Love's Lovely Counterfeit by James M. Cain

Many novels of James M. Cain are undisputed classics of hard-boiled crime, made into films considered the best of the genre such as The Postman Always Rings Twice, Mildred Pierce, and Double Indemnity. This is not a classic, which Cain claims he wrote simply for the money and a potential film sale, which also arose with dismal results.

Ben Grace, a scheming chiseler and chauffeur to notorious racketeer Sol Caspar, collects the cash from the bookies, the brothels, and the riffraff of Lake City. Sol has the local government, lawyers and police in his pocket, and expects to re-elect his stooge Mayor Maddux. On the night a crew of Sol's men rob a bank, Ben is sent to check out the mayoral election rival Jansen, and he hears lovely June Lyons announce their campaign. Ben sees an oppertunity to scuttle Sol by leaking the whereabouts of the robbers to June. Jansen takes the credit, and Sol is unseated. With the law closing in, Sol disappears, and Ben takes his place as head of the syndicate with a large cash percentage.

Removing all the gambling machines makes great press, even if the same machines are replaced by legal 'games of skill', and closing the bookies looks good, even if they continue to operate as legal 'messengers'. June proves herself a lying grifter as well, sleeping with Ben but continuing a relationship with married Jansen. She has a sister, Dorothy, who often needs money from Ben, whom I thought was a figment of June's money-grubbing imagination as she doesn't appear until the last 30 pages. At a society party, Ben meets Dorothy and knows she is a bad girl. He's bad, too. Suddenly, and over the next three days the two are insatiable, quickly deciding to find and loot Sol's vault of money. There are only about 15 pages to do it, so they better hurry, especially as Caspar has returned to town.

This is more a crime novel as everyone including our 'hero' is corrupt, rather than the Noir theme of an innocent man being pulled into darkness. I found the switch from vice to the feral relationship between Dorothy and Ben too sudden. It became a different story. I guess that's what happens when you strike a match.

This didn't sell well, and reviewers warned his reputation would suffer. I found it enjoyable, but not remarkable.

This was filmed in 1956 starring John Payne (a good choice for tall, athletic Ben), Rhonda Fleming as June, and Arlene Dahl as Dorothy. It has been called "the worst picture with which Cain's name was ever associated" but is so loosely based on the novel that it's unrecognizable. Of course, the Hollywood press machine highlighted the on-set fights between Fleming and Dahl - as you can imagine, two redheads in lingerie, it must have been explosive.

My other review of James M. Cain:

The Butterfly

1942 / Paperback / 158 pages