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Post by Jaqhama on Sept 12, 2008 13:07:54 GMT
Ted Lewis was, apparently, a quiet, mild mannered, polite man who wouldn't say boo to a ghost...yet he created and wrote the persona of London underworld gangster Jack Carter. Much to the surprise of all who knew him. Ted wrote a few of his noir crime novels in first person, present tense. An unusual style to be sure. And one that I myself have taken on, because I love the tense and I can write it with ease. Nothing better for hard, rigid, first person narratives. Had I not read Ted's work I may not have discovered FP present tense until much later in life. His Jack Carter creation is very cool. The dialogue and cynical remarks and wisecracking is first rate. Jack's Return Home...which became the superb Michael Caine movie: Get carter. (And don't anyone mention that awful, awful, Sly Stallone remake!) Next was Jack Carter's Law. Very hardcore stuff. Then Jack Carter and the Mafia Pigeon. Which tried way too hard to be funny. My least fave of the JC novels. Boldt was good. Set in New York. But still a realistic, tough story. I haven't read any other of Ted's novels, and sadly he passed on some years ago. A great shame. Once again Wikiknowitall has the info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Lewis_(writer)
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Post by franklinmarsh on Sept 12, 2008 13:40:57 GMT
Jack's Return Home/Get Carter is a brilliant read, and a superb film (the 1971 version - cough). Never tracked down the other two.
Plender is very good (check out the TrashFiction review) and Billy Rags is a good prison yarn (very abrupt ending though)
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Post by franklinmarsh on Sept 12, 2008 14:57:57 GMT
From the old board
Just reread Get Carter. Still as good as ever. And the film was actually very faithful, incidents taking place in different locations but the same story - with a slightly different ending.
SPOILERS*
I half-remembered that (like the film) Jack got killed - but its not that clear cut - which makes the sequels make a bit more sense. Every time I wish I could read this with no prior knowledge. It begins as a kind of murder mystery - Jack's crime connections being gradually revealed. The first half is also a story of rememberance - Jack revisiting his home town after a number of years away. His brother has died in what appears to be an accident - although they were chalk and cheese and didn't get on there is obviously a strong bond between them. Jack knows the death is suspicious and gradually nears the truth, shedding what little humanity he has, turning into a cold, deadly,efficient killng machine, determined to bring down everyone involved, even if it costs him his future. He is an incredibly nasty piece of work, even if you find yourself initially admiring his single-mindedness. People are befriended,used and thrown to the lions as he remorselessly forges ahead. Jack falls somewhere between the gang bosses Kinnear and Brumby - affable wealthy business men who hide their viciousness - and the workers - appalling weasels like Thorpey and Eric Paice - snide braggarts when they have the backing and the upper hand, s**tty little cowards when the boot is on the other foot. 1970 to the core - with namechecks for Dr Who (imagine!) Rolf Harris and Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Titch.
Billy Rags - Ted Lewis. Sphere 1973. Cor blimey, Guv'nor. Stone the bleedin' crows! More of Rog's Cockney Criminal Fraternity - or Fags,Slags,Blags 'n' Jags as it became known. Firmly in the GC, Villain mould although most of the first half of the book is set in prison. (I've not read many prison melodramas - apart from Tim Willocks' amazing Green River Rising). Billy Cracken is doing 23 years. He's a hardened criminal 'face'. An early attempt to escape is thwarted, and he's moved to another gaol where he catches up with Walter, a benevolent-on-the-surface prison lord and gang boss. Imagine Vic Dakin crossed with Harry Grout. All long term prisoners dream of being 'out', and any half chance of escape is seriously considered. Bill eventually makes it on his own and Lewis gives us not only the risks and hardships of the immediate aftemath of the break out, but the 'might as well be in prison' disatisfaction, when, reunited with wife and child, he has to lay low. Although provided for by a previous job, money soon starts to get scarce and Billy's dreams of fleeing Britain (like Jack Carter to South Africa) with his family are evaporating. Could one last job be the answer?Not as good as GC or Plender but a vivid portrayal of a desperate man all the same. It's 1973 - a pint of lemonade shandy will set you back 17p and you can pick up a '66 mini for £150 cash. I don't know how much of a pulp fan Ted Lewis was, but when you get a prison governor called Moffatt, and his assistant is Creasey..... James Hadley Chase is namechecked in the proper context. Prisoners hate the child killers, there's a small scale prison riot, and an unsatisfactory what happened there? non-ending.
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Post by Jaqhama on Sept 12, 2008 16:01:10 GMT
Ted could certainly write a dark, gritty yarn.
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Post by pulphack on Sept 15, 2008 13:17:32 GMT
there's little doubt that, given his personal problems and style of writing, if Lewis had been American he would be a massive crime cult hero insetad of a footnote remembered for the one book.
which would be no more than he deserved, as Jack's Return Home is a genuine genre breaker - there had been little brit crime like that at the time, only the anti-heros of Robin Cook's early books (before he had a very long break and returned as Derek Raymonde, darker and nastier than ever). without Jack Carter, would there have been a Nick Sharman (Timlin is a personal fave, though his best is Answers From The Grave, a non-Sharman) or even Mike Ripley's Angel?
and without the film, would Guy Ritchie have had a template for his career? incidentally, 'Hitman' (produced by Gene Corman) with Bernie Casey is a scene-for-scene remake, just set as a blaxploitation flick, and bloody good, too. worth catching.
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Post by franklinmarsh on Oct 10, 2008 12:08:11 GMT
www.trashfiction.co.uk/villain.htmlOf course The Burden Of Proof/Villain is the other corker from the late 60s bleeding into the 70s. More Kray-centric, and , like GC, a top film which must have led to the thick-ear cop craze (The Sweeney et al). I used to have a first draft script (still titled The Burden Of Proof) for the film (by Clement and La Frenais) which was a fascinating halfway house between book and film. Curse you Pulphack! I'd love to see Hit Man! Sat through the Stallone snoozefest not that long ago. Just about bearable until it tried to be its predecessor - and Mickey Rourke was good.
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Post by fullbreakfast on Oct 26, 2008 10:59:19 GMT
I remember trying to work out where Jack's Return Home is supposed to be set - the town, never named, clearly isn't Newcastle as in the film.
I think my tentative conclusion at the time was 'possibly Sheffield' (can't remember why specifically, but maybe steelworks references?). Though I suppose it's equally possible that it's not supposed to be anywhere specific.
Anyone got any better ideas?
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Post by franklinmarsh on Oct 26, 2008 11:05:30 GMT
I've read that it's Scunthorpe, FB.
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Post by fullbreakfast on Oct 26, 2008 12:21:28 GMT
That would make sense - also a steel town of course.
Thanks Franklin.
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Post by pulphack on Oct 27, 2008 18:56:45 GMT
yep, scunny - the train goes through doncaster shortly before jack gets off, and the two towns are very close - and hate each other, as attendance of any scunthorpe/donny rovers game will show you. i don't know for sure, but i suspect that the film was moved to newcastle as the topography of the town and surrounding area was better suited to spectacle, but without losing any of the grittiness. scunny is... well, it just sort of is...
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Post by stuyoung on Sept 18, 2011 20:17:23 GMT
Just read Get Carter (aka Jack's Return Home). Not quite the same as the film --although Mike Hodges did a pretty faithful adaptation -- but still brilliant.
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ltd
Crab On The Rampage
Posts: 15
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Post by ltd on Jan 30, 2014 9:05:40 GMT
I half-remembered that (like the film) Jack got killed - but its not that clear cut - which makes the sequels make a bit more sense. The other two books are prequels. I'm not 100% certain on this, but chronologically I think they run in the opposite order to which they were written/published i.e Jack Carter and the Mafia Pigeon, Jack Carter's Law, and then Get Carter/Jack's Return Home. Don't think anyone's mentioned Ted Lewis's final novel GBH. It's brilliant but not for the faint hearted. It's even more unflinching than the Carter books in its depiction of the horrible things gangsters do to each other and anyone else unfortunate enough to get in their way.
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Post by David A. Riley on Jan 30, 2014 9:48:50 GMT
I half-remembered that (like the film) Jack got killed - but its not that clear cut - which makes the sequels make a bit more sense. The other two books are prequels. I'm not 100% certain on this, but chronologically I think they run in the opposite order to which they were written/published i.e Jack Carter and the Mafia Pigeon, Jack Carter's Law, and then Get Carter/Jack's Return Home. Don't think anyone's mentioned Ted Lewis's final novel GBH. It's brilliant but not for the faint hearted. It's even more unflinching than the Carter books in its depiction of the horrible things gangsters do to each other and anyone else unfortunate enough to get in their way. I've only ever read Jack's Return Home but it was so well written and gripping that I would love to read anything else by Ted Lewis. GBH sounds a good one to search out.
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Post by ripper on Feb 3, 2014 16:48:42 GMT
I have only read Get Carter/Jack's Return Home, but there was a multi-part reading of Jack Carter's Law on Radio 4 Extra several years ago, which was repeated at least once. I really need to read Get Carter again and try to obtain copies of the other two. The reading of Jack Carter's Law was okay but, I suspect, heavily abridged.
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Post by David A. Riley on Feb 3, 2014 17:48:28 GMT
I have only read Get Carter/Jack's Return Home, but there was a multi-part reading of Jack Carter's Law on Radio 4 Extra several years ago, which was repeated at least once. I really need to read Get Carter again and try to obtain copies of the other two. The reading of Jack Carter's Law was okay but, I suspect, heavily abridged. My copy of Get Carter/Jack's Return Home is a recent reissue by Alison and Busby. I was hoping they might bring out the others too, but so far no sign of this happening, unfortunately.
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