Brian Greene talks to Larry Withers about his new documentary on one of the greats of noir fiction at Al Guthrie's NOIR ZINE.
David Goodis’s personal life story is sheer noir, as grittily desperate as the tragic, hardboiled novels penned by the “poet of the losers.” Much of his tale is already well known to anyone who’s read up on him: his rise to success as a novelist and screenwriter when his pulp classic Dark Passage was made into a Hollywood film, and when Goodis was subsequently hired on as a well-paid Warner’s scriptwriter; his return to his parents’ home in Philadelphia after a handful or so of unhappy years in Hollywood; the picture of him living out his last years haunting the seediest corners of Philly, then holing up in his childhood bedroom and pumping out classics like Down There (famously and brilliantly adapted for the Truffaut film Shoot the Piano Player), The Blonde on the Street Corner, Of Tender Sin, etc.
The documentary was made by Larry Withers, who happens to be Elaine’s son. When his mother died in 1986 Withers discovered among her effects papers relating to a marriage, and subsequent divorce, that no one in the family knew about. He came to realize that his mother’s partner in this clandestine marriage was a writer named David Goodis. Withers got intrigued and started learning about Goodis, and his thorough research into the author’s life story and writing record serves as the basis of the documentary.
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