Mickey Spillane on Screen: A Complete Study of the Television and Film Adaptations

223 Pages·2012·4.13 MB·English

by  Max Allan Collins

Mickey Spillane
on Screen
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Mickey Spillane
on Screen
A Complete Study of the
Television and Film Adaptations
M A C and
AX LLAN OLLINS
J L. T
AMES RAYLOR
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA
Collins, Max Allan.
Mickey Spillane on screen : a complete study of the television and
film adaptations / Max Allan Collins and James L. Traylor.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7864-6578-1
softcover : acid freepaper
1. Spillane, Mickey, 1918–2006—Film adaptations.
2. Spillane, Mickey, 1918–2006—Television adaptations.
3. Detective and mystery stories, American—Film adaptations.
4. Detective and mystery stories, American—Television adaptations.
5. Film adaptations—History and criticism. 6. Television adaptations—
History and criticism. 7. Detective and mystery films—History and critisism.
8. Detective and mystery television programs—history and criticism.
I. Traylor, James L. II. Title.
PS3537.P652Z59 2012 794.43'6556—dc23 2012015541
British Library cataloguing data are available
© 2012 Max Allan Collins and James L. Traylor. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, i ncluding photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without p ermission in writing from the p ublisher.
On the cover: Mickey Spillane gets tough in a staged still
promoting the film Ring of Fear(other actor unknown)
(1954 Wayne-Fellows Production, distributed by Warner Bros.);
background image © 2012 Shutterstock
Manufactured in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
For our favorite screen Mike Hammers—
Biff Elliot
Ralph Meeker
Darren McGavin
Armand Assante
Stacy Keach
and
Mickey Spillane
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgments: A Tip of the Porkpie Hat ix
Introduction 1
Prologue: I, the Writer 5
SPILLANE AT THE MOVIES
1. “I, the Jury” (1953) 17
2. “The Long Wait” (1954) 27
3. “Ring of Fear” (1954) 36
4. “Kiss Me Deadly” (1955) 43
5. “My Gun Is Quick” (1957) 62
6. “The Girl Hunters” (1963) 72
7. “The Delta Factor” (1970) 83
8. “I, the Jury” (1982) 88
SPILLANE ON TV
9. Mike Hammer TV Pilot (1954) 95
10. “Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer” (1958–59) 100
11. “Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer in ‘Margin for Murder’” (1981) 117
12. “Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer: ‘Murder Me, Murder You’” (1983) 121
13. “Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer: ‘More Than Murder’” (1984) 128
14. “Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer” (1984–85) CBS-TV 131
15. “Return of Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer” (1986) 139
16. “The New Mike Hammer” (1986–87) CBS-TV 143
17. “Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer: ‘Murder Takes All’” (1989) 152
18. “‘Come Die with Me:’ A Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer Mystery” (1994) 155
19. “Tomorrow I Die” (“Fallen Angels,” 1995) 162
20. “Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer, Private Eye” (1997–98) 166
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viii Table of Contents
APPENDICES
A. The Hammer (Film) Code 175
B. “‘The Girl Hunt’ Ballet” (“The Band Wagon,” 1953) 176
C. Who’s Who of Spillane on Film 179
D. Stars of the Hammer Film Universe 186
E. Mickey Spillane in His Own Words 187
Bibliography 203
Index 205
Acknowledgments:
A Tip of the Porkpie Hat
Since the publication of our initial book on Mickey Spillane, One Lonely Knight: Mickey
Spillane’s Mike Hammer (1984), the authors have continued to closely follow the writer’s life
and career, examining his body of work extensively.
Co-author Collins collaborated with Spillane on various projects, including the Mike
Danger comic book and numerous anthologies, and is currently working to arrange and
sometimes finish the wealth of uncompleted material in the late author’s files.
These uncompleted works included the non-series crime novel Dead Street(2008) and
the long-delayed sequel to The Delta Factor(1967), The Consummata(2011), and perhaps most
significantly, the six unfinished Mike Hammer novels entrusted to Collins shortly before
Spillane’s death. Also, Collins’ 1999 documentary,Mike Hammer’s Mickey Spillane, has been
screened at film festivals internationally and was recently revised and updated for inclusion
on the Criterion Collection’s DVD/Blu-ray release of “Kiss Me Deadly.”
Co-author Traylor has continued to write about Mickey Spillane in various articles,
reviews and biographical entries (sometimes alone, sometimes with co-author Collins),
including but not limited to The St. James Guide to Crime & Mystery Writers. The authors have
written about Spillane in such magazines as Mystery Fancier, Armchair Detective, Mystery Scene,
Journal of Popular Culture, Videoscope, Video Watchdog, and Psychotronic Video.
Together and separately, we interviewed Mike Hammer’s creator on several occasions.
Mickey Spillane inspired us both in many ways: our love of mystery novels and the hard-
boiled PI, our appreciation of a style of writing that has come to be called “noir” (by way of
French film critics), and of course our high regard for the talent and artistry that this giant
in multi-media possessed. At every opportunity, Mickey encouraged our best efforts, all the
while sharing his humanity and down-to-earth nature. This book reflects not just our love
for his work, but his encouragement and friendship.
The first challenge of writing about the translation of prose fiction to film and television
is obtaining copies of the movies and television shows. With Spillane, this was occasionally
problematic. Fully half of the material has never been officially released to the public. “I,
the Jury” (1953), “The Long Wait” (1954), “The Delta Factor” (1970), the one-hour episodes
of the CBS-TV series “Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer” (1984–85), CBS-TV’s “The New
Mike Hammer” (1986–87), and the telefilms “The Return of Mickey Spillane’s Mike Ham-
mer” (April 18, 1986), “Murder Take All” (May 21, 1989), and “Come Die with Me” (Decem-
ber 6, 1994) are not, and have never been, commercially available.
“Margin for Murder” (1981) and “I, the Jury” (1982) saw home-video release only on
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