Ed Lynskey wrote:
Question. Is this the same William Conrad who played on JAKE
AND THE FATMAN, who spoke with the bassy voice? That was some
voice. Perfectly suited to hardboiled.
********* Yes it is. And I agree with Jim's assessment of the
old Gunsmoke radio shows. The Bloomington library had bunches
of them and for a long time I listened to them at lunchtime
at work and enjoyed every one of them. I believe that Conrad
was considered and rejected for the TV show, but I wouldn't
swear to it.
But this might be straying a bit from written work or
adaptations of it, so let me mention a Western I read a
little while ago, Shane. I read it because Ruehlmann made
some disparaging remarks about it and I was curious to see if
I would agree with his opinion after reading the book.
When I first started reading it, it had the naive feel of
some children's books. It develops tension, but it's pretty
much between the black hats and the whites. It reminded me of
what old Disney movies used to represent. There was symbolism
involved that was so obvious, even I understood it.
Specifically, there's an old dead tree stump by the barn of
the small rancher family he befriends, and after Shane and
the rancher have an exchange with a nasty character or two,
they get into a fever over chopping, digging, and prying the
evil stump out of the ground.
The moral ambiguity involves the vigilante action that is
more or less forced upon the good guy, Shane. Unlike a lot of
hardboiled characters, Shane feels transgression within his
actions.
I'm reading Zane Grey's Riders of the Purple Sage now.
One of the books I've been reading and rereading said
it was the greatest Western ever written. I think it was
Gruber's Pulp Jungle.
miker
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