"Detectives" Topic

G'Day Gents,

I have Mr. Moto, Hercule Poirot, and Charlie Chan in 1935

The setting is London and I need someone from Scotland yard and an American detective now…of course any off the cuff name would be interesting as well.

Can anyone help on who to use for additional characters.

Best Regards
Art

Sam Spade is always my first choice. And Philip Marlowe.

Sam Spade or Phillip Marlowe for the American, maybe Inspector Lestrade for Scotland Yard. Though it's an anachronism compared to Doyle's series, Holmes worked against the Nazis in the 1940's films.

Dick Barton, Bulldog Drummond or Denis Nayland Smith (for the British).

G'Day Gents

Sam Spade and Bulldog Drummond…yes indeed.

what a story line…

Denis Nayland Smith learns of the evil plot by Fu Manchu and calls upon Inspector Lestrade and Tobias Gregson, but both according to Holmes have an ongoing rivalry, and he identifies the two as "the pick of a bad lot".

Unfortunately Holmes is away…(I find Holmes a hard character to use).

Now evil female villains…?

Best Regards
Art

Another vote for Phillip Marlowe.

If Dr. Fu Manchu is leading the other side, you'll want Sir Denis and Dr. Petrie.

G'Day Gents

I always see Sam Spade and Phillip Marlowe as Humphrey Bogart.

But of course they are two different detectives.

It's sort of like Nick Charles and Philo Vance (both private eyes) when film sharing by William Powell.

As for Sir Denis and Dr. Petrie…quite brilliant!

It can be Sir Denis that brings Mr. Moto and Charlie Chan

Best Regards
Art

If you use Fu Manchu don't forget his daughter and if you don't mind comic characters there is the Dragon Lady from "Terry and the Pirates".

There's Colonel March of Scotland Yard from the Boris Karloff TV Series from the 1950s

Mike Hammer

If you have Hercule Poirot then you must use Chief Inspector James Japp for your Scotland Yard detective.

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Jim

G'Day Gents

Comic characters are just as cool…I know that Dick Tracey was on the radio in the 30s…and I remember seeing one of the chapters of old Dick Tracey on film that was from 1937.

I may have to call this "Murder By Dead 2"

I wonder how to get involved all these Inspectors from Scotland Yard…perhaps they were all invited to witness a murder

Best Regards
Art

You could do a Ten Little Indians type thing where they are all invited to an island under false pretenses by an unknown evil doer.

In London, Lord Peter Wimsey and his friend Inspector Parker. Or you might consult Alan Grant from Josephine Tey's books. Parker is methodical, but Grant has flair.

Nero Wolfe won't travel, but for the right money he'd send Saul Panzer or Archie Goodwin.

TMP is your friend….

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Armand

Marlowe here too. It's also an excuse to go and read the novels again.

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Batman has been in London in at least three stories.
He is considered the best detective in the world.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

The Maltese Falcon was serialized in 1929 and was set at the end of 1928. So Sam Spade would be appearing 7 years later. He had been in England before World War I (where he saw Webley-Fosbery revolvers), so could have contacts there. Say this was in 1913. Assuming he was at least 18 then, he would be 40 or older by 1935.

Philip Marlowe was invented by Chandler for The Big Sleep which was published in 1940 but set in 1936. He had worked as an investigator in insurance and for the Los Angeles District Attorney by then, and was 33. He could be in London in 1935 at 32 years old, as a private detective.

Especially since you find him hard to use, I'd leave Sherlock Holmes out of it as his first story is set in 1881 and he was retired in the last story set in 1914. By 1935 he'd be in his 80s if not already deceased.

Nick Charles of Hammett's The Thin Man might also be good. He is a detective married to a wealthy socialite, Nora. The novel was published in 1933 and is set at the end of 1932. So by 1935 he'd only be 3 years older, and his wife's social or business contacts could take them to England, or they could be on holiday.

Hmmm. This would be prime time for the Continental Op--Hammett's original detective.

How could I have forgotten? Philo Vance. As brilliant as he is insufferable, a good shot with a handgun, and perfectly capable of being in the British Museum looking something up. Handy for the GM, because he can plausibly know just about any trivia you need someone to come up with.

Of course, if you want an American, but you're not sure which side you need him for, as yourself what a young Harry Lime would have been doing in 1935. (Those of you who are not fans of radio drama have missed The Third Man: the Adventures of Harry Lime, which featured and was sometimes written by Orson Wells. It's available on CD.)

Wait. Harry Lime has a life beyond The Third Man? I shall look for the CD but I see that there was a TV series from 1959 – 65 starring Harry Lime (Michael Rennie)

Not beyond, dragon6, but before. The radio program used to begin with those shots in the Vienna sewer, and go on to say "that was the end of Harry Lime. But it wasn't the whole story." Then Orson Welles tells a (mostly pre-WW2) story of Lime's adventures. It's also called "The Adventures of Harry Lime" and "The Lives of Harry Lime."

Art, "Now evil female villains…?"
1/ Elsa (from Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade).
2/ Kāramančh, one of Fu Manchu's agents.
3/ Fah Lo Suee, daughter of Fu Manchu & Kāramančh.
4/ Velma Kelly (Chicago)
5/ Cathy Ames (East of Eden)
6/ Lady Emily Boynton (Agatha Christie's Appointment with Death)

Art: Now evil female villains…?

Several from Hammett:

Brigid O'Shaughnessy / Ruth Wonderly from The Maltese Falcon. You need to write how she escaped prison/hanging … maybe by crying in front of the jury … But she was a globe-trotting scoundrel willing to use any method to enrich herself, including feminine wiles, stealing from her partners in crime, and murder. I don't think her age is given in the book, but you could assume she's in her 20s, so she'd be no older than 30 by 1935, still with enough looks to beguile a man.

The title character of Hammet's "The Girl With The Silver Eyes", also from "The House on Turk Street", known as Elvira and Jeanne Delano. She's a femme fatale, a fraudster con artist who manipulates men out of money and their lives and also commits murder herself. She goes to prison but could have gotten a light sentence and fooled the parole board. I had the impression she is younger than O'Shaughnessy but the stories are from 1924, so she'd be about the same age in 1935.

Big Flora, from "$106,000 Blood Money" (1927) is the wife of criminal mastermind Papadoulous, who organized "The Big Knockover", a simultaneous multiple armed robbery of a whole downtown, but dies in this story. Flora survives the story, getting jail time. She is a sort of den mother to gunmen.

Angel Grace Caddigan, a small time grifter, daughter of a criminal. She's mixed up in the Blood Money sequence as well, and appears in one or more earlier stories. She's easily manipulated into covering for other criminals because she believes in honor among thieves.