Great Caper Movie

Dear The Hot Rock" fan,

I read your post about "The Hot Rock", my favorite movie of all time ever since I was 11 years old when I first saw it. (I just dated myself).
I must say, I envy you in that you get to read ALL the Dortmunder Series novels for the first time. I first got into them a few years after I saw the film, when I discovered there WAS a book that the film was based on. That was 1975 or so. I checked the book out of my High School library repeatedly and typed up the whole thing because I could not find the book ANYwhere! Yes...I was desperate and on a mission. I didn't revisit Westlake until college in '79 when I made the wonderful discovery of "Bank Shot", "Jimmy the Kid", and "Nobody's Perfect", and the rest is history. I continued to wait every 3 or so years for each Dortmunder book to come out. I am totally in love with Dortmunder and Kelp. Each page is like candy.
You will enjoy ALL of them but the first two are the best. The latest one, "Raod to Ruin" had a few good chuckles in it that made me laugh out loud. Every Westlake/Dortmunder novel does that for me.
One word of warning however,....the books don't always translate to movies well. They have Stephen King's Disease. "The Hot Rock" is the BEST of the BEST. "Bank Shot" is an awful movie adaption but the inherent story is still hilarious. "What's the Worst That Can Happen" is a decent little flick. "Why Me" is a travesty as far as a film goes.
I'm still waiting for them to make a film of "Dancing Aztecs", which is on the vein of, "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World". It's Not a Dortmunder Series novel but Very funny just the same.
Also----If you like Hardcore Crime, check out Westlake's Psuedonymns and his Parker Series novels. Like "Payback", the film. Westlake has also written and been nominated for an Oscar for his Screenplay to "The Grifters", from Thompson's novel. It's a GREAT movie too w/ John Cusak, Angelica Houston, and Annette Bening. Westlake is not a fan of Stephen King, but Stephen King has made several references to Westlake and his writing persona's in his novels and films. In "The Dark Half", Stephen King named his protaganist after a Westlake character.
When I asked Donald E. Westlake where he got the name for Dortmunder, he told me the German beer. There is a cute little anectdote about Westlake devising the character and the first three capers in "The Hot Rock", and then placing the manuscript aside because he just didn't know how to end it. Years later, he ran into it again in the closet and finished it. To think of how close we came to NEVER meeting Dortmunder. And Westy, as I am fond of calling him, practically INVENTED the new genre of Comedy/Crime/Caper. As you can tell, I am his biggest fan. NOT to be confused with the Kathy Bates character in MISERY.
One more interesting note, though I could go on for days about him....years ago after a Westlake film was made into yet another disappointing film, they film company tried to SUE Westlake for the names of Dortmunder and Kelp, if you can believe it, trying to maintain that they were a property of theirs now. Westlake, the never say die, hysterical, good natured fellow that he is, came out with a short story that he SWORE up and down had nothing to do with the characters named in the lawsuit. It was about two bungling crooks who were pals and did work together. The stoic quiet put upon one was named Rumsy and the chipper sidekick was named Algea. hahahahahhahahaha! That's Westy!!!

Dear jmb27, (Sorry if this is in repeat...)

I read your post about "The Hot Rock", my favorite movie of all time ever since I was 11 years old when I first saw it. (I just dated myself).
I must say, I envy you in that you get to read ALL the Dortmunder Series novels for the first time. I first got into them a few years after I saw the film, when I discovered there WAS a book that the film was based on. That was 1975 or so. I checked the book out of my High School library repeatedly and typed up the whole thing because I could not find the book ANYwhere! Yes...I was desperate and on a mission. I didn't revisit Westlake until college in '79 when I made the wonderful discovery of "Bank Shot", "Jimmy the Kid", and "Nobody's Perfect", and the rest is history. I continued to wait every 3 or so years for each Dortmunder book to come out. I am totally in love with Dortmunder and Kelp. Each page is like candy.
You will enjoy ALL of them but the first two are the best. The latest one, "Raod to Ruin" had a few good chuckles in it that made me laugh out loud. Every Westlake/Dortmunder novel does that for me.
One word of warning however,....the books don't always translate to movies well. They have Stephen King's Disease. "The Hot Rock" is the BEST of the BEST. "Bank Shot" is an awful movie adaption but the inherent story is still hilarious. "What's the Worst That Can Happen" is a decent little flick. "Why Me" is a travesty as far as a film goes.
I'm still waiting for them to make a film of "Dancing Aztecs", which is on the vein of, "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World". It's Not a Dortmunder Series novel but Very funny just the same.
Also----If you like Hardcore Crime, check out Westlake's Pseudonyms and his Parker Series novels. Like "Payback", the film. Westlake has also written and been nominated for an Oscar for his Screenplay to "The Grifters", from Thompson's novel. It's a GREAT movie too w/ John Cusak, Angelica Houston, and Annette Bening. Westlake is not a fan of Stephen King, but Stephen King has made several references to Westlake and his writing persona's in his novels and films. In "The Dark Half", Stephen King named his protagonist after a Westlake character.
When I asked Donald E. Westlake where he got the name for Dortmunder, he told me the German beer. There is a cute little anecdote about Westlake devising the character and the first three capers in "The Hot Rock", and then placing the manuscript aside because he just didn't know how to end it. Years later, he ran into it again in the closet and finished it. To think of how close we came to NEVER meeting Dortmunder. And Westy, as I am fond of calling him, practically INVENTED the new genre of Comedy/Crime/Caper. As you can tell, I am his biggest fan. NOT to be confused with the Kathy Bates character in MISERY.
One more interesting note, though I could go on for days about him....years ago after a Westlake film was made into yet another disappointing film, they film company tried to SUE Westlake for the names of Dortmunder and Kelp, if you can believe it, trying to maintain that they were a property of theirs now. Westlake, the never say die, hysterical, good natured fellow that he is, came out with a short story that he SWORE up and down had nothing to do with the characters named in the lawsuit. It was about two bungling crooks who were pals and did work together. The stoic quiet put upon one was named Rumsy and the chipper sidekick was named Algea. hahahahahhahahaha! That's Westy!!!

I laugh everytime I watch it. The whole "his ribs are scratching his heart, and any minute are going to tear through!" thing STILL cracks me up!

The only person to ever celebrate Valentines Day correctly was Al Capone!