The Cheaper the Crook

The Crime Films of Elisha Cook, Jr. "... noir's most valuable supporting player." -- Jake Hinkson in Noir Goon Squad "I played rats, pimps, informers, hopheads and communists... I didn't have the privilege of reading scripts. Guys called me up and said, 'You're going to work tomorrow.' " -- Cook recalls the life of a … Continue reading The Cheaper the Crook

B.T. Brady (This Girl for Hire)

Created by Barbara Avedon, Barbara Corday, Barney Rozenweig, Terry Louise Fisher, Steve Brown, Clifford Hoelscher and Jean Hoelscher "Just like in a Dick Powell movie, a gigantic black hole opened up at my feet and I dived right in..." -- B.T. Brady, in voiceover How many people does it take to write one of these things, anyway? In … Continue reading B.T. Brady (This Girl for Hire)

Sam Spade, Junior

Created by Don M. Mankiewicz and Gordon Cotler With a heavy debt to Dashiell Hammett Why is everyone after George Segal's bird? --tagline for the film In The Black Bird (1975, Columbia), an occasionally entertaining tribute/spoof of the classic John-Huston directed, Bogie-starring gumshoe classic flick from 1941, The Maltese Falcon (based, of course, on Dashiell Hammett's equally … Continue reading Sam Spade, Junior