by Peter Corris
I battled my way through the undergrowth, scratching my hands and face, falling, stumbling and looking back over my shoulder. Rain began to fall, which lessened the chance of an explosion. I was a hundred yards away and sheltered behind a thick tree before I considered myself safe. I had a desperate wish for a drink and a crying need for a smoke.
'To celebrate,' I said out aloud and giggled.
Then the sound died in my throat. A party of men emerged from the jungle, small, neat shapes, moving purposefully towards me. I pressed back against the tree but there was no chance of escape—they'd seen and heard me. I strained my eyes in the gloom. They were so small, almost the size of schoolboys. But they were carrying carbines and wore uniforms—soft caps with peaks, leggings. The one in front held up his hand and the rest stopped. He spoke.
At first I thought the language was Chinese, having heard a fair bit of it recently. Then I realised my mistake. Japanese!
I threw up my hands. 'American,' I babbled. 'No, Australian. Oh, God. Friend! Friend!'
NOTES
As foreshadowed in the introduction to the last volume of Richard Browning's memoirs, published as Browning in Buckskin, problems have arisen with the old actor's taping technique and mental condition. Browning appears to have entered a period of alcoholic disturbance after his recollection of choosing, in 1938, Sante Fe Trail over Gone With the Wind as a vehicle for his acting talents.
Subsequent experiences were equally unfortunate. The series of cassettes which document his activities over the next two years are chaotic and all but indecipherable. Like other resident aliens in the USA, Browning experienced difficulties with the immigration authorities. Readers of Browning in Buckskin will recall that he struck a deal with FBI agent Groom over this matter which appeared to guarantee him security of residence. The FBI however, as will not surprise any student of the Bureau's history, reneged on the deal and Browning was once again under threat.
On Tape 20/ii Browning's voice and purpose become clear again. The subject he embarked upon interested him and he struggled to recollect the experience and communicate it accurately.
Browning appears to have remained sober for a matter of weeks and these tapes are the most coherent and organised so far encountered in the collection. Very little editorial intervention has been needed. Despite his disclaimers, there are indications that Browning had familiarised himself with the prose style of the American hard-boiled writers. Perhaps he read stories in magazines like Black Mask or Dime Detective. On some of the tapes a sound can be heard which appears to be the turning over of pages. Perhaps he studied scripts or listened attentively to the voice-over in the many private eye movies he claimed to have watched. Whatever the source, there are indications in this portion of Browning's long memoir, as in no other so far transcribed, of outside literary influences.
Of interest is a faded and creased photograph, annotated on the back, 'RC & Taki, Palm Springs 1943', found among Browning's ill-kept collection. It shows him in the company of a stocky, bespectacled man who is unmistakably Raymond Chandler. The cat which Browning has evidently been holding has scratched his face and his hands are up, covering the wound. Chandler gazes fondly at the cat.
A number of references have been consulted to check on the authenticity of Browning's account. In particular, Frank MacShane's The Life of Raymond Chandler (Cape, 1976) and his edition of the Selected Letters of Raymond Chandler (Columbia University Press, 1981) have proved essential. Also of great value were Raymond Chandler Speaking, edited by Dorothy Gardiner and K. S. Walker (Four Square ed., 1966) and The Inquisition in Hollywood, by Larry Ceplair and Steven England (University of California Press, 1983).
1.Flynn is misquoting from the celebrated poem 'My Country' by Dorothea McKellar. More accurately:
I love a sunburnt country
A land of sweeping plains
2.Browning was misinformed. Canada did not send draftees overseas until later in the war, but regular soldiers and volunteers were serving abroad at this time.
3.A pavlova is a dessert made from a circular meringue filled with whipped cream and topped with fruit, usually passionfruit.
4.Preston Sturgess (1898–1955) was a screenwriter and director, best known for light comedies such as The Great McGinty, The Lady Eve, The Palm Beach Story, etc.
5.The Garden of Allah was a hotel on the southwest corner of Sunset and Crescent Heights Boulevards. Silent screen actress Nazimova built a house on the site and later the bungalows that comprised the hotel's accommodation. There were many famous guests over the years and the bar was at one time known as the 'Algonquin Round Table West' in recognition of the writers and wits such as Dorothy Parker, Scott Fitzgerald and Robert Benchley who drank there.
6.Lost Weekend was indeed an Academy Award winner. The film won four Oscars for best picture, actor, director and screenplay. Browning's name does not appear in the credits.
7.'Sugar Ray' Robinson was welterweight and middleweight boxing champion of the world at various times through the 1940s and 50s. He fought many hundreds of bouts in a long career, losing few. Many experts consider him, pound for pound, the greatest fighter in the history of boxing.
8.Browning probably refers to Warner Oland (1880–1938), a Swedish actor who specialised in playing Orientals. He played Chinese detective Charlie Chan in sixteen films.
9.See 'Box Office' Browning, pp. 79–81.
10.Browning is referring to experiences at public school. He appears to be identifying himself as the kind of bully who extorted money from smaller boys. Raymond Chandler attended Dulwich College in London, a public school perhaps on a par with Browning's alma mater—Dudleigh Grammar.
11.The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a single-span bridge linking the south to the north shores. It was opened in 1932 and crosses approximately five hundred metres of water. The tray of the bridge is fifty-three metres above sea level and daredevil flyers have flown small aircraft through this space.
12.See 'Beverly Hills' Browning, pp. 38–9. The Leather Pushers was an undistinguished boxing film which starred Richard Arlen. Released in 1940, it was shot in 1939, before Browning went to Canada.
13.Australian slang for a person of puritanical outlook.
14.To date, this is the only reference to Browning's brother Thomas, b. 1889, in the memoirs. It is to be regretted that Thomas Browning's trade or profession are not identified, but perhaps later tapes will provide the answer. The implication is of some high-minded calling.
15.See 'Beverly Hills' Browning, Chapter 16 ff.
16.A lamington is a sponge cake with chocolate ot strawberry icing covered with desiccated coconut. The cake is cut up into cubes of approximately two inches square.
17.This reference raises the possibility that Chandler was using McVey as a source for his aborted novel, later a screenplay, entitled The Blue Dahlia. In this story a veteran has a plate in his head and experiences headaches much as McVey describes.
18.Victor McLaglen (1886–1959) was an Englishman who spent some of his youth in Australia where he worked as a gold miner and tent boxer. He appeared in many Hollywood films acting in an expressionistic style that was outdated by the 1940s.
19.A bowyang is a piece of string tied around the bottom of the trouser legs worn by bush workers and tramps to stop the trousers from flapping. The bunyip is a mythical beast from Aboriginal legends.
20.See Browning in Buckskin, pp. 162–92
21.Browning is right. Although the Gallipoli campaign has become an icon of Australian military history, its actual aftermath saw a decline in the numbers of young men offering themselves for military service. The response of the Australian government was, first, to send a personal letter headed 'A Call to Arms' from W. M. Hughes, the Prime Minister, to every man of military age, second, to bring on a referendum seeking support for conscription. See, Frank Crowley (ed.) A Documentary History of Modern Australia, Vol. 4 (Nelson, 1978), pp. 248–52, 266–74. See also 'Box Office' Browning, pp. 44–64.
22.
The books of Arthur Upfield (1888–1964), an Englishman who lived most of his life in Australia, were particularly popular in the US in the 1930s and 40s. Upfield wrote about the outback. His novels featuring the part-Aboriginal detective Napoleon Bonaparte were serialised in the Saturday Evening Post and enjoyed a wide readership.
23.The gangster, 'Machine Gun' Jack McGurn adopted an Irish name for his boxing career. His real name was James Vincenzo De Mora. Browning encountered him in Chicago during the prohibition era. See Browning Takes Off, p. 222. Australian lightweight and welterweight champion Victor Patrick Lucca fought as Vic Patrick. He was a highly ranked contender for the world lightweight championship but never fought for the title. He was beaten only four times in fifty-five contests. Beau Jack was generally recognised as world lightweight champion, although the matter was in some dispute at the time Browning is recalling.
24.See Browning in Buckskin, p. 181
25.In fact, the word is a corruption of 'pasadero', meaning corridor or gateway, probably in recognition of the town's position at the foot of the San Gabriel mountains.
26.Perhaps another sign of Browning preparing himself to record this part of his memoirs.
27.The Film and Photo League was a small, Communist-backed, film production organisation in the 1940s which produced some films with left-wing content and bias. See, Larry Ceplair and Steven Englund, The Inquisition in Hollywood (University of California Press, 1983), pp. 53, 73, 318–19.
28.See, Browning in Buckskin, pp. 16–17.
29.In Chandler's 1944 story, 'A Couple of Writers', an alcoholic writer hides his whiskey jug under burlap sacks in the garage. See Raymond Chandler Speaking, ed. by Dorothy Gardiner and K. S. Walker (Four Square edition, 1966), pp. 89–105.