Wed 3 Feb 2021
A PI Review by Dan Stumpf: DASHIELL HAMMETT – Red Harvest.
Posted by Steve under Pulp Fiction , Reviews[8] Comments
DASHIELL HAMMETT – Red Harvest. The Continental Op. Alfred A. Knopf, hardcover, 1929. Originally serialized in Black Mask, November 1927 to February 1928.
My favorite of Hammett’s works, and a classic example of the “one-damn-thing-after-another†school of hard-boiled fiction.
The plot exists merely as a blank canvas to paint vivid scenes and characters upon, but here it is, for what it’s worth. Hammett’s nameless Op is summoned to the city of Personville (called Poisonville by the locals) at the behest of Donald Wilsson, son of the local tyrant, Elihu Wilssson, and editor of the daily paper.
Young Donald gets himself murdered before the Op ever meets him, but old Elihu engages him to find the killer, then gives him a carte-blanche to clear out the criminal element, who seem to outnumber the ordinary folk by an unhealthy margin.
And from there on, as I say, it’s just one damn thing after another. Fixed fights, mercenary dames, dynamite, crooked cops, bootleg hooch, gang wars, and the occasional solo murder solved just to give things a rest.
All this would have crowded up most novels, but in Hammett’s terse, evocative prose, it flows smoothly all the way, livened up by characters who strut and fret their few lines across the page with color and conviction: tough guys with names like Reno Starkey and Whisper Thaler, backed up by sharply delineated supporting players who come and go in less than a paragraph. Hammett didn’t waste any words here, but he didn’t leave any out, either.
This was the first of Hammett’s Black Mask serials to be published as a novel. Oddly, it is the only one never faithfully adapted to the screen, though it was cited by Akira Kurosawa as the basis for Yojimbo, which inspired A Fistful of Dollars, which inspired the prohibition-set gangster film Last Man Standing, so I guess in a way it came full circle.
February 3rd, 2021 at 7:08 pm
If not Hammett’s best it is his purest hard-boiled novel, everything develops out of character and action with plot taking a back seat to both much in the way Chandler would emphasize voice and style.
Just about every major and minor hard-boiled mystery writer took a shot at their take of RED HARVEST at some point. I can think of at least two by Cleve Adams, one by Spillane (THE LONG WAIT), one by Ross Macdonald (BLUE CITY), one by William Ard (HELL IS A CITY), Brett Halliday … it’s a long list. It’s also been done as Western novels fairly often, though to be honest it pretty much is a Western plot to begin with.
And, of course, one line from the book by the OP inspired the title of the Coen Brothers BLOOD SIMPLE.
For some reason the book was tied up so it never got adapted directly or even got credit, though Walter Hill did everything but say he meant LAST MAN STANDING to be an adaptation of the book.
There was an early comedy with Charles Ruggles that used to be quoted as having been supposdly based on RED HARVEST, but I think that was finally put to rest when the film was finally found.
February 3rd, 2021 at 9:11 pm
I wish there had been a movie made directly from this one. I’ve read it twice, but not recently. My impression is that an adaptation could be taken almost straight from the book. Anyone agree or disagree?
February 3rd, 2021 at 8:36 pm
One of my favorite novels by one of my favorite writers. Hammett takes on the moral corruption of a thinly disguised Butte, Montana and its subsequent redemption? through a full scale gang war triggered by the amoral Op. This is one of those ur-plots which you can’t stop seeing references to everywhere in other books and movies once you read it. Some even see the TV series Deadwood as inspired by it.
My favorite novel inspired by, or at least sharing some plot elements with Red Harvest, is Ross Thomas’ The fools in town are on our side. Which i see has never been reviewed on this site. Steve, do you have that in your queue?
February 3rd, 2021 at 9:08 pm
RED HARVEST is my favorite Hammett story, and THE FOOLS IN TOWN ARE ON OUR SIDE is my favorite Hammett novel that Hammett never wrote. I imagine the review of the Ross Thomas version is somewhere in the archives, but I have no idea where.
February 4th, 2021 at 10:03 am
This is one of my all-time favorite books. I think I’ve read it three times, and if I ever get around to reading that giant collection of all the Continental Op stories in their original pulp versions, I’ll read it again there. Another one inspired by it is Kendall Foster Crossen’s early Milo March novel HANGMAN’S HARVEST, which I also enjoyed a great deal.
February 5th, 2021 at 9:07 pm
[…] the comment he left following Dan Stumpf’s recent review of Red Harvest, Sai Shankar asked me if I’d ever reviewed this book. I said I had, but I […]
February 9th, 2021 at 3:46 pm
Everything you said it is and more. I have not read it in many years but it sticks with me more vividly than most of what I have read in the last month. I am surprised that it was never filmed as the book was written but some of the comments above address that well. All in all a great reading experience.
September 3rd, 2021 at 11:22 pm
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