From Sherlock Holmes to Victoria Ifigenia Warshawski, here are the most famous detectives in literature we have met thanks to the big and small screen
MILAN – For too long, television has experienced a strong inferiority complex compared to many other means of communication. Pasolini called it “promoter and popularizer of anti-culture” and Moravia considered it profoundly “indifferent”, in short, the one between television and book (or more broadly, between television and culture) and an almost ancestral contrast. Yet, come to think of it, the viewers who should thank her do exist. How many times, watching a thriller or a detective story, have we become passionate and fond of the protagonists
How many times, then, have we discovered that those same characters came from the pens of the great English or American crime writers
The Huffington Post has compiled a ranking of the most famous protagonists of thrillers and thrillers that we have seen on the big and small screen.
1. Sherlock Holmes
British actor Basil Rathbone played the great detective in fourteen films between 1939-1946 and his cinematic interpretation of Holmes and the example by which all subsequent interpretations were measured. In fact, this was followed by numerous film and television interpretations. In more modern times, the robes of the acute detective were worn by Robert Downey Jr. The actor, according to the public, was able to provide a much truer interpretation and closer to the spirit of the character, born from the pen of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the late 19th century, compared to many film versions.
2. Sam Spade
Another must-have on this list is Sam Spade, the complex (anti) hero of Dashiell Hammett’s novel “The Maltese Falcon” (1930), which is serialized in the pulp magazine Black Mask. Detective Spade appears for the first and last time in this novel and, in addition to being one of the most loved characters by the public, it was the role that catapulted Humphrey Bogart into the Olympus of great actors. The 1941 film version is closely linked to the pages of the novel especially as regards the dialogues and lines of the characters, brilliantly delivered to a first-rate cast. According to critics, the only exception is Mary Astor, unable to take on the role of Brigid O’Shaughnessy, interpreted as a very fragile porcelain statue, completely different from the sexually manipulative femme fatale described in the book. Moreover, in the novel, Spade and O’Shaughnessy have conflicting sexual relations, but in the film all this is not present due to the Production Code which preferred to censor all the lustful traits and the visibly “depraved” shades.
3. Philip Marlowe
Next must-have is the private detective born from the pen of the famous noir writer Raymond Chandler. Marlowe has been played by the biggest names in Hollywood, the likes of Bogart, Dick Powell, Robert Montgomery, and Robert Mitchum, but none of those films managed to capture an essential element of the novels: the cynical voice and caustic humor. of Marlowe’s narrative. The first appearance of this famous character is in the novel “The big sleep” (1939), which was followed by a short story and seven novels, even if one of them remained incomplete.
4. Miss Marple
When it comes to the great mysteries of literature it is impossible to forget Agatha Christie. Miss Jane Marple, or simply Miss Marple, featured in twelve novels and twenty short stories by the English writer, first appeared in the novel “Death in the Village” (1930). Over the years there have been numerous films about the cunning old lady; on four occasions, 1961 and 1964, actress Margaret Rutherford plays it, in a version that Christie doesn’t particularly like, much to the disappointment of the actress. It is true that these films bear little resemblance to novels, but in their own way, thanks to their peculiar quirky humor, they have been loved by British audiences.
5. Holly Martins and Harry Lime
When a film is based on a book, the book is always superior. The possibility exists that the film will add a quid to the book
“The Third Man”, a novel by Graham Greene, and a brilliant dramatization of the struggle of modern society veiled by a kind of moral ambiguity, and the 1949 film version starring Joseph Cotten ( Holly Martins) and Orson Welles (Harry Lime) and famous for characterizing two morally conflicted souls. Film and book, in this particular case, are closely linked to each other; Graham Greene, in fact, during the preparation of the screenplay for the film, wrote a novel of the same title, which was published the year after the film’s release, ie in 1950.
6. James Bond
Since we are on the subject and we are thinking about how much novels lose in translation into film language, we can open a real Pandora’s box and bring out a great exception to this rule. Consider Ian Fleming’s thriller novels, for example. For many fans, the first five Bond films with Sean Connery are superior to the novels from which they were based. The critic Anthony Boucher has asserted that Bond is actually a bad spy and this is because he is easily distracted in front of a beautiful woman; every time the cover of him blows and he gets caught in pretty much every novel. What saves him is the fact, so to speak “comfortable”, that his enemies are really not well versed in shooting. But what is truly unforgivable to many readers is that the James Bond portrayed in Fleming’s novels has no soul and no inner life. Conversely, Connery with the interpretation of him managed to give this character a three-dimensional and depth that was missing in the books. In short, Sean Connery and James Bond.
7. Mike Hammer
We put on our fireproof suit and try to manage a radioactive theme: Mike Hammer. The best film based on the novel by Detective Hammer and “Kiss Me Deadly” from 1955. Robert Aldrich was the director, Ralph Meeker was cast as Hammer, while Maxine Cooper played Velda, Hammer’s sexy secretary / companion. This film pushes the over-the-top quality of Spillane’s prose into cinematic overdrive. Michael ‘Mike’ Hammer is an investigator created from the pen by US author Mickey Spillane in the 1947 book “I Kill You” (from which two films were made in 1953 and 1982). While pulp detectives like Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe are tough and cynical, Hammer is in many ways the archetypal ‘tough’: and brutally violent, misogynistic and fueled by a genuine anger that never plagues the heroes of Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett. The theme of violence is preponderant and very few details are left to the imagination: the novels, in fact, are written in the first person and it is the protagonist himself who describes his violent encounters with gusto. Additionally, in nearly all novels, Hammer’s victims are often left abandoned as they vomit after a blow to the stomach or groin. Hammer is a tough guy, without humor or irony. Hammer victims are often abandoned as they vomit after a blow to the stomach or groin. Hammer is a tough guy, without humor or irony. Hammer victims are often abandoned as they vomit after a blow to the stomach or groin. Hammer is a tough guy, without humor or irony.
8. Coffin Ed Johnson e Grave Digger Jones
Chester Himes creates Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones, two detectives who were never detectives, but should have been. We are in 1950, a time when there were no black detectives in the NYPD, their hearts beat for Harlem and they can’t back down. One of the most famous novels is “Cotton Comes to Harlem”, which was transposed into a film starring Godfrey Cambridge in 1970. The film changes the flavor of the book, we are witnessing a sort of ‘update’. Much of the tension in the novels stems from the fact that the protagonists work in conditions of oppression and, conversely, their skills are essential since they are the only ones able to contain the racial riots. They are indispensable, but strongly underestimated. The film “A Rage in Harlem” was shot in 1991 with Gregory Hines and Danny Glover. In the novels of Himes there is a very strong cynical humor, a black humor, which has been well reproposed in the films.
9. Easy Rawlins
Walter Mosley is an American writer well known for a series of historical detective stories in which the main protagonist is the tough investigator Easy Rawlins. Mosley’s stardom grew considerably in 1992 when then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton, a fan of crime fiction, cited him as one of his favorite authors. Two of his novels have had a film version or a television adaptation: the first he published, “The Devil in Blue”, was made into the film of the same name with Denzel Washington shot in 1995.
10. Victoria Ifigenia Warshawski
The last detective we will discuss is a woman (alas, the only one in this ranking). VI Warshawski is the detective from Sara Paretsky’s novels. The most famous film is titled “Detective in high heels” (1991), was directed by Jeff Kanew and starred Kathleen Turner, Charles Durning and Jay O. Sanders, and is based on the novel “Guardian Angel” (“Deadlock” ). We are in New York in the eighties and sixties and the daughter of a policeman and a private detective. She is tall, strong, karate expert, quick manners, indestructible. Martina Brunetti 28 April 2014
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