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n aka the duke a crooked british aristocrat who s stashed a fortune in a spanish bank just as the city falls under siege by the loyalists during the spanish civil war with time running out the duke sends tony to retrieve the money teaming him up with two questionable allies harry mold a smooth talking operator with questionable credentials and billy hawksbill a loudmouthed scrapper with strong opinions and a wild streak the trio poses as british military observers to gain access to the war zone what begins as a quick recovery job turns into a dangerous run through shifting frontlines corrupt officials and revolutionaries with their own agendas the duke doesn t trust his nephew so he dispatches two hired goons to keep tabs and if necessary take control after a series of double crosses detours and stolen transport the hawksbill gang ends up in north africa with the money one step ahead of the men sent to stop them the hawksbill gang is another great example of dutch s spontaneous improvisational creativity his strength as a writer and the kind of storytelling that set him apart from picket line to mr majestyk originally dutch wrote the screenplay for mr majestyk with clint eastwood in mind eastwood told dutch that he needed a story that was something like dirty harry 1971 only different it could be anything as long as his character had a big gun clint didn t have a big enough piece of the wildly successful dirty harry and wanted something he could fully own something to produce through his company malpaso so dutch presented the idea for mr majestyk and eastwood told him to work it up dutch was certain eastwood would buy it but he passed and did high plains drifter instead dutch pitched eastwood using picket line as his framework its setting tone and characters supplied the foundation for what became mr majestyk once producer walter mirisch entered the picture he signed charles bronson to star and dutch carried the picket line dna into the bronson version dutch had drawn on earlier work before and picket line wasn t the first time he repurposed material from a shelved project in 1961 he wrote only good ones for an anthology called western roundup years later that story became the first chapter of valdez is coming even though mr majestyk is a completely different kind of story from picket line the melon harvest by migratory fruit pickers provided the spine here s a breakdown of a few key elements from picket line that ended up in mr majestyk the opening in both works is a scene at a gas station where migrants are denied access to a bathroom they re told the facilities are broken in picket line a character named chino gets tough with the attendant who ultimately relents and lets the migrants use the toilet in mr majestyk it s vincent who steps in it s a small but telling act of defiance a classic elmore leonard reaction to injustice the woman at the center of that scene is nancy chavez in picket line she s a strong character immersed in the farm worker struggle whose role would have been broadened had dutch progressed beyond act one in mr majestyk she has the same backstory more or less but her role is reduced to supporting the film s vastly different plot she talks to vincent about past strikes and organizing farm workers and that informs her character but goes no further the labor conflict carries over in mr majestyk though not in the form of a strike or picket line vincent majestyk is a small grower with 130 acres of melons and treats his workers with dignity in picket line stanzik farms is a large uncaring company that treats migrants with contempt in mr majestyk as vincent brings in a picking crew one is already in the fields a scab crew brought in by the grower vincent assaults the gun wielding henchman bobby kopas and lands in jail a sharp turn that kicks the story into motion what gets lost in the shift from source to screenplay is tone and intent picket line focused on how the strikers moved together how they clashed with local law enforcement how they were blocked searched and humiliated as they tried to reach the melon fields mr majestyk lifts these elements and recasts them as set pieces amped up simplified and shaped to serve bronson s brand of stoic violence dutch didn t like the result he found bronson predictable and didn t like his delivery director richard fleischer turned the bad guys into cartoons especially al lettieri as frank renda he was so over the top evil dutch said for everything mr majestyk was and wasn t it couldn t have existed without picket line if only dutch had finished it as a novel in 1971 it would ve landed closer to the protest fiction and political films of the era the issues were timely migrant labor racial tension economic exploitation the backdrop of melon picking was integral to both stories but mr majestyk went nowhere near the social themes picket line was built around maybe someday someone will pick up picket line and using the completed act one and dutch s extensive notes complete his vision picket line the research in the previous post i talked about why picket line is not a novella this time i want to focus on the research that went into this developing novel despite my bemusement at how it s being marketed picket line is a fine piece of writing and i m glad people will finally have a chance to read it in the fall when dutch wrote picket line he was in his post western pre crime fiction period 1969 1974 chasing screenwriting jobs his agent h n swanson thought he could have made a career out of the screen trade and he wasn t wrong but dutch s first love was novel writing so he didn t develop picket line as a screenplay first but conceived it as act one of a novel if a deal was forthcoming he d finish the book to prepare for picket line dutch immersed himself in the gritty realities of migratory farm labor and the labor strikes that defined the era of the late sixties and early seventies act one of picket line describes mexican american melon pickers caught in the opening moves of a labor strike in south texas the narrative builds through tense encounters between strikers and law enforcement with personal rivalries and moral conflicts rising as the threat of violence looms dutch s research grounded picket line in reality his primary source for crafting vincent mora a former priest stepping back into the fray emerges directly from frank kostyu s shadows in the valley the story of one man s struggle for justice kostyu s book chronicles the real life work of ed krueger a minister fighting for justice in the rio grande valley dutch s picket line notes indicate that mora would have emerged as the central character in act two a man of conscience drawn back into activism and posing a real threat to the growers dutch had the whole novel mapped out his plan was to take mora deeper into the conflict escalating the stakes with each chapter dutch planned to begin act two with his version of the international bridge incident in roma texas on october 24 1966 twelve striking farmworkers blockaded the bridge to stop growers from bringing in strikebreakers from mexico they were arrested and made national headlines this scene would be followed by a major protest march and an inevitable confrontation supporting his treatment was a bibliography full of field reporting and sociological inquiry john gregory dunne s delano the story of the california grape strike captured the human cost and political stakes of the 1965 1970 delano grape strike the california movement set the template for grassroots farmworker resistance uniting filipino and mexican american laborers under a call for justice and dignity julian samora s la raza forgotten americans explored the social stratification of mexican americans in the southwest their marginalization in politics religion and labor pedro martinez a mexican peasant and his family gave leonard intimate details of family life in a peasant household basta the tale of our struggle and merchants of labor revealed the bureaucratic and human toll of the bracero program a temporary labor initiative between the united states and mexico that allowed mexican workers to be employed in the u s agricultural and railroad industries these books show how migrant labor was systemically manipulated at the time césar chávez was in the news almost daily and dutch paid close attention to his organizing methods he also explored the broader world of community activism particularly the grassroots strategies promoted by saul alinsky dutch read alinsky s reveille for radicals and a lengthy interview with him that appeared in ramparts magazine which had become essential reading in the late 1960s for its coverage of civil rights and labor struggles what emerges from all this is a determined attempt to dramatize social history through fiction but picket line is not polemical it s not trying to make a statement dutch just did what he always did he built a world filled with credible characters who moved talked and acted in a world shaped by hard truths and then he stopped act one ends just as the pot begins to boil there s no resolution just momentum what makes picket line so frustrating and so fascinating is that we never got the rest we see the setup the themes the hero about to step forward but acts two and three were never written dutch had the whole novel mapped out in great detail with plans to push mora deeper into the conflict culminating in a confrontation that would shake both sides what remains in act one of picket line is pure elmore leonard deeply informed by meticulous research the foundation of a novel that could have been great picket line act one of a novel mariner books has announced the publication of picket line written in 1970 scheduled for release on september 30 2025 they are calling it a major release of a lost novella by elmore leonard i must correct this marketing misnomer before it s too late picket line is not major it s not lost and most importantly it s not a novella it s the first act and de facto treatment for a motion picture that never got made but would live on in another form is picket line worth reading if you re an elmore leonard fan or just enjoy good writing hell yes a novella is either a short novel or a long short story with a beginning middle and end act one of picket line sets the table with characters and hints at the larger story it ends soft not with a satisfying conclusion but like the first movement of a symphony it introduces ideas and themes with the actual payoff to come of course dutch was familiar with the form novella he had written long short stories in his western days that qualify and would write two excellent novellas thirty years later tenkiller and fire in the hole the pilot episode of justified but it s ludicrous to think dutch would write a novella in 1970 he was commercially minded at all times and not interested in any writing project other than a complete novel and or an original screenplay he wrote the first act of a novel called picket line as a treatment with the full intention of completing it if the opportunity presented itself it didn t here s the story dutch was always strapped for cash during this period 1969 1974 and aimed his sights on movie deals following the guidance of his legendary agent h n swanie swanson swanie appreciated that dutch was willing to tailor his work to the movie marketplace so when swanie told him that columbia producers howard jaffe and edward lewis were looking for a migratory fruitpicker story dutch went to work on it swanie suggested a screenplay first and maybe later a novelization the designation for a novel written after a screenplay dutch chose to write the first act of a novel called picket line as a treatment at the same time dutch was pitching jesus saves a story set in a corner of northern georgia where the new south was window dressing for old south bible thumpers by august howard jaffe passed on picket line telling swanie he wouldn t be able to turn it into his kind of story an oft repeated phrase dutch would hear many more times in hollywood then in september producers gabriel katzka and ed scherick of palomar studios expressed interest in the property and said they wanted to do it in a documentary style producers ira steiner and aaron rosenberg also made a rejected lowball offer but said they were willing to take a look at the finished novel so swanie sent picket line out to the town he said of the 112 pages that dutch had written in spite of the fact that two books on the same subject have been bought for pictures i think you should finish it up as a book swanie explained a year or two ago it was not too difficult to arrange with a producer to put some money up while a writer was developing a subject but the industry is trying to reduce its risks by seeing a complete piece of work before they make any investment the thought now was shooting picket line as a two hour television film with a writer budget of about 25 000 but there was little hope of a quick deal meanwhile dutch and swanie s attention turned elsewhere on february 12 1971 swanie closed a deal on a new project sinola for producer sidney beckerman which would put his share of 25 000 in dutch s pocket sooner rather than later dutch soon was deep into writing the sinola screenplay he was commuting from detroit to hollywood going home for the weekend and flying back on monday universal and beckerman were freaking out about the added expense picket line by now was on the shelf gathering a little dust but wait there s yet another project in the works called american flag about a gold mine in 1910 with a miner character up against the big mining company steve mcqueen was announced as attached but ultimately dropped out as he was busy shooting the getaway for sam peckinpah and had no time to discuss american flag script changes there were other projects discussed around this time jerry gershwin wanted dutch to adapt james m cain s past all dishonor and or the violent ones by e howard hunt of watergate fame then walter mirisch entered the picture and sought out the veteran detroit ad man elmore leonard to adapt the ultimate detroit automotive novel arthur hailey s wheels which had just come out in 1971 but another book about the auto industry harold robbins the betsy published in the same year sold first and mirisch lost interest dutch was not particularly keen on the assignment anyway sinola was shot as joe kidd and despite the studio interference in the story clint eastwood was looking for something new from dutch for his production company malpaso so dutch pulls the first act of picket line off the shelf and hangs it up for parts and writes what would become mr majestyk eastwood didn t like it and passed actually he was more interested in another project high plains drifter dutch completed the screenplay for mr majestyk which now starred charles bronson he wrote the novelization in tandem with his screenplay to coincid...