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= Red_Harvest =
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Introduction
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'Red Harvest' (1929) is a novel by American writer Dashiell Hammett.
The story is narrated by the Continental Op, a frequent character in
Hammett's fiction, much of which is drawn from his own experiences as
an operative of the Pinkerton Detective Agency (fictionalized as the
Continental Detective Agency). The plot follows the Op's investigation
of several murders in a corrupt Montana mining town, which had been
taken over by gangs following a labor dispute. Some of the novel was
inspired by the Anaconda Road massacre, a 1920 labor dispute in the
mining town of Butte, Montana.
'Time' included 'Red Harvest' in its 100 Best English-Language Novels
from 1923 to 2005, noting that, in the Continental Op, Hammett
"created the prototype for every sleuth who would ever be called
'hard-boiled.'" The Nobel Prize-winning author André Gide called the
book "a remarkable achievement, the last word in atrocity, cynicism,
and horror."
Plot
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The Continental Op is called to Personville (known as "Poisonville" to
the locals) by the newspaper publisher Donald Willsson, who is
murdered before the Op has a chance to meet with him. The Op begins to
investigate Willsson's murder and meets with Willsson's father, Elihu
Willsson, a local industrialist who has found his control of the city
threatened by several competing gangs. Elihu had originally invited
those gangs into Personville to help him impose and then enforce the
end of a labor dispute.
The Op extracts a promise and a signed letter from Elihu that pays the
Continental Detective Agency, the Op's employer, $10,000 in exchange
for cleaning up the city and ridding it of the gangs. After the Op
quickly identifies Donald's murderer, Elihu tries to renege on the
deal, but the Op will not allow him to do so. While the Op had been
investigating, the corrupt police chief Noonan had tried twice to have
him gunned down, causing the Op to take a personal interest in the
job.
In the meantime, the Op is spending time with Dinah Brand, a possible
love interest of the late Donald Willsson and a moll for Max "Whisper"
Thaler, a local gangster. The Op extracts information from Brand and
Noonan, and increases tension in the city by leaking it to the warring
parties. When the Op reveals that a bank robbery was staged by the
cops and one of the gangs to discredit another gang, a gang war
erupts.
The Op, disturbed by the slaughter he orchestrated, spends an evening
of blackout inebriation with Brand, who finds it all amusing. He wakes
the next morning to find her stabbed to death with the ice pick he had
handled the previous evening. No signs of forced entry are visible,
and he can't even be sure he did not do the stabbing himself during
his delirium. The Op becomes a suspect sought by the police for
Brand's murder, and one of his fellow operatives, Dick Foley, leaves
Personville because he is uncertain of the Op's innocence.
The Op, now wanted by the police, entices Reno Starkey, a gang
lieutenant, to take on the last strong rival gang led by Pete the
Finn. The gangs are whittled down by pipe bombs, arson, gun fights,
and corrupt cops gunning down the survivors.
The Op tracks down Starkey, the only gang leader still alive. Starkey
is bleeding from four gunshot wounds, having just killed his rival
Whisper Thaler. Starkey reveals that he was the one who stabbed Brand,
but because she had collided with the semiconscious Op he had looked
like the culprit. Starkey later succumbs to his wounds in the
hospital.
The corrupt police chief Noonan and the gang leaders are all dead. The
Op blackmails Elihu Willsson into calling the governor, who sends in
the National Guard, declares martial law, and suspends the entire
police force. Elihu Willsson gets back his town, as promised, although
not in the way that he had anticipated. The Op returns to San
Francisco, where the Old Man (the chief of the Continental Detective
Agency's office) criticizes him.
Serial publication
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'Red Harvest' was originally serialized in four installments in the
pulp magazine 'Black Mask':
*Part 1: "The Cleansing of Poisonville", 'Black Mask', November 1927
*Part 2: "Crime Wanted--Male or Female", 'Black Mask', December 1927
*Part 3: "Dynamite", 'Black Mask', January 1928
*Part 4: "The 19th Murder", 'Black Mask', February 1928
Characters
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* "The Continental Op", an operative from the San Francisco branch of
the Continental Detective Agency
* Elihu Willsson, mining tycoon and "Czar of Poisonville"
* Donald Willsson, newspaper publisher and Elihu's son
* Mrs. Willsson, Donald's wife
* Lewis, Donald's assistant
* Noonan, the corrupt chief of police, whose brother Tim died two
years before
* Max Thaler, alias "Whisper," a gambler and gangster
* Dinah Brand, Thaler's girlfriend, a tough woman with an uncanny
allure to men
* Dan Rolff, Dinah's housemate and a "lunger"
* Lew Yard, gangster
* Reno Starkey, lieutenant in Yard's gang
* Pete the Finn, bootlegger
* Hank O'Mara, member of Starkey's gang
* Bill Quint, an organizer for the IWW
* Robert Albury, bank teller
* Helen Albury, Robert's younger sister
* Charles Procter Dawn, 'criminal' lawyer
* Bob MacSwain, a former policeman, murderer of Tim Noonan
* Mickey Linehan, a detective from the Continental
* Dick Foley, a detective from the Continental
* The Old Man, boss of the San Francisco branch of the Continental
Adaptations
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Film critics David Desser and Manny Farber, among others, have noted
similarities between 'Red Harvest' and the 1961 film 'Yojimbo',
directed by Akira Kurosawa. Other scholars, such as Donald Richie,
believe the similarities are coincidental. Kurosawa said that a major
source for 'Yojimbo' was the 'film noir' classic 'The Glass Key'
(1942), an adaptation of Hammett's 1931 novel of the same name. In
'Red Harvest', 'The Glass Key', and 'Yojimbo', corrupt officials and
businessmen stand behind and profit from the rule of gangsters.
In the early 1970s, Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci considered
filming an adaptation of 'Red Harvest' and wrote a first draft infused
with political themes typical of his work. A short while after, he
wrote a second draft that was more faithful to Hammett's story. For
the role of the Op he considered Robert Redford, Jack Nicholson (who
had played a hard-boiled detective in Roman Polanski's neo-noir film
'Chinatown'), and Clint Eastwood (who had played the Op-inspired "Man
with No Name" in Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy). At some point,
Bertolucci discussed this project with Warren Beatty in Rome. In 1982,
Bertolucci moved to Los Angeles to begin production, but the project
was shelved.
Donald E. Westlake wrote an unproduced screenplay adapting 'Red
Harvest', which changed the story considerably to refocus the ending
on the murder of Donald Willsson; Westlake felt that having the
solution of the mystery come so early in the novel made the Op's
continued involvement hard to justify.
As of 2024, Scott Frank and Megan Abbott are writing a script for 'Red
Harvest' for A24.
Film
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While Akira Kurosawa stated that a major source for the plot for
'Yojimbo' was the 1942 classic 'The Glass Key', an adaptation of
Hammett's 1931 novel 'The Glass Key', it has been noted by some
critics that the overall plot of 'Yojimbo' is closer to that of
Hammett's 'Red Harvest'.
The Coen brothers' film 'Blood Simple' (1984) takes its title from a
line in 'Red Harvest' in which the Op tells Brand the escalating
violence has affected his mental state: "This damned burg's getting
me. If I don't get away soon, I'll be going blood-simple like the
natives." The Coens' film 'Miller's Crossing' (1990) employs stylistic
and narrative elements of Hammett's 'Red Harvest,' 'The Glass Key,'
and several of Hammett's shorter works.
The dialogue and plot of director Rian Johnson's debut feature,
'Brick', was inspired by the novels of Dashiell Hammett, particularly
'Red Harves't.
Literature
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Science-fiction writer David Drake has said that he took the plot of
his novel 'The Sharp End' (1993) from 'Red Harvest'.
Television
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In 'The Aurora Teagarden Mysteries' Season 1 episode 10, "A Game of
Cat and Mouse", 'Red Harvest' is quoted as is 'The Maltese Falcon'.
External links
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*
* (1929 Grosset & Dunlap edition)
*
*
*
* [
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls063177664/ Complete guide to 'Red
Harvest'/'Yojimbo' adaptations/remakes] on IMDb
License
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All content on Gopherpedia comes from Wikipedia, and is licensed under CC-BY-SA
License URL:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Harvest
