The characters that occupy Max Allan Collins’ imagination often find themselves trapped in the dark alleyways and shadowy corners of the concrete jungle. But in real life, the famed noir writer can most often be found amidst the rolling hills and sharp bluffs of Muscatine.
Collins, who is an independent filmmaker and an accomplished author, gained fame after his graphic novel Road to Perdition was adapted into an Academy Award-winning film of the same name. Through it all, he's continued to call Iowa home.
“I've lived in Muscatine Iowa my entire life,” Collins said. “I'm always running into people in town who say, ‘When did you come back?’ And I say, ‘I never left.’”
Over the course of his career, Collins has produced more than 200 works, including novels, short stories, graphic novels, comics, screenplays, feature films and documentaries.
His latest project, Blue Christmas, is a feature film which he wrote and directed. It marks his sixth independently produced film made in Iowa, all of which explore the mystery genre.
The beginning of a beautiful friendship
At 75 years old, Collins has been writing mystery stories almost as long as he’s been reading them. One of his greatest influences growing up was Mickey Spillane, the crime novelist behind the popular Mike Hammer detective character.
Decades after cracking open his first Spillane story, Collins had the opportunity to meet the man himself. The two became close friends and eventually co-authored dozens of books together. But before that, Collins said he tried countless times to get in touch with his favorite author.
“I started reading him when I was 12 or 13. And I wrote him a ton of fan letters over the years and never heard anything back from him,” Collins recalled. “Then, when my first two novels came out, Bait Money and Blood Money, I sent him copies. At this point now, there's been like ten years of silence. But he wrote me back this long, lovely letter, welcoming me to the mystery-writing community.”
As it turned out, that letter was the beginning of a beautiful friendship that lasted the rest of Spillane’s life. Shortly before his death in 2006, Spillane asked Collins to serve as his literary executor, which meant Collins would be responsible for finishing any incomplete drafts Spillane had started. According to Collins, he's nearly doubled the amount of Spillane publications since then.
“He was important to me because he was somebody I read as a kid, and I never lost my enthusiasm for him,” Collins said.
Remembering his old friend, Collins recalled the times he would sit with Spillane in his office and talk for hours.
“We talked about writing into the night,” Collins said. “He knew that I appreciated him, frankly, as an artist, and I think that meant a lot to him.”
From pulp fiction to the silver screen
During the 1940s, when Spillane was publishing his first crime novels, Hollywood was embracing a new genre that came to be known as film noir.
Known for its distinct black-and-white style and cynical characters, film noir often centered on private investigators, grifters and femme fatales. To tell these dark stories, the film industry turned to the literary world of pulp fiction, also known as hardboiled crime.
The most well-known examples of film noir from that time came from writers like Dashiell Hammett (The Maltese Falcon), Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep) and James M. Cain (The Postman Always Rings Twice).
Spillane’s 1953 novel Kiss Me, Deadly was no exception. In 1955, it was adapted into a decidedly dark and downbeat film by Robert Aldrich, who went on to direct such classics as What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and The Dirty Dozen.
Kiss Me Deadly stars Ralph Meeker as Mike Hammer, a private eye who becomes ensnared in a criminal plot of nuclear proportions. The film opens with Hammer picking up a mysterious hitchhiker who's running barefoot down a deserted highway, wearing nothing but a trench coat. Iowa film fans might recognize that hitchhiker as none other than Des Moines native Cloris Leachman – making her feature film debut.
For Collins, the movie perfectly captures Spillane’s signature style of storytelling.
“When you see the 1955 Kiss Me Deadly, you are inside a 1950s paperback,” Collins said. “It is bizarrely effective.”
Without film adaptations, Collins believes that many writers might be forgotten over time.
“The popular writers who survive have to have some really great movies made out of their work,” Collins said. “Kiss Me Deadly is that movie for Mickey.”
All roads lead to Hollywood
As fate would have it, Collins’ own work as a writer was immortalized with a film adaptation of his 1998 graphic novel Road to Perdition.
Upon its release, the book received positive reviews but, according to Collins, did not change his life. It wasn’t until three years later that he got the call many writers dream of receiving.
“I went on about my business. And then, around 2001, the phone rings,” Collins recalled. “And my agent from New York says, ‘Who's the biggest star in Hollywood?’ I said, ‘I don't know. Bruce Willis.’ They said, ‘No, Tom Hanks. He’s going to star in your movie.’ I said, ‘Wow. What movie?’ They said, ‘Road to Perdition.’”
Several phone calls later, Collins learned of the other Hollywood stars — and up-and-comers — attached to the movie. In addition to Hanks, the film featured Jude Law, Daniel Craig, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Hollywood legend Paul Newman in his final live-action film role. British filmmaker Sam Mendes, who was fresh off his work directing the 1999 Best Picture winner American Beauty, directed the film.
As the story’s original writer, Collins was invited to visit the set during filming. While there, he was struck by how much the Hollywood production mirrored his own sets as a filmmaker back in Iowa.
“Frankly, the thing that really amazed me when I went to the set was that it really wasn't that different from a set in Iowa,” Collins said. “It was bigger. They had better food on the craft service table. It was elaborate in certain respects. But literally the way making a movie functions was the same. It was very comforting to me.”
Making movies in Iowa
Acknowledging the challenges as an independent filmmaker, Collins said the process, while difficult at times, is also not impossible. His latest movie, Blue Christmas, was filmed in six days with a budget of $14,000.
“If you want to be a filmmaker, you have to be willing to sacrifice and just will the film into existence,” Collins said.
Collins has been willing his newest project into existence for nearly 30 years, having first thought of the idea in the early '90s. The film, which he describes as a mash-up between The Maltese Falcon and A Christmas Carol, is a fantasy noir set on Christmas Eve in 1942. In it, a private eye is haunted by the death of his partner and is visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future.
“We have three ghosts who come, and none of them are who you might expect,” Collins explained. “The ghost of Christmas past, played by Alisabeth Von Presley, is Bonnie Parker of Bonnie and Clyde. The ghost of Christmas present is a dead soldier because World War II is going on. And the ghost of Christmas future is basically Elvis Presley.”
Incorporating levity into his otherwise fatalistic narratives is an essential part of Collins’ storytelling — something he said comes easily to him.
“Even though I write some fairly dark stuff at times, there's always humor in it because I think you need that variety and leavening,” he said. “Besides, it just comes natural to me to do humor. And a lot of the stuff that happens in noir is black humor anyway.”
Blue Christmas premieres Feb. 24 in Des Moines at the Fleur Cinema & Café. There will be a Q&A featuring Collins and other cast and crew members after the screening. The film will then screen at three additional theaters across the state, including Collins Road Theatres in Marion on March 13, The Palms 10 in Muscatine on March 16 and The Last Picture House in Davenport on March 22.
