Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Thieves Steal Over 160 Rare Books in Major Heist
The Fine Books Blog: In the early morning hours of January 30, a gang of thieves, in a carefully coordinated scheme, broke into a warehouse near London’s Heathrow airport and made off with over £2 million in rare books. The books, belonging to three different rare book dealers, were being shipped to the United States for the 50th Annual California International Antiquarian Book Fair this past weekend.
Bonus FFB on Wednesday: Valley of the Assassins -- Ian MacAlister (Marvin H. Albert)
I've mentioned before, I'm sure, that I think Ian MacAlister is one of the great pseudonyms of all time, and it belongs to Marvin H. Albert. What I might not have mentioned is what a dandy book Valley of the Assassins is. It's an old-fashioned adventure novel updated for modern times (1975). The book couldn't be written now because the setting is Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Oman, and the current modern times are very different from those of 1975.Eric Larson is an adventurer with a boat, and when he rescues the victim of a wreck in the Persian Gulf, he comes into possession of a map that supposedly leads to the great treasure of the Order of the Assassins, a cult that died out long ago. Or did it?
There are a good many others who'd like to get their hands on the map, which comes complete with strange symbols and riddles. Larson puts together a small team to go after the treasure, but the authorities are in pursuit. Still, he and the team manage to slip out of Iran, get to Oman, and cross into Arabia to the Rub-al-Khali, the Empty Quarter, the largest sand desert in the world.
One of the best things about the novel is the settings and the immense amount of detail that Albert uses to describe them. He puts the reader right there in the streets of Basra, in the border country, and in the sands of the Rub-al-Khali. He's also great at the details of the political situation, the way the police operate, and many other things. Reading this stuff is pure fun.
There's treachery and danger aplenty, too, and some nicely described battles in the desert. The problems of desert travel are bad enough without having people trying to kill you. Great stuff, and highly recommended.
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Overlooked Movies -- Scared Stiff
Why, you may be asking yourself, would anybody remake Ghostbreakers, which was a funny Bob Hope vehicle? It must have seemed like a good idea at the time, but the result isn't a better movie. It's just a Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis movie.I'm sure I've confessed my love of Dean and Jerry before. I thought they were great on TV and in their early movies. Some of Jerry's antics in this one are still funny to me, but I'm probably the only one.
The story's this: Lizabeth Scott has inherited a scary old dark house in the Caribbean. Through a ridiculous series of events, Dean and Jerry stow away on the ship that's taking her there, and Dean becomes romantically involved with her. There are, naturally, musical numbers, and we get to see Jerry in Carmen Miranda drag. So that's a plus. The events in the old dark house aren't scary at all, though they probably seemed scary enough to me when I saw this as a kid, and we do get to see Lizabeth Scott in a bathing suit, so that's another plus. There's an unnecessary cameo at the end, and it seemed funny to me in the long ago. Not so much now.
This isn't my favorite Martin and Lewis picture. It was barely okay, but it's no Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla.
Monday, February 13, 2017
How We Forgot the Bobbed Haired Bandit
How We Forgot the Bobbed Haired Bandit: In the 1920s, the armed robber Celia Cooney unintentionally became a symbol for the women's movement.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)