The Crab with the Golden Claws
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The Crab with the Golden Claws (Le Crabe aux Pinces d'Or) is one of a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. It is also the first to feature Tintin's longtime friend, Captain Haddock.
The Crab with the Golden Claws is the ninth in the series. It was first published (in French) in 1941.
The storyline
The ramblings of a drunken man and a scrap of paper from what appears to be a tin of crab-meat leads Tintin to the ship Karaboudjan, where he is captured by a gang of criminals who have been hiding opium in the crab tins. Escaping from his locked room, Tintin encounters Captain Haddock, who proves to be an alcoholic manipulated by his first mate, Allan, and is unaware of his crew's criminal activities. Escaping the ship in a rowing boat, they are attacked by a seaplane. They hijack the plane but it crashes in the Sahara.After trekking across the desert, Tintin and Haddock reach a Moroccan port - but the Captain is kidnapped. Tintin saves his newfound friend, but they both become drunk on the fumes from wine barrels breached in a shootout with the villains. Upon sobering up, Tintin discovers the necklace with the Crab with the Golden Claws on the now-subdued owner of the wine cellar, and realizes that he must be the leader of the drug smugglers. After capturing Allan (who returns in a few other Tintin stories as a henchman of Rastapopoulos), the gang is soon put behind bars.
Notes
After King Ottokar's Sceptre, Hergé had started work on Land of Black Gold which also included a political sub-plot: Tintin in the Middle East during the British Mandate of Palestine, getting involved in the conflict between Jews, Arabs and British troops. When Nazi Germany took over Belgium, Hergé suspended Land of Black Gold in favour of this less controversial story dealing with drug smuggling. Other Tintin aventures during the World War II years dealt with scientific missions and treasure hunts.
In the 1960s parts of the album were redrawn to remove stereotyped depictions of African people. [link]
Film
The Crab with the Golden Claws was adapted into a stop motion-animated feature film of the same name in 1947, produced by Wilfried Bouchery for Films Claude Misonne. It was the first Tintin movie and copies the story of the original comic almost exactly. It was first shown at the ABC Cinema on January 11, 1947 for a group of invited guests. It was screened publically only once before Bouchery declared bankruptcy and fled to Argentina. All of the equipment was seized and a copy of the film is currently stored at Belgium's Cinémathèque Royale.
References
- Battrick, Oliver. (March 21, 2004). ["The Crab With the Golden Claws (1947) - the first Tintin movie"]. Tintinologist.org.
- redirect
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