Donald Westlake, a name to remember

The thunder storms continue; our third in four days and just as big a storm as those before.  There was nowhere to go in such wild weather and nothing sensible to do but shelter here at home, surfing the Internet, reading and inevitably - for me - watching movies.  I stumbled across a mildly ridiculous, violent heist / caper film by the name of Parker, directed by Taylor Hackford.  To describe it as implausible and full of plot holes one could drive a bus through would do a disservice to the very idea of implausibility.  It is as cheesy as Emmental.  But the rain poured down out of angry skies and there was nothing more appealing to download so I watched it to the grim and violent end.  I can't say I'd recommend it but that's not my point here.

The end-credits started with "IN MEMORY OF DONALD E WESTLAKE", a name I thought I recognised vaguely but as the credits rolled I couldn't see any further reference in the list of cast or crew.  So I googled ... as one does.

Donald Edwin Westlake is here.

Donald E Westlake

He's described on the fan web site as "crime novelist and Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Donald E. Westlake, creator of John Dortmunder, the most clever and least lucky thief in crime fiction, and, writing as Richard Stark, the hard-boiled heist master Parker."  The sentence doesn't quite do justice to a pulp fiction author who produced over 100 books in his writing life with up to 16 pseudonyms.  Sixteen?

As I read more about him (primarily on Wiki) I found two references to work he'd created that might have provoked my vague recollection.  The first was the movie The Grifters for which Donald Westlake wrote the screenplay and was nominated for an Oscar.  It's hard to believe that the Oscar went to Dances With Wolves ... actually it's not that hard.  It is, after all, the Oscars.  But The Grifters is a brilliant movie with a fiercely good screenplay.

The second point of reference goes much further back, all the way back to 1967 and Point Blank, John Boorman's movie version of Donald Westlake's novel (writing as Richard Stark) The Hunter.  I couldn't have seen it, of course, in 1967.  I was only 10 years old but I must have seen it somewhere, some time after.  It's a brutal story.  There are memorable scenes, especially the brilliantly edited long walk down the corridor as Walker / Parker makes his way to where his wife and her lover are supposed to be hiding out.  And the fight, which Walker loses, with Angie Dickinson's character - all those electric appliances drilling their sounds into Lee Marvin's cool killer's brain.

You can see the roots of Jason Statham's Parker in Lee Marvin's Walker but the 2013 version is a long way from the original and much diluted.  And if you're looking for menace and an animlistic, dangerous presence on screen you wouldn't look anywhere else but Lee Marvin in 1967. But the core of both lies in the writing of Donald Westlake I suppose.  I've never read any of his 100 plus works.  Maybe I should.