IN MEMORIAM
No more `hammer' blows
V. GANGADHAR
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Remembering Mickey Spillane and his hero Mike Hammer.
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Blood and gore: Spillane in his studio at Orange Lake in 1952. Photo: AP
DURING the 1950s when a Florida restaurant put up a photograph of thriller writer Mickey Spillane on its wall, the more famous Ernest Hemingway boycotted it. Raymond Chandler, creator of Philip Marlowe (effectively portrayed by Humphrey Bogart), described Spillane's work as a mixture of violence and sheer pornography. But Mickey Spillane, who died on July 18 at his South Carolina home, was unfazed and told Vanity Fair in an interview that Hemingway didn't like being outsold by him. Spillane's 24 thrillers, including 13 featuring Mike Hammer, sold nearly 140 million copies.
More brawn
At age 17, I entered the world of the macho detective Mike Hammer, who ruthlessly used a .45 gun to drill holes in his enemies. I began with his first — and what is considered his best — book, I The Jury where Mike was the detective, lawyer, jury, judge and executioner. For someone brought up on the genteel Miss Marple, I The Jury was a shock. Sherlock Holmes, Perry Mason, Hercule Poirot, Lord Peter Wimsey and Ellery Queen did not pursue villains with sadistic violence nor did they take the law into their own hands. There was more brawn than brain in the Spillane books.
The villains were gangsters, dope peddlers, men and women who killed for money even betraying friends and lovers. Mike Hammer pursued them relentlessly and followed the principle Vengeance is Mine in dealing with them. There was not much of sophisticated detective work; Hammer was a man of action. He chased the clues like a maniac, put them together, reached his own conclusions and used his .45. There was no mercy, no second chance.
The first five Mike Hammer novels (I The Jury, Vengeance is Mine, My Gun is Quick, Kiss me Deadly The Big Kill) were Spillane's best and the titles indicated his hero's approach to crime and punishment. There was plenty of sex in these books. In the climax of I The Jury, Mike charges his sweetheart with murder. To divert his attention, she begins to shed her clothes and, as the last garment falls to the floor, Mike shoots her in the stomach. This was repeated in other books as well, with the killer turning out to be the hero's girlfriend, in a kind of new twist to crime fiction.
Ten years later, Ian Fleming created James Bond, a more sophisticated version of Mike Hammer. Bond, as Secret Service agent 007, was licensed to kill, but Hammer was a law unto himself. In one of the Bond novels, Casino Royale, where Bond kills his girlfriend who turned out to be a KGB agent, there are definite traces of Mike Hammer.
Demand for action
Spillane began writing in 1946 when the war had just ended and there was an endless demand for action fiction and tough guy heroes. Across the Atlantic, Peter Cheney, created characters like Slim Callagan and the G Man, Lemmy Caution. Leslie Charteris' "Saint" was an action hero but did not go beyond fisticuffs and the narrative was tinged with light touches. Chandler's Philip Marlowe was more like Hammer but without the passion for shootouts. Bond and Nick Carter were definitely influenced by Hammer.
Spillane began by writing for comics and obviously expanded one of the comic book heroes, Mike Danger, to Mike Hammer. He appeared in a couple of thriller movies and TV serials based on the Hammer books and TV commercials endorsing beer. With changing trends in detective fiction, his books were no longer popular from the 1980s, but the American Mystery Writers Association honoured him with a Lifetime award. The New American Library began reissuing his books from 2001. I would not be surprised if some modern thriller writer reinvented Mike Hammer taking on the likes of Osama bin Laden.
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