[pure-silver] Re: Aha! Scan This....
- From: "Richard Knoppow" <dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2007 20:50:04 -0800
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob Randall" <bob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, February 05, 2007 7:23 AM
Subject: [pure-silver] Re: Aha! Scan This....
On 2/4/07 3:56 PM, "Stein" <rstein@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Dear Bob,
Ah, well, there you go. My reading list has been
wrong. I am currently
enjoying 'The Thin Man" by Dashiell Hammet. If Deadly
Rival turns up with the
Canon tilt and shift lens I'll pull out a .32 and fill him
full of lead....
Uncle Dick
And I wouldn¹t blame you.
Bob
What you want for people with cannons is Hammett's
earlier work, particularly the "Continental Op" short
stories, although _Red Harvest_ does pretty well. Of course
it was Raymond Chandler who said that if you were having
trouble figuring out what to do next in a story "have a man
come in the door with a gun."
"The .45 looked like a cannon in his small hands." Am I
remembering that or did I make it up?
My favorite weapon in any detective story is the one in
_The Maltese Falcon_. "Ever see one of these? "Yeah,
Webley-Fosbery automatic revolver, 38 caliber, 8 shot. They
don't make them any more." A trick on the reader who will
think the author doesn't know the difference between an
automatic and a revolver (many writers don't). Well, not
Hammett, who knew perfectly well. This is an actual gun and
a quite rare collector's item. It IS an automatic _and_
revolver. The bullets are carried in a rotating cylinder
which is operated by the recoil which also cocks the hammer.
The one in the movie is a .455 British, 6 shot version, much
commoner, made for the British Army before WW-1. My guess is
that the Warner property department couldn't find the right
one.
The trick to understanding Hammett is to realize that
nothing and no-one is what they seem to be.
---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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