Characters and Plots in the Fiction of James M. Cain

253 Pages·2011·1.6 MB·English

by  Robert L. Gale

Characters and Plots
in the Fiction of
James M. Cain
ALSOBYROBERTL. GALE
ANDFROMMCFARLAND
Characters and Plots in the Fiction of Raymond Chandler(2011)
Truman Capote Encyclopedia(2010)
Characters and Plots in the Fiction of Ring Lardner(2009)
Characters and Plots in the Fiction of Kate Chopin(2009)
Characters and Plots in the Fiction of Graham Greene(2006)
An Edwin Arlington Robinson Encyclopedia(2006; softcover 2010)
Characters and Plots
in the Fiction of
James M. Cain
Robert L. Gale
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA
Gale, Robert L., 1919–
Characters and plots in the fiction of
James M. Cain / Robert L. Gale.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7864-5969-8
softcover : 50# alkaline paper
1. Cain, James M. (James Mallahan), 1892–1977—
Criticism and interpretation. I. Title.
PS3505.A3113Z67 2011 813'.52—dc23 2011027866
BRITISHLIBRARYCATALOGUINGDATAAREAVAILABLE
© 2011Robert L. Gale. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
Cover photograph by David Sutherland (Getty Images)
Manufactured in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
For my family,
near and far
This page intentionally left blank
Table of Contents
Preface 1
Chronology 5
CHARACTERSANDPLOTS,A–Z 9
Bibliography 233
Index 236
vii
This page intentionally left blank
Preface
James M. Cain had a varied life. This is made evident in the Chronology that follows and
is of special interest to readers of this reference book because elements of it impinge upon his
fiction.
Cain’s four grandparents migrated from Ireland to Connecticut. His father was associated
with higher education. Cain graduated from college at the age of twenty, tried various jobs, and
aspired to be an opera singer but lacked ability. In 1914 something impelled his own voice to
say to him, “You’re going to be a writer!” So he started writing short stories he couldn’t sell.
In 1917 three things happened: Cain completed work for a master’s degree; he became
engaged to a woman whom he later married (he ultimately married three more times); and he
joined the American army and served in France.
When World War I ended, Cain resumed writing in earnest. He became a hard-driving,
heavy-drinking, liberal reporter, first in Baltimore after admiring and meeting H. L. Mencken,
and then in New York. Mencken published “Pastorale,” Cain’s first short story, in his American
Mercury (March 1928). Through friendship with theatrical-producer Philip Goodman and
screenwriter Vincent Lawrence, Cain grew interested in drama and moved to Hollywood in 1931.
For seventeen years Cain toiled there in several studios, highly paid but rarely happy. Ear-
lier, in 1930, Alfred A. Knopf had published Our Government, a collection of Cain’s satirical
political pieces originally appearing in Mencken’s Mercury. So when Knopf liked “The Baby in
the Icebox,” Cain’s third short story, he encouraged him to try a novel. The Postman Always
Rings Twice, Cain’s sensational first novel, was the result two years later. Thus began his con-
tributions to “tough-guy” fiction, a field in which he would hold his own with the likes of
Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, among others. Their novels, and his, also inspired
many noir films.Cain sold movie rights to his best-selling Postman, but it was years before Hol-
lywood censors were forced by changing times to permit it to be filmed and released. It starred
John Garfield opposite sultry Lana Turner. Cain’s Double Indemnityfollowed, first in serial form
in 1936, then in expanded book form, and—again, tardily—in an equally successful reincar-
nation on the big screen, starring Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, and Edward G. Robin-
son. And again, like Postman, Double Indemnityconcerned adultery, murder, and its inevitable
unforeseen consequences.
Small wonder, then, that Cain could never shake off his label as a hardboiled writer, try
though he did. For example, in a prefatory note to Double Indemnity, he wrote this:
I make no conscious effort to be tough, or hard-boiled, or grim, or any of the things I am usually called.
I merely try to write as the character would write, and I never forget that the average man ... has acquired
a vividness of speech that goes beyond anything I could invent, and that if I stick to this heritage ... I
shall attain a maximum of effectiveness with very little effort.
To the “heritage” of natural speech and his plot formula of love plus murder plus tragic con-
sequences, Cain brought in the controversial topic of homosexuality—in Serenade, published
1