Wednesday, December 9, 2020
THE BURGLAR on TMC this weekend. Goodis Fans Unite.
Saturday, September 26, 2020
Esquire Article That Prompted Goodis To Write A Letter To The Editor - September 1965
From PULP SERENADE - Goodis Will Not Be Forgotten
Saturday, September 26, 2020
David Goodis Grinds His Axe in "Esquire"
In the December 1, 1965 issue of Esquire, David Goodis wrote a letter to the editor, grinding his axe and criticizing them for crediting Francois Truffaut as the creator of Shoot the Piano Player without acknowledging his source novel, Down There. Ironically, the editor's snotty response only gets the story partly correct this time around, indicating that the novel was published in 1962 but without mentioning that it was originally published 6 years earlier as Down There by Fawcett as a Gold Medal paperback original. Here's the letter and response in full.
"Shoot"
In the September issue, 28 People Who Count cites François Truffaut for Shoot the Piano Player, and this is not exactly as it should be. But then, very little is these days, and there are two ways to handle it. One is to sort of drift away from all the manipulating, as the piano player did. The other is to get hold of an ax and start chopping.
After two years of doing the piano-player bit and seeing Truffaut get all the credit, I’m finally impelled for the sake of my blood pressure to screech that Shoot the Piano Player was not created by Truffaut. It was created by the author of the novel, which the film follows as closely as a baby rhino following mamma. With all due respect for the talent of Truffaut, this writer wants it known that primarily it’s his work.
DAVID GOODIS Philadelphia, Pa.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Right. Shoot the Piano Player, by David Goodis, was published in 1962 by Grove Press as A Black Cat Book; it is still very much in print.
Tuesday, June 9, 2020
Goodis's DARK ROAD.
It would appear that DARK PASSAGE was originally to be called DARK ROAD. Delmer Daves and David Goodis must have gone with DARK PASSAGE as it had been in the Saturday. Evening Post. and. published. as a book by. Julian Messner in 1946.
(Thank you Marianne at. Make Mine Film Noir h ttp://makeminefilmnoir.
Friday, April 24, 2020
Wednesday, April 22, 2020
Due to COVID-19, NoirCon 2020 is canceled.
Lou Boxer
Sunday, March 1, 2020
Goodis's Last Lines

Pulp According to David Goodis
Goodis’ contradictory stories of hopeless entrapment and heroic struggle for change have protagonists who can accept a world where God may be crazy, but a man in charge of himself does not have to remain so.
RETREAT FROM OBLIVION is the title of Goodis’ first novel.
Unusual for a pulp noir writer.
A CHRONICLE OF CORPSES [3/24/2020]
Sunday, February 16, 2020
CHINATOWN - Noir at its very best!
Slouching Towards ‘Chinatown’: How a Masterpiece Got Made
It is perhaps the darkest movie to ever come out of Hollywood. Sam Wasson talked to The Daily Beast about his new book profiling the film’s twisted, talented collaborators.
Read in The Daily Beast: https://apple.news/