There’s a Bad Moon Risin’ at Club Max
Updated: Oct 1, 2023
“Can you tell me how to get to Club Max?”
“You need ta show me some form of I.D. Duck face. Do you know who I am?”
“Yeah, a slob who’s trying to eat two donuts at once.”
“I’m Kip Bosco.”
“Oh, yeah that crooked vice cop.”
“Don’t make me have to beat you up.”
“I heard that one of Matthias Jones players fell in love with a wild woman right here at Club Max.”
” Maybe yes… Maybe no.”
“Anyone ever tell you you’re very aggravating?”
“That’s enough, Duck Face.”
” Put away the handcuffs!”
“Hey Bosco! What the hell are ya doin’? You don’t treat my customers like your shit-bum friends and dirty cops.”
“This clown is causin’ trouble, Cocoa.”
“That right?”
“He wants to know how one of your girls set up the kid from Hamilton College.”
” I had nothin’ ta do with it, Fat Boy. Woman was a hooker. Hey Bruno. Get Bosco the hell out of here. No. I’m out back.”
“I’m packin’ heat, Cocoa.”
“The only thing you’re packin’ Kip is a forty-six waist.”
“Excuse me the name is Daniels.”
“So what?”
“I’m helping Coach Jones solve the Club Max Murder, Watson.”
“Get lost, stiff and you Bosco you’re all done.”
“I say, that is rather rude.”
“Rude is my middle name. Scram. You know what ta do with Fat boy, Bruno.”
“Hands off the blazer, Bruno. This was the last one left at the thrift store.”
The Club Max Murder has a hooker, a Sherlock Holmes buff, and a crooked cop. The stage is set for a naive football player to fall head over heels for the proverbial hooker who was hanging out at Club Max. To keep your attention, we’ll talk about actress who have played hookers in the pre-code era on big screen
Joan Crawford in Rain a 1932, a pre-code film drama. Crawford plays prostitute Sadie Thompson. Also, in 1932 Marlene Dietrich scintillates in the film The Blonde Venus. Same year Harlow with Gable in Red Dust with the infamous bath scene now colorized.
Harlow and Gable
Okay, I could continue this angle ad infinitum. The point is that Jones’s star player Joe Svoboda links up with the antithesis is his girlfriend, Marlena Peterson. But then the hooker is dead, and Svoboda was seen running from a upper level apartment, Jones’s star player is in huge trouble.
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The crooked cop who’s always on the take is Kip Bosco of the Prince William Police Department. Bosco is all too happy to accuse Cocoa of being a pimp and Svoboda of murdering the lady. The stereotypical cop on the take is an eye opener like the prostitute. Bosco isn’t dangerous, just a self aggrandizing incompetent fool who thinks he can beat everybody up. On TV and in movies the corrupt law officer can be much more dangerous.
While Kip Bosco packed away Big Mama’s donuts, Carson Wolf (Punisher) could easily pack a Glock 17.
Carson Wolf
“Tonight’s the night you’re gonna die, Frank. The third time’s the charm. The fricking Punisher? You’re pathetic. I almost feel sorry for you. We knew exactly where you’d be. Exactly where to go to get you. You bored your squad shitless talking about your homecoming tradition. Picnic in the park, Frank? You really were your mama’s little apple pie, weren’t you?”
Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in NYC: Tammy Hattley. (Not in original Daredevil Comic) Blackmailed into working for Kingpin. Later leads entire FBI sub-division of handpicked and blackmailed agents.
The late Bill Paxton played Detective Frank Rourke a dirty cop who simply took what he wanted because he deserved it!
Paxton as O’Rourke
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In the Club Max Murder, we can’t trust Kip Bosco unless of course we slip him a couple of Ben Franklins. And how does Svoboda talk his way out of fleeing the scene of the woman’s murder. And add a knife being found in the alley below. Enter the Sherlock Holmes buff. Mr. Daniels is in this book for several reasons. Everyone knows Sherlock Holmes. Daniels is a nudge which messes up what Jones is investigating to save his star player. Yet Daniels does have an extensive data base of Sherlock Holmes quotes and stories locked inside his head. And he drives this 1957 Edsel.
Sherlock Holmes has been portrayed at this writing 254 times in movies and TV. (Guinness Book of Records)
Disney: The Great Mouse Detective
Brett as Holmes
The Granada Series: Jeremy Brett as Holmes, maybe the best adaptation of Holmes.
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)
Enola Holmes: Sherlock’s teenage sister Enola.
Holmes from different angles.
With so many versions of Arthur Conan Doyle’s character Daniels is probably the nudge version. But he astounds Jones at Club Max with one little idiosyncrasy: this nudge is a ladies’ man which makes no sense and with his mild manners it’s incredible how he puts away the hard liquor. And Jones is stuck with him. But alas what Cocoa has in store for Daniels is a case of ‘he got what was coming to him!’
Why the fascination with Holmes? Because most of us don’t take in the detail and process it like Holmes. That is a magical quality. And with magic comes invincibility and power. I can picture Mr. Daniels over the years reading and watching Holmes. And now right in his very apartment building he gets to take up the gauntlet.
And let’s not forget all the other characters who react to Holmes and Daniels in the Club Max Murder. Great way to drive a story. But little old Jones is snooping around while Daniel’s performs his theatrics. While everyone can respect Jones and his side road theories, they also are off on the adventure with him against those who don’t want to be caught.
Wow. I almost left without mentioning the suspects. Which I won’t. I’ll only say they are very convincing and the last showdown on the Hamilton College campus is a doozy! It’s The Club Max Murder by R.P. Fitton.
I’m Robert P. Fitton and I’m out of here!
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