Saturday, October 26, 2013
Armageddon Films FAQ -- Dale Sherman
Stories and novels about the end of the world as we know it have always fascinated me. One of my favorites is Richard Matheson's I Am Legend, so my favorite chapter in Dale Sherman's massive (well over 400 pages) study of Armageddon films is the one on that book and the movies made from it. The chapter isn't just some cursory glance. First comes a discussion of the novel, and it's followed by a thorough examination of each movie made from it, with first the plot being laid out and then we're told what the novel and the movie have in common and what's different. Even the notorious (to some of us) I Am Omega is included here.My other favorite chapter is the one on "Ten Famous Apocalyptic Novels Never Turned into a Major Film." Several of my favorites are mentioned (including Earth Abides and A Canticle for Leibowitz). But the the whole book is full of interesting material. You can't go wrong with stuff like this. Check it out.
Marcia Wallace, R. I. P.
Variety: Marcia Wallace, the feisty redhead who starred as receptionist Carol Kester on “The Bob Newhart Show” and voiced teacher Edna Krabappel on “The Simpsons,” died Friday at her home in Los Angeles. She would have turned 71 on Nov. 1.
How About You?
Sent To An Insane Asylum: The next time someone says count your blessings, do it... were it not for the scant 120-odd years that have passed, pretty much every last one of us would have been a good candidate for the West Virginia Hospital for the Insane.
Big Sale on DEAD MAN Titles! Today Only!
$1.99 each, and each volume contains three Dead Man novellas.
Friday, October 25, 2013
Free Until Midnight!
Amazon.com: Bad News Travels Fast (The Joe and Dottie Loudermilk Mysteries) eBook: Gar Anthony Haywood: Kindle Store: Joe and Dottie Loudermilk are all set for the perfect early retirement. Joe's an ex-cop, and Dottie's a former English teacher, and as soon as the "SOLD" sign goes up on the lawn in front of their longtime Los Angeles home, they intend to take their brand new Ford pickup truck and Airstream trailer wherever the great American highway leads. Unfortunately, fate is determined to have two forms of trouble dog their every step: murder, and their five incorrigible grown children. In Dottie's own words, the Loudermilk brood "go to school, but take pains not to learn anything remotely useful; date weird people and adhere to Mickey Mouse religions...And give birth to grandchildren from hell (whom they raise) like goldfish won at a church carnival." In this, their second adventure, Joe and Dottie visit the nation's capital, Washington, D.C., and quickly find themselves assigned the task of clearing their political activist/shameless womanizer son Eddie of a rival's murder.
Both lovers of the offbeat cozy, and parents who know the misery of wayward children, have declared the Loudermilk adventures an hilarious and, to quote the New York Times, "credibly sentimental" treat.
Hal Needham, R. I. P.
Variety: Hal Needham, longtime stuntman and director of “Smokey and the Bandit” and “Cannonball Run” for Burt Reynolds, died Friday in Los Angeles after a short battle with cancer, his manager confirmed. He was 82.
Ghost Stories
The Presurfer: Ghost Stories: Ghost Stories is a compilation of eleven short-form spooky tales compiled by some of the coolest independant animators working today. These cryptic tales will scare you, make you laugh, and make you run for cover. They might even teach you how to resurrect the dead right from home.
Once Again Texas Leads the Way
CBS Dallas / Fort Worth: A North Texas woman was handcuffed, stripped down and booked into jail – all because of an overdue traffic ticket.
Forgotten Books: Scratch One -- John Lange (Michael Crichton)
This was Michael Crichton's second published novel back in the days when he was writing paperbacks as John Lange. I've mentioned several of the others in the past. You can check out my comments here, here, and here. Clearly the edition of Scratch One on the left is the brand new Hard Case Crime edition, so the book is no longer forgotten, if it ever was, but I think it's appropriate to talk about it here.The story involves an American lawyer, Roger Carr, a man with no ambition or goals. He has a cushy job with a prominent law firm, thanks to the fact that his father is an influential senator. When the firm sends him to Nice, France, to purchase a villa for another powerful politicial figure, he's glad to go. He'll stretch the trip out with wine and women, or so he thinks. But when he's mistaken for a hired killer, he winds up in the middle of a complicated arms deal, wanted by the American spies and by the Associates, a group involved in the deal.
Crichton/Lange has a good bit of fun with this. The chief American spy is a fool. Carr is lucky but often hapless. And one of the spies who's killed in his cameo appearance seems very familiar. Carr meets The Woman of His Dreams and begins to shape up. I don't think you'll be surprised when the woman turns out not to be what she seems.
In fact, not much in the book will seem surprising, but it's quite entertaining, anyway. It rips right along, and the local color is outstanding. Crichton/Lange does a good job with this in all his books, and if he's never traveled to the exotic locations he's describing, he's certainly good at faking it. The big scene near the end is set at Monaco's Grand Prix, and it's like watching a movie of the events.
This isn't a deep or thoughtful novel, nor is it intended to be. It's just good paperback fun. The prices of the original Signet edition are quite steep, but now you can get it from Hard Case Crime. Check it out.
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Horror Films FAQ -- John Kenneth Muir
I was immediately sold on this book by Chris Carter's introduction in which he says that the horror movie of the '50s that had the most effect on him was The Creature from the Black Lagoon, because that happens to be a personal favorite of mine. What follows that introduction is 370 or so pages of discussion of 28 different sub-genres of the horror film (zombies, slashers, boogeymen, mad scientists, werewolves, vampires, and so on). The author, John Kenneth Muir, gives a short intro to the each chapter in which he discusses the subject in general, and then he does into detail about certain films. This book isn't an exhaustive treatment of all horror movies, but it sure does cover a lot of ground as Muir writes about a huge range of them. This is a great book for browsing, and it will remind you of a lot of movies you've seen, a lot you haven't, and quite a few you might want to take a look at. Belongs on every horror movie fan's bookshelf. Check it out.
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Anthony Hinds, R. I. P.
NYTimes.com: Anthony Hinds, the producer who put the horror in “Hammer horror,” in the process turning a puny British film studio into a Goliath of cinematic gore, died in Oxford, England on Sept. 30. He was 91.
The Hunter and Other Stories -- Dashiell Hammett, Richard Layman and Julie M. Rivett, edtors
The Hunter is a book for completists and collectors. It contains three screen treatments and seventeen short stories, none of which have been previously collected. All but one of them come from the collection donated by Lillian Hellman to the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin.Many of the works here are seeing print for the first time. Nothing here is top-shelf Hammett, but if you're like me, you want it, anyway. Also, some stories have nothing to do with crime fiction. Take a look at "Magic," which might be the most interesting story in the book to some of us. It's an unpublished fantasy, about as far from realistic hardboiled fiction as you can get, and the style is quite different from that of the crime tales. In fact, so is the style of a number of things here. Hammett was far from a one-trick pony, though anybody who's read both The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man already knows that.
There's crime here, too, and the opening story is plenty hardboiled. The closing story isn't complete. It's a fragment of a Sam Spade story. I've never been particularly fond of the short stories featuring Spade, but I'm still glad to see this material.
Richard Layman has a short introduction and adds commentary to each section of the book. Julie M. Rivett, Hammett's granddaughter provides the afterword.
We're told that the e-book edition of The Hunter provides additional fragmentary works. Pretty sneaky. You completists (you know who you are) will want that one, too.
New From Stark House
Back when I was writing the Gold Medal Corner for Steve Lewis' Mystery*File, I did a column on Charles Williams, one of my favorite paperback writers. The first two books I discussed in the column are two of my favorites by Williams, River Girl and Nothing in her Way. I can still remember walking into a used-book store in Austin long years ago and seeing River Girl right there in rack in front of the store. What a treat that was, as I'd been looking for the book for quite some time. I took it back home and read it right away, and I've read it a couple of times since. I have two copies of it now, in case of emergency.River Girl is still hard to find, and Nothing in her Way isn't easy, either. Until now, that is. The invaluable Stark House is publishing both books together in one volume, along with a long, insightful introduction by Rick Ollerman. This gets my highest recommendation.
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Al Navis, R. I. P.
Mystery Fanfare: Sad news. Al Navis, bookseller, Radio personality, Kennedy Assassination expert, and organizer of the Toronto Bouchercon, died of cancer on October 13. Arrangements for a Memorial will be posted. His wry sense of humor and tenacity sustained him until the end.
Croc Update (Breakfast Edition)
Mail Online: Breakfast is served! One of the world's largest crocodiles wakes up from three months of hibernation and tucks into a chicken
Great photos and video at link.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Great photos and video at link.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Pimpage: An Occasional Feature in Which I call Attention to Books of Interest
I wrote a chapter of this one, but it's highly recommended, anyway.
Amazon.com: Wolf Creek: Night of the Assassins eBook: Ford Fargo, Troy D. Smith, Bill Crider, James J. Griffin, Chuck Tyrell, Clay More, Matthew Pizzolato: Kindle Store: Welcome to Wolf Creek.
Here you will find many of your favorite authors, working together as Ford Fargo to weave a complex and textured series of Old West adventures like no one has ever seen. Each author writes from the perspective of his or her own unique character, blended together into a single novel.
In this volume:
Wolf Creek, Kansas, is not peaceful on a good day –but things really escalate when Tsu Chiao, owner of the Red Chamber, decides to edge out his competitors in the seedy part of town with the aid of Tong assassins sent from San Francisco. All-out war ensues, with peaceful Chinese citizens like the Li family caught in the middle. Can the lawmen of Wolf Creek hold the town together in the face of a threat they have never faced before?
Pimpage: An Occasional Feature in Which I call Attention to Books of Interest
Noel Harrison, R. I. P.
BBC News: Singer Noel Harrison has died at his home in Devon, aged 79.
The son of the actor Rex Harrison, he was best known for recording the hit song The Windmills Of Your Mind on The Thomas Crown Affair soundtrack.
Hat tip to The Rap Sheet.
Hat tip to The Rap Sheet.
Once Again Texas Leads the Way
khou.com Houston: Police arrested a man accused of stealing a Houston Fire Department ambulance Monday and crashing it into an overpass.
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee. . .
chicagotribune.com: A man and woman have been arrested after a brawl broke out among people waiting to claim prizes at a Chuck E. Cheese's in the Lincoln Park community, injuring three people, police said.
The 29 Most Austin Things That Ever Happened
Some possibly NSFW, and there's bad language.
I love #12 because I miss the old days. Jeff Meyerson might like #10.
The 29 Most Austin Things That Ever Happened
I love #12 because I miss the old days. Jeff Meyerson might like #10.
The 29 Most Austin Things That Ever Happened
Overlooked Movies: They Made Me A Criminal
Quick, what's the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the name "Busby Berkeley"? Crime movies with John Garfield, right? And that's what we have here. And not only John Garfield, but the Dead End Kids, too, with Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall doing their thing before becoming the Bowery Boys. This isn't a long movie, but the plot is jam-packed with stuff. Garfield is a champion boxer accused of a murder committed by his manager. The manager runs of with Garfield's watch and best girl, and they're both killed in a car accident. Because of the watch and the manager's mangled body, the cops think Garfield is dead. He gets some really bad advice from his lawyer and goes to hide out in Arizona on a ranch, where he meets the Dead End Kids. See, they're there because the ranch is a place where kids like them can get rehabbed. But the ranch is going broke, so Garfield has to save the day. Meanwhile, tough NYC cop Claude Rains (!) is hot on his trail. Garfield is probably better known for The Postman Always Rings Twice, but this one's not bad. Check it out.
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