Fri 30 Jun 2023
Archived GOLD MEDAL Crime Fiction Review: RICHARD JESSUP – Port Angelique.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[14] Comments
RICHARD JESSUP – Port Angelique. Gold Medal s11159, paperback original; 1st printing October 1961.
Angelique is a small island in the Caribbean, a possession of the United States. A paradise unknown to all but for its few inhabitants. A few years ago, when the notorious Sabo de Chine was finally forced from the island, his fortune in gold had to be left behind.
And now that he’s back, the job of police commissioner Stanley Fowler is twofold: get the money, and not let his long-time nemesis slip through his fingers again. Intended, I think, as something more than just a crime novel, it still grows in momentum [as the latter] as it goes.
– Reprinted from Mystery.File.6, June 1980.
June 30th, 2023 at 7:22 pm
Scouring the Internet for copies for sale, I’ve only been able to find a single one, and that’s it. It’s on eBay, if anyone is interested, and for such a scarce book, it can be yours for a measly $3, plus $4 shipping.
Don’t wait until tomorrow, as I’m sure someone else will have beaten you to it.
The cover — not what you usually expect from Gold Medal, without a beautiful girl with even better looking legs — seems to go along with my observation that GM was going for “something more than just a crime novel.”
June 30th, 2023 at 11:37 pm
Done! The cover is in rougher condition than I would usually buy (spine damage), but hey, like you say, this one is weirdly uncommon, and the price can’t be beat. Also, you put it out there as a challenge to buy it fast, and I am a sucker when it comes to that, and hate to be beat. I’ve never read a Jessup, but have wanted to get to The Cincinnati Kid, which has a good reputation and nade a helluva film.
June 30th, 2023 at 11:49 pm
Well, congrats! You say it’s weirdly uncommon, and that’s exactly right. I wonder why.
July 1st, 2023 at 8:10 am
I’m a Jessup fan myselg — just finished TEXAS OUTLAW!
July 1st, 2023 at 8:12 am
Forgive the hasty typo above.
Recovering from a touch of Pneumonia and still a bit feverish.
July 1st, 2023 at 9:23 am
Continued improvement, Dan!
July 1st, 2023 at 9:26 am
Although I’ve seen Jessup’s byline on a ton of paperbacks, I realized overnight that I knew nothing about him as a person, or even an overview as a writer. Wikipedia to the rescue:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Jessup
Here’s one passage:
“Mr. Jessup wrote more than 60 books, most of them paperback originals about crime (A Rage to Die), detectives (Cry Passion), Indians (Comanche Vengeance) and adventure (The Deadly Duo, about an American reporter who tries to foil a murder on the Riviera). He wrote under several pseudonyms, including Richard Telfair, and he also wrote radio shows and television scripts. […]
“His best-known work, The Cincinnati Kid, published in 1964 in hardcover and later made into a motion picture with Steve McQueen, Edward G. Robinson, Ann Margaret and Tuesday Weld…”
July 1st, 2023 at 9:50 am
Richard also wrote Chuka, a film I was, for want of a better term, friends with. That means I knew Howard Gotbetter, who put up the option money, and Jack Jason who went out to California to get the production done. He did, and for my friendship opened the door for Louis Hayward in a good-featured part. The film script was marvelous, but the film is not, mainly because the bankable star, Rod Taylor was also the producer, and while a lovely person, went off in production. There were several strong and favorable reviews, but they did not translate to a major opening or theatre dates.
July 1st, 2023 at 2:32 pm
I always thought that movie ought to have been better than it turned out to be. Now I have a better idea why. Thanks for a look at it from the inside, Barry!
July 1st, 2023 at 9:58 am
I like the fact that Jessup had a lengthy drinking session with Camus in Marseilles in ‘45 – pretty legendary stuff.
July 1st, 2023 at 2:31 pm
Here’s the relevant paragraph from Wikipedia:
“Mr. Jessup attributed much of his outlook to a chance meeting with Albert Camus in Marsailles in 1945, during which they drank together for hours and the philosopher impressed upon the 20-year-old seaman his existential philosophy.”
July 1st, 2023 at 3:08 pm
I guarantee that if that had happened to me, I would have wearied everyone I knew by constantly re-telling it. “Me and Al were hanging out in this dive bar by the docks…â€
July 1st, 2023 at 10:30 pm
Jessup had an interesting career varying from critically acclaimed works like THE CINCINATTI Kid to Mystery (NIGHT TRAIN TO PARIS), Spy (the Monty Nash series as Richard Telfair), and Western novels (CHUKA, COMANCHE SATURDAY), to novelizations like DANGER MAN as Telfair (1962).
At least three books were filmed (THE CUNNING AND THE HAUNTED as THE YOUNG DON’T CRY, THE CINCINATI KID, CHUKA the first and last with screenplays by Jessup) and FOXWAY (1971) was optioned by Otto Preminger, but never made.
July 2nd, 2023 at 3:36 pm
I cannot help but marvel at the fact that an old review I wrote well over 40 years ago can still manage to produce so many comments today, all pertinent and worth everyone’s time.
Thanks, all!