Ken Harmon's new book is The Fat Man, "a satire of traditional Christmas stories and noir" in which "a hardboiled elf is framed for murder in a North Pole world that plays reindeer games for keeps, and where favorite holiday characters live complex lives beyond December."Here he shares his vision of some classic actors and a director to bring his story to life on the big screen:
In The Fat Man – A Tale of North Pole Noir, Gumdrop Coal is a hard-boiled elf framed for murder in a Kringle Town that’s got more than its fair share of Naughty guys and dolls. In paying homage to the great detective novels of the 30’s and 40’s, naturally I imagined Gumdrop played by a diminutive Humphrey Bogart, a well-traveled fedora pulled down over his pointy elf ears and a wrinkled trench coat to keep the chill of the North Pole in its place. Dingleberry Fizz, Gumdrop’s ever-optimistic best friend, would be a grinning, cow-licked Mickey Rooney and Rosebud Jubilee, a peppermint stick chewing reporter is a mix of the great dames from that era of movies, Barbara Stanwyck, Rosalind Russell and Jean Arthur. Orson Welles would take a star turn as Charles “Candy” Cane, naturally, and the grotesque Not So Tiny Tim could only be played by Charles Laughton. I would sprinkle the rest of the cast with cameos with as many stars of yesteryear that heaven would give me and if Billy Wilder could direct it – that would suit me right down the ground. Perhaps one day there will be a technology that allows us to do just that. (Is there an app for that?)Visit Ken Harmon's website.
Writers Read: Ken Harmon.
The Page 69 Test: The Fat Man.
--Marshal Zeringue