Movatterモバイル変換


[0]ホーム

URL:


Jump to content
WikipediaThe Free Encyclopedia
Search

Red Harvest

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, seeRed Harvest (disambiguation).
1929 novel by Dashiell Hammett
Red Harvest
Cover of the first edition
AuthorDashiell Hammett
LanguageEnglish
GenreDetective
PublishedFebruary 1, 1929 (Alfred A. Knopf)[1]
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (hardcover)
Followed byThe Dain Curse 
TextRed Harvest online

Red Harvest (1929) is a novel by American writerDashiell Hammett. The story is narrated bythe Continental Op, a frequent character in Hammett's fiction, much of which is drawn from his own experiences as an operative of thePinkerton Detective Agency (fictionalized as the Continental Detective Agency).[2] The plot follows the Op's investigation of several murders amid a labor dispute in a corrupt Montana mining town. Some of the novel was inspired by theAnaconda Road massacre, a 1920 labor dispute in the mining town ofButte, Montana.[3]

Time includedRed 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.'"[4] TheNobel Prize-winning authorAndré Gide called the book "a remarkable achievement, the last word in atrocity, cynicism, and horror."[5]

Plot

[edit]

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 amoll 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 ofblackout 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

[edit]
November 1927 issue ofBlack Mask, featuring "The Cleansing of Poisonville"

Red Harvest was originally serialized in four installments[6] in thepulp magazineBlack 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

[edit]
  • "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 theIWW
  • 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

[edit]

Film criticsDavid Desser andManny Farber, among others, have noted similarities betweenRed Harvest and the 1961 filmYojimbo, directed byAkira Kurosawa. Other scholars, such asDonald Richie, believe the similarities are coincidental.[7] Kurosawa said that a major source forYojimbo was thefilm noir classicThe Glass Key (1942), an adaptation of Hammett's 1931novel of the same name. InRed Harvest,The Glass Key, andYojimbo, corrupt officials and businessmen stand behind and profit from the rule of gangsters.

In the early 1970s, Italian directorBernardo Bertolucci considered filming an adaptation ofRed 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 consideredRobert Redford,Jack Nicholson (who had played a hard-boiled detective inRoman Polanski's neo-noir filmChinatown), andClint Eastwood (who had played the Op-inspired "Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone'sDollars Trilogy). At some point, Bertolucci discussed this project withWarren Beatty inRome. In 1982, Bertolucci moved toLos Angeles to begin production, but the project was shelved.[citation needed]

Donald E. Westlake wrote an unproduced screenplay adaptingRed 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.[8]

As of 2024,Scott Frank andMegan Abbott are writing a script forRed Harvest forA24.[9]

In popular culture

[edit]

Film

[edit]

WhileAkira Kurosawa stated that a major source for the plot forYojimbo was the 1942 classicThe Glass Key, an adaptation ofHammett's 1931 novelThe Glass Key, it has been noted by some critics that the overall plot ofYojimbo is closer to that of Hammett'sRed Harvest.[10]

TheCoen brothers' filmBlood Simple (1984) takes its title from a line inRed 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' filmMiller's Crossing (1990) employs stylistic and narrative elements of Hammett'sRed Harvest,The Glass Key, and several of Hammett's shorter works.[11]

The dialogue and plot of directorRian Johnson's debut feature,Brick, was inspired by the novels of Dashiell Hammett, particularlyRed Harvest.[12][13]

Literature

[edit]

Science-fiction writerDavid Drake has said that he took the plot of his novelThe Sharp End (1993) fromRed Harvest.[14]

Television

[edit]

InThe Aurora Teagarden Mysteries Season 1 episode 10, "A Game of Cat and Mouse",Red Harvest is quoted as isThe Maltese Falcon.

Further reading

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^"Red Harvest (publishing information)". Project Gutenberg. RetrievedJuly 2, 2017.
  2. ^Serafin, Steven R.; Bendixen, Alfred, eds. (2003) [1999].The Continuum Encyclopedia of American Literature. New York: Continuum. p. 264.ISBN 9780826417770.
  3. ^Panek, LeRoy Lad (2004).Reading Early Hammett: A Critical Study of the Fiction Prior to 'The Maltese Falcon'. MacFarland & Company. p. 122.ISBN 9780786419623.
  4. ^Grossman, Lev; Lacayo, Richard (2005-10-31)."Time's Critics Pick the 100 Best Novels 1923 to the Present".Time. Archived fromthe original on October 21, 2005. Retrieved2008-10-19.
  5. ^"Books: Gide Fad".Time. 1944-04-06. Archived fromthe original on July 24, 2008. Retrieved2010-09-26.
  6. ^Checklist of Dashiell Hammett Fiction
  7. ^Barra, Allen (2005-02-28)."FromRed Harvest toDeadwood".Salon.com. Archived fromthe original on 2008-12-05. Retrieved2008-10-19.
  8. ^Stahl, Levi (2018-05-29)."The Mind of Donald E. Westlake: The Letters, Books, and Films of a Crime Legend".CrimeReads. Retrieved2023-05-29.
  9. ^"The Ventriloquist,"The New Yorker, 1 & 8 January 2024.
  10. ^Desser, David (1983). "Towards a Structural Analysis of the Postwar Samurai Film".Quarterly Review of Film Studies (Print).8 (1). Redgrave Publishing Company: 33.doi:10.1080/10509208309361143.ISSN 0146-0013.
  11. ^Korte, Peter; Seesslen, Georg (1999).Joel & Ethan Coen. London: Titan Books. p. 96.ISBN 978-1-84023-097-0.
  12. ^"Home Video of the Week: 'Brick': Rian Johnson Makes It New".Ludic Works.
  13. ^"Rain Johnson".The A.V. Club. 19 April 2006.
  14. ^Drake, David (2004–2008)."David Drake's FAQ". Retrieved2008-11-16.Archived 6 December 2008 at theWayback Machine

External links

[edit]
Novels
Characters
Screenplays
Comics
Film
adaptations
Related
Films
TV
Inspirations
Related films
Authority control databasesEdit this at Wikidata
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Red_Harvest&oldid=1280273966"
Categories:
Hidden categories:

[8]ページ先頭

©2009-2025 Movatter.jp