In a few movies and novels, the minor characters are just as intriguing as the protagonist. What do I mean? Well, Director John Huston's 1950 film noir THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (I'm a fan of the genre) leaps to my mind. Marilyn Monroe has a small speaking role playing Angela Phinlay, the mistress of a sleazy lawyer. Her bright presence almost illuminates the scenes where she appears. Sterling Hayden was billed as the movie's leading star, but Marilyn wasn't credited. Or who can forget poor Flitcraft, a minor character in Dashiell Hammett's novel THE MALTESE FALCON? Flitcraft almost gets hit by a falling construction steel beam, so he leaves his family and moves to a different city only to fall into the same rut again. Recently, I saw the Orson Welles' film noir THE STRANGER where the small town's store proprietor always put on his accountant's green visor before he challenged an opponent to play a game of checkers. That humorous mannerism will stick with me. The ailing General Sternwood meeting P.I. Philip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler's novel THE BIG SLEEP is a minor character I'll remember. The half-dead Sternwood sitting inside his greenhouse amid the hot, wet orchids is a lasting image. I could go on and on, but you get the idea I'm driving at here. I like the minor characters with distinctive personalities in my fiction and films.

Books and films mentioned in this blog post: