DOWN THESE MEAN STREETS: Accounts of alternate crime, mystery & thriller adaptations.🕵️‍♂️

[Driftless]

What Detective books series do you guys think should have film or tv adaptions ?

A couple I can think of off-hand (that I've read):

Owen Archer series by Candace Robb - mid-1300's - Owen, a captain of the King's archers, after losing an eye in combat is put to work by the Archbishop of York, basically as an internal spy in the north of England where loyalties are negotiable. The Archbishop is closely based on a historical character, and Archer is fictitious. There's a nice mix of cross-economic strata action going on. Clive Owen would be a good fit for Archer and Jeremy Irons as the Archbishop.

Ruso and Tilla mystery series by Ruth Downie - set in Hadrian's Britain - 100's AD. Gaius Ruso is a Roman army doctor and Tilla is his Brigantes wife. He gets perpetually and reluctantly dragged into investigations both small scale and larger, first in several parts of Roman Britain, later at the family estate in southern Gaul, and later in Rome itself. Nice slices of life across the social spectrum, written by a woman who is an amateur archaeologist of Roman Britain

 

[mudhead]

What Detective books series do you guys think should have film or tv adaptions ?

Elmore Leonard: The Hot Kid, and sequels Comfort to the Enemy and Up in Honey's Room.

Carl Webster is a Deputy US Marshal in Oklahoma in the '30s and WW2, with (of course) an excursion to Detroit. He's a sort of ur-Raylan Givens, with the same philosophy - "If I have to pull my weapon I'll shoot to kill". You'd need a lot of set dressing, old autos, etc, so not cheap. But if they could do as good a job as Justified, it'd be worth it.

 

[phx1138]

"If I have to pull my weapon I'll shoot to kill".

I'm not positive, but AIUI, that's Marshals policy. Secret Service, too.

 

[WhovianHolmesianChap]

I must admit I'm not familiar with most of those last few titles, but they sound intriguing.

 

[WhovianHolmesianChap]

The Cadfael Chronicles (1992-98)

• Brother Cadfael (Philip Madoc)
• Sheriff Hugh Beringar (Douglas Hodge)

A sumptuously lavish BBC adaptation of the medieval murder mysteries of Ellis Peters.

 

[Driftless]

Philip Madoc - a Welshman playing a Welshman

*edit* I think of the several times in the books where Cadfael is tasked with playing interpreter between the English and Welsh residents of that border region. A real Welsh speaker might be a nice touch.

 

[WhovianHolmesianChap]

I know this belongs more to the comic book genre than crime, but it still fits somewhat into the parameters of this thread, i.e. noir, thriller etc.
Anyway here are some actors who I think could have been great as the Shadow:
Vincent Price:

Willem Dafoe:

Christopher Walken:

And an actor who would be perfect for the role today:
David Dastmalchian:

 

[unclepatrick]

I know this belongs more to the comic book genre than crime, but it still fits somewhat into the parameters of this thread, i.e. noir, thriller etc.
Anyway here are some actors who I think could have been great as the Shadow:
Vincent Price:

Willem Dafoe:

Christopher Walken:

And an actor who would be perfect for the role today:
David Dastmalchian:

I do not see Price as the Shadow in films , but he would have been great as the Shadow on Old Time Radio .

 

[Driftless]

What about George Sanders as The Shadow?

 

[Guajolote]

Vincent Price played The Saint on radio. It'd be great if he'd got to make some movies, too.

 

[unclepatrick]

What about George Sanders as The Shadow?

He be good.
The problem in the 30 and 40 was the film makers really did not care about the lore in either the Radio Show or the Pulps .
Most of the versions of the Shadow have little but the name in common .
How do we get a good version with elements of the pulp and the radio show?

Vincent Price played The Saint on radio. It'd be great if he'd got to make some movies, too.

I mention that on the first page of this thread.
My Step by Step Timeline will have Price do the Saint as a TV show in 56 .

 

[phx1138]

Anyway here are some actors who I think could have been great as the Shadow:
Vincent Price:

That's a great choice. Come to think of it, he'd make a really good Bruce Wayne & a decent Batman, too: he can do the cool, while he can also do the slightly nuts.

 

[unclepatrick]

That's a great choice. Come to think of it, he'd make a really good Bruce Wayne & a decent Batman, too: he can do the cool, while he can also do the slightly nuts.

Again I could see Price doing Batman on the radio . But not in films .

The other role in my Step by Step timeline for Price is as the magician turned detective The Great Merlini .based on the books by Clayton Rawson .
I have him doing 4 movies in the early 50's and also a radio show with the Character.

Non mystery , I have Price as a Southern Senator who opposes Space Travel in the late 50's show "Man in Space".
Here it runs for three season instead of the one in the OTL. (Different events in the space race affect the show).
He play similar roles in a couple of TV movies on a few anthology shows .

Same timeline Boris Karloff plays the detective Gervase Fen in a couple of movies based on the books by Edmund Crispin . These will include movies of the Case of the Guided Fly and The Moving Toyshop.
Also John Dickison Carr will serve as a advisor on a couple of TV shows including the 50 version of Sherlock Holmes , with Peter Cushing instead of Ronald Howard ,
and the show "Colonel March of Scotland Yard" that Karloff did in the OTL , which here will run for two season ,instead of just one.

 

[Driftless]

Same timeline Boris Karloff plays the detective Gervase Fen in a couple of movies based on the books by Edmund Crispin . These will include movies of the Case of the Guided Fly and The Moving Toyshop.

I have to admit when I read the "Guilded Fly" a few years ago, at first I questioned whether it was written as a spoof or not, as the puzzle was so overly convoluted. Honestly, when I got to the final resolution, I literally threw the book from my living through the dining room out onto the back porch - I thought that the explanation was that ridiculous. Until then, I had never mistreated a book that badly..... My reaction completely put me off reading any other Crispin works

I have read a couple of Father Knox's complicated mysteries and enjoyed them while acknowledging those hyper-logic puzzle mysteries aren't my cup-o-tea

Also John Dickison Carr will serve as a advisor on a couple of TV shows including the 50 version of Sherlock Holmes , with Peter Cushing instead of Ronald Howard ,
and the show "Colonel March of Scotland Yard" that Karloff did in the OTL , which here will run for two season ,instead of just one.

Love all of those ideas!

 

[unclepatrick]

have to admit when I read the "Guilded Fly" a few years ago, at first I questioned whether it was written as a spoof or not, as the puzzle was so overly convoluted. Honestly, when I got to the final resolution, I literally threw the book from my living through the dining room out onto the back porch - I thought that the explanation was that ridiculous. Until then, I had never mistreated a book that badly..... My reaction completely put me off reading any other Crispin works

I first read the Moving Toyshop which is better .
But I do understand your view. Yes the book is overly convoluted .
It would have to be toned down and simplified for the movie.
But I did enjoy it more then you did.

I not sure if it was written as a spoof .
I know nothing about Crispin other then the four books of his I have read.
Nothing of his background or his goals writing the books.
I do like the atmosphere in the books .
I can not think of any others that put you in the post war England around Oxford as well as his books do.

 

[WhovianHolmesianChap]

Anything can be made better by adding Price, Karloff or Cushing to it.

That's a great choice. Come to think of it, he'd make a really good Bruce Wayne & a decent Batman, too: he can do the cool, while he can also do the slightly nuts.

I've been considering doing this very idea for a TL, and was hoping no-one else had thought of it before. Batman would have been the perfect vehicle for a 40's noir piece. Hearing Price's iconic tones coming from a shadowy bat-shaped figure would be sheer perfection.

 

[unclepatrick]

Anything can be made better by adding Price, Karloff or Cushing to it.

I've been considering doing this very idea for a TL, and was hoping no-one else had thought of it before. Batman would have been the perfect vehicle for a 40's noir piece. Hearing Price's iconic tones coming from a shadowy bat-shaped figure would be sheer perfection.

I don't see him as the Batman but he make a excellent Joker .

 

[unclepatrick]

There are a number of great actors who careers were starting post World War Two.
Among them are Charlton Heston , Burt Lancaster and Kurt Douglas . All were just starting their careers .
In my Step by Step universe , I have Heston play Batman in three serials for republic pictures and then do a short lived TV show. (No crossover with the Superman TV show . It not a Utopia )
I also have Lancaster play Robert E Howard character El Borak in a Serial from the same company.
And one of Kirk Douglas early role is the lead in the adaption of the mystery "Rim of the Pit"

 

[Guajolote]

A little program slide (or telop as I believe they're called in the US) for an early 60s show starring Sebastian Cabot and Bill Bixby.

 

[WhovianHolmesianChap]

There are a number of great actors who careers were starting post World War Two.
Among them are Charlton Heston , Burt Lancaster and Kurt Douglas . All were just starting their careers .
In my Step by Step universe , I have Heston play Batman in three serials for republic pictures and then do a short lived TV show. (No crossover with the Superman TV show . It not a Utopia )
I also have Lancaster play Robert E Howard character El Borak in a Serial from the same company.
And one of Kirk Douglas early role is the lead in the adaption of the mystery "Rim of the Pit"

Do you have a link to this thread? It sounds interesting.