THE FILM
FILM DIRECTOR: Robert Altman
SCREENWRITER: Calder Willingham, Joan Tewkesbury, Robert Altman
FILM STARS: Keith Carradine, Shelley Duvall, Bert Remsen, Louise Fletcher, Tom Skerritt
COUNTRY: USA
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: Edward Anderson
TYPE: Novel
PUBLISHER: Avon
THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1974
COUNTRY: USA
COVER: Paperback
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1937
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title
NOTES
GENRE: Crime
WORDS: Anderson only wrote two novels. Both are about people facing grim choices during the 1930s depression. This novel was first (excellently) filmed under the title of “They Live by Night” (1948) by Nicholas Ray. If I recollect correctly there is dark fatalism that hangs over the book (as there is in his other novel, “The Hungry Men”). Oddly, I don’t recall the film that well. I may have to re-watch it.
LINKS
TRAILER
They live by night. Now, that was a film. The Edward Anderson book sometimes gets mislabeled noir fiction. For me it’s less a crime novel than a piece of dirty realism – I’d put it alongside They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? before I compared it with Goodis or Chandler. PS there must be paperbacks floating around that were released to tie in with Pollack’s 1959 film with Jane Fonda and Michael Sarrazin.
Yes Paul, I think you are exactly right. The books are more about people who commit crimes rather than crime itself. Crime is not the central thrust of the book. I agree with the comparison to Horace McCoy (though I have only read a couple of his books – and I have the movie tie – in the 1969 film) and maybe James M Cain (I know you have read a lot of him). Incidentally, I think Hammett, though in crime, was, perhaps, the bridge between the two styles?