Hardboiled Detective: Difference between revisions
m
clean up
m (update links) |
m (clean up) |
||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun."''|'''Philip Marlowe''', ''Farewell My Lovely'' by [[Raymond Chandler]]}}
A tough, [[Deadpan Snarker|cynical]] guy with a gun and a lot of [[Street Smart
The hardboiled detective is generally a [[Knight in Sour Armor]] or even an [[Anti-Hero]] who lives in a world of [[Black and Grey Morality]]. He's a [[Private Detective]] or [[Amateur Sleuth]]
Originating in the early part of the twentieth century, hardboiled detective stories quickly became a major subgenre of [[Mystery Fiction]]. Later, they became strongly associated with [[Film Noir]]. [[Raymond Chandler]] is considered the master of the genre, but it was [[Humphrey Bogart]]'s depiction of detective Sam Spade in the 1941 film, ''[[The Maltese Falcon]]'' (based on a novel by [[Dashiell Hammett]]), that became the [[Trope Codifier]].
By the [[The Sixties|1960s]], the hardboiled detective had nearly become a [[Dead Horse Trope]], but continuing interest in [[Film Noir]] kept it from the brink of extinction. Today it is most often seen in parodies and [[Fantastic Noir|genre crossovers]] (the
See also: [[Private Detective]], [[Amateur Sleuth]], [[Film Noir]] and [[Fantastic Noir]]. Contrast with [[Great Detective]], [[Kid Detective]], and [[Little Old Lady Investigates]]. If the character simply provides first-person narration the way detectives in [[Film Noir]] often do, that's [[Private Eye Monologue]].
Line 32:
* The DC comic character ''[[Ms. Tree]]'', created by Max Allan Collins, is a relatively rare female hardboiled detective.
* Steve Ditko loved Hardboiled Detectives, and his two (very similar) characters Mr. A and [[The Question]] are objectivist takes on the Trope.
* The title character of the Spanish comic ''[[Blacksad]]'' is a hardboiled detective in the
* Nightbeat from ''[[The Transformers (Comic Book)|The Transformers]]'', ''[[Transformers Classics]]'', and IDW's "-ations" is a [[Humongous Mecha]] homage to the genre, up to and including sporting a [http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Image:MarvelUK-230.jpg fedora and trenchcoat] and [http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Bird_of_Prey! "Bird of Prey!"] in particular being almost a retelling of ''[[The Maltese Falcon]]''. Whether he's an [[Amateur Sleuth]], a "consulting detective" for the Autobots, or a [[Private Detective]] varies depending on the continuity, but he always has the same general hardboiled, noir-ish personality.
Line 59:
** Stout had another, much smaller and less popular series starring Tecumseh Fox, who was much more the straight hard-boiled type.
* Mickey Spillane's ''[[Mike Hammer]]'' was an early, over-the-top, ultraviolent, [[Knight Templar]] example who is often credited with helping turn the genre into a parody of itself.
* ''[[Garrett P.I.]]'' is the
* [[Neil Gaiman]] wrote some short stories featuring [[Lawrence Talbot]], the Wolfman, as a hardboiled private investigator. "Only the End of the World Again" is one.
* The [[Marcus Didius Falco]] series starts out as the hardboiled detective [[Recycled in Space|Recycled In]] [[Ancient Rome]] (though he mellows as the series goes on). Living centuries before Noir was invented makes him amusingly [[Genre Blind]].
* Harry Dresden from ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' is part this, part [[Sherlock Holmes]] (showing surprising deductive skills on occasion, to nigh [[Sherlock Scan]] levels), part [[Lord of the Rings|Gandalf]].
** With emphasis on the world weariness by around book 3. The snark continues unabated.
* [[Invoked Trope|Invoked]] by Vincent Rubio in ''[[Anonymous Rex]]''. He's a
* Sara Paretsky's [[VI Warshawski]] is a distaff version of the (usually) male hardboiled detective.
* Lazlo Woodbine, from the [[Far Fetched Fiction]] of [[Robert Rankin]], is a blatant parody. He insists on using the first person, getting knocked unconscious at his first appearance and can only appear in four scenes (his office, a bar, an alleyway and a rooftop). Considering the outlandish nature of his books, often involving things such as [[Time Travel|time-traveling]] Elvis doing battle with [[Eldritch Abominations]] out to unmake existence, this makes things awkward.
Line 74:
* The 1980s TV adaption of ''[[Mike Hammer]]'' is either a straight example or a parody, depending on who you ask.
* ''[[Spenser For Hire]]'' was a rarity; a
* Michael Garibaldi of ''[[Babylon 5]]'' has flashes of this from time to time. Picked up, bizarrely enough, by G'Kar of all people.
* In ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'', Dixon Hill is a hardboiled detective holodeck character that Captain Picard is fond of playing.
| |||