Monday, February 18, 2008
Happy Birthday, Len Deighton
Beth Foxwell, over at The Bunburyist, reminds us that it's Len Deighton's birthday. I remember reading The Ipcress File when it first came out in paperback and really liking it. I read many other books over the years. Judy and I saw the movie version of The Ipcress File when we were living in Denton, Texas, during the first year of our marriage. A long time ago.
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6 comments:
Over the past year or two I have become a huge fan of Deighton's. I read all the "Harry Palmer" books and am about halfway through with the Bernard Samson series.
He has the gift of making every single page interesting, without having to dump a body in each chapter.
I remember how much I looked forward to the "Harry Palmer" books. I still have those paperbacks (big surprise).
It was a long time ago for a lot of us, Bill. For my money, Michael Caine was the perfect Harry Palmer. It's been many years since I read a Len Deighton novel. Maybe it's time to return to them.
Has anybody other than me ever wondered whether the producers or scriptwriters meant for a joking onanistic meaning to be read into the name "Harry Palmer," when they adapted Deighton's anonymous protagonist for the movies? You know that in the old folk belief, you could develop a hairy palm from a certain activity.
That's the first thing I thought of back in '65 or '66 when that movie came out. But I was young and dirty-minded in those days.
It was pretty obvious it was what they were after...while Caine's Palmer was a pretty smooth operator (much more realistically so than that other Broccoli/Saltzman-produced spy series hero), he was more likely in every way to be frustrated in his efforts. These are the guys proud to cast Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore, after all, even if they didn't choose that name.
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