Author: Jim Thompson (1906-1977), the son of a small-town Oklahoma sheriff, moved to LA in 1940 to try to break into the movies. His first novel, Now and on Earth (1942), was a "proletarian" account of a transplanted Oklahoma factory struggling in wartime California. It failed to sell, and Thompson turned to journalism. He continued to write fiction, churning out 12 novels in 18 months - starting with The Killer Inside Me (1952). Towards the end of the 1950s, the pulp market began to dry up, and the heavy-drinking Thompson was rescued by a young Stanley Kubrick, who hired him to script his third film, The Killing (1956). Arguments over credits, which repeated themselves on their next collaboration, Paths of Glory (1957), disillusioned him with Hollywood. Hard living caught up with Thompson and by the time The Grifters was published in 1963, he was seriously ill and making most of his money from film projects that never materialised. He died in 1979 after a series of strokes.
Story: Twenty-three-year-old con artist Roy Dillon is badly hurt when a potential mark turns violent. His estranged mother, Lilly, visits him, and takes him to hospital when she realises the seriousness of his injuries. Roy's "mistress" Moira sees Lilly's interest as a threat, as Lilly conspires to dislodge her in favour of Carol, a more easily manipulable nurse (and concentration camp survivor). Roy recovers, and Moira reveals herself to be a grifter too. Roy refuses her offer to go into partnership; then he hears that his mother has been murdered in a motel. On viewing the body, however, he realises it is Moira who is dead - killed by Lilly who then assumes her identity. Roy surprises his mother as she tries to steal his hidden money; they fight and he is accidentally killed.
Film-makers: Stephen Frears (b1941) emerged from the 1970s generation of TV directors, having worked as an assistant director for Karel Reisz. My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) proved a breakthrough hit, taking Frears to Hollywood where Dangerous Liaisons (1988) enhanced his reputation further. Martin Scorsese invited him to make The Grifters , and Donald Westlake (aka Richard Stark, of Point Blank fame) was hired to write the screenplay.
How book and film compare: Westlake, himself a notable pulp novelist, opted to remain faithful to the highly dramatic ending, but brought the action into the present day. The fourth member of Thompson's emotional maelstrom, nurse Carol Roberg, is largely sacrificed in Westlake's treatment, which focuses more directly on the three-way sexual tension between the central characters. Roy and Lilly's Oedipal relationship is made more explicit, culminating in their kiss shortly before Roy's death.
Inspirations and influences: Thompson received little recognition in his lifetime, but within a few years of his death interest in his work quickly gathered speed, led by Bertrand Tavernier's Coup de Torchon (1981), adapted from Pop. 1280 (1964). The Grifters was part of Scorsese's ongoing interest in pulp American film and literature (he almost immediately embarked on a remake of the 1962 noir Cape Fear ), but the film-makers avoided the temptation of applying too-obvious noir visuals. In this, The Grifters was a precursor to the pulp revival of the early 1990s, most obviously with the sunglasses-and-suits style of Reservoir Dogs (1992).
