The website of the greatest pulp fiction writer who ever lived
Hack saw his friend, actor Eddie Frierson, onstage in a delightful romantic comedy and was so charmed by the experience that he decided to write a novel in the genre. Unfortunately, his own disastrous romantic history came back to him as he was penning the book, and he got so embittered that he had the mobster Big Tim gun down the lovers in the final chapter.
Warner Oland was born Johan Verner Olund in Sweden in 1879. He came to the USA as a child and found success as an actor in silent films (most notably as Al Jolson’s cantor father in the mainly silent The Jazz Singer), but he won real stardom in Hollywood’s “Yellowface” era for playing Asian characters like Henry Chang in Shanghai Express, Dr. Yogami in Werewolf of London, and Dr. Fu Manchu in The Mysterious Fu Manchu, The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu, and Daughter of the Dragon.
Oland’s most famous role by far was as the gentle Chinese/Hawaiian detective Charlie Chan in a popular series of mysteries for Fox Film Corporation with titles like Charlie Chan at the Opera, Charlie Chan on Broadway, and Charlie Chan at the Race Track. Actor Keye Luke (later of Kung Fu fame), who played Chan’s “Number One Son,” said Oland wore no makeup as Chan and was often mistaken for Chinese by actual Chinese nationals.
Chan, as depicted in the novels in which he was introduced and as played by Oland, was an intelligent, heroic, benevolent, and honorable character. But in this novel, Chan was given a full Hack Werker makeover, suffering from an opium addiction, forcing confessions by employing ancient Chinese torture techniques, and taking part in the perverse and graphic sex scenes which are Hack’s trademark. You’re much better off watching Charlie Chan at the Opera (which is a surprisingly enjoyable movie) instead.
Happy heavenly birthday to Warner Oland!
Happy heavenly birthday to the great Groucho Marx!
Happy birthday to the great Brie Larson!
Happy National Silent Movie Day!
Hack wrote this rip-off of Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil after seeing it on The Late, Late Show He thought he’d get away with this act of plagiarism because he was so jarred by Charlton Heston’s performance as a Mexican narcotics officer that when he awoke the next day, he was certain that it had just been a nightmare.
When Alabama senator Tommy Tuberville gave a speech about the proliferation of “furry” sex (erotic interest or fetishes focused on anthropomorphic animals) among employees of the airline industry, Hack was so shocked that he wrote this novel to bring awareness of this important subject.
Everyone else is the office thinks that Tuberville is an uniformed, unqualified joke.