Sun 14 Jun 2020
Stories I’m Reading, Selected by by David Vineyard: ROBERT CARSON “Aloha Means Goodbye.â€
Posted by Steve under Films: Drama/Romance , Stories I'm Reading[12] Comments
ROBERT CARSON “Aloha Means Goodbye.†Serialized in five parts in the Saturday Evening Post (*), June 28 to July 26, 1941. No book publication known. Filmed as: Across the Pacific (1942), with Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sidney Greenstreet. Screenplay and Directed by John Huston.
Richard (Ricky) Leland is sailing from Vancouver on the Japanese freighter the Genoa Maru, with fellow passengers Alberta Marlow (a very calm dame), whose eccentric Uncle Dan owns a plantation on his own island in Hawaii, and the mysterious Dr. Barca, a mysterious Filipino (…he looked genial and unimposing, except for his eyes which were cold and black). No one is quite what they seem including Ricky who appears to be a disgraced American Artillery Officer, but we soon learn is in reality an American agent.
Even the Genoa Maru isn’t quite what it seems.
If you have seen the John Huston film Across the Pacific, his first after The Maltese Falcon, and his last before going off to the war, you know the basic story. Barca and the Japanese are part of a dastardly plot to invade and lead a sneak attack on the States involving Alberta Marlow’s Uncle Dan and his plantation, and Ricky Leland is not who or what he seems to be.
In the film Barca becomes the German, Sidney Greenstreet, and the plot, thanks to Pearl Harbor, turns to Panama instead of Hawaii (coming once the title had been released and making no sense in the film since they never cross the Pacific), but just how close the movie is to the serial (I’m not sure the serial ever appeared in book form) is surprising (right down to the shootout in the Japanese movie theater — that makes more sense in Hawaii than Panama), because the real joy of the film is the by play and double entendre between Bogart and Mary Astor and the war of wits with Greenstreet, and much of that is lifted directly from the dialogue in the serial.
“I feel very happy and secure,†Ricky said. “You’ll go over and make friends with eccentric Uncle Dan and we’ll get married and live happily ever after on Uncle Dan’s dough. And if you don’t give me any spending money I’ll stay home all the time.â€
“I don’t want his money.â€
Ricky opened his eyes wide and looked at her. “If you keep talking that way,†Ricky said severely, “our association must end.â€
Carson was a successful author who frequently contributed stories to the Post, and this serial that ran there between late June and early August of 1941 is a lively tale, accompanied by handsome full color illustrations by Ben Stahl.
Just as Huston virtually transcribed Hammett’s novel the same seems to be true of this serial, though obviously Carson is no Hammett, as Pacific is no Falcon.
There are minor differences, of course, but Huston was always the most literary of directors and famously honed close to his source material.
“Aloha†is a product of the slicks as magazines like the Post, American, Liberty, and Collier’s were then known, and much has been written belittling the slick style in comparison to the pulps, but some of the best writers of the time, from Fitzgerald and Faulkner to Philip Wylie and John P. Marquand worked there, and pulp favorites like Erle Stanley Gardner, Fred Nebel, Robert Carse, Edison Marshall, Sax Rohmer, and Rex Stout crossed over into the slicks, and were often paid more. They might get up to $5,000 for a serial at a time a novel might bring as little as $500.
The Post was always well associated with the mystery genre as the home of Charlie Chan, Mr. Moto, Perry Mason, Albert Campion, Roderick Alleyn, and Hercule Poirot.
“Aloha Means Good-bye†is a fast moving tale in the best sense, with something of the same pace and style of the tongue in cheek movie. I’m not sure if you can really call a book prescient for predicting a Japanese attack on the US in the summer of 1941 (Van Wyck Mason predicted one in 1932 in The Branded Spy Murders; it was something that had been inevitable for much of the century), but it was great timing, however you look at it, and even now an entertaining tale thanks to its lighthearted style.
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(*) For anyone interested you can go to Internet Archive and find over 6,000 issues of the Saturday Evening Post from the twenties to the mid-sixties with full serials by Agatha Christie, Erle Stanley Gardner, Rex Stout, Earl Derr Biggers, P. G. Wodehouse, Dornford Yates, Hammond Innes, Alistair MacLean, Alan LeMay, Eugene Manlove Rhodes, John P, Marquand, Luke Short, Jack Finney, C. S. Forester, Paul Gallico, James Warner Bellah, and many more, as well as short fiction by Philip Wylie, Robert A. Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, Fred Nebel, Lester Dent, and others, illustrated by the likes of Matt Clark, Harold Von Schmidt, and Mitchell Hooks.
June 14th, 2020 at 8:39 pm
If I remember right I reviewed the movie on here some time back. I remember a discussion developed because the maps used in the movie are backwards.
June 14th, 2020 at 9:44 pm
You’re right. It was over 10 years ago. Here’s the link:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=1908
June 14th, 2020 at 9:18 pm
“I’m not sure if you can really call a book prescient for predicting a Japanese invasion of Japan in 1941”
Not when they’d invaded Japan long before!
June 15th, 2020 at 6:38 am
Oops. Until David is able to tell me otherwise, I’m going to change that to a “Japanese attack on the US in the summer of 1941.”
June 15th, 2020 at 7:31 am
I’ve always enjoyed this one in my simple-minded way, but I never thought to look at the source. Thanks, David!
June 15th, 2020 at 8:17 am
I wonder if the reason the story was never published in book form was because history, in the form of the Pearl Harbor attack, had not only caught up to it, but surpassed it.
June 15th, 2020 at 7:00 pm
When I do a typo I do them right…
Re publication of this in book form there are two reasons this likely never saw book publication. The obvious one is that the short time between the story appearing and the actual event which you mention.
But also the average book serial in the Post of this period runs seven issues (later it was up to eight), so that five issues is fairly short (a novella runs from three to four).
Then, as mentioned in the review, Carson had already made a few thousand selling a serial to the Post. Book publication wouldn’t have made half that much. Carson was a popular writer who sold regularly to the Post, mostly short stories, but enough they made him a tidy sum yearly through this period.
He and his agent no doubt moved on to other things. A serial in the Post was more prestigious and paid better than a book at this point. He had a profitable market without worrying about books like many writers who worked in the slicks and pulps in that era.
June 15th, 2020 at 7:47 pm
Always wondered about those things, DAvid. The Post paid better than a book, I believe, but don’t care; a good agent would try to do both for him. Publication on that level should have lasting financial ramifications, both direct and indirect.
June 17th, 2020 at 9:02 pm
Barry,
I agree, but still many writers in the slicks didn’t bother much with book publication unless they expected good library sales.
Carson likely sold the serial for around $3500 to $4000. $500 for a book sale that would likely have meant a rewrite to expand the book and a now outdated timely theme would cost more than it was worth when Carson could place two or three shorts in the slicks at $1200 or more each in the time period.
June 18th, 2020 at 8:22 pm
I suppose that makes sense, but not the adventure I would like to go on.
May 25th, 2021 at 2:35 pm
The interesting thing is that ‘Aloha Means Goodbye’was translated into Dutch and published by Bell pockets which no longer exists. I read it as a fascinating story in which there was also a Japanese man, Joe Totsuiko, involved. I think the woman in the stroy asked him ‘are you a G-man?’which he confirmed. The cover reads ‘amazing that this story was written just six month before Pearl Harbor happened! Unfortunately I have lost the book, most likely lent it to someone. It would certainly be worthwhile to have it published in English, in book form.
November 21st, 2023 at 9:48 am
This may be a bit too late now but where did you read this story? Couldn’t find it anywhere on the internet archive. Thx!