The Influence of Film and Photography on Mad Dog and the Sea Dragon

Is it possible that books exist in the ether, conferring among themselves and choosing an author? And that the author, should they choose to accept the mission, is presented with irresistible driving concepts and characters that will determine the nature of the book? The book leaves clues for the authors and what we might think of as coincidences, or elements of our own invention, are actually magical happenstances that guide us to what that book wants to be.

Maybe that’s a stretch but that’s how it feels to me and it most certainly did when I wrote Mad Dog and the Sea Dragon.

Mad Dog and the Sea Dragon is a noir, darkly comedic gangster caper written as a 1950’s hard-boiled suspense thriller but set in current time. The central plot is a series of age-old cons playing out in real time. The reader isn’t sure who to trust. Is our stylish heroine an unreliable narrator? And you don’t want to mess with our mob boss antagonist, gangster Vincenzo Esposito, whose love for the crime scene photographer, Weegee, finds its way into his business dealings. Greed drives the stakes higher and higher, complicated by sibling rivalry, doomed love affairs, familicide and enough cocaine to build a replica of the Roy Neary’s mashed potato’s mountain in Close Encounters of the Third Time (1977).

When it came to Mad Dog and the Sea Dragon, there were myriad inspirations: a leafy sea dragon at Ripley’s Aquarium in Toronto, a gallery exhibit of Weegee photographs at The Image Centre (formerly known as the Ryerson Image Centre and the Ryerson Gallery and Research Centre), a pressing need to write a story for Thirteen Claws, a Mesdames of Mayhem anthology (2017), as well as a bunch of characters who’d been floating around my brain and who desperately wanted out.

Thirteen Claws needed to feature an animal of some kind, and I fell in love with the leafy sea dragon, so that was a given. And Mad Dog Esposito, as photographed by Weegee, was completely irresistible. And what about my protagonist? I’d had her in mind for ages.

As a young child, I discovered a box of cocktail dresses and I thought it would be fabulous to dress like that all the time.

I wondered what would people think of a woman who consistently dressed like a 1950’s heroine and even more importantly, why would someone dress like a 50’s heroine? I needed to create a traumatic backstory for Jessica Wren and my inspiration was Kim Basinger in LA Confidential.

What I didn’t know, but learned while writing this article, was that the Curtis Hanson’s (the director of LA Confidential) uncle owned JAX, a clothing boutique that catered to Hollywood actresses such as Natalie Wood and Marilyn Monroe.

To my mind this is further proof of the shenanigans of the books get up to in the ether! It makes sense that Kim Basinger’s Veronica Lake look-alike, Lynn Bracken, would be the inspiration for my Jessica Wren, because of Hanson’s clothing boutique connections – even although I didn’t know it at the time.

Researching various cons, capers and swindles and finding ways to weave them into the story was such fun. What is alarming is how many convincing and devastating cons exist in the world.

When it came to my gangster antagonist, Vincenzo Esposito, I wanted him to be a mix of the Godfather’s Vito Corleone and Scarface’s Tony Montana (and his mountains of cocaine, his obsessive love and his over-the-top violence). I know Tony was Cuban, so I took liberties with my gangster characters because I also wanted to weave in aspects of Get Carter, a 1970’s movie about a Newcastle-based gangster, Jack Carter (great movie). I also wanted to add some odd-ball whimsy, as per Quentin Tarantino’s style, and add a twist of the workings of my own mind which naturally leans toward the fantastical, and stretches the truth, morphing it into an imaginative (but convincing) experience like no other. Events and relationships become heightened and often, hilarious.

From Grace, the Margaret Thatcher-inspired godmother, to Trevor, a Jean-Claude Van Damme-like caramel-tanned, ripped and gleaming bodyguard (see Bloodsport, 1988, and the 1989 homoerotic glam fest Kickboxer 1989), to the mouthwateringly delicious Italian cakes and pastries, Mad Dog and the Sea Dragon is my way of paying homage to all the inspirations cited above as well as adding my own twist for a fun-filled noir ride. And let’s not forget Joey, inspired by Gus Van Sant’s unforgettable and eternally spectacular Drugstore Cowboy, released in 1989 and set in 1971. Matt Dillon as Bob Hughes and his wife Dianne are forever carved in my heart and I hope Jessica and Joey harken back to that.

Maybe it’s not books conspiring in the ether. Maybe it’s just the way my mind works. Perhaps my subconscious notes things while I’m going about my daily life, or reading or watching a film or studying photographs at an art gallery and these things find their way in the books without me cognizing their origin but when I trace them back, the origins are concrete and fascinating.

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Lisa de Nikolits is the award-winning author of eleven (twelve, with Mad Dog and the Sea Dragon), novels, numerous short stories and poetry, garnering five-star reviews and a strong fanbase. Originally from South Africa, Canada has been her home since 2000. Forthcoming works include Mad Dog and the Sea Dragon (2025, Inanna Publications) and That Time I Killed You (2026, Level Best Books). She lives and writes in Toronto.