Max Allan Collins's Blog, page 7

Nate Heller Wraps, Perdition Is Praised, and a Giant Passes

The last recording session with Michael Rosenbaum playing Nate Heller in True Noir: The Assassination of Anton Cermak is scheduled for the day this update appears. Director Robert Meyer Burnett is doing a terrific job editing this ten-part audio drama (written by me), handling to perfection the huge cast of name performers in bringing the first Nate Heller novel, True Detective, to life.

First episodes will be available SOON.

* * *

The Putnam Museum in Davenport, Iowa, did a special event on this past Sunday (Oct. 6) centering on Road to Perdition, both the book(s) and film. The 2002 film, which Barb and I hadn’t seen for some time, was shown on the museum’s massive I-Max screen. Following this impressive presentation, which played to a nearly full house approaching 300, I participated in a Q and A with Roger Ruthhart, co-author of Citadel of Sin, a non-fiction account of the John Looney gangster story.

I fielded a lot of questions about the differences between the actual history and my graphic novel (and its prose follow-ups), including why John Looney as portrayed by Paul Newman became John Rooney, and why I moved Looney’s story up a decade or so in time. The deft questioning was handled by Truth First Film Alliance’s Travis Shepherd. The Alliance is the work of well-known documentary filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle, perhaps best known for Villisca: Living with a Mystery, focusing on my mysterious Iowa crime in the Lizzie Borden mode. The Rundles put this event together and were gracious hosts.

And the audience had any number of good questions for both Mr. Ruthhart and myself (including a couple of Quarry and Ms. Tree ones!).

The movie looked great on the big screen, but could have looked better if Paramount would get around to releasing Road to Perdition on 4K.

Tammy and Kelly Rundle, Emmy-winning documentarians* * *
Robert J. Randisi

Many of you have already heard the sad news of Bob Randisi’s passing.

Robert J. Randisi was undoubtedly the last of the Old School pulp writers. He wrote over 500 entries in his adult western series, the enormously successful Gunsmith. He was an instrumental figure in celebrating genre fiction, receiving a Lifetime Achievement award from The Private Eye Writers of America; and another Lifetime Achievement award from Western Fictioneers. He was a founder of both groups. He also began the influential, much-missed Mystery Scene Magazine with another late friend of mine, the great Ed Gorman.

Do not assume Bob received those lifetime achievement awards because he founded the groups that honored him with them. He had made it clear he had no interest in awards of that nature. I am proud to have been instrumental in getting him the Private Eye Writers of America award and made sure it focused on his work as a writer of private eye fiction, which was his real true love in genre fiction. His series P.I. novels included the characters Miles Jacoby, Joe Keough, Nick Delvecchio, Gil and Claire Hunt, Truxton Lewis, and Eddie G. with The Rat Pack. Whew! He was nominated several times for Shamus awards, the honor given to the best private eye novels of the year.

Bob was my oldest and dearest friend in the writing game. He and Ed Gorman were together the friends I most valued in this business, and I miss them both (they were great friends to each other as well – Ed referred to Bob as his “little brother). To say Bob and I go way back is an understatement.

Bob was the first fan – and at that time he was a fan, just breaking into the business with some short stories – not from my home town area who had read my first two novels, Bait Money and Blood Money, and professed to love them and the Nolan series. He sought me out at the first Bouchercon I ever attended (decades ago in Chicago) and we sat deep into the night with him making me tell him the plots of the three more Nolan novels I’d written that had been shelved by Popular Library when they swallowed up Curtis Books, who had published Bait and Blood. Eventually those books were published by Pinnacle, but Bob heard the stories from the horse’s mouth that night in Chicago.

When I wrote True Detective in 1981 (or was it ‘82?) my then-agent Knox Burger was so unenthusiastic about it I fired him on the phone. Knox was influential and important in the genre – he’d been the editor at Gold Medal Books and the fiction editor of Collier’s before that – and he’d seemed stunned when an upstart kid in Iowa fired him. I was stunned, too, and called Bob desperate for advice.

Bob sent me to his agent, Dominick Abel, having paved the way with this already influential agent, and Dominick has been my friend and representative ever since. Dominick called me with the sad news about Bob, who had been his client till the end. Bob probably wrote and sold more books than the rest of Dominick’s clients put together, myself included.

Bob never called just to chat. He had a business-like side, was doggedly unsentimental, but also blessed with a great sense of humor. And when we got together, usually at a Bouchercon, we almost always sat side by side at the dinners and various events. He was the kind of friend you don’t see for a while, but then when you do, no time has passed at all.

The best compliment I can pay him is that he was a pro. A consummate pro. But the compliment I really want to pay him is to simply say thanks for being a friend to me and to every private eye writer of the mid-Twentieth Century until, well, right now.

Let be clarify that, because it might seem like hyperbole. If anything it’s an understatement. I can only speak from personal experience and forgive me for what may seem over the top or self-aggrandizing. My novel True Detective was a breakthrough for me, but it was ignored by the Mystery Writers of America despite its stellar reviews and general success. Because Bob created the Private Eye Writers of America, I got a second chance at winning (as the Old Man in A Christmas Story put it) a major award. I beat a bunch of big names – James Crumley, Loren D. Estleman, Stanley Ellin, and Robert B. Parker, no less. The Shamus award – Bob’s creation – put me on the map.

Mickey Spillane received several awards from the PWA – the first ever in a long career that had given the entire Private Eye genre a second lease on life. Numerous writers, now celebrated, got their start because of Bob’s organization’s boost. For decades, the Shamus was second only to the Edgar in importance in the genre. Perhaps it still is.

But it’s faded a tad, largely because Bob’s declining health (and Covid played a role) chipped away at the annual (and great fun) awards dinners that were held in conjunction with Bouchercon every year. He and his incredible significant other Marthayn Pelegrimas always put on a great dinner and a fun show. Unless someone picks up the banner, the Shamus would appear to have become just another of the various awards given in a group at Bouchercon. Nothing wrong with that, I guess.

But those days were wonderful. And I hope the significance of the Shamus awards remains strong, perhaps even makes a comeback that would include the restoration of an annual awards dinner. That would be the best tribute possible to the writing legend that was Robert J. Randisi.

M.A.C.

A Perdition Screening, Falcon Begins, True Noir Continues!

We have an event coming up on Sunday, Oct. 6, at the Putnam museum in Davenport, Iowa, a special screening of Road to Perdition. The details are here.

In the meantime, I’m wrapping up the research phase of The Return of the Maltese Falcon and should begin the actual writing by sometime this coming week. The research consists of me marking up, text-book style, a copy of The Maltese Falcon as I go through reading it in depth (and am reminded what an incredible writer Hammett was, and what an incredible book The Falcon is); plus material on San Francisco in the late 1920s. The great J. Kingston Pierce of The Rap Sheet sent me a picture book he wrote and assembled on the city, a resource that’s going to be invaluable.

Barb and I also screened the 1941 Maltese Falcon (on beautiful 4K) and films from novels don’t come more faithful – but it’s fascinating to see what director John Huston left out. Hammett’s Spade is much more ruthless than Bogart’s. Also, it’s illuminating to see how Hammett – without ever going into Spade’s mind – tells us things, including just what his relationship with secretary Effie Perrine really is.

I’ve said this before, and it’s not exactly a revelation; but Hammett completely creates the private eye genre, perfects and then abandons it, in The Maltese Falcon. Don’t talk to me about Race Williams – I’m a Carroll John Daly fan, have all of the books, but his take on the private eye (however much impact it had on Mickey Spillane) did not establish either the tropes or the artistic possibilities of the private eye novel.

While I’ve been very busy this year, I haven’t dug into the writing of a novel for a while, tied up with filmmaking and scripting True Noir: The Assassination of Anton Cermak.

Where True Noir is concerned, I’ve also been attending (by Zoom) much of the recording, which is nearing its end. This past week we recorded Patton Oswalt (a great guy) and have two more sessions with our Nathan Heller, Michael Rosenbaum, who is absolutely spot on as Nate. Robert Meyer Burnett, the director and another of the producers on the project, is hard at work editing the enormous project (ten audio episodes) and, based on what I’ve heard to date, is doing a remarkable job.

For now, the True Noir Kickstarter page is still active and you can order the audio drama there in various forms (from downloads to physical media) right now.

True Noir’s Nathan Heller, Michael Rosenbaum

I will be working on lining up the Iowa theatrical release of Blue Christmas, and a premiere event or two for Death by Fruitcake. I’ll be trying to do some promo for both. Over the weekend, I went over “check discs” of the blu-ray and DVD of Blue Christmas for Bob Blair at VCI, who are distributing it through MVD. Here’s one of the places you can pre-order it.

Here’s the sleeve.

The Blue Christmas Blu-ray is almost ridiculously overloaded. In addition to the movie itself, there’s a trailer, a feature-length commentary with me and producer/editor Chad Bishop, a documentary on yrs truly, over an hour-and-a-half of Q and A at the various premieres around the state of Iowa, and a booklet where I discuss the origin of Blue Christmas. The DVD is packed, too, but lacks the 90-minute-plus Q and A/premiere stuff – the commentary’s there, and the booklet, and the documentary about, well, me. It was produced by Muscatine Community College in 2023 when I was deemed a “legend” (in my own mind?).

There is a connection between some, if not all, of these things. Blue Christmas is essentially a rumination on both The Maltese Falcon and A Christmas Carol (specifically, the 1951 Alistair Sim film version). Nathan Heller is my take on the private eye that Hammett – and Chandler and Spillane – developed.

My thanks to all of you who drop by here to see what I’m up to, and provide your generous support.

M.A.C.

Death by Blue Christmas & True Noir Kicks

Last week’s update/blog was very short and I didn’t bother to post it to the various Facebook pages that follow me. So if that’s where you generally see these posts, you may wish to catch up with last week’s right now.

The truth is last week I forgot all about writing a post until my son Nate (who handles this for me) called me last minute wondering why I hadn’t sent it. This is the first time that ever happened and I’ve been writing these weekly posts for…ever.

Am I getting old and possibly senile? At least one of those two things is true and the other may be inevitable. But let me speak just a moment about the notion that I am the hardest working man in show business. People often comment on the prodigious amount of work I turn out. My standard response is, “Nobody sends money to my house if I don’t.”

I am undoubtedly a fast writer. Not Bob Randisi fast, but pretty, pretty fast, as Larry David might say. Nonetheless the amount of work I’ve produced is based on a couple of things: (a) slow and steady wins the race, and (b) I’ve been publishing since 1972. Do the math. No, really – do the math…I’m shit at it.

Several people have commented on how amazing it is that we shot our movie Death by Fruitcake in two weeks, then turned around and had it edited and essentially finished within another three weeks (the “we” being editor/d.p. Chad Bishop and me). What gets lost in that shuffle is that we’d been planning the movie since around April and I’d been full-time on pre-production starting the first of July.

This was a kind of experiment for me to see if I could do another movie at my age. We’d done Mickey Spillane’s Encore for Murder in 2022, but that was primarily a radio-style stage play that we shot in dress rehearsal and its one performance, then edited into a movie or program or…something. (You can find it as a special feature on the expanded Mike Hammer’s Mickey Spillane Blu-ray or on its own DVD, or on several streaming services. Gary Sandy is a wonderful Hammer.)

Encore got my filmmaking juices going again and we made Blue Christmas last year for release, well, right about now or anyway very soon. Some of you know that my novella, “A Wreath for Marley,” is a favorite of mine among my work. And maybe a few know that it was planned to be the follow-up to my movie Mommy back in the mid-‘90s, but when a sequel to that surprise success shouldered its way into the front of the line, Blue Christmas got lost in the shuffle (to mix a bunch of metaphors).

Many years later (last year specifically) I figured out a way to make Blue Christmas on one set, essentially, and on a six-day schedule. My longtime collaborator Phil Dingeldein helped make that happen, and my editor/co-producer Chad Bishop brought it home.

Death by Fruitcake grew out of two things – the desire to make a second Christmas movie, since Blue Christmas was warmly received in its advance screenings and had stoked our ability to get VCI and MVD to bring it out on physical media. The other factor was the frustration Barb and I have had with our Antiques comic cozy mystery series almost becoming a TV series a bunch of times. We decided to make an indie movie and show Hollywood how it can be done.

Here is the trailer, which Chad put together and I tweaked a little bit; I think it’s rather wonderful.

And let us not forget that Blue Christmas comes out this holiday season. I was delighted when Diabolik, my favorite source for boutique physical media (that is, Blu-rays and 4K’s), picked our movie to showcase on their great site. You can pre-order it from them (or Amazon and a few other places) but here is the Diabolik link.

And in case you didn’t take a peek at it previously, here’s our Blue Christmas trailer.

Many of the Blue Christmas actors return in Death by Fruitcake, including star Rob Merritt, who is probably the most prolific and popular actor in Iowa. And we showcase Midwestern broadcasting legend Paula Sands (who was in Mommy’s Day!) and American Idol’s Alisabeth Von Presley as Vivian and Brandy Borne. They are, I have to say, wonderful in it. Barb agrees.

We hope to have a few premiere Fruitcake screenings here in Iowa yet this year, perhaps in tandem with promised runs at various Iowa movie theaters. Stay tuned for info.

But wait, there’s more!

The ten-part immersive radio drama, True Noir: The Assassination of Anton Cermak, successfully achieved its KickStarter goal and then some. You can read about it (and pre-order True Noir in several forms) right here.

In case you’ve arrived at this party late, True Noir is my 350-page adaptation of the first Heller novel, True Detective, directed by the great Robert Meyer Burnett and with an astonishing all-star cast headed up by Michael Rosenbaum. I’ve been attending many of the recording sessions via Zoom, and have heard advance examples of what Rob Burnett is turning out, and I can only say this will be one of the true (get it?) highlights of my long and lucky career.

True Noir has been getting considerable press attention. Check this out.

What else is happening?

Return of the Maltese Falcon awaits.

In other news, I have once again seen my reviled Batman work proving useful to Hollywood creators. I should say “seen,” because I haven’t watched the new Penguin series that recycles my origin of Robin (i.e., a little hoodlum who steals hubcabs). I haven’t watched the Penguin series because it’s obviously a reflection on how Batman keeps getting taken way too seriously. The whimsical villain the Penguin becoming a gritty noir character just has me shaking my head…although I realize I’m condemning something I haven’t watched, and certain people I respect like it. But, hey –- I’m the guy who never watched Wild Dog on Arrow. I had to bitch to get compensated for the use of that Collins/Beatty character, which may explain why I choose to do so little comics work these days.

Anyway, you can read about Penguin and me right here.

M.A.C.

Fruitcake Warming in the Oven & True Noir Makes its Goal!

This very brief update is because the producer/editor of Death by Fruitcake and I having been working like the madmen we are, and have just completed a rough cut of our movie, having completed principle photography Aug. 31 and Second Unit photography on Sept. 9.

Left to right: Rob Merritt, Paula Sands, M.A.C., Alisabeth Von Presley.

We are still burrowed in with much left to do, despite the enormous amount of work we’ve accomplished in a short period of time.

During that period of time I’ve also sat in (via Zoom) on four four-hour recording sessions with star Michael Rosenbaum (Nathan Heller!) and director Robert Meyer Burnett on True Noir: The Assassination of Anton Cermak, a ten-part immersive, all-star audio novel based on my novel True Detective and scripted by me.

Our Kickstarter recently reached its goal of $30,000 and then some – as I write this it’s at $51,071! This is largely due to Rob Burnett’s efforts on YouTube, which include a last-minute Jerry Lewis-style pseudo-telethon that put us over the hump.

We have around six weeks past our goal deadline for you to take advantage of the perks. If you’re a Nate Heller fan, do not miss this. The cast is incredible, and I hear the script is very, very good…

In the meantime, my in-progress Return of the Maltese Falcon for Hard Case Crime continues to attract more attention than I could ever have imagined. It’s a project I’ve been dreaming of doing for literally decades.

M.A.C.

The Falcon Returns, Nate Heller Is Cast & Fruitcake Wraps!!!

Some of you may have seen this elsewhere on Facebook, but this is exciting news I’m glad to share. My long intention to write a sequel to The Maltese Falcon, which I consider to be the greatest private eye novel ever written (and the one establishing all of the conventions of the genre), has become a reality. Read about it below.

By HILLEL ITALIE

NEW YORK (AP) — The story of one of the great fictional sleuths, Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade, will be continued by prize-winning crime writer Max Allan Collins.

The publisher Hard Case Crime announced Thursday that Collins’ “The Return of the Maltese Falcon” will be released in January 2026, when the Hammett classic featuring Spade, “The Maltese Falcon,” enters the public domain. “The Maltese Falcon,” published in 1930 and known to movie fans for the 1941 adaptation starring Humphrey Bogart, is widely regarded as a model for the hard-boiled detective novel.

“It has been an inspiration to authors and filmmakers, actors and illustrators and musicians — and to me, for the entire 50-plus years I’ve been a novelist,” Collins said in a statement. “Not that writing about the world Hammett created, and those immortal, sometimes immoral characters isn’t challenging — Hammett’s best mystery also happens to be one of the greatest American novels, period.”

When copyright protection ends for a book, anyone is free to use the characters and story line. After F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” entered the public domain, in 2021, new creations included a Tony-winning musical of the same name and a prequel novel, “Nick,” by Michael Farris Smith.

According to Hard Case Crime, Collins’ new book will bring back Spade and Joel Cairo among other Hammett characters, and “a mysterious new femme fatale.” Collins, whose “Road to Perdition” was adapted into a film starring Tom Hanks and Paul Newman, has a long history of working with famous literary detectives. He took over the Dick Tracy comic strip in the late 1970s after creator Chester Gould retired, and he was later authorized to continue Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer series.

“I’m something of an old hand at walking in the shoes of the giants who came before, though I never claim to filling them,” Collins told The Associated Press.

Various authorized Spade projects have been released, including a 2009 prequel, Joe Gores’ “Spade & Archer,” a novel about Spade and his professional partner, Miles Archer. Spade was featured this year in an AMC miniseries, “Monsieur Spade,” starring Clive Owen in a sequel that finds the detective retired and living in the South of France.

The coverage of this announced Maltese Falcon sequel has attracted attention to me and my work more extensively than anything else in my memory, including Road to Perdition.

The other really important thing this week is the impending end of the Kickstarter campaign for True Noir, which is my adaptation of my Best Novel Shamus award-winning True Detective as a ten-part audio drama directed by Robert Meyer Burnett. If you’ve sampled this update/blog lately, you know that we have an amazing cast.

Big news is this: Michael Rosenbaum (of Smallville and Guardians of the Galaxy fame) has been cast as Nathan Heller. He’s been recording the role already and is fantastic.

Time is running out – three (3) days left to help back this project. If you’re any kind of fan of mine, you won’t want to miss it.

Finally, with the exception of a few Second Unit shots, we have completed filming of Death by Fruitcake. Specifically, we shot the beginning and ending of the film, at Meg’s Vintage Collective here in Muscatine. Chad Bishop and I are hard at work (and it’s going well and fast) in the editing suite.

We had a wrap party of sorts at Boonie’s in Muscatine, where a sandwich called the Max Collins Turkey Burger is on the menu. Appears I have arrived…from the kitchen, anyway.

Alisabeth Von Presley, Barb Collins,, M.A.C., Paula Sands.
Alisabeth, Meg McCarthy of Meg’s Vintage Collective, Paula.
M.A.C. directs Paula and Alisabeth, Chad Bishop shoots.

M.A.C.

A Fruitcake All Wrapped Up (Almost)

Death By Fruitcake wrapped just before noon on Saturday (Aug. 31), after eleven days of an intense but fun shoot. A great cast, headed up by Paula Sands, Alisabeth Von Presley and Rob Merritt, came through and then some. The small crew, led by Chad Bishop, moved fast and furious and created great images. The rest of the behind-the-scenes bunch, helmed by one Barbara Collins and the indefatigable Jodi Hansen, kept the cast happy, on time, and well-fed. It was one of the most satisfying shoots I’ve ever been on.

It’s not quite over. We have a day of shooting at Meg’s Vintage Collective antique shop, filling in for Brandy and Vivian’s Serenity, Iowa, shop in the script (and all those Barbara Allan-bylined books by Barb and me). And my buddy Phil Dingeldein is coming aboard when things get Fall-ish to shoot some Second Unit exterior photography.

But the body of the film is done, and Chad Bishop (the d.p. and one of the producers) will begin editing soon with me in the editing suite with him, causing trouble.

I couldn’t be happier. My 76-year-old frame held up just fine, to my wife’s amazement (and, frankly, my own).

More later. For now, take a gander at a few of the photos that star Rob Merrit snagged during the shoot.

Paula Sands and Rocky Raccoon.
Robert Merrit (Tony Cassato), Paula Sands (Vivian Borne), Max Allan Collins, Alisabeth Von Presley (Brandy Borne).
M.A.C. directing Keith Porter (Victor Forman).
Director of Photography Chad Bishop getting Cassidy Ptacek (Kimberly) in focus.
Tommy Ratkiewicz-Stierwalt (Miguel).
In the prop area, Barbara Collins gives Baby Jesus the heave ho to borrow some of the hay in His manager.
Paula Sands as Vivian Borne ponders a clue.
The cast of “The Fruitcake That Saved Christmas” react.
The lovely Brandy (Alisabeth Von Presley) and her mother Vivian (Paula Sands).
Director of Photography Chad Bishop.
Tracy Pelzer-Timm (Martha; wardrobe), Jodi Hansen (continuity) and Barb Collins (Production Manager).
Alisabeth Von Presley and Barb Collins.
Alisabeth Von Presley and Paula Sands.
Rene Mauck (Louise Lamont).* * *

The Kickstarter for True Noir: The Assassination of Anton Cermak (from the casebooks of Nathan Heller) has 9 days to go! If you enjoy my work, please jump on board.

M.A.C.

Do I Have New Projects for You!

I have been meaning to mention this, but it’s so odd…and oddly wonderful…that I haven’t got around to it, till now.

But I have two indie movies shooting right now. If you make these update/blogs a regular stop, you’ll already know I am in the midst of a two-week shoot on Death by Fruitcake, bringing to life the Antiques/Trash ‘n’ Treasures mystery series that Barb and I write as “Barbara Allan.”

More about that later.

But another movie I scripted, Mickey Spillane’s Saturday Night in Cap City, began shooting its two-week schedule on the very same day Fruitcake started rolling.

Sharing script credit with me is director David Wexler. He is also one of the stars of the movie. We have been developing this project for several years – and were about to begin a more elaborate version when Covid kicked in and de-railed us for a time. David became a fan of Mickey Spillane and me out of a general enthusiasm for Hard Case Crime. He knew Mike Hammer wouldn’t be available, but inquired about the novella “A Bullet for Satisfaction,” which I completed for inclusion with Mickey’s final completed novel, The Last Stand, which HCC published.

Read about the talented David Wexler .

David had me work up a script based on the novella, which I did in tandem with him, and we worked on it in that fashion for some time. When that somewhat ambitious version didn’t get sufficiently off the ground, one of us suggested (I think possibly David, because of an actress he thought could be signed) for me to use my Ms. Tree muscles and turn the protagonist – a rather typical Spillane cop anti-hero – “Dex” Dexter – into a female. This was a fairly elaborate rewrite, if a fun, challenging one; but the Spillane story remained largely intact.

This version attracted several female stars and, again, almost got off the ground. When it seemed doomed to stall yet again, I shared my Blue Christmas approach with David – limit the story to one set and make a micro budget possible.

“A Bullet for Satisfaction” began at the crime scene in a hotel where a wild party had taken place…and also the murder of the mayor of this equally wild town.

David liked the idea, and I wrote a new draft and he adapted it to fit a location he could acquire. For some time the film had been called simply Cap City, but I suggested Saturday Night in Cap City to reflect the action taking place in a hotel suite after a swinging Saturday night party.

That we are shooting simultaneously is a complete coincidence, though it’s a fun way to show that I am indeed back in the filmmaking game. The black-and-white photos here are from the production in progress.

director/co-star David Wexler* * *

A very nice early review of Quarry’s Return has rolled in from Publisher’s Weekly. Here it is:

Quarry’s Return
Max Allan Collins. Hard Case Crime, $12.95 trade paper.
Retired hit man Quarry returns to the killing business with ruthless efficiency in the highly satisfying 17th entry in Collins’s crime series (after Quarry’s Blood). When a journalist shows up at Quarry’s door searching for his daughter, bestselling true crime author Susan Breedlove, Quarry senses trouble. Predictably, the reporter turns out to be a hired assassin, and his expert knife skills make him more than a match for the 71-year-old ex-killer. Fortunately, Quarry’s former lover Luann Lloyd, who he believed was dead, arrives in the nick of time to rescue him. But Quarry’s daughter is far from safe; evidence suggests she’s been abducted while investigating a series of cold case murders, forcing Quarry to return to Port City, Iowa, where he met Susan’s mother and left contract killing, and where Susan had been conducting research. With Luann’s help, Quarry begins his own investigation into the killings Susan was writing about, in the belief that exposing the culprit will lead him to her. The fluid narration is better than ever, and Collins brings the proceedings to an exhilarating and unexpected conclusion. Fans will hope Quarry returns again soon. (Nov.)* * *

The first week of Death by Fruitcake went extremely well, sometimes surprisingly so – this is the first time I remember on a movie set where we completed the day’s work early…and it happened most days.

This week will be harder. Our male lead, Rob Merritt (star of Blue Christmas), is working only on the second week, meaning the first week had to shoot material that, obviously, didn’t involve his character. So we shot 30 pages of a 90-page script, meaning (my math skills come into play here) we have 60 pages yet to shoot. We do have an extra day (we’re working Saturday), but that hardly covers it.

I am not worried because this cast is doing incredibly well, and when Rob comes in, a real pro will be among us (as are Paula Sands and Alisabeth Von Presley). This bunch works hard and never complains, making for a real team effort. Also, our first week knocked off some of the most elaborate, toughest scenes on the schedule.

There are always fires to put out, and changes that have to be made on the spot, which is why I think having the writer be the director makes a lot of sense. Barb and I spent much of the weekend studying shooting schedules and call sheets and making last-minute arrangements.

Friday night had us bringing in a group of around sixty or seventy to be the audience for the play-within-the-movie, Vivian Borne’s The Fruitcake That Saved Christmas. My grandson Sam and granddaughter Lucy were among the highly cooperative audience members who gave us what we needed (“Now laugh big, as if you just saw for the first time Gene Wilder’s big scene in The Producers!”) even as they had a good time doing it.

Producer/director of photography Chad Bishop had a stellar week and rounded it off with a screen cameo as Louis Wilder, who accompanies wheelchair-bound FDR to the fruitcake factory to be presented with the key to the city. Turns out that specific fruitcake has surprising recuperative powers….

This is hard work but I love it. I never dreamed I’d be back on set again in this lifetime. Glad I was wrong.

Alisabeth Von Presley as Brandy; Paula Sands as Mother
The Suspects (some of ’em)
Tommy Ratkiewicz-Stierwalt as FDR (with M.A.C.)
The Least Efficient Assembly Line Anywhere (with M.A.C.)* * *

We appear to be very close to making a deal with the terrific actor we have chosen to play Nate Heller in True Noir: The Assassination of Anton Cermak. In case you haven’t been by lately, that’s our fully immersive audio drama based on the first Heller novel, True Detective. The ten-episode production is written by me and directed by Robert Meyer Burnett. Our fellow producers are Mike Bawden and Phil Dingeldein. It’s an Imagination Connoisseurs presentation.

You can order True Noir in various forms from our Kickstarter page here.

The Kickstarter campaign ends in 17 days, so get crackin’. As of Sunday we were at $20,290 of a $30,000 goal. Unlike most such crowd-funding campaigns, you will receive what you order in a short period of time. We already have most of our amazing cast recorded, and editing and sound design are well under way.

True Noir is one of the best (and rewarding) projects of my fifty-year career.

M.A.C.

Death by Fruitcake Begins Production, Thanks to Barb

Day one on the set of Death by Fruitcake.

When this update appears, we’ll be in our second day of shooting Death by Fruitcake. The week since I last posted found us heavily in post-production mode. It’s been intense but gratifying to see things coming together.

The real pleasure has been working so closely with my wife on this project. She had been intimately involved in my productions – really our productions – in the ten-plus years we did quite a little bit of indie filmmaking. Mommy and Mommy’s Day saw her filling a production manager role, and those productions would not have been possible without her. The same is true of Real Time: Siege at Lucas Street Market (2001) and Eliot Ness: An Untouchable Life (2005), as well as my two documentaries, Mike Hammer’s Mickey Spillane (1998) and Caveman: V.T. Hamlin and Alley Oop (2005).

She has an unfailing eye for detail and a gift for dealing with all sorts of people. And her storytelling abilities are obvious to anyone who’s read her short stories or the novels we’ve done together, in particular the Antiques (Trash ‘n’ Treasures) mystery series.

But there were travails involved with all of those productions, proud as I am (and I think she is too) of all of them. Mommy was a baptism by fire. Difficulties with the director led to letting him go after the first two weeks of a four-week shoot (I was producer and writer), meaning I had to fill the director’s role without any experience or prep, just years of being a movie buff. When I lost the Dick Tracy scripting gig after fifteen years, indie filmmaking was another way to make some money…I thought.

And we had some success, particularly with the two Mommy movies, but my co-producer – my best friend since high school – stole a good deal of the money (he was convicted of a felony for doing so). Nonetheless, we did get a sale to Lifetime where Mommy aired in primetime, and both it and the sequel were chainwide Blockbuster buys (a big deal in those days). I was deeply involved in filmmaking during those years, which included the Road to Perdition (2002) sale and the Quarry movie, The Last Lullaby (2008), which I co-scripted. Several short films happened during that period as well.

But the betrayal by my former best friend and the many difficulties of indie filmmaking – getting the money to make even modest productions was (and is) a nightmare – had me walking away from that pursuit, though there have been some screenplays produced (by others) and, thankfully, occasional options on my books for TV and movies (and on screenplays). CBS Films has Eliot Ness and the Mad Butcher (2020, by Brad Schwartz and me) under option right now, and I think Nolan is still under option, too. Might have run out while I wasn’t looking, though.

Anyway, indie filmmaking was a past pursuit. The closest I came to it was writing two Mike Hammer audio books for Stacy Keach and a full cast, one of which won an Audie for Best Original Work (The Little Death) and the other (Encore for Murder) was similarly nominated, and produced as a play starring Gary Sandy in venues at Owensboro, Kentucky, and Clearwater, Florida. Then I was asked to allow Encore to be produced, radio-play-style, here in Muscatine, Iowa, as a fund raiser for the local Art Center.

I consented, as some of you know, and brought in my Mommy’s Day co-star Gary Sandy (WKRP in Cincinnati, of course) to play Mike Hammer. When I attended the first rehearsal (Gary would be coming in a few days in advance of the actual production), I was pleasantly surprised to find the local cast very good.

Barb had endorsed my involvement (I was co-director as well as writer) but wanted no participation. She was retired from movies and anything vaguely related. The theft of the Mommy money had threatened our house and she remained understandably bitter. But I encouraged her to come to the next rehearsal to see if I was kidding myself thinking these local thespians were pretty darn good. She came and agreed.

Then when Gary Sandy came in and did a terrific job as Hammer in rehearsal, I contacted my longtime collaborator, Phil Dingeldein (director of photographer on all of my features), and convinced him to come to Muscatine to shoot the one live performance. He did this (and shot a dress rehearsal, too, to give us extra coverage). The idea was to use it as a bonus feature on our revised updated version of Mike Hammer’s Mickey Spillane, which we did (it’s available from VCI at Amazon right now).

Barb stayed pretty much aloof from that production, for which Chad Bishop (who was a cast member) worked with Phil on the Encore shoot and edited it into a movie or a program or some damn thing. It came out pretty well, I think, and is available on DVD separately from VCI as well as on the Spillane documentary.

Anyway, that experience got the indie filmmaking juices flowing again and Chad and I (with Phil onboard as d.p.) decided to do Blue Christmas, which I’ve been discussing here quite a bit. Barb gave her blessing but refused to be a part of it. She’d had enough of the hard work and misery that accompanies any kind of filmmaking.

But a few days out from the production (this was last October), I had some very stressful situations relating to the production that sent me back into a-fib. And Barb got on board. She again made the production run smoothly. Ask anyone who the MVP on Blue Christmas was and they’ll say Barb.

Now we’re doing one more – Death by Fruitcake. I tricked her into being part of it by basing this one on our Antiques series, specifically a novella, Antiques Fruitcake in Antiques Ho Ho Homicides. She is caught up in it, with me, and doing a stellar job. It’s unimaginable without her.

Ask anybody in the cast or on the crew.

Again, she has made it clear this is her last production. I believe her. I always do. So this is probably my last indie movie, too – unless somebody gives me enough money to hire a production manager as good as Barbara Collins. Which is itself a long shot for more than one reason….

Barbara Allan

Blue Christmas, by the way, is already available for pre-order at Amazon (it’s a November 11, 2024 release).

And you can read about Blue Christmas at Blu-ray.com, right here.

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Just in case I haven’t given you enough reasons to spend money on me this time around, keep in mind the clock is ticking on the Kickstarter effort to back True Noir: the Assassination of Anton Cermak, based on my novel True Detective in a fully immersive audio drama in ten parts and written by (again) me. It has an amazing cast, and a great director (Robert Meyer Burnett).

Scroll down a ways in this Digital Bits column and get the skinny on True Noir.

M.A.C.

Crusin’ Bids Farewell, True Noir Keeps Rollin’ & Death by Fruitcake Waits in the Wings

As I write this on Sunday afternoon (August 11), I am preparing to perform with Crusin’ at our final scheduled event. While it’s possible a reunion or two may happen in the future (not a certainty, either the reunion or the future), this is the end for a group I loved appearing with and heading up. I risk forgetting someone, but I want to salute all of the members, past and present, for the great years, the many gigs, and the countless laughs we shared.

Thank you to the late great Paul Thomas, Bruce Peters, Lenny Sloat, Chuck Bunn, Jim Van Winkle, Brian Van Winkle, and the still among us Ric Steed, Rob Gal, Denny Maxwell, DeWayne Hopkins, Jaimie Hopkins, Steve Kundel, Bill Anson, and Scott Anson. If I’ve overlooked anyone, my apologies — but fifty years is a long time. We made it into the Iowa Rock ‘ Roll Hall of Fame in 2018 and every member past and present was acknowledged as an inductee. Singling anyone out is probably a mistake, but I have to especially acknowledge my late friend Paul Thomas, who co-founded Crusin’ with me in 1974.

“Crusin’” is a misspelling, by the way, because we bought T-shirts for the band’s debut with the word spelled the (wrong) way and conformed to the shirts.

What follows are some photos from the farewell gig, which as I type this has not yet occurred. We didn’t publicize it widely as our last appearance, so I don’t know if word got around or not. If we had a nice crowd, that may be reflected in some of these photos.

On stage, one last time
Loyal fans and friends Charlie and Karlyn.
Sam and Nate Collins
A nice turn-out and a most receptive audience* * *

If you follow this weekly update/blogs of mine, you know about True Noir, the fully immersive audio drama based on my 1984 Best Novel Shamus winner, True Detective, first of the 19 Nathan Heller novels. It’s directed by Robert Meyer Burnett, who is doing a stellar job. Rob and I are also producers along with Mike Bawden (Rob’s partner in Imaginations Connoisseurs Unlimited) and Christine Sheaks (our casting guru).

To give you an idea of the level of our cast, which has mostly already recorded their parts, the next scheduled to be recorded is Patton Oswalt.

Here is a sample: Anthony LaPaglia as Al Capone in True Noir:

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A post shared by Robert Meyer Burnett (@rmburnett)

Here’s Bill Smitrovich in the studio:

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Bill being part of True Noir means a lot to me – he was one of the stars of my longtime favorite Crime Story, played Lt. Cramer on Nero Wolfe, and was the lead villain in the Quarry movie, The Last Lullaby.

If you haven’t already, please join the Kickstarter campaign, where you can order True Noir now in various ways.

* * *

And as if all this activity weren’t enough for a 76 year-old man (but I am younger than Trump), it’s now less than a week from the first day of shooting Death by Fruitcake.

Barb and I as well as producer/d.p. Chad Bishop and our minions (you know who you are) have been working hard to transform various areas of the New Era Church’s playhouse into our movie set. We are bringing Vivian and Brandy Borne to life in a movie based on the novella, Antiques Fruitcake. The author of the Antiques/Trash ‘n’ Treasures mysteries (around 16 now, I calculate) is Barbara Allan, which is Barbara Allan and Max Allan Collins.

Our terrific cast is led by legendary Midwest broadcaster Paula Sands (recently retired from her daily Paula Sands Live show at KWQC in Davenport), Midwestern superstar Alisabeth Von Presley (of American Idol and America Song Contest fame) and Rob Merritt (much in-demand Iowa-based actor who starred in Blue Christmas). Alisabeth is in Blue Christmas, too, and Paula spoofed her own popular program in Mommy’s Day.

I’ll have set pics to share with you next week.

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The incredible I, THE JURY release with my commentary (and the film on Blu-ray, 4K and 3D), is on sale at an equally incredible price here:

https://www.classicflix.com/products/i-the-jury-special-limited-edition-4k-uhd-bd-3dbd-combo

It’s a woefully unrated film and if you’re a Spillane/Hammer fan (including the Spillane/Collins collaborations), you won’t want to miss this.

M.A.C.

True Noir in Production & Death by Fruitcake Cooking

True Noir: The Assassination of Anton Cermak is one of – it not the – most exciting and fulfilling projects of my career.

My 300-page-plus script for the ten-episode fully immersive audio drama, directed by Robert Meyer Burnett (Free Enterprise), is in production now. Frank Nitti has just been cast and a very famous actor (I’ll be able to reveal it next week) is being recorded by Rob Burnett the day after this update/blog appears.

Here is the full San Diego Comic Con “True Noir” panel (minus my prerecorded introduction – posted here last week).

Rob Burnett is an incredibly talented, smart human, and you can get a glimpse of that in this True Noir-centric interview conducted (again) at the recent San Diego Comic Con.

All of this comes from an article here.

If you’re interested and able, please support this project. I’m really proud of this one.

* * *

When this update appears, we will be less than two weeks away from the first day of our two-week shoot on Death by Fruitcake, which will bring Vivian and Brandy Borne, the sleuth stars of the Antiques novels, to life.

We had a terrific table read with all but two of the cast present at producer/director of photography Chad Bishop’s house. Here’s a glimpse at our three stars, Midwest broadcasting legend Paula Sands, Midwest superstar performer Alisabeth Von Presley, and Iowa’s most honored actor Rob Merritt (the latter two are stars of Blue Christmas), pictured with yours truly, very much outclassed.

I will be full time on the production now through the two weeks of shooting at the end of this month. We are spending a good deal of time at the New Era Church playhouse, on the edge of Wild Cat Den (some of you will remember it as the setting for the climax of Mommy’s Day). Much cleaning and sweeping and arrangement of sets within the playhouse has been going on, as well as scoping things out to see how the script conforms to the actual locations. I had taken a trip out to the playhouse before I scripted Fruitcake, but a few photos and my fraying memory weren’t enough – I need to spend some time there, some of it with Chad Bishop, figuring out where and how to shoot things.

Our house is piling up with props and wardrobe and what have you for the coming production.

I am working on a shot list for the entire movie, which is one of the most difficult things I’ve ever attempted. There is a strong possibility this will be my last indie film production, so I intend to bring everything I can to it. That includes Barb and me funding the production. As was the case with Blue Christmas, we did not get the Greenlight Grant (Iowa Arts & Culture) grant we applied for, despite a knockout “look book” submission by Chad Bishop. I am convinced this program is looking only at projects that are deemed politically correct and not entertainment-oriented – despite their mission statement indicating otherwise.

Or perhaps my involvement hurts us with Greenlight, because the assumption may be made that I don’t need their help. They remind me of the starlet who was so dumb she slept with the writer.

* * *

Next Sunday (Aug. 11) will mark the end of my rock ‘n’ roll career, which began in 1965. It’s possible a reunion or two could happen at some time in the future, though that’s perhaps unlikely. This major part of my creative life is hard to shake loose of, but the time has come.

We have our last rehearsal tomorrow night (the Monday before this appears).

Information about the event is here.

* * *

This update and the next few will be rather short because my time is gobbled up by this film production. But I will be sharing behind-the-scenes photos and info with you, as well as exciting news about True Noir, including who we’re casting as Nate Heller and Frank Nitti.

Again, we did not run a crowd-funding campaign for Death by Fruitcake, because I want to put that emphasis on True Noir. When you go to Kickstarter to support that campaign, you will be able to purchase the entire ten-episode audio drama at that point – the projected delivery date to those who’ve pre-ordered the drama is the end of September.

If you’ve ever read a Nathan Heller novel and thought, “Wow, this would make a great movie,” you will want to support this (and own the result).

* * *

A first-rate look at the film version of Road to Perdition can be seen here. This one is good enough to have been excerpted several places, including the IMDB.

M.A.C.