built on the pithy style of his predecessors by adding psychological depth and insights into the motivations of his characters. Macdonald’s plots were complicated, and often turned on Archer’s unearthing family secrets of his clients and of the criminals who victimized them. Lost or wayward sons and daughters were a theme common to many of the novels. Macdonald deftly combined the two sides of the mystery genre, the “whodunit” and the psychological thriller. Even his regular readers seldom saw a Macdonald denouement coming.

Inspired by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Macdonald’s writing was hailed by genre fans and literary critics alike. Author William Goldman called his works “the finest series of detective novels ever written by an American”.   FROM Wikipedia

 

Bye,  ( She had legs like slivers of almond that just wouldn’t quit! )