Seis Tumbas en Munich

Title : Seis tumbas en Múnich : [una historia criminal movida por la venganza]

Author : Mario Puzo

Cover art : uncredited

   [Barcelona : Ediciones B, 2009. Traducción : Luis Murillo Fort. Originally published in 1967 by the Hearst Corp. as Six Graves to Munich, under the pseudonym Mario Cleri]. 

style ***

substance **

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A happy memento from a recent visit to the Guadalajara International Book Fair, Puzo’s Sies Tumbas en Munich sports a tasty neo-pulp cover which depicts a pistol brandishing tough guy in the foreground, along with two femmes fatales, all presented in garish colors, heavy on the yellows, bright reds and greens. It’s early Puzo, and though I’ve not read the book myself, I’m told it’s actually a pretty good story, a revenge tale which begins in WWII and takes place mostly in the 1950s in Germany. 

Blue Murder (Dennis Mcmillan, 1987)

Title : Blue Murder

Author : Robert Leslie Bellem
Cover art : Joe Servello
  [Miami : Dennis McMillan. First paperback edition, October 1987. Soft Cover. 158 p. Part of the Classic Hard-Boiled Detective Series. Introduction by Bill Pronzini. Originally published in 1938 by Phoenix Press].  

style ***
substance ***

collectibility **
 

Bellem was the author of over 3,000 pulp stories, many of them featuring the ribald, wacky adventures of "private skulk" Dan Turner. Blue Murder features terrific retro-style cover art by Joe Servello of tough guy with smoking gun and sweaty redhead in low cut gown. The portrait of the sultry femme fatale recalls Cloutier's oily cover art for Dan Brennan's The Velvet Rut, which similarly depicts a languorous brunette veritably dripping in sleaze.

Phoenix Press, 1938

  

The Devil Thumbs a Ride (Grove Press, 1988)

Title : The Devil Thumbs a Ride and Other Unforgettable Films
Author : Barry Gifford
Cover art : Kirwan


style ***
substance **
collectibility *

  

Though a longtime fan of film noir, I confess to not being familiar with the title film. But no matter; there’s plenty of great substance here in Gifford’s idiosyncratic essays on the dark side of cinema. As befits his subject matter, Gifford’s highly readable prose is suitably clipped and no-nonsense (neo-Chanlderese might describe it). And his opinions are often refreshingly contrarian. (Re Barbara Stanwyck : “she does nothing for me”). Another strength is that he covers films we don’t usually think of as being part of the noir canon, and in true contrarian fashion omits quite a few of the better-known titles.


The book comes with a front cover blurb by Elmore Leonard claiming some the essays are better than the films they describe – high praise indeed from a source of such impeccable credentials. A nice added bonus is a perceptive Introduction co-written by Edward Gorman and, more unlikely, novelist Dow Mossman.


But the true jewel in this production is the admittedly not very noirish looking cover (by Kirwan) in its over-the-top phantasmagorical glory (love the look on the girl’s face!). The design isn’t even hardboiled, but it sure gets its message across with the 1980s reto-vintage style which actually captures the 1950s vintage pb spirit pretty well -- the frozen-in-an-instant moment of drama.

Halo in Brass (Dennis McMillan, 1988)

Title : Halo in Brass
Author : Howard Browne
Cover art : Joe Servello
  [Missoula : Dennis McMillan, 1988. 'A Paul Pine detective.' Cover by Joe Servello. Originally published as by John Evans, Bobbs-Merrill, 1949. Reprint, Pocket #709, July 1950. Notable for its use of lesbian themes, a rarity in the 1940s.  Review by Marvin Lachman.]


style ***
substance ***
collectibility *

 

Pocket Books, 1950

I'm a big fan of retro-vintage covers and this is one of my favorites. Joe Servello's front cover art really delivers the noirish goods (albeit using a technicolor palette). The added bonus is the back cover art, also presumably be Servello, which is almost as good. Halo is genuinely 'retro' in the sense that the novel was originally published in 1949. Howard Browne's star has risen in recent years and today he's considered one of the best of the classic era detective writers who wrote in the Chandler/Hammett tradition.

Foulsham, London, 1951