Ten Favorite Noir Lines...Plus "The Grifters" Coming to Kindle

[Paul Levine]

No one ever wrote better hard-boiled crime fiction than Jim Thompson, so it’s good news that “The Grifters” and “The Killer Inside Me” will be released on Kindle September 1. (The Barnes & Noble website doesn't say if they are coming to Nook).

This is brought to mind by a story in today’s LOS ANGELES TIMES MAGAZINE in which suspense maven Otto Penzler selects his 10 favorite lines from film noir. Here's number six:

“He was so crooked he could eat soup with a corkscrew.” (Annette Bening to John Cusack in the 1990 film version of “The Grifters.”

(You can read the Top Ten lines and link to the film clips in the Los Angeles Times story here.)

Several other Thompson novels, including “Pop. 1280,” are already on Kindle here.

Unfortunately, “The Getaway” is not yet one of them. The road story was twice adapted into films. First was the outstanding 1972 version directed by Sam Peckinpah, starring Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw. Then came the unfortunate 1994 re-make with Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger. The novel, in both hardcover and paperback, is available at Amazon.

When I think of writers who have influenced my work, I look to John D. MacDonald, Raymond Chandler, Donald Westlake, and Thompson.

Here’s one of my favorite noir lines -- written by screenwriter-director Lawrence Kasdan -- also included in Penzler’s story today as number five:

"You're not too smart, are you? I like that it a man." Kathleen Turner to William Hurt in "Body Heat." Not only is it a great line, it's a key plot point. Because of the way Hurt, a lousy lawyer, messed up an earlier probate case, Turner's "Maddy Walker" selects him to both kill her husband and take the fall for it.

What are your favorite noir or hard-boiled lines from either film or books?

Paul Levine

[doreenjoy]

I love me some Chandler:

"She was thinking. I could tell, even on that short acquaintance, that thinking was always going to be a bother to her." (The Big Sleep)

[jabberwock_11]

My favorite quote comes from a fantasy noir movie called Cast A Deadly Spell. It just sort of sums up the whole weird sarcastic feel of the movie.

Olivia: I'm serious! Lovecraft: Then why do you wear that hat?

[edbro]

Originally Posted by Paul Levine

“He was so crooked he could eat soup with a corkscrew.” (Annette Bening to John Cusack in the 1990 film version of “The Grifters.”

As a coincidence, I came across this line today in Donald Westlake's What's So Funny:

If he were any more crooked, you could open wine bottles with him

[TonyR]

This exchange at the end of the Westlake/Richard Stark novel DIRTY MONEY strikes me as just a perfect bit of noir dialogue:

(and if you haven't read DIRTY MONEY yet, you may want to skip reading this)



“If you leave me here,” the guy on the floor said, “he’ll kill me tomorrow morning.”
"Parker looked at him. “So you’ve still got tonight,” he said.
[Richard Stark, Dirty Money]



Bests to all,

Tony Rabig
The Other Iron River, and Other Stories, at Amazon Kindle Store
The Other Iron River, and Other Stories, at Smashwords

[Paul Levine]

Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade says:

"Don't be sure I'm as crooked as I'm supposed to be."

And a noir line that's also thematic.

"When a man's partner is killed he's supposed to do something about it. It doesn't make any difference what you thought of him. He was your partner, and you're supposed to do something about it."