The 1970s was probably the best time for moviemaking, with none of that CGI overload we get now — just straight-up thrillers, crime flicks and, of course, the occasional human drama. I’ll take Cassavetes any day over some of the big-budget garbage we get thrown at us all the time today. This column features two hidden gems of that time period, while the third is about making a certain kind of film — wink wink, nudge nudge, know what I’m saying?

THE DOMINO PRINCIPLE by Adam Kennedy — A month or two ago, I watched the 1977 movie by the same name starring Gene Hackman and Mickey Rooney, and it suddenly dawned on me that I’d been sitting on this 1975 book in my archives. Roy Tucker is in jail for killing a man, but claims he’s innocent. Then one day, the warden calls him up and introduces him to a mysterious man named Mr Tagge.

Tucker is meet by Tagge a few more times, going over his time in the Army and upbringing. Tucker has no idea why this is going on or even why his cell has been moved to another part of the prison. Tagge explains that Tucker is up for a special job which will get him out of prison scot-free.

Once out after one of the easiest escapes ever, he is sent to Chicago, where he is told to just sit and wait. When Tucker tries to make contact with his former therapist, said shrink winds up dead. Tucker learns he’s being sent off to Central America to meet his estranged wife. Kennedy hides the details of what special job for which Tucker has been sprung from prison. It’s hinted at very early on in a bar scene, but never brought up again until Tucker is told about some practice work he has to do and finally figures it out.

DOMINO is a breezy little conspiracy book that takes all of 90 minutes to read. I mean, this book has 63 chapters in 197 pages. It’s a great little thriller, but the ending they use in the film is a rip-off. They stick to the plot really well, but to steal the last scene from another movie is a huge mistake — especially when that movie is GET CARTER.

THE PROCANE CHRONICLE by Ross Thomas — This is the 1971 book on which the Charles Bronson flick ST. IVES is based. Again, here is a film that sticks very closely to its source, with differences including cutting out one whole character altogether and switching the setting to New York instead of California.

Philip St. Ives is standing in the middle of a laundromat with a dead body — a person who was one of the members of a go-between job he was about to do along with Ives. Then, of course, an eager, go-getter cop shows up, ready to arrest St. Ives, who explains what led up to this moment in flashback.

He tells how he was hired by a man named Abner Procane to retrieve his stolen journals, which precisely tell what Procane — a professional thief who would pull off major capers he could never be tied to — has been up to all these years. The problem is someone else knows this and wants $90,000 to give them back. It’s a simple enough job for St. Ives … until the bodies turn up.

See, the laundromat corpse is only the first. But when Ives retrieves the journals, another problem arises: The blackmailers in question stole the last four pages, which detail of Procane’s latest caper of stealing $1 million from drug dealers.

For someone who has seen the film so many times in my youth, I was still sucked into this novel, since the changes that were made don’t hurt either format. Thomas’ writing is like an old friend relating a story to you. You’re not only hanging on every word, but you wish it wouldn’t stop, especially with such a likable character as St. Ives. Why someone has not bought the rights to these books again is anyone’s guess.

BLUE MOVIE by Terry Southern — So the story goes that while making DR. STRANGELOVE, Terry Southern and Stanley Kubrick had a discussion about one of the greatest “what ifs”: What if one of the truly visionary directors with Hollywood backing and money made a porn film with name actors? Sadly, that never happened, but we did get two offshoots from that conversation: this 1970 book by Southern and that sleep-inducing final film known as EYES WIDE SHUT. (I’ve seen the European cut, which has all the naughty parts, but guess what? It’s still as wooden as a bookcase.)

Without any restraint, Southern tackled it his own little way in this novel — the story of a director named Boris. (Take a wild guess who he is based on.) He has an idea in passing at a party about wanting to make a big-budget stag film. He gets the financing and tries to keep all the Hollywood brass clueless as to what he wants to do.

Boris uses it as an opportunity to really go for broke, with scenes of lesbianism with two highly respected actresses — one who is gay and tries to convert her costar — and using a girl known for T&A films in a scene where she is bedded down by four black men. She has a few issues throughout the shoot and Boris does whatever he can to get it all on film. Then there is going to be a vignette about incest using a real brother/sister team of actors. (Take a wild guess who I thought of while reading this; here’s a hint: Heath Ledger acted with both of them.)

While all this goes on, it’s what happens behind the camera that is just as freaky, with the studio boss being caught in his particular fetish of necrophilia. Now for a book written I’m guessing in the late ’60s, some of it seems extremely dated, but still very funny. It’s definitely a great introduction to Southern’s style, but still RED-DIRT MARIJUANA AND OTHER TASTES is a much better read, so check it out also.

Next time: Ed Gorman-tested, Bill Pronzini-approved. —Bruce Grossman

Buy them at Amazon.

OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF ROSS THOMAS:
• THE BRASS GO-BETWEEN by Ross Thomas