On PSP

Maybe I didn't like The Black Dahlia as much as some others, despite the intensity of how he portrays LA and Mexico of the time, because his main character is not Philip Marlowe. He's sympathetic sometimes, but other times just seems emotionally and mentally screwed up, as Kay agrees. For a long time he stays away from Kay, to stay loyal to his partner, shades of Dashiell Hammett and Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon. But Spade at least turns in his partner's killer. OK, so does Bucky, but not the Dahlia's killer. And the portrait of Mexico brutalized by its police force instead of drug gangs is quite vivid, though I'm not at all sure I really believe they had bars where sailor jacked off in the open while eating pussy. Still, with or without psp, it's impossible to go back in time now and figure out how places as that really were 60 or so years ago. Rough, I'm sure, though.