Bullet Proof (1951)
Frank Kane‘s New York private eye JOHNNY LIDDELL may have never been essential reading, he was arguably the quintessential fifties private eye, comfortably and even enjoyably generic, an endlessly malleable amalgamation of everything that made that decade’s dicks swing. The private eye may have been born in the pages of the pulps. But he was formed, fine-tuned and perfected in the pages of the paperbacks (both original and reprint) of the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. Kane’s contemporaries were Brett Halliday, Mickey Spillane, Harry Whittington, Lionel White, Gil Brewer, Frederic Brown, William Ard, and many others, including the other Kane, Henry. Of course, Spillane was at the head of the class, but all of these authors made their contributions to the genre, and certainly Frank Kane’s contribution was significant.This is another classic private eye I found via Ben Tucker’s fine LibriVox readings. I’ve often whinged here about the damage Robert B. Parker did to the genre; giving the formerly lone knight allies in the police, the Feds, the underworld, an amoral and super-violent sidekick to do his dirty work, and a steady girl or even a family. The problem with all this is not just that it drains drama, because the hero is never truly endangered, but the complex social network of his own distances him emotionally from the lives encountered in his cases, which a Ross MacDonald exploited so brilliantly. So you look to these classics and hope to find at least serviceable ones. Frank Kane not only wrote numerous Johnny Liddell novels and stories but scripted the Shadow radio series for a number of years and the early version of the Mike Hammer tv show. He even ”>novelized the (oddly beloved by the Brits) Johnny Staccato tv show. He seems to have enjoyed something of a revival in recent years but is hardly popular. This is unfortunate because Bullet Proof is exactly the sort of comfort food any fan of hard-boiled dicks is looking for. Kane gets referred to sometimes as the perfectly generic shamus writer and that is no insult. Johnny does have a secretary who’s in love with him, a Jean Arthur-style sidekick and a friendly medical examiner to help him out, but he battles crooks, cops, clients and DA’s just about equally here. The trusty trope in this entry is that he’s hired by phone to investigate the supposed suicide of a young woman’s father, but when he goes to meet her he is shot at and she disappears. He never does meet her until the final pages as the story turns more on his investigation of who tried killing him than on the original case. For all the confrontation and violence though, we are rewarded with an actual mystery in the background which requires Liddeell’s brains and instincts to solve. If this is plain meat and potatoes it’s a satisfying meal. (Reviewed:) Grade: (B) Tweet Websites:-WIKIPEDIA: Frank Kane (author -OBIT: Frank Kane Dies; Wrote Mysteries: Creator of Johnny Liddell Stories (NY Times, Dec. 1, 1968) -PUBLISHER PAGE: Frank Kane (Simon & Schuster) -PUBLISHER PAGE: Frank Kane (Stark House Press) -FILMOGRAPHY: Frank Kane (IMDB) -ENTRY: Frank Kane (An appreciation and biography by Maura Fox, Thrilling Detective) -ENTRY: Frank Kane (The Shadow Wiki) -ENTRY: Johnny Liddell (Thrilling Detective) -ENTRY: Frank Kane (Pulp and Old Magazines) -INDEX: Johnny Liddell: A series by Frank Kane (Fantastic Fiction) -INDEX: Frank Kane (Faded Page) -INDEX: Frank Kane (LibriVox) -INDEX: subject:"Frank Kane" (Internet Archive) -AUDIO BOOK: Bullet Proof by Frank Kane (LibriVox) -FILM: Key Witness (1960) -ETEXT: Keeper Of The Killed [Johnny Liddell] · Frank Kane (Verdict v01n04 [1953-09])[short story] -ETEXT: Suicide [Johnny Liddell] · Frank Kane (Verdict v01n02 [1953-07]) -PODCAST: Episode 33: Johnny Liddell (Paperback Warrior) -INTRODUCTION: to Liz: A Syndicate Girl by Frank Kane (Robert J. Randisi, Stark House Press) -ESSAY: AUTHOR FRANK KANE (Tom Rizzo) -ESSAY: Hammered (Classic TV History Blog, January 8, 2012) -VIDEO ARCHIVES: “frank kane” liddell (YouTube) -REVIEW: of Bullet Proof by Frank Kane (Chess, Comics, Crosswords) -REVIEW: of Poisons Unknown by Frank Kane (Mystery File) -REVIEW: of Grave Danher by Frank Kane (Killer Covers) -REVIEW: of Red Hot Ice by Frank Kane (Mystery File) -REVIEW: of Slay Ride: A Johnny Liddell Mystery by Frank Kane (Book in the Bag) -REVIEW: of The Dead Stand-in by Frank Kane (James Reasoner, Rough Edges) -REVIEW: of A Short Bier - Frank Kane (James Reasoner, Rough Edges) -REVIEW: of Due Or Die – Frank Kane (Randy Johnson, Not the Baseball Pitcher) -REVIEW: of Due or Die (Samuel Wilson, True Pulp Fiction) -REVIEW: of “Johnny Staccato” by Frank Boyd (Crimeways) -REVIEW: of The Living End by Frank Kane (Paperback Warrior) Book-related and General Links: |
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