Bill Crane
Created by Jonathan Latimer

Jonathan Latimer's first book, 1935's Headed For a Hearse, was one of the first hardboiled screwball comedies, following closely on the heels of the previous year's The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett. Like Hammett's Nick and Nora, Latimer's BILL CRANE was a booze-soaked, seemingly-inept detective who somehow always managed, despite always being either drunk or hungover, to crack the case, despite the ponderous and copious intake of a variety of intoxicating substances.

In Red Harvest, Dashiell Hammett's Continental Op takes a break from breaking the backs of two rival gangs by swilling a concoction of gin and laudanum, no doubt intended to demonstrate the resolution of the hard-bitten, tough-minded Op's nature, but Crane drank for a much simpler reason: he enjoyed it. In the course of five highly recommended novels in the early thirties, Crane gulps down just about anything he can get his hands on - including (accidentally) at one point embalming fluid - and spends most of his time either high as a kite or suffering from a hangover.

With The Thin Man, Hammett may have dipped his toe into the screwball pool, but Latimer jumped right in and splashed around to his heart's content. The plots zig and zag, and there are enough screws loose in the various characters to stock a hardware store.

In the thirties, Universal produced three film adaptations, all starring Preston Foster as Crane, as part of their "Crime Club" series. There were reportedly pretty good, for B films, but not good enough to really set the world on fire.

Latimer was responsible for the hardboiled classic Solomon's Vineyard, featuring private eye Karl Craven. Latimer evenually turned to screenwriting (including The Big Clock and The Glass Key). In the sixties, he wrote for the Perry Mason TV show.

NOVELS

• Headed for a Hearse (1935; AKA. The Westland Case)....Buy this book
• The Lady in the Morgue (1935) ....Buy this book
• Murder in the Madhouse (1935) ....Buy this book
• The Dead Don't Care (Doubleday, 1938)....Buy this book
• Red Gardenias (1939; AKA Some Dames Are Deadly) ....Buy this book

FILMS

• THE WESTLAND CASE
  (1937, Universal)
  Based on Headed for a Hearse, by Jonathan Latimer
  Starring Preston Foster as BILL CRANE
  .
• THE LADY IN THE MORGUE
  (1938, Universal)
  Based on the novel by Jonathan Latimer
  Directed by Otis Garrett
  Starring Preston Foster as BILL CRANE
  Also starring Bill Elliott, Patricia Ellis, Frank jenks, Barbara Pepper
  .
• THE LAST WARNING
  (1938, Universal)
  Based on the The Dead Don't Care by Jonathan Latimer
  Starring Preston Foster as BILL CRANE

ALSO OF INTEREST

• Stewards of the House: The Detective Fiction of Jonathan Latimer (1993; by Bill Brubaker) ....Buy this book

Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith. Thanks to Iris Wiederkehr, Latimer's German publisher, for the heads up.