The Fourth Stall

The author alludes directly and indirectly throughout The Fourth Stall to films and other works that famously featured organized crime (and the Mafia in particular) and the general Hollywood “gangster” image of the 1930s to 1970s. Crime and gangster images and details in the book include the threatening car trailing Mac home, the vandals’ threats made public on his house, the dead mouse in his locker, and the “taking out” of his support system (for example, when his bullies are bullied into quitting on him).

Allusions to Mario Puzo’s The Godfather novel and the accompanying films (The Godfather and its two sequels) are the most direct: Mac likes and uses slight variations on the line “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse,” an oft-quoted line by the character Don Corleone (Marlon Brando) in The Godfather film. In keeping with Mac’s subtle inner conflict between innocent youth and tempted criminal, he does not understand the line or its implications, but he knows it sounds powerful and evokes control. Another allusion to The Godfather storyline is the character Fred, who turns out to be the snitch who betrayed Mac to Staples all along; similarly, in The Godfather: Part II, Fredo, the oldest Corleone son, betrays Michael, the new head of the family. In the film, Michael famously tells Fredo, “I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart.” In the novel, Mac quotes this line when he reveals his knowledge of the real snitch, changing only “Fredo” to “Fred” (266). Even the parodied cover art and the title font of The Fourth Stall are allusions to The Godfather.

These gangster and organized crime allusions are blended with indirect references to moods, settings, and details that typify the film noir genre, such as dark and gritty settings, shadowy suspects, hard-boiled detectives, acts of betrayal and disloyalty, and a hero whose loss of innocence results from stress, paranoia, and suspicion. (Double Indemnity, The Maltese Falcon, Key Largo, and The Big Sleep are notable film noir hits.) Mac’s increasing suspicion of his friend Vince borders on paranoia; his constant trust in Vince is broken when Vince steals from the petty cash, and Mac is physically ill from stress when he realizes their major funds are gone. Film noir also often relies on flashbacks and voiceover monologues within the narrative framework to achieve revelations, backstory, irony, and suspense; in the novel, Mac’s interior monologue is reminiscent of voiceover as they speak directly to the reader, and his flashbacks and backstory retellings achieve similar effects.