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Loading... Enough (1977)by Donald E. Westlake
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Two Movie-Related Novellas Review of the Hard Case Crime paperback edition (2020) of the M. Evans & Co. hardcover, originally titled "Enough" (1977) I've run out of Donald Westlake's (aka Richard Stark) Parker series of hardboiled noir novels but wanted to follow-up by reading several of the other books which established the prolific crime author's reputation. Double Feature consists of two novellas, A Travesty and Ordo, with the latter more of short story length. The tie-in is that they both relate to the movies. The lead character in A Travesty is a movie critic and makes regular film references. The secondary lead in Ordo is a film actress who is the lost 1st wife of the title character. A Travesty takes more of a noir comedy angle with the movie critic covering up his accidental manslaughter of a girlfriend with increasingly complicated efforts that involve blackmail and then further murders. The police involved are incompetent and actually start using the film critic as a crime consultant to help solve other cases, apparently without a clue as to whom they are dealing with. A karmic resolution still occurs before the end though. The oddly titled Ordo, is the first name of the protagonist Ordo Tupikos, an American sailor of Greek heritage (Westlake gives an extremely detailed pedigree of the man's family for some odd reason) who discovers that the woman who was his first wife Estelle became a movie star in her later life. The marriage had been broken up by the girl's mother who sought out the pair in order to bring the wayward bride back home. A movie magazine has found a wedding photo from that first marriage and Ordo's shipmates kid him about his lost wife. Ordo takes a leave in order to reconnect with his early lost love and discovers that the woman now with a movie star persona is no one that he recognizes. This short story is not actually a crime or murder mystery at all, so is quite different from most of Westlake's work. Other Reviews There is an extremely detailed review and plot summary (with spoilers obviously) of Double Feature at The Westlake Review, February 27, 2020. Trivia and Links This edition of Double Feature is part of the Hard Case Crime (2004-) series of reprints, new commissions and posthumous publications of the pulp and noir crime genre founded by authors [author:Charles Ardai|327544] and [author:Max Phillips|79590]. GR's Listopia is not complete (as of August 2021) and the most complete lists of publication can be found at Wikipedia or the Publisher's Official Site. A Travesty was adapted as the television movie A Slight Case of Murder (1999) directed by Steven Schachter and starring William Macy and Felicity Huffman. There doesn't seem to be a trailer for it, but you can watch the entire film (as of early September 2021) on YouTube here. There is no apparent tie-in to the same-titled Edward G. Robinson 1938 film. Ordo was adapted as the French language film Ordo (2004) directed by Laurence Ferreira Barbosa. A trailer (without English subtitles) can be viewed on YouTube here. The blurb on the Hard Case Crime edition advertises Westlake as an Academy Award Nominee. This is in recognition of his 1990 Academy Award nomination for the screenplay adaptation of Jim Thompson's novel The Grifters (1963) for the film The Grifters (1990) dir. Stephen Frears and starring Anjelica Huston, John Cusack and Annette Bening. The winner of the 1990 Best Screenplay adaptation was Michael Blake for Dances with Wolves, based on his own novel Dances with Wolves (1988). Another in a series of Donald E. Westlake 1970s comic crime novels. While not to the level of his Dortmunder series, Enough is a mildly amusing yarn about a man who seems to be having more affairs than I've had hot dinners and decides that murdering a few of them is the best way to keep his life spiraling out of control. If you must read this be sure to read the Dortmunder books first. no reviews | add a review
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HTML:THE MOVIE STAR AND THE MOVIE CRITIC â?? HOW FAR WOULD THEY GO TO KEEP THEIR SECRETS BURIED? DOUBLE FEATURE Contains two CLASSIC Donald E. Westlake novellas, A Travesty and Ordo. WHAT'S HIDDEN BEHIND THE SILVER SCREEN? In New York City, a movie critic has just murdered his girlfriend - well, one of his girlfriends (not to be confused with his wife). Will the unlikely crime-solving partnership he forms with the investigating police detective keep him from the film noir ending he deserves? On the opposite coast, movie star Dawn Devayne - the hottest It Girl in Hollywood - gets a visit from a Navy sailor who says he knew her when she was just ordinary Estelle Anlic of San Diego. Now she's a big star who's put her past behind her. But secrets have a way of not staying buried... These two short novels, one hilarious and one heartbreaking, are two of the best works Westlake ever wrote. And fittingly, both became movies - one starring Jack Ryan's Marie JosĂ©e Croze, and one starring Fargo's William H. Macy and Desperate Housewives' Felicity Huffman. "A book by this guy is cause for happiness" - Stephen No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Truer words were never written! However, other than the above, this may have been the least I've enjoyed Donald Westlake's writing to date. The first story, while clearly meant to be humorous, had cops bringing along a civilian to solve crimes, even though he was a suspect in a murder! And the second story, blessedly shorter than the first, had nothing to do with crime and didn't feel like a Westlake story at all. I wonder why it was in a Hard Case Crime publication at all? ( )