| Title | : | The Corpse as Big as the Ritz (Singles Classic) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 48 |
| Publication | : | Published July 18, 2016 |
She woke up after midnight to find a man on top of her, making love to her. She’d never seen the man before. She told him to get off and get out; she warned him she was expecting another man. A car pulled up outside and flashed its lights. A minute later the other man came through the door. Explanations were inadequate. In the scuffle a gun was drawn, a .38 revolver. A shot went off, the first visitor died.
In The Corpse as Big as the Ritz, Ron Rosenbaum, author of Explaining Hitler and master of the “investigation of investigations,” gives us a Hollywood noir with shades of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Raymond Chandler: An inquiry into the "Dirty Little Death in the Desert" of David Whiting, the love-stricken business manager of actress Sarah Miles, who was found dead in the actress’s hotel room during the filming of the Burt Reynold’s Western The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing.
The Corpse as Big as the Ritz was originally published in Esquire, August 1973.
Cover design by Adil Dara.
The Corpse as Big as the Ritz (Singles Classic) Reviews
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This review is likely going to be as jumbled and all over the place as was the telling of this story.
1. Why was this called “The Corpse as Big as The Ritz?” I thought that alluded to the level of fame and/or fortune of the victim. It didn’t; he was the least famous person in the story until his death.
2. The “victim” on the cover appears to be African American, and indeed the first victim in the story was African American. I understand that the scene was used to explain that the sergeant has already been up all night working on that case before getting called to the one that this book is actually about, but the back story is never fleshed out, solved, or mentioned more than once again so there was really no need to even include it.
3. David Whiting was murdered, obviously. Too much evidence to say otherwise.
4. David Whiting had serious mental health issues that were clearly not being, and maybe never had been, addressed. Part of that was his pathological lying and obsession.
5. Sarah Miles is also a pathological liar, and I left this story with no respect for her at all.
6. There had to be major payoffs (from MGM Studios) to everyone, everywhere for this to never be solved.
7. I had no idea I was reading about an unsolved case. I try to steer clear of those.
8. There was clearly more than one person involved in Whiting’s death.
9. Apparently the author, Ron Rosenbaum, was a writer at the time for Esquire magazine; he had first-hand experience covering the case.
10. This would’ve come out better written by a more experienced book writer. It didn’t read very cohesively. -
OMG- this was a short freebie audible I was listening to, but wth? Confusing and confusing. I heard Burt Reynold's name MORE often than I heard anything else. (He was shooting a movie in the area at the time.) Hard to stick with the facts...I'm sure they were in there somewhere.
Maybe it was just me, and/or I had a hard time following the narrator. Whatever it was, I wasn't connecting and left me with too many unanswered questions. -
A true crime story following a murder and a suspicious death which all happened around the filming of the film The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing.
This book was incredibly confusing due to the lack of clear structure or prose. The story jumped around a lot with the first murder case being unsolved with little investigation and then the David Whiting death rushed through. -
Short and pretty bad in format and concept. There just isn't anything interesting here. but there was still something a bit interesting about how well the crime scene and the investigation had been documented.
