GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #53

MIKE HAMMER

Probably the toughest of all private detectives, Hammer never hesitates to kick a bad guy in the groin, gouge him in the eye, shoot him in the guts, or break several of his bones.  When finished, he has no regrets because he knows that his victim deserved it.  He's been called a fascist, a paranoid, and even a latent homosexual, but Hammer considers himself a "hardboiled dick" who never backs away from physical contact.  He's violent with villains and tender with beautiful women.  Of all the voluptuous females with whom he comes in contact, the most dazzling is Velda, his dark-haired assistant-secretary-girlfriend.

Hammer's first appearance was in "I, the Jury".  The man who saved his life in the war, and lost his arm in the process, is murdered - and Hammer vows vengeance.  A gorgeous psychiatrist pursues Mike while he hunts the killer.  Eschewing the legalities of a trial, he shoots the murderer.  The stunned killer asks Hammer, "How could you?"  He answers, "It was easy."  

"Vengeance Is Mine!" is a behind-the-scenes view of the fashion world.  Juno, an incredibly beautiful sex queen, chases and is chased by Mike.  "My Gun Is Quick" again shows Hammer avenging the murder of a friend - a redheaded streetwalker he met the night before.  Before killing the murderer, Hammer spends two pages telling him what is about to happen.  In "One Lonely Night" he is pitted against a Communist cell.  In "Kiss Me Deadly" Hammer burns the villain to death, watching the body as it is consumed by roaring flames.

Mike Hammer is the creation of Mickey Spillane (1918-2006).  Born in Brooklyn and raised in a tough neighborhood in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Spillane briefly attended Fort Hays State College in Kansas.  In an unusual reversal of ordinary sequence, he began writing for the slicks in 1935 and after some success, turned to the pulps.  He also wrote for the comic books Captain Marvel and Captain America.  During WWII he trained pilots and flew combat missions for the Air Force.  After the war he wrote more comic and magazine stories.

Spillane and Mike Hammer were alike in many ways.  Both were big, strong, tough, and direct.  The resemblance was close enough that Spillane played Hammer in the film version of "The Girl Hunters".  The cliche that Spillane's novels are filled with sex and violence is an oversimplification.  The violence is undeniably there.  Sex, however, is generally described only in the vaguest, most euphemistic terms.  His early works were more explicit than his contemporaries, but wouldn't shock a school kid today.

Lacking all literary pretensions, Spillane admitted that he only wrote for the money.  The enormous success of his books indicates that its appeal does not rely merely on public interest in sadism.  Only Erle Stanley Gardner has had greater sales and Spillane had produced only a fraction as many books.  At one time, a list of the top ten best-selling American fictional works of the 20th Century contained the first seven Spillane novels.  This public enthusiasm has rarely been shared by critics, who almost uniformly condemn the brutality of his characters.  200 million Mike Hammer books have been sold.  Raymond Chandler wrote of a private eye who was "not himself mean."  Hammer was the opposite of that - a glorification of cruelty.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Between the 1947 publication in hardcover and the December 1948 paperback publication, sales of "I, the Jury" resulted in 6.5 million in the U.S.  Here are the titles and years of publication of the novels (and magazine serializations).

1947 "I, the Jury"/  1950 "Vengeance Is Mine!"/  1950 "My Gun Is Quick"/  1951 "The Big Kill"/  1951 "One Lonely Night"/  1952 "Kiss Me Deadly"/  1962 "The Girl Hunters"/  1964 "The Snake"/  1966 "The Twisted Thing" (written in 1947 but previously unpublished)/  1967 "The Body Lovers"/  1970 "Survival...Zero!"/  1989 "The Killing Man" (Playboy Dec. 1989)/  1996 "Black Alley" (Playboy Dec. 1996)

SHORT STORY

"The Screen Test of Mike Hammer" (Male July 1955)

FILMS

"I, the Jury" United Artists, 1953.  Biff Elliott (Hammer), Preston Foster, Peggie Castle.  Director: Harry Essex.  Mike becomes involved in a number of brawls and seamy rackets, and with a beautiful female psychiatrist, when he vows revenge for the murder of an Army friend who once saved his life.

"Kiss Me Deadly" United Artists, 1955.  Ralph Meeker (Hammer), Albert Dekker, Paul Stewart, Juano Hernandez, Marian Carr, Maxine Cooper (Velda), Cloris Leachman.  Director: Robert Aldrich.  Mike gives a lift to a girl (Leachman) who is obviously in trouble, on a lonely country road.  Thugs waylay them and force the car over a cliff, killing the girl.  Mike's trail of vengeance ultimately leads him and his secretary Velda to the root of several deaths - an insulated container holding valuable radioactive material - a Pandora's box that, when opened, causes a catastrophe (in this case, a conflagration).  The ending of this richly individualistic film noir by Aldrich leaves unresolved the question of whether Mike and Velda escape alive.

"My Gun Is Quick" United Artists, 1957.  Robert Bray (Hammer), Whitney Blake, Jan Chaney, Richard Garland.  Director: Phil Victor.  The traditional murder of a destitute B-girl whom Mike has befriended points him to a gem collection stolen years before overseas, a nightclub deaf-mute marked for death, and a rich and beautiful divorcee.

"The Girl Hunters" Colorama, 1963.  (Filmed in England, though set in NYC).  Mickey Spillane (Hammer), Shirley Eaton, Lloyd Nolan.  Director: Roy Rowland.  Hammer is pulled out of a 7-year binge caused by the disappearance and probable death of Velda at the hands of the Dragon, a Red assassin, by the news she may still be alive.  Newspaper columnist Hy Gardner (playing himself) - "I hate those Commie punks as much as you do" - tells Mike about another Dragon victim, a murdered senator, and Mike briefly falls in love with the senator's beautiful but ultimately treacherous widow.

"I, the Jury" WB, 1982.  Armand Assante (Hammer), Barbara Carrera, Alan King, Lauren Landon, Geoffrey Lewis, Paul Sorvino, Jessica Lange, Lynette Harris.  Director: Richard Heffran.  Remake of the 1953 film.  Mike Hammer should be so lucky as to resemble Assante in the books.

RADIO

"That Hammer Guy" was a half-hour weekly series that aired over the Mutual Broadcast System from December 1952 to October 1954.  Larry Haines portrayed Hammer and Jan Miner was Velda.

COMICS

"From the Files of...Mike Hammer" was a daily and Sunday comic strip distributed by the Phoenix Features Syndicate.  Why not get the kids interested in sex and violence?  Written by Spillane and drawn by Ed Robbins, the Sunday strip ran from April 26, 1953 to March 14, 1954, while the daily version was May 13, 1953 through March 20, 1954.

TELEVISION

"Mike Hammer" was an unsuccessful pilot in the 1950s directed by Blake Edwards and starring Brian Keith as Hammer.

"Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer" was a syndicated series that ran from January 7, 1958, to October 3, 1959, with Darren McGavin as Hammer.  78 episodes were produced with guest stars Angie Dickinson, Ted Knight, Barbara Bain, Dick Van Patten, Robert Vaughn, Mike Connors, Lorne Greene, and DeForrest Kelly.

"Mickey Spillane's Margin for Murder" CBS, 1981.  A made-for-TV movie and unsuccessful pilot starred Kevin Dobson as Hammer and Cindy Pickett as Velda, with guest star Donna Dixon.

"Mickey Spillane's Murder Me, Murder You" CBS, April 9, 1983.  This made-for-TV movie and pilot starred Stacy Keach as Hammer with Tanya Roberts as Velda.  Michelle Phillips also starred.

"Mickey Spillane's More Than Murder" CBS, January 26, 1984.  Yet another made-for-TV movie and pilot, this had Keach again as Hammer but with Lindsay Bloom as Velda.  This pilot/movie launched the CBS series.

"Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer" CBS.  Keach and Bloom appeared in 22 episodes that ran from January 28, 1984 to January 12, 1985.  Actor Keach had some legal problems that resulted in a short hiatus.

"The Return of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer" CBS, April 18, 1986.  Keach and Bloom returned as Mike and Velma in this made-for-TV movie that also starred Lauren Hutton and Dabney Coleman.  It would reboot the series.

"The New Mike Hammer" CBS series.  Keach and Bloom starred in this new series that ran from September 27, 1986 to June 6, 1987.

"Mike Hammer - Murder Takes All" CBS, May 21, 1989.  Made-for-TV movie with Keach and Bloom, co-starring Lynda Carter and Jim Carrey.

"Mike Hammer - Come Die with Me" 1994 unsuccessful pilot for a proposed series.  Rob Estes as Hammer, Pamela Anderson as Velma.

"Mike Hammer - Private Eye" was a 26 episode syndicated series with Keach returning as Hammer and Shannon Whirry as Velda.  It aired September 28, 1997 to June 14, 1998.