Unless you're looking through me, you've got to turn around

[sovay]

Okay, this week is just the fuzzy end of the lollipop all round and I do not approve of it, but I just got back from picking up the recent reprint of Marty Holland's Fallen Angel (1945), the source novel for the 1945 film, and I am going to sit on the couch and see if I can't attract a cat by attempting to read it undisturbed. It looks terrific and, according to the introduction, rather like the fix-it version of the film I had wanted at the time. It appears to be part of a series of source novels for noir films. Based on their lineup so far, I can with horrifying ease see myself collecting them all.

Comments

[gwynnega]

It appears to be part of a series of source novels for noir films.

Oh my...

[sovay]

Oh my...

Stark House Press has one of the most godawful websites I have encountered operating professionally in this decade, but I kind of want their entire back catalogue: they specialize in pulp and noir reprints. They have an entire section of female crime writers! More than the last time I checked, which was pre-pandemic and primarily Elisabeth Sanxay Holding! I really want to see what they do next for noir source novels. Hidden in a different section of the website, I have already found William O'Farrell's Repeat Performance (1942).

[gwynnega]

That female crime writers series looks amazing.

[sovay]

That female crime writers series looks amazing.

I just bought a Jean Potts double for $5 and the hell of it.

[edit] OH MY GOD HOLLAND'S FALLEN ANGEL HAS AN IMPECCABLE ENDING I CAN'T BELIEVE PREMINGER'S FALLEN ANGEL LOUSED IT UP WHO PASSES UP THE CHANCE TO HAVE A CLIMACTIC FAKE SÉANCE CAPPED BY A DESPERATELY ROMANTIC CLINCH IN THE RAIN HARRY KLEINER I AM DISAPPOINT.

[gwynnega]

A climactic fake seance! Well, at least the book version exists. (And this in a nutshell is why I wanted to write novels and not follow my dad into the screenwriting business.)

[sovay]

A climactic fake seance! Well, at least the book version exists.

Right? It's to cry over, or at least go back in time and not waste the casting of John Carradine.

(And this in a nutshell is why I wanted to write novels and not follow my dad into the screenwriting business.)

The ending of your novel is definitely not loused up, so I can't complain.

(I still think someone should offer you inordinate quantities of money to adapt it for film or prestige TV.)

[gwynnega]

I would love it if someone wanted to adapt my novel!

[ethelmay]

Gosh, I've only heard of about ten of their authors, mostly the ones who worked on the sf/fantasy end. (Actually, now I come to look at it, they've got a different Charles Williams.)

[sovay]

Gosh, I've only heard of about ten of their authors, mostly the ones who worked on the sf/fantasy end.

I've barely looked at their science fiction and fantasy! I didn't realize they had published Storm Constantine. (Their Charles Williams is the one who wrote Dead Calm (1963), which I wish they would reprint.)

[aurumcalendula]

It looks terrific and, according to the introduction, rather like the fix-it version of the film I had wanted at the time.

That sounds fantastic!

[sovay]

That sounds fantastic!

I highly recommend it!

[asakiyume]

(Did you attract a cat?)

[sovay]

(Did you attract a cat?)

(I did.)