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Joe Leland (aka “John McClane”)

kevinburtonsmith

 Created by Roderick Thorp
(1936-99)

THE DETECTIVE

Certainly one of the longest private eye novels ever written was Roderick Thorp’s 1966 bestselling potboiler The Detective. And that was only the beginning — not only did it become a successful film starring Frank Sinatra, but the novel’s sequel went on to inspire a multi-million dollar action film franchise thirty years later, a franchise that–as of this writing–just won’t go way.

But its origins were considerably more modest. In that original novel, comfortably middle-class JOE LELAND, a former big city cop and insurance company investigator, has set up a detective agency with partner Mike Petrakis, counting on Joe’s reputation for integrity and professionalism — and a lot of freelance work from the insurance company for which they both once worked. They operate out of an office over a furniture store in Port Smith, a town in some unnamed northeastern state, but business is certainly good — Joe can afford his own plane, not to mention the cigarettes and booze that seem to keep him going.

When The Detective kicks off, Joe’s going through a rough spot in his marriage (his wife, Karen, and their daughter Stephanie, no longer live with him). And then he becomes involved in a particularly nasty case that threatens to, as the blurb puts it,

“… lay bare a town’s most intimate secrets… To uncover the truth, (Joe) must expose the sexual and emotional links”

It’s a bold, deliberately showy plunge deep into the psychological complexities of a whole slew of characters, including, of course, Joe, and drew plenty of attention when it was first published. It’s also a deliciously trashy novel, and sold about a skedillion copies.

Naturally, it was soon adapted as a 1968 feature film, starring none other than Frank Sinatra as Joe Leland, back on the force as a New York City cop, looking into the mutilation murder of a homosexual. With its frank (sorry) and “enlightened” — if heavy-handed — attitudes towards gays, this was considered quite edgy (and even daring) stuff for its time. Aided by a great cast that included Lee Remick, Ralph Meeker, Jack Klugman, Lloyd Bochner and Jacqueline Bisset, the film did boffo box office, and still stands up as a rather engrossing, if dated, police drama.

NOTHING LASTS FOREVER

Thorp, following the success of The Detective, wrote several more novels in other genres, including Dionysus (1969), The Music of Their Laughter: An American Album (1970) and Wives: An Investigation (1971), but nothing really stuck, and so, thirteen years after the success of The Detective, he essayed a sequel. Perhaps as a sop to readers who found the first book far too long, it was encouragingly titled Nothing Lasts Forever (1979).

As that one kicks off, twenty years have passed, the literary pretentions are muted, replaced by a far more plot-driven story. Joe and Karen have divorced, and she’s since passed away. Joe’s dissolved the agency and is now raking it in as private security consultant, lecturing on SWAT team tactics, anti-terrorism measures, aircraft security, etc. He’s in demand, traveling all over the world, and rarely returning to his New York apartment. He no longer flies his own plane, or even drinks. But he’s lonely, and only rarely speaks to his daughter, Stephanie, who’s also divorced, with two children of her own. She has an excellent job at a petroleum company in Los Angeles, but Joe feels he’s failed her. So the guilt-ridden dad decides to pay her a visit one Christmas at her office in a high-rise building.

The Detective and Nothing Lasts Forever sit at almost opposite ends of the spectrum. The former is a slow-burn, serious-minded novel; its sequel is a surprisingly pulpy, broad-shouldered action thriller that simply aims to please, with a scorch-and-burn ending that could have come from Dashiell Hammett himself.

DIE HARD

Faring even better commercially than the novel, though, was its film adaptation, 1988’s Die Hard, which also took some unexpected liberties with the novel. It starred Bruce Willis, fresh off his success with TV’s Moonlighting, where he played a conniving but rather soft private eye. Once again, Joe was cast as a cop, not a private eye (or even a private security consultant), and this time he’s not even a Joe — he’s a John. JOHN McCLANE.

As played by a newly buff Willis, John Maclain is a tough New York City cop on his way to a possible reconciliation with his wife over the Christmas holidays. Masterfully directed by John McTiernan, and featuring Willis in all his smug, smartass glory, this one set new standards for rock’em, sock’em action and special effects, and there’s no denying Willis and crew delivered one hell of a action thriller, setting new standards for every film in the genre since –and rebranding Willis, making him one of the biggest action film stars of the eighties and nineties.

But for all the pyrotechnics, the film’s finale is disappointing, an ultimately spineless and conservative conclusion that steps back from the fiery punch of the novel.

Not that it matters much, I guess. The film has since spawned several increasingly disappointing sequels, and a ton of mostly lame imitations and rip-offs, often starring Willis himself. The film, with its Christmas setting, have even become a sort of tongue-in-cheek holiday classic, as evidenced by the 2017 publication of A Die Hard Christmas, a parody which retells the story in the guise of a children’s storybook.

IT’S MY PREROGATIVE

UNDER OATH

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Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.

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