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The Spanish Prisoner & The Winslow Boy
Pulitzer Prize winner David Mamet ranks among the century's most influential writers for stage and screen. His dialogue--abrasive, rhythmic--illuminates a modern aesthetic evocative of Samuel Beckett. His plots--surprising, comic, topical--have evoked comparisons to masters from Alfred Hitchcock to Arthur Miller. Here are two screenplays demonstrating the astounding range of Mamet's talents.
The Spanish Prisoner , a neo-noir thriller about a research-and-development cog hoodwinked out of his own brilliant discovery, demonstrates Mamet's incomparable use of character in a dizzying tale of twists and mistaken identity. The Winslow Boy , Mamet's revisitation of Terence Rattigan's classic 1946 play, tells of a thirteen-year-old boy accused of stealing a five-shilling postal order and the tug of war for truth that ensues between his middle-class family and the Royal Navy. Crackling with wit, intelligent and surprising, The Spanish Prisoner and The Winslow Boy celebrate Mamet's unique genius and our eternal fascination with the extraordinary predicaments of the common man.
The Spanish Prisoner , a neo-noir thriller about a research-and-development cog hoodwinked out of his own brilliant discovery, demonstrates Mamet's incomparable use of character in a dizzying tale of twists and mistaken identity. The Winslow Boy , Mamet's revisitation of Terence Rattigan's classic 1946 play, tells of a thirteen-year-old boy accused of stealing a five-shilling postal order and the tug of war for truth that ensues between his middle-class family and the Royal Navy. Crackling with wit, intelligent and surprising, The Spanish Prisoner and The Winslow Boy celebrate Mamet's unique genius and our eternal fascination with the extraordinary predicaments of the common man.
224 pages, Paperback
First published September 7, 1999
About the author
David Mamet
260 books748 followersDavid Alan Mamet is an American author, essayist, playwright, screenwriter and film director. His works are known for their clever, terse, sometimes vulgar dialogue and arcane stylized phrasing, as well as for his exploration of masculinity.
As a playwright, he received Tony nominations for Glengarry Glen Ross (1984) and Speed-the-Plow (1988). As a screenwriter, he received Oscar nominations for The Verdict (1982) and Wag the Dog (1997).
Mamet's recent books include The Old Religion (1997), a novel about the lynching of Leo Frank; Five Cities of Refuge: Weekly Reflections on Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy (2004), a Torah commentary, with Rabbi Lawrence Kushner; The Wicked Son (2006), a study of Jewish self-hatred and antisemitism; and Bambi vs. Godzilla, an acerbic commentary on the movie business.
As a playwright, he received Tony nominations for Glengarry Glen Ross (1984) and Speed-the-Plow (1988). As a screenwriter, he received Oscar nominations for The Verdict (1982) and Wag the Dog (1997).
Mamet's recent books include The Old Religion (1997), a novel about the lynching of Leo Frank; Five Cities of Refuge: Weekly Reflections on Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy (2004), a Torah commentary, with Rabbi Lawrence Kushner; The Wicked Son (2006), a study of Jewish self-hatred and antisemitism; and Bambi vs. Godzilla, an acerbic commentary on the movie business.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 12, 2011
I actually worked on 'Spanish Prisoner'!!
:)
:)
August 3, 2024
Smartly scripted stories with some engaging dialogue and clever twists.
July 9, 2025
Two screenplays. The first is my favorite Mamet film. The second is Mamet's film version of the great Terence Rattigan play.
July 28, 2010
(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)
As I mentioned last week, I've finally gotten my Sony eBook Reader to start playing nice with the website of the Chicago Public Library, which now allows me to partake of the futuristic activity of checking out digital library books (a clever system run by Adobe in which loaned books literally erase themselves off your device after three weeks); and since the CPL's current collection of around three thousand electronic titles is so bizarre and random right now, I've decided to use it to catch up on bizarre and random picks myself, for example like Vintage's bound 1999 collection of two David Mamet screenplays, 1997's The Spanish Prisoner and 1998's The Winslow Boy. Both screenplays are great, although couldn't be more different from each other, and in fact I suspect were only collected together in the first place as a simple promotional project, in that the films themselves were released only a year apart: The Spanish Prisoner is a modern thriller concerning an ultra-complicated con game, memorably starring Steve Martin in a non-comedic role as the actual con man; The Winslow Boy, on the other hand, is a slow-moving Edwardian drama about the ways that honor and reputation used to be so important even from a practical aspect in British aristocratic society. Both are fine reads, although if you're not checking them out of the library randomly yourself, you'd probably be better off simply renting the actual films.
Out of 10: 8.4
As I mentioned last week, I've finally gotten my Sony eBook Reader to start playing nice with the website of the Chicago Public Library, which now allows me to partake of the futuristic activity of checking out digital library books (a clever system run by Adobe in which loaned books literally erase themselves off your device after three weeks); and since the CPL's current collection of around three thousand electronic titles is so bizarre and random right now, I've decided to use it to catch up on bizarre and random picks myself, for example like Vintage's bound 1999 collection of two David Mamet screenplays, 1997's The Spanish Prisoner and 1998's The Winslow Boy. Both screenplays are great, although couldn't be more different from each other, and in fact I suspect were only collected together in the first place as a simple promotional project, in that the films themselves were released only a year apart: The Spanish Prisoner is a modern thriller concerning an ultra-complicated con game, memorably starring Steve Martin in a non-comedic role as the actual con man; The Winslow Boy, on the other hand, is a slow-moving Edwardian drama about the ways that honor and reputation used to be so important even from a practical aspect in British aristocratic society. Both are fine reads, although if you're not checking them out of the library randomly yourself, you'd probably be better off simply renting the actual films.
Out of 10: 8.4
August 21, 2008
Loved "The Winslow Boy" - it is charming and clever, interesting and subtle. I definitely didn't like "The Spanish Prisoner" - overwhelmingly frustrating, empty of characterization, with a wimpy protagonist.
February 5, 2017
The scam is alive!
April 25, 2010
Here we have a complete cross-over literary product: Screenplay, Film, Stageplay, Book.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews