Mon 5 Jan 2015
Reviewed by Mark D. Nevins: CHARLES WILLIAMS – The Hot Spot.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[9] Comments
CHARLES WILLIAMS – The Hot Spot. Vintage/Black Lizard, softcover, 1990. Originally published as Hell Hath No Fury: Gold Medal #286, paperback original, February 1953. Film: Orion, 1990 (starring Don Johnson, Virginia Madsen and Jennifer Connelly).
If asked to pick an archetypal roman noir from the 1950’s you could probably do a lot worse than The Hot Spot. Average-ish guy moves into average-ish small town, where an opportunity for a bank heist proves too tempting to resist.
Charles Williams makes a case for being a storyteller on par with the best of his era (Willeford, Thompson, or my benchmark John D. MacDonald): the novel is fast and lean, and filled with noir nuggets such as “When you break the law you can forget about playing the averages because you have to win all the time.”
Of course The Hot Spot also features a good good-girl and a very bad bad-girl — the latter maybe one of the better femmes in pulp fiction: “I thought of a full and slightly bruised peach beginning to spoil a little. She was somewhere between luscious and full-bloom and in another year or so of getting all her exercise lying down and lifting the bottle she’d probably be blowzy.”
Dolly Harshaw is a deadly piece of work who lives up to this novel’s original (and much better) title Hell Hath No Fury. Williams is a great writer, and I look forward to reading more of his work.
January 5th, 2015 at 6:02 pm
Credit where it is due as well, you can’t do much better than Virginia Madsen for that role.
Williams novels seemed to translate well to film, and fairly faithfully. His skills of drawing character, setting, and creating suspense all adapted well to the screen.
Plus the film version has that fantastic scene with Connelly at the lake …
Williams was one of the few writers at GM who could have been a rival to JDM if he wanted to. If JDM is the A+ list, Williams is at worst the A-.
And though MacDonald surpassed him Williams became a regular in hardcover before JDM save for CAPE FEAR (THE EXECUTIONERS). He certainly had better luck in movies.
Williams is one of those American writers adored and studied by the French critics addicted to the serie noire style book. He was much better known and more admired there and his reputation more exalted. He was admired here certainly, but not quite a cult writer as he was in France.
January 5th, 2015 at 8:00 pm
It was one hell of a movie, no doubt about it. I think it is one of the best color noir films ever made, if that is not a contradiction in terms. There are scenes in that movie that have stayed with me for a long time.
January 5th, 2015 at 9:29 pm
I’ll play the heretic here: For me Williams at his best was a better, more powerful writer than JDM. HELL HATH NO FURY is arguably his best GM book — as Mark Nevins writes, the archetypal 50s roman noir. I’ve read and savored it three times and will probably return to it for a fourth one of these days.
I agree with Steve that THE HOT SPOT is a very good and memorable film. It’s also a reasonably faithful adaptation of the novel, which is certainly one of the reasons it works so well. If only H’wood would “shoot the book” more often when making crime films based on novels, most of the films would be a lot better than they are.
January 6th, 2015 at 5:52 pm
Bill,
I think Williams may well be the better suspense novelist, but JDM overall the better novelist or at least the more serious one.
Like I said I hold him as very close to MacDonald, so we are likely disagreeing by fractions here.
January 6th, 2015 at 6:08 pm
David:
Disagreeing by fractions, yes. No argument from here that JDM was the more serious novelist, but as much as I’ve enjoyed most of his books, I think Williams was indeed the better suspense writer and his body of work has given me greater pleasure.
January 6th, 2015 at 10:06 pm
I’d say this is Williams best book, followed possibly by “Dead Calm”, but anything I’ve read by him so far (which is most of his novels) has been terrific. The movie was Top-Notch as well. Yes, that Virginia Madsen was certainly hot stuff!
January 7th, 2015 at 11:23 pm
I wanted to take make a point to thank Steve for letting me join this little club: I feel like a JV benchwarmer getting a chance to play a few minutes in an NBA game. (Wow, Bill Pronzini just cited me: can I laminate that and hang it in my office?)
I’m late to reading crime fiction with some level of seriousness (I turn 50 next year) but have really enjoying discovering some of these writers. I thought there was no contest for JDM being my favorite mid-century crime writer, but Williams may give him a run for the money.
Are Williams’ “backwoods” books half as good as HELL HATH NO FURY? For a city guy like me it’s an odd concept (country noir), though I do like Joe Lansdale and have made a note to myself to check out Daniel Woodrell.
January 8th, 2015 at 12:17 am
I wish I could tell you more about Williams “back woods” books, Mark, but I read them so long ago, and at so young an age, what I remember of them would be of no use to you. And probably totally wrong, too. I’ve made something of a New Year’s resolution to myself to go back and read (or re-read) as many of those old Gold Medals this year as I can. And of course, report back here on this blog as to what a 73 year old man (as of today) who’s been reading mystery and crime fiction for over 60 years thinks of them now.
Please keep sending me your reviews as well. The more the merrier. Welcome.
January 9th, 2015 at 2:01 pm
I’m with Bill Pronzini on Charles Williams. His novels have delighted me more than John D. MacDonald’s. Both writers are excellent, but I give the edge to Williams.