{"id":8,"date":"2007-01-25T23:05:42","date_gmt":"2007-01-26T04:05:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/nsftmfx\/2007\/01\/25\/second-esdras-1554\/"},"modified":"2008-07-03T23:56:45","modified_gmt":"2008-07-04T03:56:45","slug":"second-esdras-1554","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/nsftmfx\/2007\/01\/25\/second-esdras-1554\/","title":{"rendered":"Second Esdras 15:54"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beautify your face!<\/em><\/p>\n

If the first half of The Glass Key<\/em>‘s film adaptation was scattered, deflated, & flat as week-old Dr. Pepper, then Pt. II was the epitome of each of these expressions. The characters, hard-boiled & run-down in the novel, became thin cardboard marionettes of every Hollywood romance figurine we’ve seen hashed & rehashed over & over. Ned – the book’s center of suspense, confusion, & suave hilarity – was molded into some greasy-haired, doe-eyed Man of Emotion, moved intrinsically by even the slightest thing, often losing his grip on the objective (or the “goal” of his gambling) & falling for women, instead of using them for information. Maybe I’m cynical, but I’m tired of the same boy-meets-girl story in films, especially in films based on novels that had none of it. The one serious love interest in the book was between Ned & Mom, & there was no such latter character in the movie, thus erasing any need for some sticky-sweet adoration. It seems to me that just about every decision to change the plot to fit the screen was in vain, especially in making Opal & Paul siblings, & just about every bit of the ending, as well.
\nOne: Senator Henry’s confession in order to save his daughter from being arrested loses all of the suspense & adventure from Hammett’s story, &
\nTwo: Paul allowing Ned & Janet to run off suddenly & get married is about as trite as trite can get. Ned’s stone face, born from the gutter, is non-existant throughout the entire film, & especially in the film’s climax, in which he is turned suddenly into some gushing schoolboy. Not only was this disgusting to me, but downright offensive. I hope Mr. Hammett took action against the screenwriters & sued them for every liberty that the film brought in.
\n& it might just be me, but during Ned’s beating by Jeff & Rusty in the film, didn’t he look an awful lot like The Warden from that Japanese gore flick Riki-Oh<\/em>?:<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beautify your face! If the first half of The Glass Key‘s film adaptation was scattered, deflated, & flat as week-old Dr. Pepper, then Pt. II was the epitome of each of these expressions. The characters, hard-boiled & run-down in the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[310,307],"class_list":["post-8","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-filmtext-culture","tag-gore"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/nsftmfx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/nsftmfx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/nsftmfx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/nsftmfx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/nsftmfx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/nsftmfx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/nsftmfx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/nsftmfx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/nsftmfx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}