Davy Crockett's Almanack of Mystery, Adventure and The Wild West

Forgotten Novels: The Rogue by Richard Sale

2012-02-03T06:00:00.000-08:00

Richard Sale has been called “the Dumas of the pulps,” because he’s said to have written over 400 stories, in addition to the eleven novels published in book form.

I don’t know who coined that Dumas phrase, and don’t know if that person was aware of “The Rogue,” but this is where Sale really gets his Dumas on. The homage to The Three Musketeers is obvious - and extensive - resulting in a great historical adventure novel.

Publishers take note: As far as I know, this is the only Sale novel never collected in book form, and it’s high time it happened. The story ran as a 5-part serial in Argosy, from June 11 to July 9, 1938, making it a tough get for Sale fans today.

The Rogue of the story is John Hamilton, second son of a wealthy Virginia family, who’s built a reputation as a quick blade and an ardent lover. It’s 1781, and the War of the Revolution has gone along pretty much without him. But now Cornwallis is holed up at Yorktown, and George Washington and his French allies are gearing up for a siege that could end the war. And John Hamilton, the Rogue, finds himself in possession of the battle plans that win - or lose - the whole shebang.

Early on, Hamilton teams up with a long-nosed French agent named Du Maurier, who fills the role of the three musketeers. Du Maurier, like d’Artagnan is a proud Gascon, and Hamilton - lo and behold - learned his swordsmanship from a Gascon master, so the two hit it off famously. The role of the evil but lovely Milady de Winter is played by a female viper and British agent called Milady Desmond.

Then come the plot parallels. Early in The Three Musketeers, d’Artagnan has a tussle with one the Cardinal’s agents, and spends the rest the rest of the book itching for a showdown. Same thing here, with Hamilton repeatedly crossing swords with a cunning British spy. One long sequence in Musketeers finds the four friends (and their servants) riding across France take a message to Lord Buckingham in London. Each time they’re attacked by the Cardinal’s guards, someone is wounded or purposely stays behind as a rearguard. In “The Rogue,” our two friends (and their servants), in the company of a coonskin-capped frontiersman, race across Virginia to deliver the battle plans to Lafayette, with British agents picking them off one at a time.

Well, guess what? The plans get through and the American/French forces prevail. But you knew that already. The fun of the “The Rogue” is seeing how Hamilton & friends - and pulpmeister Richard Sale - contrive to pull it off.

For reviews of Sale’s earlier novels, two complete pulp stories, and other cool Sale stuff, click HERE.

And for this week’s fine lineup of other Forgotten Books, visit pattinase.

Overlooked Films: Meet Nero Wolfe (1936) and The League of Frightened Men (1937)

2012-01-31T06:00:00.000-08:00

Sheesh! When are these films going to be available on DVD?

Forgotten Books: Spartan Planet by A. Bertram Chandler

2012-01-27T06:00:00.000-08:00

Once in a while I like to cleanse the reading palate with a visit to another planet, and lately I’ve been doing that in the company of John Grimes of the Federation Survey Service.

The last Grimes novel I read (The Broken Cycle, the final installment of the Baen collection To the Galactic Rim) was a big yawn, so I was hoping Spartan Planet (from 1969, and the opener for the second Baen volume, First Command) would be better. For the first couple of chapters, I wasn’t sure. The earlier Grimes books were all in his point of view, but the protagonist of this one turned out to be a small planet policeman named Brasidus.

BUT, once Grimes and his crew (including his sometimes sex partner Margaret Lazenby) showed up, things started popping, and I had a smile on for the rest of the book. Our man Brasiduyou see, has never laid eyes on a woman, or imagined that such strange critters existed. He and most other residents of the planet Sparta think Margaret is a deformed man, and can’t fathom the big peculiar bumps on her chest.

Sparta, it develops, is an early Federation colony, out of touch so long the people have forgotten they’re a colony. Their society is modeled on the ancient Greek city-state of Sparta, and they’ve somehow managed to do entirely without women (or so they think).

Grimes and crew, with only the best of intentions, manage to turn the whole society on its head. Despite some horrific events along the way, the novel never loses its tongue-in-cheek focus. My faith in the Grimes saga has been restored, and I’m looking forward to the next adventure, The Inheritors.

The Oklahoma Kid (rides again)

2012-01-25T06:00:00.000-08:00

More posters hyping yesterday's Overlooked Film.

At center, future Wagonmaster Ward Bond

Cagney braces a saloon full of thugs

Overlooked Films: The Oklahoma Kid (1939)

2012-01-24T06:00:00.000-08:00

This one surprised me. Most of what I’ve read or heard about The Oklahoma Kid was negative, and now I don’t know why. I found it an extremely entertaining film.

I’ll admit it took me a couple of scenes to get used to Jimmy Cagney, with his New York wise guy accent, as a western outlaw. But his character is so engaging that I soon stopped thinking about it, and just enjoyed the ride. Cagney plays a good boy gone bad, who puts his badness to good use when he goes up against an even badder guy in the form of Humphrey Bogart. As the Oklahoma Kid, Cagney is happy-go-lucky, cynical and chivalrous all at the same time, and somehow makes it work. You just can’t help liking the guy.

When this film was released in 1939, Cagney was a huge star, and Bogart had not yet hit his stride. Bogart's breakthrough appearances in High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon were still two years away. So while Bogart did get second billing on the posters, it was a very distant second. It’s hard to find his image on any of the posters, and he’s hardly even seen in the lobby cards. By the time the movie was re-released in 1956, of course, Bogie was on at least equal footing, and the new posters make it appear they are battling man-to-man.

And surprisingly, that’s pretty much true. Bogart’s role in the film as much greater than I expected, and I believe he got almost as much screen time as Cagney. And though the two are clearly the story’s chief adversaries, they rarely appear on screen together. Still, it's clear a big confrontation is coming, and it arrives in the climactic fistfight between the two stars (and their two stunt doubles).

Bogie’s role, as an unscrupulous gent with the name Whip McCord, is pretty standard fare. He’s the outlaw gang leader who owns the saloon and plots to take control of the whole town. A similar character appears in about half the westerns you could name, but this one rises above the pack merely because Bogart commands the screen with the same force we see in his more famous roles.

The film’s historical setting is interesting too. The story begins in 1889, with President Cleveland opening up the Cherokee Strip - a big chunk of Oklahoma that had belonged to the Cherokee nation since 1836. The idea seems to be that this prime farm land is just too good to be wasted on the Indians, so they're reimbursed at the bargain rate of $1.40 an acre and told to vamoose. This sets the stage for the biggest land run in U.S. history, and this film treats us to the founding of the great city of Tulsa, where most of the later action takes place.

Beyond that, I don’t want to give too much away. This is a movie I can highly recommend, and you deserve to discover the rest of the story for yourself.

For more posters from The Oklahoma Kid, check out yesterday's post, HERE, and tune in again tomorrow.

And for more Overlooked Films, hop in your wagon and thunder on over to SWEET FREEDOM.

Cagney vs. Bogart: The Oklahoma Kid

2012-01-23T06:00:00.000-08:00

Coming tomorrow in Overlooked Films!

Forgotten Books: The Three Musketeers (2006)

2012-01-20T06:00:00.000-08:00

When this translation of The Three Musketeers came out in 2006, it was heralded as being the most accurate version ever, and for supposedly restoring some spicy bits censored by earlier translators. I was intrigued, of course, and with a new film version out (which I still have yet to see) this seemed a good time give it a read.

Well, I’m sure it comes as no surprise to hear this is still a great book. But as for Richard Pevear’s translation, I’m less than impressed. In his introduction, he crows that his is the most literal translation of Dumas’ words, and scorns earlier translators who took too many liberties.

Trouble is, a translator walks a fine line between content and style. Sure, you want to be true to the original author’s intent, but you should also convey some of the writer’s style. To do that, you have to be more than a translator, you must be a writer yourself, and that’s where Pevear falls short. His version lacks the rhythm and grace found in most earlier translations.

The trouble with critiquing a translation, of course, is that I can’t read French, so I don’t know if Dumas had that rhythm and grace or not. All I know is that several earlier translators told the story with more style. Pevear’s prose is flat and pedestrian. I’ll take his word for it that he’s an accurate translator, but I saw no evidence that he's a writer.

As for the spicy bits, I couldn’t find any. Pevear says that the removal of explicit and implicit references to sexuality in one earlier translation “makes the rendering of certain scenes between d’Artagnan and Milady, for instance, strangely vague." Well, guess what? They’re still vague. There’s no sex, explicit or implicit, in Pevear’s version either. D’Artagnan spends a couple of nights in her presence, and we still don’t know if they did the deed or not.

One thing I didn’t know - or had forgotten: Dumas wrote the novel as a newspaper serial. I think he knew where he was going for the first half of the book, telling the story of the queen’s diamonds and d’Artagnan’s trip to England to save her honor. But after that, I suspect he was making things up as he went along. At the mid-point, the story loses focus and our heroes wander aimlessly about in search of another plot. Eventually they find one, in a grudge match against Miladay, and reach a satisfying conclusion, but there are huge chunks that could be cut out without loss to the story. In that second half, a bit more rhythm and grace (which Dumas likely had) would have helped a lot.

Overlooked Films: The Three Musketeers (1948)

2012-01-17T08:45:00.000-08:00

I was surprised to learn that this 1948 flick was the ninth film adaptation of the book. I’ve seen only two earlier versions, the 1921 silent with Douglas Fairbanks and the 1939 farce with Don Ameche and the Ritz Brothers.

This is a good ‘un, full of action, humor and Technicolor, with a few peculiar quirks. First, there’s Gene Kelly as D’Artagnan. In the book, he’s supposed to be no more than 20, and much is made of his youth compared to the older Musketeers. Kelly is actually 36, and looks older. In fact, he’s only two years younger than Van Heflin (Athos), three years younger than Robert Coote (Aramis), and a year older than Gig Young (Porthos). But what he lacks in youth, he makes up for in athletic ability. In the sword fights (and there are many) he bounces around like a rubber ball, looking even more graceful and formidable than Douglas Fairbanks (and that’s saying something).

There are examples of 1948-style PC thinking. Richelieu (Vincent Price) is demoted from Cardinal to Prime Minister, apparently to avoid offending Catholic sensibilities. And D’Artagnan’s girlfriend Constance (June Allyson), the wife of his landlord in the book, become the landlord’s god-daughter. D’Artagnan and Constance even perform a private wedding ceremony late in the film, legitimizing a sleepover before she goes into hiding.

The all-star cast adds an extra element of interest. Lana Turner, who got top billing, is okay as Milady, but could have used an extra helping of evil. Angela Lansbury, as Queen Anne, is young, but still looks like Angela Lansbury, raising the question of why the Duke of Buckingham is so infatuated with her. June Allyson as Constance is bright-eyed, innocent and dumb. The most interesting female performance (which is unaccredited) comes from Marie Windson (a guest star in just about every old TV series you can think of) as the queen’s maid. We only see her twice, and she doesn’t even have a line, but she steals the scenes with sultry expressions. She would have made a far better Milady.

The Technicolor, while a definite plus, was sometimes abused, with D’Artagnan and the boys often wearing costumes so garish they resemble clown suits. Oddly, these outfits were colored differently - and more tastefully - on the lobby cards displayed here. The green shirt D’Artagnan wears on the cards is gold in the film, and the other Musketeers sometimes appear in bright purple.

One thing this film never gets is boring. It’s extremely fast-paced, because - as the posters proclaim - they’re presenting THE FULL NOVEL. Sort of. While some films focus on only the first half of the book, involving the queen’s diamonds, this one attempts to cover the muddled second half, centered around Milady’s revenge. There are many changes and shortcuts, and some of the changes are actually improvements over the Dumas plot (or lack thereof).

More Overlooked Films, as always, at SWEET FREEDOM.

Art Gallery: Hopalong Cassidy

2012-01-15T08:47:00.000-08:00

1936

1944

1939

Forgotten Books: The Crooking Finger by Cleve F. Adams

2012-01-13T06:00:00.000-08:00

It’s been a while since I read Cleve F. Adams, so I decided to soldier on with the Rex McBride series. The Crooking Finger is the fifth, and the last of the true McBride novels, the others being Sabotage, And Sudden Death, Decoy and Up Jumped the Devil, all former FFBs. One posthumous McBride novel, Shady Lady, was published as half of an Ace Double, but it was actually a non-McBride pulp story expanded by Robert Leslie Bellem.

In a comment over on Mystery*File, David L. Vineyard once said that Adams used the plot of Red Harvest several times. I hadn’t noticed that on first reading, but have been looking for it since, and The Crooking Finger, from 1944, was one of those times.

The action takes place in a Nevada gambling town called San Gorgonio, that could be based on Reno. As in the Hammett masterpiece, our hero is up against two factions battling for control of the town. He also meets a femme fatale clearly based on Red Harvest’s Dinah Brand. McBride’s plan is to “dynamite” the situation by setting them at each others’ throats. Unlike Hammett’s Op, he’s not interested so much in cleaning up the town as in nailing the person who killed his friend and getting himself and his inamorata, Miss Kay Ford, out from under the trouble he causes.

Overall, McBride is more subdued here than in earlier novels. He only gets drunk once, is less preoccupied with proving himself a heel, and does not adopt a hard-drinking palooka as partner in anti-crime. If you’re new to Adams, I’d say The Crooking Finger is not the place to start. Instead, go with Sabotage (Adams’ first mining of the Red Harvest theme), and it’s direct sequel, And Sudden Death.

Though this is the last true McBride book, it’s not the end of Adams. There are six other genuine Adams novels and four collaborations, including the aforementioned Shady Lady. I have a lot more re-reading to do.

Overlooked Films: Heckle & Jeckle in THE POWER OF THOUGHT

2012-01-10T06:00:00.000-08:00

Along with the illustrious Three Stooges, these distinguished gents were two of my childhood role models. Hm. Guess that explains a lot. Here's a cool escapade from 1948.

Overlooked Films, of course, is the brainchild of Todd Mason. Find more over at SWEET FREEDOM.

Forgotten Books of 2011

2012-01-06T06:00:00.000-08:00

Here's the result of another year of play in Patti Abbott's sandbox. Each date links to the original post.

Jan. 7

Jan. 14

Jan. 21

Jan. 28

Feb. 4

Feb. 11

Feb. 18

Feb. 25

Mar. 4

Mar. 11

Mar. 18

Mar. 25

Apr. 1

Apr. 8

Apr. 15

Apr. 22

May 6

A eomplete (and rare) story by Paul Cain
May 20

May 27

June 3

June 10

June 17

A complete (and rare) story by David Goodis
June 24

July 1

July 8

July 15

July 22

July 29

Aug. 5

Aug. 12

Aug. 19

Aug. 26

Sept. 2

Sept. 16

Sept. 23

Sept. 30

Oct. 7

Oct. 21

Oct. 28

Nov. 4

Nov. 11

Nov. 18

Dec. 2

A complete (and semi-rare) Paul Pine story

Dec. 9

Dec. 16

Dec. 23

Dec. 30

Overlooked Films: Recapping the First Year

2012-01-03T06:00:00.000-08:00

Here's a recap of my entries for the inaugural year of Todd Mason's Overlooked Films. Each date is a link to the original post. My apologies if any of the videos or sound files are no longer working.

Jan. 18

Jan. 25

Feb. 1

Feb. 8

Feb. 15

Feb. 22

Mar. 8

Mar. 15

Mar. 22

Mar. 29

Apr. 12

Apr. 19

May 17

May 31

June 7

June 14

June 21

June 28

July 5

July 19

July 26

Aug. 2

Aug. 9

Aug. 15

Aug. 23

Aug. 30

Sept. 6

Sept. 13

Sept. 20

Sept. 27

Oct. 4

Oct. 11

Nov. 1

Dec. 6

Dec. 13

Dec. 20

Dec. 27

Forgotten Books: Bill Lennox novels by W.T. Ballard - Now FREE

2011-12-30T06:00:00.000-08:00

W.T. Ballard was one of Joe Shaw's Black Mask boys, and his number one hero, Hollywood troubleshooter Bill Lennox, starred in more than two dozen stories. Now, 78 years after his debut, Bill Lennox is still around, and his first three novel-length adventures are FREE for Kindle and other eReaders at Munseys.com. (Once you reach the Munsey's site, just click on each cover to choose your download format.)

Get the lowdown on more of this week's Forgotten Books at SWEET FREEDOM.

Doc Savage is Back! HORROR IN GOLD by Will Murray

2011-12-28T06:00:00.000-08:00

Will Murray has done it again. Another brand new WILD adventure with Doc and the gang is now available from Altus Press. And yeah, this one is wild.

Horror in Gold opens with two men's heads exploding, blasting blood and brains over the streets of New York. This spectacle is followed in short order by mysterious decapitations of fingers and hands - and yes, more heads. And Doc Savage takes it in the shorts, too, as the rear end of one of his favorite roadsters vanishes into thin air.

What's behind it all? I'm not telling. You should find out for yourself. Along the way you'll meet some amazing characters: A quirky but deadly female with the abilities of an escape artist; a scientist seeking the lost secrets of the ancient world; a weird figure slinking around in a purple robe and a Musketeer's hat; and Doc's merry crew of assistant heroes.

The idea behind this series of WILD adventures is to bring us tales that may have been a bit too extreme for the original Kenneth Robeson (Lester Dent) to get away with in the pulps. Luckily, our new Kenneth Robeson (Will Murray) is more than up to the task.

The writing style is right on, the humor hits the mark, and the action jumps off the page. Horror in Gold is everything you could want in a Doc Savage adventure, and the best news it's only the second in a series of at least seven new novels.

Horror in Gold is available now in paperback direct from Altus Press (to order, click HERE), and will soon be offered in other formats - including a deluxe hardcover.

The first WILD adventure, The Desert Demons, is still available too. Click HERE for the Almanack's review.

Overlooked Films: More LOST Films I'd Like to See

2011-12-27T06:00:00.000-08:00

1927

1921

1931

The weekly extravaganza known as Overlooked Films is sponsored by SWEET FREEDOM.

Forgotten Books: STERANKO does Sword and Sorcery

2011-12-23T06:00:00.000-08:00

1969

1970

More Forgotten Books lurking this week at SWEET FREEDOM.

GRIMM TALES - Available at Last!

2011-12-21T06:00:00.000-08:00

Grimm Tales is now available for your eReading pleasure from Untreed Reads. 17 crime stories based on Fairy Tales (Grimm or otherwise) for a mere $4.99. And if you're one of the few folks in the universe without a copy of Discount Noir, you can nab that at the same time for a whopping 50% off. Click HERE to order.

Here's what's in it:

Introduction by Ken Bruen

Joseph and Jasmine by Patricia Abbott

You Dirty Rats by Absolutely*Kate

The Flying Trunk by Jack Bates

Coal Black by Eric Beetner

Sing a Song of Sixpence by Nigel Bird

King Flounder: A Monologue by Loren Eaton

Henry, Gina, and the Gingerbread House by Kay George

Han and Greta by Blu Gilliland

Gato by Seana Graham

Mary by Erik Gumeny

Candy House by R.L. Kelstrom

The Master Cat by John Kenyon

The Bacon Blues by B.V. Lawson

Skyler Hobbs and the Magic Solution by Evan Lewis

Interview with the Pram Driver by B. Nagel

Divided We Stand by Sean Patrick Reardon

Taking Back by Sandra Seamans

WAY, WAY Overlooked Films: Three LOST Films I'd Like to See

2011-12-20T06:00:00.000-08:00

1927

1928

1932

More Overlooked (but less LOST) Fillms at SWEET FREEDOM.

Two Days Remain! Adventure Library SALE from Black Dog Books

2011-12-17T07:00:00.000-08:00

Tom Roberts at Black Dog Books has been doing us all a great service by reprinting lost tales from the greatest of all pulp magazines - Adventure. And right now, in a deal that expires tomorrow at midnight, he's offering a package of these three books for a measly $45 (a $65 value). Details HERE!

Forgotten Books: The Simon Bolivar Grimes Collection by E. Hoffman Price

2011-12-16T06:00:00.000-08:00

Way back in the Olden Days, circa 1999, Black Dog Books issued these two chapbooks featuring the rip-snorting adventures of Simon Bolivar Grimes. As you Howardians no doubt know, E. Hoffman Price was one of REH's pals, and an admirer (as am I) of his two-fisted mountain man, Breckenridge Elkins.

After Howard's death, Price created a character inspired by Breckenridge and sent him forth to battle frontier villains and female virtue in over two dozen issues of Spicy Western (and Speed Western) Stories. Price couldn't duplicate Howard's style, and didn't try. But he did manage to capture something of Breck's wide-eyed exuberance and passion for grabbing life by the throat.

These two chapbooks, each containing four stories, are tough to come by these days, but all eight stories - and four more to boot - are collected in Black Dog's deluxe trade pb, Nomad's Trail. Check it out HERE, and be sure to peruse the rest of Tom Roberts' amazing line of pulp classics.

Get a snootful of Forgotten Book action each week via pattinase.

Overlooked Films: The Sign of Four (1932) starring Arthur Wontner

2011-12-13T06:00:00.000-08:00

Before Basil Rathbone became THE Sherlock Holmes in 1939, the screen's busiest Holmes impersonator was Arthur Wontner. The Sign of Four was the third of five films, preceded by The Sleeping Cardinal (U.S. title Sherlock Holmes' Fatal Hour), and The Missing Rembrandt (a lost film), and followed by The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes and Silver Blaze (U.S. title Murder at the Baskervilles), all made in the UK.

As Holmes, Wontner is a mixed bag. He looks the part. If he were a few inches taller he might be mistaken for the model of the illustrations that appeared in The Strand. And he shows flashes of humor that make him almost believable. Unfortunately, his voice is a bit high and squeaky, and he sometimes sounds like he has a lisp. Wontner does a good job portraying Holmes in disguise, first as an old salt (seen in the lobby card below), which fools police detective Athelney Jones, and later as a carnival patron, fooling Watson. The main problem, I guess, is that he simply is not Basil Rathbone.

Ian Hunter makes an okay Watson, though he looks more like a leading man than a sidekick. He has a couple of nice humorous moments with Wontner, but for most of the film he's merely drooling over their client Mary Morstan, whom we all know is fated to become Mrs. Watson.

It's been a coon age since I read the book, so I can't offer an in-depth comparison. But the major difference seems to be that the book opens with mysterious goings on, and we follow Holmes as he figures things out, while the film opens with the back story, showing us whodunnit and why. The only mystery left is how Holmes is going to catch the villains. The weirdest deviation from the book (and the entire canon) is that Holmes lives at 22A Baker Street.

Bottom line: The Sign of Four is far from a great film, but for hardcore Holmes fans (like me) it has certain points of interest that make it required viewing.

See SWEET FREEDOM for this week's batch of other Overlooked Entertainment.

Forgotten Stories: "So Dark for April" a Paul Pine story by John Evans

2011-12-09T06:00:00.000-08:00

Twenty-odd years ago, when I first read and grokked on the four Paul Pine novels (Halo in Blood*, Halo for Satan and Halo in Brass by John Evans, and The Taste of Ashes by Howard Browne), I didn't know there had also been a short story, published in the February, 1954 issue of Manhunt. When I finally found out, of course, there was only one thing to do. I had to track it down and possess it.

The story appeared five years after the third novel, and since it's one of a kind, I have to wonder what possessed Browne/Evans to write it. Here's a guess . . .

This was only the second issue of Manhunt, and in order to make a splash on newsstands, it's possible the editor, whose name is strangely absent from this issue, requested stories from folks he knew, like Spillane, MacDonald, Deming and Browne. Whatever happened, I'm glad it did, because it's a fine little story, chock full of Browne's brand of similes and metaphors.

I also have to wonder if it was this story that got Browne back in the Pine groove, prompting him to write the fine novel, The Taste of Ashes, published in 1957.

As far as I know, "So Dark For April" has been reprinted twice. First in the Dennis McMillan book The Paper Gun (the title story being an unfinished Paul Pine novel), and then in the Pronzini/Greenburg edited anthology, The Mammoth Book of Private Eye Stories. For those of you who don't have either of those volumes, or would like to see what it looked like in Manhunt, I offer the following . . .

(click on each page to SUPERSIZE. If it takes you to Blogger's new image-scrolling
format,you may have to right click and select "View Image" before you can enlarge.)

Forgotten Books (and occasionally Stories) is a pattinase presentation.

* My take on Halo in Blood is HERE.

Overlooked Oaters: The Rider of the Law (1935) starring Bob Steele

2011-12-06T06:00:00.000-08:00

I've seen a lot of Bob Steele westerns over the past few months. Not because I wanted to, exactly, but because I've been working my way through the 50-film cheapo public domain collection, The Way West, and he stars in a lot of them. None have been bad. As a cowboy hero, he's a scrappy little guy with no more personality or acting ability than is absolutely necessary. Get me? He's just okay.

The Rider of the Law is really no exception, but I single it out because for at least the first 15 minutes, I found it more amusing than the standard Steele entry. The film opens with rowdies shooting up the town and the city fathers moaning that they'll never find a sheriff willing to stand up to them. Enter a scruffy, Gabby-esque buffalo hunter (played by Si Jenks) who takes the job. Then the stage rolls in, and off hops a dude in a fedora and horn-rimmed glasses who appears to be straight from the East. You guessed, it, it's Bob Steele.

For the first few minutes of the movie, Steele displays an aptitude for slapstick humor that's missing from the other films I've seen. He attempts to mount a horse with all the acrobatic ineptitude you'd expect from Charlie Chaplin. And when he's cornered by two outlaws with guns, he flounders around until he stumbles between them and cause them to shoot each other dead. Good stuff.

We soon discover, though, that he's a federal marshall sent to clean up the town, and the dudishness is all an act. The film then falls into the usual pattern, complete with cowardly townspeople, a good girl Steele is smitten with and a bad girl who's smitten with him.

After making a ton of these cheapies in the 30s, Steele went on to make a lot more in the 40s (many as Billy the Kid, before Buster Crabbe assumed the role). In the 50s, along with more films, he did guest stints on various TV Westerns, and in the 60s had small parts in such films as McLintock!, The Longest Day and 4 for Texas before settling into a regular role as Trooper Duffy on F-Troop.

More Overlooked Films & Stuff await you, as usual at SWEET FREEDOM.

Forgotten Books: Zorro Rides Again by Johnston McCulley

2011-12-02T06:00:00.000-08:00

I’ve been meaning to post a Forgotten Books piece on the second Zorro novel, “The Further Adventures of Zorro,” but James Reasoner beat me to it. That’s HERE.

So . . . I’ll skip ahead and tell you about the third novel, "Zorro Rides Again." Unlike “The Further Adventures,” which was reprinted in both hardcover and paperback as The Sword of Zorro back in 1928, this one has yet to be collected in book form.

This four-part serial, featured in Argosy from October 3 to October 24, 1931, takes place after the events of “The Further Adventures,” and I’ve long been curious how McCulley went about it.

For those who don’t know, the first novel, The Mark of Zorro (aka “The Curse of Capistrano”) ended with our hero publicly revealing his identity and announcing he planned to marry the senorita of his dreams. In “The Further Adventures,” before the wedding takes place, she’s kidnapped by pirates, and Diego dons the mask to put him in the mood to rescue her. (The curious thing about these early tales is that he truly thinks of himself as having two personalities. Diego is mild-mannered, while Zorro is romantic and adventurous.)

“Zorro Rides Again” picks up three years after “The Further Adventures,” and Diego is still single. Seems his betrothed took ill and returned to Spain for her health. She has recently returned, and wedding plans are once more in the works. Yep, it looks like Zorro’s riding days are over.

Thankfully, an imposter shows up. A new Zorro is terrorizing the countryside, and this one is cruel to both cabelleros and peons alike. Since everyone knows Diego is Zorro, he takes the blame, and everyone’s after his head. His only way out is to dig his costume out of mothballs and ride to restore his name.

As noted in James’ post, “The Further Adventures” will soon be reprinted by both Beb Books and Black Dog Books. Hopefully one or both has plans for “Zorro Rides Again” too. In the meantime, I have it in a Word document, making it friendly for Kindle and other eReaders. If you’d like a copy, zip me an email at delewis1@hotmail.com.

Forgotten Books is a cunning and free presentation of pattinase.

Forgotten Books: Will Eisner + Pirates = Hawks of the Seas

2011-11-18T06:00:00.000-08:00

Here's a cool one. Will Eisner's pre-Spirit Sunday comic strip that's sort of a cross between Treasure Island and Captain Blood. My 1986 Kitchen Sink Press edition of the book is BIG, measuring 10 1/4 by 14 1/2 inches. It was reprinted in 2002 by Dark Horse as an entry in the Will Eisner Library (with a new cover), but unfortunately shrunk down to 7 x 10 inches. Eisner was only 20 when this strip began in 1936, and used the pseudonym Willis Rensie, but there are many fine panels that hint at the wonders to come in The Spirit.

Some samples:

More Forgotten Books at pattinase!

Hank and Muddy: Mannish Boy & Got My Mojo Workin'

2011-11-17T06:00:00.000-08:00

EMBARRASSING UPDATE: Hey, this was mean to be a reminder to check out Steve Mertz's fine novel, Hank & Muddy, but it was one of those future-scheduled posts that wasn't quite done. I was mighty surprised to see it turn up today. I meant to post a Hank Williams vid too. Sheesh. Still, you DO want to read Hank & Muddy. More on that HERE.

MANNISH BOY (WITH JOHNNY WINTER)

GOT MY MOJO WORKIN' (CANADA 1966)

Forgotten Books: STERANKO's Skaith Covers

2011-11-11T07:47:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty sure Leigh Brackett's Eric John Stark books have not been forgotten. They're still in print, and pretty easy to find. But these Steranko cover editions from 1974 aren't seen much anymore.

Near as I can tell, Stark first appeared in a series of novellas in the pulp Planet Stories beginning in 1949. This 1974-1976 trilogy from Ballantine was a reintroduction of the character, leaning more toward fantasy than the earlier space operas. Geez, maybe I should read them one of these days.

Forgot some Books? Remember them each Friday via pattinase.

Forgotten Books: Don Herron's Dashiell Hammett Tour guide

2011-11-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

Until I met Don Herron, I thought maybe my old copy of the 1982 Dashiell Hammett Tour guide (above, with gray cover) was a rare first edition. Well… while it is a collector’s item, with a genuine circa-1982 Herron autograph, I now know it was the second of several incarnations of the guide, and if I did have a copy of the first, I’d really have something to crow about.

That first guide book (the red one) appeared in 1979, in an edition of only 313 copies, and is now mighty ding dang hard to come by. How much is it worth? Nobody knows, because apparently nobody who has one is willing to part with it.

My 1982 edition is 95 pages with wide margins and big type, with a lot of space devoted to maps and photographs. It’s great stuff, but looks pretty lean next to the book it has evolved into. The current edition, subtitled the Thirtieth Anniversary Guidebook, is 214 pages of small type, with lots more photos, maps and info, and is infused with the insight Don has gleaned from his thirty-plus years of marching up and down the mean streets in the footsteps of old Dash.

Even if you never plan to visit San Francisco, if you’re a Hammett fan (and if you’re not, you should be), you should own this book. It offers a look at Hammett and his world that you just can’t get from a biography or critical study of his work. And through the wonders of Amazon, it can be yours for somewhere between $9.99 and $15.56. It's HERE. What are you waiting for?

Coming soon: Guidebook-like pics of my own Hammett tour and my encounter with Don Herron himself!

Forgotten Books is a weekly feature (and and extremely cool one) of pattinase.

Overlooked Films: Three Little Pigskins (1934)

2011-11-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite Three Stooges films, co-starring Lucille Ball . . .

More Overlooked Stuff at Sweet Freedom!

Forgotten Books: Dead Dolls Don't Talk, Hunt the Killer and Too Hot to Hold by Day Keene

2011-10-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

To me, Day Keene was always just a name I’d see (A LOT) between Hammett and Latimer on second-hand paperback shelves. No more. Thanks to a new triple-threat reissue from Stark House Press, Day Keene is now a name I respect, and will be on the lookout for.

In the book’s introduction, David Laurence Wilson links Keene to Gil Brewer and Harry Whittington. Though Keene was older, the three men were friends and drinking buddies, and explored similar dark themes in their novels. I have a lot of books by those guys, along with other hardboiled non-detective writers like Jim Thompson and David Goodis, but just never got around to reading them. Now, thanks to Keene, I’ll be digging into them too.

These three novels comprise a great sampler of Keene’s talents. The first novel is in third person, almost exclusively from one point of view. The second is narrated in first person by the (perceived) bad guy. And the last is in third person, with POV alternating between several characters. The narration is smooth and tight, the dialogue sharp, and the suspense always mounting. These are stories that charge you up and keep you buzzing all the way to the end.

Dead Dolls Don’t Talk, a Crest Books original from 1959, opens with a guy awakening to find his bedmate missing and the room splattered with blood. I expected to see him on the lam for the rest of the book, trying to clear himself. Instead, Keene takes an unexpected turn. We cut to the murder trail, where one of the jurors, a respected Hollywood drug store owner, helps get the guy convicted. Then, before the druggist makes it home from the courtroom, he finds himself framed for the murder of the convicted guy’s wife. So the rest of the book finds him on the lam trying to clear himself - and, in the process, the guy he helped convict.

Hunt the Killer appeared in 1951 as both a Phantom Books digest (shown) and an Avon paperback. In this one we meet Charlie White, a fishing boat captain just being released from the joint after serving time (justly) for smuggling. Charlie’s conflicted. He wants to reconnect with wife if she’ll have him. But he has a yen for his mistress, a hot little number from Habana, and craves revenge on the guy he blames for his stretch in prison - a mysterious gent known only as Senor Peso. And he just can’t get a break. The hot little number is brutally murdered, and before he can clear his wits Charlie is being hunted by every lawman in the South, including his former best friend.

Much as I enjoyed the first two novels, may favorite was Too Hot to Hold, a Gold Medal entry from 1959. What’s “too hot to hold” is a package containing $200,000 of mob money. A nineteen year old wanna-be actress lost it, an unhappily-married professional translator finds it, and Chicago’s top mobster - a holdover from the Capone era - will stop at nothing to get it back.

Near as I can tell, this is Stark House’s second Keene collection. Now I’ll have to track down the first, containing Framed in Guilt, My Flesh is Sweet and an intro by Ed Gorman.

Cullen Gallagher reviewed Dead Dolls Don’t Talk/Hunt the Killer/Too Hot to Hold a couple three weeks ago over at Pulp Serenade. You’ll find his take on it HERE.

For info on this and other fine books, visit the STARK HOUSE PRESS site.

And watch for a complete Day Keene pulp story, coming soon to the Almanack!

Forgotten Books is a PATTI ABBOTT production.

Overlooked Films: The Thin Man TV series (1958-59)

2011-10-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

While digging through boxes in my storage unit the other day, I came across tapes of a few old episodes of The Thin Man TV series. I remember recording these ten or so years ago, when TNT occasionally showed one in the middle of the night. Well, being in a Hammett frame of mind, I naturally hauled them home for another look-see.

After watching three episodes, all from early in the first season, I was ready to write them off as terrible. As Nick, Peter Lawford displayed all the humor and charm of a clothes dummy. He seemed to be sleep-walking through the part, delivering his lines in a dull monotone and never cracking a smile. Phyllis Kirk (whom I remember best as TV's first Lois Lane - Oops, my mistake. See comments.) seemed to be at least trying to display a personality, but she too fell flat. The only comic relief came from the antics of Asta, by far the best actor of the three.

But I had several more episodes, so I tried one more. And struck gold. (Well, maybe not gold, but at least silver.) The episode is called “The Cat Kicker,” and came from late in the second - and final - season, in 1959.

Somehow, Lawford and Kirk have grown personalities. They smile, they tell jokes, they make faces at each other, and Lawford ever does some William Powell-like physical gags. It’s as if the director forced them to watch one of the Powell-Loy Thin Man movies and said, “Now, do that!”

Lawford and Kirk are nowhere near as good as Powell and Loy, of course, but in this episode they’re trying hard, and for the first time I could actually think of them as Nick and Nora. It didn’t hurt that Don Rickles was one of the guest stars, playing a cabbie, but there was enough comedy without him. And I don’t remember Asta appearing at all.

As for the story, no cats are kicked. Rickles the cabbie delivers a babe wearing nothing but a nightgown and fur coat to the Charles’ apartment because she’s lost her memory, and he thinks Nick can help her (or at least pay the cab fee). She, naturally, gets flirty with Nick, and Nora gets jealous. A sub-plot, which of course dovetails with the amnesiac plot, involves Nick and Nora auctioning off a day of their services for charity.

So. I now know the entire series didn’t suck, and I’ll be watching the rest of my episodes hoping for another gem. What I want to know now is - why isn’t this series available on DVD? It ran for 72 episodes, and even at it’s worst, it’s good as some of the dreck now being reissued.

More Overlooked Films at SWEET FREEDOM.

A fan visits the Thin Man set.

Forgotten Books: High Priest of California by Charles Willeford

2011-10-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

This was my first Charles Willeford book. And by no coincidence, it was also Charles Willeford’s first book. I’ve always identified more with authors than with their characters, so whenever possible I like to start at the beginning.

I had no idea what to expect. But I knew it was set in San Francisco, I knew I’d be meeting Willeford biographer Don Herron while visiting that burg, and knew I’d be spending a fair amount of time resting my feet and legs in the hotel room. And since I’d reread most of Hammett’s SF stuff in the weeks leading up to the trip, High Priest of California seemed the natural choice to take along.

Natural is a good word for it. The book is narrated in breezy, unaffected fashion by a sleazy car salesman named Russell Haxby. The title comes from a line of dialogue delivered by a supporting character.

“I know all about guys like you, Russell. You’re the High-Priest of California. That isn’t original with me. It was a caption in Life about the used car salesmen of California. Did you see it?”
I shook my head. “I’m afraid not, but it makes a good caption.”

“And it fits.”

Russell’s one and only goal is a bed a reasonably good-looking babe who’s playing hard to get. The reason for the act, we soon discover, is that she’s hiding a mentally unbalance husband in her apartment. She wants to cheat on him, but struggling with guilt.

At that point, I thought I had the story figured. It was a James M. Cain thing, where the sleazy guy and sleazy gal conspire to murder the hubby and end up getting their just deserts. But nope, that wasn’t it at all.

I’m not going to tell you what happens, but I will say that Willeford fooled me. As a story, the novel wasn’t particularly satisfying, but I think was the point. It wasn’t meant to be satisfying, it was meant as a slice of sleazy life in California, circa 1953.

If that’s what Mr. W was really aiming for, he hit the bullseye.

If you’d like to see for yourself, the novel is available for free download, in a variety of electronic formats, at the Munsey’s site, munseys.com. Check it out. You’ll also find six other early Willeford works (Cockfighter, Honey Gal, Wild Wives, The Woman-Chaser, Pick-Up and Whip Hand) and a lot of other cool stuff. I am indebted to Ye Olde Cap’n Bob Napier for the tip.

More Forgotten Books, as usual, at pattinase.

Overlooked Films: Satan Met a Lady (The Maltese Falcon?) (1936)

2011-10-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

While in San Francisco last week (more on that anon) my wife and I watched the classic version of The Maltese Falcon (1941), followed the next night by Satan Met a Lady (1936). Yikes! I’d seen this turkey before, but forgotten how flat out silly it is.

To lay the groundwork . . . Warner Brothers had purchased the screen rights to the Hammett novel and released the first (relatively faithful) film version back in 1931, with Ricardo Cortez as Spade. The film bombed. But by 1936, following the film version of The Thin Man, Hammett’s star was flying high, and they decided to exploit it. Trailers for Satain Met a Lady touted it as being from “Dashiell Hammett, author of The Thin Man.”

Because only five years had passed, they must have figured it was too soon for a remake of the Falcon, so they turned the story inside out and upside down and tried to disguise it as something different. And in that they succeeded. It’s different as hell.

First, as you already know, the title was changed. Then the falcon became the Horn of Roland. And the characters got new names, and - in some cases - new genders and sexual preferences.

Sam Spade morphed into a goofus named Ted Shane, portrayed like a maniac off his meds by Warren William. Bette Davis, who got top billing, is actually only a bug-eyed bit player in the ersatz Bridget O’Shaughnessy role. Arthur Treacher, as “the tall Englishman,” fills in for Joel Cairo. Instead of Wilmer the gunsel we get a pudgy dork in a beret. And the Casper Gutman substitute is a woman.

Warren William, who behaved like a reasonably sane human being in the first Perry Mason movies, seems to have completely lost it here, launching into giggling fits or roaring like King Kong with no provocation. Many scenes are so goofy they leave you wondering What the hell was that?, but the worst was the all-important history lesson laying out the origin and importance of the Horn of Roland. The tale is tossed off between gags as Shane and the Englishman cavort around his apartment playing ring-toss with a lampshade.

Sounds pretty bad, doesn’t it? Actually, the film does have its moments, like whenever the Effie character (here known as Miss Murgatroyd and played by Marie Wilson) is on stage. Yeah, she’s goofy too - in a Lucille Ball sort of way - but I like better her in the role than the real Effie in the Bogart version. And the dialogue, while almost entirely Hammett-free, is sometimes snappy.

So. What possessed Warner Brothers to turn the Falcon into a slapstick farce? I have a theory. In 1936, Hammett’s fame among movie-goers was based mostly on the movie version of The Thin Man that had hit it big two years earlier. To them, Hammett meant Nick and Nora characters who were always clowning around. So that’s what the studio tried to give them, twisting The Maltese Falcon into their version of The Thin Man. To me, that’s the only way this movie makes sense. What do you think?

Tune into SWEET FREEDOM for your weekly fix of Overlooked Films & Stuff.

Warren William as Ted Shane

Shane and the bug-eyed Lady

Marie Wilson as Miss Murgatroyd (Effie)

Arthur Treacher as Travers (Joel Cairo)

Maynard Holmes as Kenneth (Wilmer)

Alison Skipworth (left) as Madame Barabbas (The Fat Lady)

Forgotten Books: Wildcat O'Shea covers by STERANKO

2011-10-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

In the tradition of last week's collection of K'ing Kung-Fu covers by Barry Smith, here's another series I picked up solely for the cover art. Never read one, but I should. They all say © Jack Bickham. They were published in 1970 and 71.

The back of the first book (above) says this:

BAD DAY IN BLANCO

It started when Wildcat O'Shea joined an amateur rebel army of four - a storekeeper, a minister, a former lawman, and a schoolteacher - in a surprise assault on the jail and its crooked sheriff.

They captured them, for a wonder, and proclaimed that Blanco was now free of the lawless domination of Frost, the big rancher and landowner who ran the town and everyone in it.

But Frost wasn't finished, and his men outnumbered them ten to one. By afternoon, there was a regular war on in Blanco.

It was Wildcat who thought of getting hold of the Civil War cannon in the park - and things got really interesting!

Forgotten Books is a weekly presentation of pattinase.

Overlooked Films: The Falcon Takes Over (Farewell, My Lovely?) (1942)

2011-10-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

Sadly, here's another film I haven't seen. This 1942 entry in the Falcon series was the first attempt to bring Farewell, My Lovely to the screen. Moose and Velma appear to have survived the trip, but Philip Marlowe has morphed into the character of "Gay Lawrence," played by George Sanders. He's assisted by a lady reporter who wasn't in the book. Hm.

The first faithful film treatment of the book, Murder, My Sweet with Dick Powell, appeared two years later.

More Overlooked Films, Etc. at SWEET FREEDOM.

Forgotten Books: K'ing Kung-Fu covers by Barry Smith

2011-09-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

This series was published in 1973 and 74. I picked these up mainly for the Smith covers, but I was buying a lot of weird series books back then. I think there were at least seven titles, with covers by other guys.

I never got around to reading one, but the back of #1 says this:

HERE'S THE DYNAMITE FUNG-FU ACTION STORIES YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR! The greatest Kung-Fu experts of all time in a thousand bloody battles to the death! From the wastes of the Gobi desert to the sin alleys of Hong Kong and Shanghai, the young fighter K'ing hunts the mad killer of his master - the infamous Kak Nan Tang - on a vengeance trail ripping with action. First in a series of adventures - watch for them each month!

I have no clue who Marshall Macao was or is. Anyone else know?

More Forgotten Books (including discussions of what's inside them) at pattinase!

Overlooked Films: Jonathan Latimer's "The Lady in the Morgue" (1938)

2011-09-27T07:09:00.000-07:00

Here's one I'd like the see. This was the second of three films based on Latimer's great Bill Crane series, and the only one to retain the original title. Could be bad, but can't be any worse than the movie poster. I had this ugly purple and green sucker on my wall for a while and soon got tired of looking at it. HERE'S SOMEONE selling the film on DVD for fifteen bucks. Wish I had fifteen bucks to blow.

More Overlooked Films at SWEET FREEDOM!

Forgotten Books: "The Road to the Rim" and "To Prime the Pump" by A. Bertram Chandler

2011-09-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

George Kelley featured the first Baen omnibus of John Grimes adventures a few months back, and I was intrigued by the notion of Hornblower in space. But, as is the way of such things, I promptly forgot about until recently, when Providence dropped it into my lap.

(OK, it wasn’t exactly Providence, I guess, it was Richard Robinson. And actually he just sort of handed it to me, but the effect was the same.) (And while I’m digressing, I might as well go the whole hog: I was touring the Robinson library with esteemed mystery author Robert S. Napier and Portland rock icon Brian Trainer when Richard took me aside and explained he’d been unlucky enough to accidentally order a duplicate copy of the book. Well, naturally, the gracious thing to do was to take it off his hands . . . ) (Anyway, thanks much, Mr. R.)

To the Galactic Rim collects the first three John Grimes novels (chronologically, anyway) and a collection of short stories. I’ve now read the first two novels, The Road to the Rim (1967) and To Prime the Pump (1971) and I’m well and truly hooked. Chandler’s writing has a charm that keeps things moving right along.

So far, the Hornblower connection is not as pronounced as I expected. When Horatio Hornblower got into a fix (which he did on a regular basis), he relied on wits and courage to get himself out. John Grimes, at this early stage of his career, just sort of goes with the flow, relying on luck to pull his fat out of the fire. I’m expecting this to change as the series progresses and he takes command of his first ship.

The Road to the Rim presents Ensign Grimes’ first venture into deep space, where he discovers that life on the rim of the galaxy is not as black and white as it was portrayed back in the Federation academy. And To Prime the Pump throws Lt. Grimes into a decadent society where he finds himself in way over his head.

Interestingly, the most Hornbloweresque behavior I’ve seen so far was in a story not told, but merely alluded to. At the end of To Prime the Pump, we get a brief summary of three adventures Grimes had after the main story concluded.

Here, complete in one paragraph, is a story that deserved a novel of its own:
There was the insurrection on Merganta, a bloody affair, in the suppression of which Aries did all that was demanded of her, but no more. Many of her officers and most of her crew felt more than a little sympathy for the rebels. It was Grimes, in command of one of the cruiser’s armed pinnaces, who intervened to stop the mass executions of three hundred women, wives and leading insurgents, turning his weapons on the government machine gunners. For this he was reprimanded, officially, by Captain Daintree, who, later, in a stormy interview with the planetary president, used such phrases as “an overly zealous officer” and “mistaken identity,” adding coldly that Lieutenant Grimes naturally assumed that it was not the forces of law and order who were about to commit cold-blooded murder.

More Forgotten Books at pattinase!

Overlooked Cartoons: Injun Trouble (1938)

2011-09-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

Porky Pig scouts for a wagon Train - and even wears a coonskin cap! (Or is that skunkskin?)

Overlook Overlooked Films (at SWEET FREEDOM) at your peril.

Forgotten Books: Blood Money by Dashiell Hammett

2011-09-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

My wife and I are planning another trip to San Francisco. Last time, a few years back, we saw and did most of the famous stuff, so this time we plan to get a little more up close and personal. And for me, that means walking in the footsteps of Dashiell Hammett.

So I picked up the latest edition of Don Herron’s Hammett Tour guidebook (and a very fine one it is) and started re-reading The Complete Works. I began with the Continental Op stories, because they’re my favorites, and have been reading them in order of publication.

The first few Op tales are well-written, and groundbreaking in that they present a realistic look at the work of a big agency detective, just the sort of work (minus the strikebreaking) that Hammett did for the Pinkertons.

Given his druthers, I suspect Hammett would have continued in that vein, turning out stories that would have been more appropriate in True Detective than in Black Mask. Thankfully, Black Mask’s readers wouldn’t let him. Being fans of such wildly unrealistic private dicks as Carroll John Daly’s Race Williams, they were a bloodthirsty bunch, demanding ever more action.

To keep the readers (and editor Cap Shaw) happy, Hammett was forced to take his Op beyond reality to the edge of Hardboiled Fantasyland. Whether that was a good or bad thing depends on your perspective. My take is - it was perfect.

The Op remained a real detective, and a real man, but he was thrust into ever more violent - and entertaining - situations, until reaching his absolute peak in my favorite Hammett novel, Red Harvest. I’ll be re-reading that book soon, and chances are it will still be my fave, but last week I got reacquainted with the book that could have been Hammett’s first novel, and it’s a damn strong contender. For the poetry of its violence, it has never been excelled.

Blood Money began life as two 1927 Black Mask novelettes, “The Big Knockover” and “$106,000 Blood Money.” At one point, Afred A. Knopf wanted to published them as a novel. Hammett refused, but in 1943, Lawrence E. Spivak, the company that had been churning out his pulp stories in digest format, did the deed under the title $106,000 Blood Money. In short order, Tower Books did a hardcover edition as Blood Money and Dell followed suit with a mapback. Spivak did another digest version, this time called The Big Knockover, and Dell reissued the Blood Money mapback, so the “novel” was actually published five times. Though I have all five, I chose to read the Tower hardcover for the ultimate experience.

Part 1, originally “The Big Knocker” is a trip to Fantasyland, with a hundred or more mobsters coming from across the country to converge on San Francisco and rob two banks at once. When the mastermind and his core supporters escape, the Op stays on their trail, and delivers their just deserts in Part 2, originally“$106,000 Blood Money.” Part 2 is more grounded in reality, but is every bit as entertaining. Hammett’s prose had been steadily improving, and by this point it was flat-out amazing. Even though I just finished the book, I already want to read it again.

Since 1966, when Random House issued their version of The Big Knockover, a 13-story hardcover collection edited by Lillian Hellman, the two tales have appeared as separate novelettes. Too bad. Together, they're every bit as novelesque as the two official Op novels, Red Harvest and The Dain Curse. Currently, the Blood Money saga appears as a small part of the 2001 collection Crime Stories and Other Writings. It deserves better.

This week’s amazing selection of Forgotten Books is linked for your convenience at SPINETINGLER.

Overlooked Films: Ken Maynard (twice) in Honor of the Range (1934)

2011-09-13T06:00:00.000-07:00

With such a great movie poster, I expected this one to be a little better than it was (is).

Actually, the poster is more accurate than most. As seen in the upper left (and behind Ken’s huge head), there really is a big explosion, and rocks come tumbling down on riders. Lower left, Ken really does scoop up the babe onto the back of his horse Tarzan. Upper right, yep, Ken attacks a burning building with an ax. Lower left, Ken punches out a bad guy, and the baddest guy puts some unwanted moves on the babe. And yes, Ken does deliver that glowering stare from under his twenty gallon hat.

But otherwise, it’s a pretty weird movie. Ken plays a dual role, so we don’t really see much of him as the hero. He gets more screen time (I think) as his greedy, inept, cowardly and dimwitted brother Clem, who eventually (SPOILER ALERT) redeems himself by blowing up himself and the outlaw gang. And as if hero Ken’s screen time wasn’t limited enough, some of it is spent in disguise as a dance hall singer - and he actually sings a bad song, badly.

In one of the film's most amazing moments, Ken stuffs his king-size hat down into the crotch of his pants, where it stays for several minutes. You'd think this would give him a giant "glad to see ya" bulge, but nope, it doesn't show at all. And when he finally pulls it out, there's nary a dent or crease that doesn't belong there. That's the magic of Hollywood.

The real star of the film is Tarzan the Wonder Horse. Tarzan shows his stuff by ringing a fire bell when the building is ablaze, by unlatching a secret door in the side of a mountain, and by carrying a message that allows Ken to ride to the rescue. Sadly, despite Tarzan’s best efforts, the ending was sort of sappy.

A while back I reviewed the earlier Ken Maynard flick, Between Fighting Men (1932), and liked it much better. It has two major elements this one lacked: humor and music. So if you plan to watch only one Maynard movie in this lifetime, I’d recommend Between Fighting Men.

DO NOT OVERLOOK the rest of this week’s Overlooked Films, linked for you at Sweet Freedom.

Encore Forgotten Book: Lady Afraid by Lester Dent

2011-09-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

(Yep, it's a rerun. Sorry. My excuse is that I've been going crazy putting the finishing touches on the first Skyler Hobbs novel, and that sucker is finally done. A "new" Forgotten Book next week. Promise.)

Lady Afraid is not Lester Dent’s best novel, but it may the one with the most Lester Dent in it.

The protagonist of this one is woman. No Dent there. But as a yacht designer, Sarah Lineyack comes in contact with the most Dent-like character I’ve yet to meet: A man called Captain Most.

Reading the book, I came to feel that Most was an idealized version of Dent himself. Not Dent the writer, but Dent the seaman, with salt water running through his veins. Most lives on a bugeye schooner, as did Dent when he wintered in Miami, away from his LaPlata, Missouri home. The schooner, here named the Albatross, is remarkably similar to the ship owned by detective Oscar Sail in Dent’s two Black Mask stories published a dozen years earlier. The Albatross is all black, from the sails on down to the hull. Dent describes her like this:

A genuine five-log bugeye, about thirty-six feet on the water line, schooner-rigged with the typical raked-back masts. A one-man ship, this bugeye was rigged for single-handling. All sheet lines, even the halliards and anchor lines, were brought back to the cockpit so that one man could sail her.

Captain Most himself is… an enigmatic man. He did not rush forward with emotions, reactions, plans that were half-baked. He was no voluble extrovert. Probably in him there was little need freely to communicate his feelings and ideas or the effect of events upon him.

Most smokes a pipe and drives a station wagon. I don’t know about the station wagon, but in some of Dent’s photos he’s seen with a pipe. His face had a homely angularity, not unpleasant. It, like his hair, had been out in the sun a lot. Dent again.

Lady Afraid was Dent’s third hardcover novel, published in 1948 by Crime Club. I can only assume it sold poorly. Unlike the first two books, Dead at the Take-Off and Lady to Kill, this one is extremely difficult to come by. I couldn’t find a Crime Club edition offered anywhere for less than $75.

As that’s too rich for me, I borrowed a copy through InterLibrary Loan. Only later did I discover I own a copy of the abridged Besteller Mystery version. While I normally can't abide abridgements, this is one I'd recommend. Unlike Dent’s other books, this one might benefit from a little tightening.

This is not the stuff of world-beating adventure. Sarah Lineyack’s baby son was semi-legally stolen away by the wealthy parents of her late husband, and she wants the kid back. In trying, she’s thrown into a web of intrigue and secret agendas, and turns for help to the most reliable man she knows, Captain Most.

Dent seems to handle the female point of view pretty well, but for my book-buying dollar, there’s more than enough worrying about the kid’s health, and yearning for the sound of his voice and smell of his hair, and other such motherly stuff. Sarah at one point reflects that only another mother could possibly understand how strongly she feels. Can't argue with that, but it begs the question… how did Dent know?

As a mystery, this is still a good read. My attention never flagged. Had Captain Most been absent, I still would have enjoyed it. But with Most on stage for roughly half the action, it's a must-read for any true Dent enthusiast. This is the closest we’re likely to get to reading about him.

Forgotten Books is a presentation of the always-amazing pattinase.

Overlooked Cartoons: Cab Calloway and Betty Boop in "Minnie the Moocher"

2011-09-06T06:00:00.000-07:00

Not long ago, I presented the Betty Boop/Cab Calloway classic, "The Old Man and the Mountain." That's HERE. Now here's another romp with Cab and Betty. In this one, from 1932, Cab and his ghostly cartoon counterpart demonstrate his version of the Moonwalk, which he obviously stole from Michael Jackson (NOT!).

Tune into SWEET FREEDOM for more Overlooked Stuff.

Forgotten Books: KING - OF THE KHYBER RIFLES by Talbot Mundy

2011-09-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

I’m on my way to becoming a BIG Talbot Mundy fan.

My first close encounter came in In a Righteous Cause, the first of several volumes in Black Dog Books’ Talbot Mundy Library. (That’s reviewed HERE, and available HERE.) That book prompted me to read Tros and Helene, the first two volumes in the Tros of Samothrace saga (Tros reviewed HERE).

And now I’m moving into the Mundy motherload, his series of adventure novels set in India and Afghanistan. King - Of the Khyber Rifles (1916) was Mundy’s second novel, and still his most famous, probably due in part to the 1953 movie version starring Tyrone Power.

If you’re a Robert E. Howard fan, this is familiar territory. These novels provided much of the inspiration for the adventures of Francis Xavier Gordon and his lookalikes, as well as Conan stories like “People of the Black Circle,” that find him among the tribes of the Hills. To me, it’s also familiar thanks to later Mundy-influenced works, like George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman and the first three (chronologically) Sharpe books by Bernard Cornwell.

The amazing thing about Mundy is that his first-person prose is fresh enough to have been written last week, instead of 95 years ago. This book introduces us to British Captain Athelstan King, sent into the Hills of Afghanistan to prevent a jihad that would boot the English out of India. His mission is to find the near-mythical she-devil/goddess named Yasmini and convince her that her best interests lie in cooperating with the British raj.

The first half of the book showcases King’s wit and personality as he moves ever deeper into the Hills in search of Yasmini, and I enjoyed every word. At roughly the mid-point we finally meet Yasmini and she takes center stage, shifting the story into a mode that reads more like fantasy than historical fiction. That would be okay, except that King has now gone undercover as an Indian doctor, and is so submerged in his role that his personality disappears.

Still, this is great adventure, and I’m eager to read more of Mundy’s interconnected India novels, that will soon introduce another King-like character, Jimgrim.

The 1978 Donald Grant edition features all the original artwork from the Everybody’s Magazine serial and the first hardcover edition by John Clement Coll. The result is a beautiful book, with many full page and two-page illustrations and at least one spot illo on every two-page spread. If you’ve seen the spectacular Grant edition of Howard’s Sowers of the Thunder, illustrated by Roy Krenkel, you have a good idea of what this looks like.

Read! Look! Enjoy!

More Forgotten Books at pattinase!

Overlooked Films: The Cocoanuts (1929)

2011-08-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

It had been WAY too long since I’d seen a Marx Brothers movie, so when I spotted a box set of their first six talkies at the library, I snatched it up.

The Cocoanuts (1929), was almost their first film. That honor went to a 1921 silent flick called Humor Risk, which is now believed lost (and may have been purposely destroyed). So The Cocoanuts is as close as we can get to the early, undiluted madness of the Marx boys.

It ain’t their best movie, not by a long shot, but it’s a great appetizer for the better and crazier films to come.

On the downside, there are several insipid songs by the insipid romantic leads (including one called, I kid you not, “Monkey-doodle-do”) and way too many Marx-free dance numbers. But tucked between the dreck, the Marx Brothers do their stuff and do it well.

My favorite scenes are the ones where Harpo eats everything in sight (including a telephone) and picks not only pockets, but steals the false teeth out of Groucho’s mouth and the underwear out of his pants. AND the first of many love/insult scenes between Groucho and the long-suffering Margaret Dumont. A couple of samples that had me laughing out loud . . .

GROUCHO: I'll meet you tonight under the moon. Oh, I can see you now---you and the moon. You wear a neck-tie so I'll know you.

And . . .

GROUCHO: Did anyone ever tell you that you look like the Prince of Wales? I don't mean the present Prince of Wales; one of the old whales, and believe me when I say whales, I mean whales. I know a whale when I see one

The Brothers had been performing this show for a year and half before it became a hit on Broadway, and had refined their gags to perfection by the time it was filmed. Still, rumor has it when they saw the final cut of the movie, they were so disappointed they tried to buy up all copies and stop the release. I’m damn glad they didn’t. Next up is Animal Crackers.

More (and mostly less wacky) Overlooked Films at Sweet Freedom.

Forgotten Books: The Punisher in "Welcome Back Frank"

2011-08-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

OK, this one's only a comic book, but still (and this is the straight skinny from me to you,)…
it kicks ass.

The book is The Punisher: Welcome Back Frank (Marvel Comics, 2008), the graphic novel edition of a 12-part mini-series that originally appeared in 2000-01. The writer is Garth Ennis (that’s the important part) and the artists are a couple of other guys.

The Punisher is Marvel’s long-running rip-off of the even longer-running paperback hero The Executioner. You know, a one-man-war against the mob. The Punisher has accumulated a lot of comic book baggage over the years, but this mini-series pressed the reset button and put him back on track.

Make no mistake: This book is about killing. Bloody, brutal killing. The body count here is around 100, with our hero accounting for about 70, 30 by other hands, one suicide and one murdered dog (never fear, the dog killer is one of The Punisher's 70). But the tale is told with such finesse that it leaves you gasping for more. Sonehow, Garth Ennis weaves in a healthy dose of humor, a little heart, even a touch of pathos.

The overall effect is Jeez, I can’t believe this is happening in a comic! That lady above, for example, is Ma Gnucci, New York crime boss and the focus of The Punisher’s latest vendetta. After he kills her brother and two sons, she’s pissed enough to lead her street soldiers after him personally. They corner him in a zoo, but he turns the tables and lures them into the polar bear habitat, and Ma emerges with a few pieces missing. Later, when he tosses a firebomb into her house, she flops out the window onto the street and bites him on the ankle, so he boots her back into the burning building. I’d like to see Spider-Man or Superman do that!

Tune into pattinase for more (and on average less gruesome) Forgotten Books.

Overlooked Films: Matty Mattel Cap Gun Commercials

2011-08-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid, the Mattel Fanner 50 was my number one sidearm and the Mattel Winchester was my preferred saddle rifle. I had most of the gear featured here (and do again), but have no memory of these Matty Mattel mini-westerns. Luckily I'm still kid enough to appreciate them.

MATTY'S CROSSDRAW SAVES THE TRAIN

MATTY'S WINCHESTER SAVES THE WAGON TRAIN

MATTY'S GUNFIGHT AT THE BIG "M" CORRAL

Shoot over to SWEET FREEDOM for more of this week's Overlooked Films.

Forgotten Books: The French Key by Frank Gruber

2011-08-19T06:00:00.000-07:00

When I started reading this book I had a headache. But after a few breezy chapters, the headache was gone. Such is the power of easy reading.

Reading Frank Gruber is sort of like watching Bones. You turn your mind off and let the story wash over you, and when it's over you feel mildly satisfied and mildly refreshed.

The French Key introduced Gruber’s two most famous characters, Johnny Fletcher and Sam Cragg. But as I mentioned some months back in a review of the short story collection Brass Knuckles, Fletcher and Cragg were actually just re-envisioned versions of two earlier characters, Oliver Quade the Human Encylopedia and his assistant Charlie Boston.

Both Fletcher and Quade are mobile-mouthed book salesmen, and Cragg is basically Charlie Boston with muscles. In both series, our heroes are perpetually broke and one step ahead of the law, but somehow find time to chase women and solve murders. It’s all good clean fun.

As with all Gruber mysteries, this one revolves around a field the author found interesting. In this case, it’s coin collecting. The mystery has nothing with a French key (which, we learn, is a what vindictive hotel managers use to shut deadbeats out of their rooms), but concerns an 1822 five-dollar gold piece, considered the rarest of all American coins.

When The French Key was published in 1939, the coin was worth about $10,000. So how about today? An Internet source says there are only three known survivors, and two are in the Smithsonian. The one in private hands sold for $687,500 back in 1982, and is now valued at five million. Not bad. How much of that is due to inflation, and how much to collector mania? Elsewhere in The French Key, we learn that a New York eatery sells hamburgers for a nickel. I’ll let someone else do the math.

Republic released a film version in 1946. I haven't seen it, but Gruber wrote the screenplay himself, so it's probably not all bad. And Mike Mazurki (whom I remember best as Moose Malloy to Dick Powell's Marlowe in Murder, My Sweet) played Sam Cragg. According to IMDb, Johnny was supposed to be a private detective. Republic probably figured it would be hard to sell a book salesman hero to movie goers. If there was ever another movie based on this series, I'm not aware of it.

FORGOTTEN BOOKS are hosted this week at pattinase (I think).

Overhyped Films: The Outlaw

2011-08-15T23:00:00.000-07:00

Everybody’s heard of The Outlaw. It’s famous for being infamous, right? But how many people have actually seen it?

Until a couple of weeks ago, I was one of those heard but not seen people. Now I’m not, and I’m poorer for it. Not only did I waste 116 minutes of my life watching this turkey, but it’s costing me another 20 minutes to write this post.

So how bad is it? So bad I couldn’t bear to watch it in one, or even two, sittings. It eventually took four, spread out over a week and a half, before I finally reached the end.

The first horrible thing about it, the thing that smacks you in the face in the first few minutes and never lets up, is the heavy-handed soundtrack. Every detail of the action, every raised eyebrow and every twitch of the finger, is trumpeted by the music. There’s even a coronet making laughing sounds (ala a Three Stooges short) every time we’re supposed to be amused. This film could be played on the radio and you wouldn’t miss a thing, except the thing it’s most famous for - Jane Russell’s you-know-whats.

Which brings up the film’s second major flaw, the casting. Walter Huston is actually pretty good as Doc Holliday, but everyone else is a joke. Thomas Mitchell, who would make a fine Bozo the Clown, makes a ridiculous Pat Garrett. And Jack Buetel as Billy the Kid? They’d have been better off casting Bugs Bunny. Buetel poses and slouches and mumbles and looks moody, with no redeeming entertainment value. And finally, Jane Russell, who gets top billing, is there only because of her bod. Her range of expression goes all the way from sullen to pouting and back again. (You can tell she’s pouting when she thrusts out her lower lip.)

And if you can stand the music and the cast long enough, you’ll be appalled by the story. Or lack thereof. Near as I could tell, it boils down to this: Pat and Doc are old friends. Doc meets Billy and they become friendly rivals. Pat wants to arrest Billy but Doc objects. Eventually Doc winds up dead. Billy rides away and Pat’s sad. THE END.

But wait. What about Jane Russell? What’s she doing there? Not a damn thing. She has no part in the story. She’s just there for the men to ignore, to pout about it, and to occasionally thrust her you-know-whats in front of the camera.

A lot of folks on the Internet talk about this film depicting a homoerotic triangle between Pat, Doc and Billy. I couldn’t see it, and figured they must be imagining it - until near the end, when Doc and Billy do everything but kiss, and Pat nearly wets his pants with jealousy. Yep, those Internet folks are right.

I’m thinking Howard Hughes was mighty dang lucky this movie was yanked out of theaters for being too racy in 1943. Otherwise, it would have passed quietly into well-deserved obscurity, instead of being a box office bonanza when it was re-released in 1946.

Bottom Line: I want my 116 minutes back. I’ll suffer the loss of this 20 minutes of typing, because I discovered something I like about his movie: It’s fun to loathe.

For less Overhyped Films, see this week's lineup at SWEET FREEDOM.

Mitchell, Huston, you-know-whats, Buetel.

Forgotten Books: The Mark of Zorro by Johnston McCulley

2011-08-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

The original, silent version of The Mark of Zorro is one of my favorite films, and the Disney series is one of my all-time favorite TV shows, so it should be no surprise that The Curse of Capistrano (aka The Mark of Zorro) is one of my favorite books. BUT - even without the screen versions, I would still rate this as a great novel.

A short history: The novel The Curse of Capistrano ran as a five-part serial in All-Story Weekly (the mag that later became Argosy) beginning August 9, 1919. Douglas Fairbanks thought it was so cool he bought the screen rights and released the pic, titled The Mark of Zorro, in 1920. The first appearance in book form, a Grosset & Dunlap photoplay edition (also issued in 1920), used the movie title, as have most editions since.

As always when reading McCulley, I was struck by how well his prose stands the test of time. After 90 years, it’s still fresh - and snappier than a lot of stuff being written today.

I've read this book at least twice, but it's been a while, and there were several interesting points I’d forgotten.

First, it has none of that jazz about Diego learning his letters - and swordsmanship - in Spain, and returning to California when summoned by his father. Instead, we learn that he practiced in secret at home, preparing for the day his fighting skills might be needed. (Don’t know when that Spanish angle crept into the mythos, but it would be interesting to find out.)

Anyway, the story starts with Zorro’s wrongrighting career already underway. It’s said he made his debut in San Juan Capistrano, a mission town a short distance south of Los Angeles, where he raised quite a ruckus - hence the nickname “The Curse of Capistrano.” So as this book opens, he’s already a legend, and the corrupt governor and his soldiers are hot to catch him.

Next, I was surprised (once again, no doubt) that we never see Diego changing into Zorro or vice versa. In fact, though it’s pretty obvious, the reader doesn’t officially learn they are the same person until the last chapter. That called for some very clever plotting by McCulley.

Then there’s the issue of Zorro’s mask. In this story it must be rolled up from the bottom whenever he wants to uncork a kiss on his favorite senorita. This sort of implies it could be one that just hangs down over his face (as depicted on the cover of All-Story, and later in West magazine illos). But that wouldn’t be practical for swordfighting or riding a horse, so it’s hard to say what McCulley really had in mind. It’s clear, though, that it’s not the pirate do-rag thing worn by Doug Fairbanks and his screen successors.

Here’s a shocker: Zorro wears a purple cape. Probably not exactly the color of Barney the dinosaur, but it’s still hard to picture him in anything but basic black.

In the end (yep, this a SPOILER ALERT), Zorro removes the mask and reveals his Diego identity to the whole pueblo. Zorro, he says, will no longer be needed.

And this brings us to the final surprise, that Zorro was not merely a disguise for Diego, but a whole ‘nother side of him. Diego’s listlessness and foppery was not just a pose, but the real deal. Yep, there’s a split personality thing going on, and Diego (for Zorro is no more) admits he’ll have to work hard to incorporate some of Zorro’s bold and romantic character into his own. Surprisingly, his bride-to-be, who has fallen for Zorro and not Diego, does not seem alarmed by this development.

I’m now reading the sequel, The Further Adventures of Zorro (aka The Sword of Zorro) from 1922, and it’s interesting to see how McCulley brought him out of retirement. More on that in a future edition of Forgotten Books.

P.S. This book is available for free download on the web, but the version I found was teeming with atrocious typos. I have since acquired a much better version in Word, and will be pleased to send it to anyone who asks. It should work great on your Kindle (or non-Kindle). Write me at delewis1@hotmail.com and I’ll shoot you a copy.

This week's Forgotten Books round-up is brought to you over at Sweet Freedom.

P.S. Don't miss the FIRST Forgotten Book post by my fellow critique groupee Doug Levin, over at Levin at Large. It features Dead Skip by Joe Gores.

Art Gallery: Allan "Rocky" Lane as Red Ryder

2011-08-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

(1946)

(1947)

Overlooked Cartoons: Wholly Smoke (1938)

2011-08-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

Here's a cool one. I'm thinking the guys who created this were smoking something a lot stronger than tobacco. This is the first time I've seen it in black and white. Must have been colorized for TV.

Float on over to Sweet Freedom for more Overlooked Cool Stuff.

Willamette Writers Conference 2011: It's History

2011-08-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

Every year at this time, I devote three days of my life to the Willamette Writers Conference, held right here in Portland. (The Willamette, FYI, is a big honkin’ river that flows up from southern Oregon, cuts right through town, and heads west, where it joins up with the mighty Columbia and rolls into the sea.)

As usual, I worked as a Pitch Practice volunteer, listening to people try out their literary and film pitches and helping them whip them into shape. I worked with folks trying to sell thrillers, sci-fi, fantasy, historical, YA and middle-grade fiction. At least five of the people I met had written memoirs. One guy had a 500-word book conveying its message with stuffed animal photography. And - there were screenplays running the gamut from documentaries to romantic comedies, with a couple of shots at TV series. This year I also did a lot of “Manuscript E.R.,” offering on-the-spot assistance with query letters, opening chapters, story structure, and even magazine articles. Thinking that hard, that fast, is a rush, but my brain hurts.

Now in its 42th year, this 3-day conference is by all accounts one of the best held anywhere. One reason is the extraordinary opportunity to pitch projects to literary editors and agents handling both books and films. Near as I could count, this year we had 19 literary agents and 8 editors, plus about 15 film professionals - a mix of agents and producers. For those unable to snag one-on-one meetings with these folks, most also hold group meetings, welcoming 10 or 12 writers at a time.

When not meeting the pros, writers have a nine-ring circus of events to keep them busy.
Four times each day (twice in the morning and twice after lunch) there are between seven and nine 90-minute events going on. These cover just about every aspect of writing and the writing life. The schedule assures there’s always at least one of interest to folk writing adult fiction, children’s fiction, nonfiction or screenplays, and plenty of others dealing with more specialized fields, topics or skills.

Two of the busiest presenters this year were mystery writers Hallie Ephron (a regular) and Robert Dugoni (a newcomer, I think). I attended two of Hallie’s, “Details to Make (or Break) a Character” and “Fly High, Fly Low Revision,” - and two of Robert’s, “Writing the Knockout Query & Synopsis” and “The Second Draft - Are you a Barfer or a Pantser.” I never found out if I was a Barfer or a Pantser, but all four seminars were valuable and entertaining. I also took in a panel of five editors, including Terri Bischoff of Midnight Ink, Benjamin LeRoy of Tyrus Books, Martin Biro of Kensington, Emily Griffin of Grand Central Publishing (part of the group formerly known as Warners) and Denise Roy of Dutton. Interesting stuff.

Why am I telling you all this? If you’re a writer, and I know some of you are, you might consider visiting Portland next August. There are plenty of worse ways to spend your time.

UnForgettable Books: Hank & Muddy by Stephen Mertz

2011-08-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

OK, I’m cheating this week. Just published this week by Perfect Crime, Hank & Muddy (that’s Hank Williams and Muddy Waters) is by no means a forgotten book. But it’s such a cool, unique and unforgettable book that I could resist reviewing it today.

Hank & Muddy came as a big surprise. I was already in love with the concept, and expected it to be good. But it turned out to darker, wilder and way more literate than I would dreamed.

The first surprise was the first-person narration, which alternates between the two characters. Letting Muddy and Hank tell their own stories was a ballsy move, but it sure pays off. We’re catapulted into the mind of each man, and given a given a glimpse of each man's soul.

When we first meet Muddy, he can’t get his pants on fast enough. He’s been caught by an irate husband, who just happens to be a small-town southern sheriff. And before he can make his escape, the sheriff’s daughter bursts in, revealing that she, too, is one of Muddy’s bed buddies. Muddy jumps out a window and makes his escape with the help of his harmonica player, Little Walter, and his friend John Lee Hooker.

Professionally, Muddy is riding high, and his biggest problem is that Little Walter wants to be a star on his own. He’d be fine if he could just keep his pants on, especially in the presence of white women. This is 1952 (and the South, remember?) and he’s taking some BIG risks.

Hank’s troubles run deeper. After great success and a string of big hits, his drinking is catching up with him, and he’s on a downhill slide. His marriage is on the rocks, and he’s recently been dumped from the Grand Old Opry. He’ll be damn lucky if he can catch on less prestigious Louisiana Hayride. To make things worse, he’s having blackouts and sometimes wakes up in a wet bed.

Stephen Mertz is guilty of some damn fine writing here. Both characters are thoroughly convincing, and he handles their voices perfectly. By the time they meet, their troubles have deepened, and they find themselves up against a couple of maybe-FBI agents, rival Shreveport mob bosses and the Ku Klux Klan.

Bottom Line: I read most of the 2011 Edgar nominees, and this book ranks right up there. For anyone who has ever heard these guys sing - or anyone who hasn’t - Hank & Muddy is not to be missed.

My Hank & Muddy interview with Steve is HERE.

Videos of both Hank and Muddy in action are HERE.

pattinase has really Forgotten Books HERE.

A HANK & MUDDY Interview with author Stephen Mertz!

2011-08-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hank & Muddy, an amazing novel just published by Perfect Crime Books, recounts a fictional meeting in July, 1952 between legendary bluesman Muddy Waters and Country music icon Hank Williams. This is GREAT book, capturing the spirits of both men and throwing them together in a hair-raising adventure in Shreveport, Louisiana.

I'll be posting my review of Hank & Muddy on Friday. But today I have something much better - an interview with author Stephen Mertz!

(P.S. If you missed yesterday's videos of Muddy doing "Got My Mojo Workin'" and Hank singing "Hey, Good Lookin'," you can check them out HERE.)

ME: First off, I’m insanely jealous of the very idea of this book. I wish I’d thought of it myself. What inspired you to bring these two guys together in a novel?

STEVE: I’m glad you liked it. If I knew where good ideas came from, I’d order up more of them! For me, this is one of those books that turned out pretty much the way I wanted it to while I was writing it. That’s a good feeling for a writer.

ME: Did you find any evidence that these ever really met?

STEVE: No but if they didn’t, they damn well should have. They were both around Shreveport at the same time. Hank was trying to salvage what was left of his career and get back on the radio. The Opry had let him go and he finally made it back onto the Louisiana Hayride out of Shreveport. Hank & Muddy takes place just before that. Muddy was touring Louisiana in July of that year. The story of Little Walter walking on the band in the middle of the tour is accurate.

ME: You must have done an amazing amount of research into their characters. Are there biographies you would particularly recommend?

STEVE: Actually, most of the “research” amounted to a lifetime of compulsively reading album liner notes and everything else I could find related to those two, and of course with the internet everything’s out there. Chet Flippo’s book on Hank is exhaustive and well written, as is the Sandra B. Tooze book on Muddy.

ME: Though I’m a longtime fan of both these singers, I knew absolutely nothing about their private lives. I’m impressed that you’ve pulled no punches here, delving into the dark side of each man’s character. Were you at all hesitant about taking us so far beyond their public personas?

STEVE: No, because that was my intention.

ME: I know that the members of Muddy’s band portrayed here (Little Walter, Elgin Evans and Jimmy Rogers) were real guys, and it was cool to see a brief appearance by John Lee Hooker. Were there any other real people in the book?

STEVE: A few. Tee Tot, the black street musician who taught a young Hank how to play guitar, is really one of the most unsung figures in American music. Tee Tot teaches this country boy how to play the blues, and years later those two strains come together in Elvis and the first generation of rockers. Hank’s mother and Audrey, his ex-wife and muse, are portrayed as realistically as I could render them from what I’d read. That also applies to a few cameos in the book like Billie Jean, Hank’s next and last wife, and Leonard Chess, who produced and recorded Muddy.

ME: Your handling of both Muddy and Hank is so masterful that I feel like I got to know - and like - the real men behind the songs. I’d love to see you write historical fiction about either or both. I’m thinking that would appeal to a whole different audience beyond the mystery field. Any chance of that?

STEVE: Thank you, Evan. I hope the critics are half as kind. I believe Hank & Muddy is the book that does reach beyond the mystery field. Earlier you referred to it as “a mystery novel,” and I certainly won’t object to it being so classified with so many of my colleagues in the mystery field. I’m pleased to be grouped with them, and I’m grateful to Perfect Crime Books for publishing the book. But Hank & Muddy is sub-titled “a novel.” Yes, there’s definitely a strong noir/whodunit vibe. I love that stuff. But at its heart Hank & Muddy is a character study of these men and their world, or worlds, and with this novel I’ve pretty much had my say on the subject. I hate writing the same book twice.

ME: I thought it was especially ballsy of you to tackle both men in first person, with alternating points of view. That had to be intimidating, but you pulled it off perfectly, and obviously had fun doing it. Was that a tough decision to make?

STEVE: I wanted Hank & Muddy to convey the cultural divide that separated them. The first person approach seemed the most even-handed way of showing that. And you’re right, it was fun doing my best to portray the rhythms of speech and thought that contrasted an urban bluesman with a down-home country boy. Actually, I met Muddy several times, backstage at gigs in the 1970s, which allowed me to at least get a sense of the man. As I was typing I was usually speaking the words aloud to myself in what I hoped was an approximation of what they sounded like.

ME: Would you care to list some of your favorite songs, albums, or CD collections by these guys?

STEVE: Hoo boy, that’s a tall order! The Complete Muddy Waters 1947-1967. It’s hard to find unless you want to download it but that’s the most comprehensive collection of Muddy, an out of print boxed set that a U.K. outfit called Charly did about 20 years ago. Hank’s career burned bright and ended much too soon, and nearly all of his recordings are readily available in a variety of collections. The work of both men from that period epitomizes the roots of what became rock & roll. I listen to that stuff all the time.

THANKS STEVE!

FRIDAY: THE REVIEW

Overlooked Films: HANK and MUDDY

2011-08-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

The new mystery novel Hank & Muddy by Stephen Mertz was officially published just yesterday, and is NOW AVAILABLE from Amazon. I read an advance copy, and it's one hell of a book!

I'll be interviewing Steve and posting my review in the days to come, but for now, here are live film performances by both of these great artists.

Enjoy!

GOT MY MOJO WORKIN' - MUDDY WATERS

HEY GOOD LOOKIN' - HANK WILLIAMS

More Overlooked Films, TV and whatever (as usual) at SWEET FREEDOM.

Skyler Hobbs and the Rabbit Man: How I Came to Write THAT Story

2011-08-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

I owe it all to Bill, Arthur and Irene.

That’s Bill Cameron for setting, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for characters, and my wife Irene for story.

Here’s how it happened:

Cap’n Bob (aka Robert S.) Napier was riding high on the publication of his first novel, Love, Death and the Toyman, and was invited to roll down from Tacoma to make two personal appearances in Portland. As President of the Oregon chapter of his fan club, I tagged along. The first event was a panel of writers at a meeting of the Friends of Mystery, a local club headed by my old friends Ellie and Jim Rogers.

One of the six panelists was Bill Cameron, discussing the writing and publication of his first novel, Lost Dog. Of all the books featured, his was the one I wanted most to read. So I did, and it was great stuff. I especially enjoyed the way he used Portland as a setting, and told him so at the next event, a gathering of Northwest mystery writers at fabled Powell’s bookstore.

At the time, I was working on a historical adventure novel and engaging in creative avoidance by whacking out an occasional short story. These included three mysteries featuring a modern-day descendant of Davy Crockett (still unsold), two stories about Davy’s grandson in the Old West, and a tall tale starring legendary Texas hero Strap Buckner.

Lost Dog made me want to write a mystery set in Portland. As cities go, Portland has a quirky personality, rising almost to the level of a character. (Note: I have since enjoyed Bill’s subsequent books, Chasing Smoke and Day One, and look forward to the next, County Line.)

Now determined to write a mystery, I did some brainstorming to come with a suitable hero. Ideally, I figured my character should: 1) Be immediately accessible to just about anyone, 2) Have a sidekick, so I could have fun with their banter, and 3) Lend himself - or herself - to stories of any length, from flash fiction to novel.

After putting those ideas through the grinder, I reached some conclusions. Everybody knows, and just about everybody likes, Sherlock Holmes. Dr. Watson is the perfect sidekick to highlight both the human and extrahuman sides of Holmes. And Conan Doyle himself had proved that the characters worked well in tales of any length. His story “How Watson Learned the Trick,” reprinted in Sherlock Holmes: The Published Apocrypha, would today be considered flash fiction.

Forgotten Books: Silver Wings by Raoul Whitfield

2011-07-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

I tracked down all five of Raoul Whitfield's adult novels (three under his own name and two as Temple Field) long ago, but never paid any attention to his juvenile books. I decided to remedy that recently, and requested a couple of them from InterLibrary Loan. First to arrive was Silver Wings, first published in 1930. (This 1937 edition is a seventh printing).

Along with his work for Black Mask (under his own name and as Ramon Decolta), Whitfield wrote heavily for air war and air adventure pulps, and I figured this book would be either a novel or short stories culled from those. Nope. It is a collection of short stories (plus one novelette), but most of them originally appeared in Boy's Life.

Too bad. Because while Whitfield's prose is as sharp as ever, and his storytelling first-rate, the stories themselves are of true Boy's Life caliber. In other words, they're boyish, clean and nonviolent. Most of the characters are tediously nice and polite, and the few who aren't always learn their lessons by story's end.

The book consists of two short story cycles and a stand-alone novelette. The first cycle, of five tales, features three fresh-faced flight school cadets striving to earn their Silver Wings. The message of these stories (and pretty much the whole book) is summed up in a prefatory quote by someone named Colonel Hastings: "It takes a man to wear them, and it makes a man - to wear them - silver wings." In each tale, one of our three heroes faces a fear and whips it into submission. Yawn.

Next up is the novelette, "The Air Mail Flies." The hero in this one is a young man who thinks and acts like a boy. Again (surprise) he must conquer his fear to make the air mail fly. My problem here was that it begins as a Man Vs. Nature story, a theme guaranteed to put me to sleep. Our hero flies blind into a snowstorm and crashes in the mountains. Ho hum. There is a briefly interesting conflict when he encounters two guys with guns who seem to be up to no good. But we quickly learn they're forest rangers on the lookout for a suspicious flyer who has been buzzing the area. The mystery of the suspicious flyer is interesting for about half a page before our hero quashes it with the revelation that the guy is simply scouting emergency landing sites for the air mail service. And guess what? Our hero conquers his fear, and The Air Mail Flies.

The third cycle, of six stories, stars an 18-year old commercial pilot prodigy called Rush Roberts. Rush (you guessed it again) conquers his fears and overcomes adversity through strength of character and by being an all around swell guy.

OK, I know I'm making this sound like a lousy book, but it really isn't. Whitfield's writing manages to rise above the simpleminded moralizing and make it worth a read. But after this, I'm really looking forward to some old fashioned gratuitous sex and violence.

More (and probably better) Forgotten Books at Sweet Freedom!

Overlooked Films: The Kennel Murder Case (1933)

2011-07-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

Not long ago I reviewed the Philo Vance novel The Gracie Allen Murder Case, which reminded me of the only Vance movie I had seen, The Kennel Murder Case. So I figured it was time to see it again, and discovered that the whole dang thing can be viewed online. I had forgotten it was directed by Michael Curtiz, who later did such great films as Captain Blood and Casablanca. This is it:

More Overlooked Films & ??? at SWEET FREEDOM.

Forgotten Books: SEVEN SAMURAI (aka Potshot) by Robert B. Parker

2011-07-22T07:08:00.000-07:00

This book is only ten years old, which doesn’t really qualify it to be Forgotten. But it’s what I’m reading at the moment, and my excuse is that I’d forgotten its obvious homage to The Seven Samurai.

Having seen this story played out in so many films and TV shows (the silliest I can remember was Message From Space), it’s become an archetype or a fable. Still, when I read this ten years ago - and again now - I was surprised to see Parker having fun with it. And he did have a hell of a lot of fun.

The set-up is this: Spenser visits the small desert resort town of Potshot to investigate a murder, and the most likely suspects are a gang of forty outlaws who live out in the hills and prey on the town. It ain’t long before the town fathers ask him to hire a gang of mercenaries and do away with the bad guys.

The homage is most obvious when someone mentions there are seven members in Spenser’s crew, as in the following exchange:

     “We’ll protect you,” I said.
     “Seven of you.”
     “Not all of us at once,” I said. “We try to be fair.”

But the real clincher is the way Parker manipulates the plot to include the obligatory “journey.” Instead of making phone calls to his friends and asking them to come on down, Spenser, as sensei, travels the country to personally assemble the gang. For no other reason, he returns to Boston to recruit Hawk and Vinnie Morris. Then, with Susan in tow, flies to Georgia to invite Tedy Sapp, to Las Vegas for Bernard J. Fortunato, and to L.A. for Chollo and Bobby Horse. While in L.A. he does do some investigating that later proves necessary to solving the case, but it seems more a byproduct than a reason for the trip.

In the end of most versions of the story, at least one of the heroes has to die - just to show us (wink, wink) that this is serious business and not heroic fantasy. In this case, the short straw falls to Bobby Horse. While he doesn’t die, he takes a crippling shot to the knee, which for a professional tough guy seems even worse.

For more Forgotten Books, round up your six best friends and bop on over to pattinase.

Overlooked Cartoons: Betty Boop in "Ha! Ha! Ha!"

2011-07-19T06:00:00.000-07:00

This 1934 cartoon, which also features Koko the Clown, was supposedly banned for glorifying drug use, in this case laughing gas. Don't know if that's true or not, but it builds to a GREAT finish, with the whole city going wacky.

Boop on over to SWEET FREEDOM for more Overlooked Wonders.

Now Available: A Brand New DOC SAVAGE Novel!

2011-07-16T13:31:00.000-07:00

This is a very cool book on several levels.

First, of course, it’s a new Doc Savage adventure - the first since 1993 - and it’s a corker.

But for hardcore Doc fans like me, it’s a special treat because it furthers the legacy of both Lester Dent and James Bama.

Will Murray

The driving force behind The Desert Demons, the guy now wearing the Kenneth Robeson shoes, is long-time Doc expert Will Murray. But for this one, Will had a lot of help from Lester Dent. So much so, in fact, that this should really be considered a Murray-Dent collaboration.

In a revealing Afterword (exclusive to the deluxe hardcover edition), Murray explains how this novel came to be, and it's fascinating stuff. Delving deep into Dent’s papers, he discovered unpublished scenes, and even whole chapters, written and discarded from earlier Doc adventures, primarily Red Snow and The Derrick Devil. Combining those chapters with ideas and springboards from several other Dent stories, Murray was able to craft an all-new story that’s as close to a new Dent Doc as we’re ever likely to get.

A second Afterword (also only in the hardcover), details the Bama connection, as told by cover artist Joe DeVito. As a result of painting the covers for Will Murray’s seven Doc originals published by Bantam in the early 90s, DeVito became friends with James Bama himself. When the call came to produce new covers for this Altus Press revival, Mr. Bama (now in his 80s and still a Doc fan) provided him with photos of his long-time Doc model, Steve Holland. So the Doc gracing the cover of The Desert Demons is the real deal, in the much-admired Bama tradition.

Lester Dent

The story pits Doc and the gang against a boiling blood-red cloud that descends on California, enveloping buildings, vehicles, and even people. When the cloud vanishes, everything it touched is the color of sun-bleached bone, and quickly disintegrates into a white powder. All five of Doc’s aides are on hand for this one, and cousin Pat plays an important role too. I never got enough of Pat in the original series, and hope to see more of her in the next six books.

An added attraction is that much of the action revolves around the Hollywood film industry of 1936. Fun stuff. I especially enjoyed having Monk decked out in cowboy duds and riding a cayuse. And when the action moves to California, we get to see Doc battle an alligator à la Davy Crockett or Jim Bowie.

Bottom Line: You don’t want to miss this kickoff of the WILD Adventures of Doc Savage. It’s available now in both paperback and signed hardcover direct from Altus Press, and will soon be offered in eBook formats too. Click HERE to order!

Forgotten Books: Doc Savage - His Apocalyptic Life

2011-07-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

A new Doc Savage novel has been published!

A new Doc Savage novel is now on sale!

To long-time Savage addicts like me, that’s BIG news. I started celebrating two weeks ago, rereading and reviewing Will Murray’s 1991 epic Doc adventure, Python Isle. Then I had the privilege to read an advance copy of the new book, The Desert Demons, which has just gone on sale from Altus Press.

I'll be reviewing The Desert Demons tomorrow. But since this is Forgotten Books day, I'm getting my Doc jollies by focusing on Philip Jose Farmer’s 1973 masterwork, Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life.

I grokked on this when it first came out in paperback in 1975, and later picked up the Doubleday hardcover shown above.

Farmer, who bought the first issue of the mag on the newsstand when he was 15 years old, admits to having read the entire 182-story series three times in the course of writing this book. Only then, he says, did he realize how truly apocalyptic Doc’s life was, and he spends the first chapter of the book proving his point. He compares Lester Dent’s work and vision with that of other “apocalyptic” writers such as E.E. Smith, William Burroughs and Henry Miller.

Over the course of the book, Farmer shares his unique perspective on Doc himself, his five aides, his cousin Pat and other major elements of the series, like the gadgets, the vehicles, the pets, the villains, and the Empire State Building.

A major part of the book is a continuation of a mythical genealogy called The Wold Newton Family that Farmer detailed in his 1992 biography, Tarzan Alive. The basic idea is that a real-life meteorite that struck Wold Newton, England back in 1795 caused mutations in the descendants of folks who got too close. Many of these descendants had powers and abilities above and beyond those of mortal men, making them fit subjects for heroic literature.

Farmer presents a complex family tree linking not only Tarzan and Doc, but such folks as Solomon Kane, Sherlock Holmes, Natty Bumppo, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Allan Quartermain, Phileas Fogg and Fu Manchu, on down to more modern descendants like Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe and James Bond. It’s a fascinating game, and the fun continues in the capable hands of such Wold Newton disciples as Win Scott Eckert, most notably in his recent two-volume work, Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's review of The Desert Demons (a joint effort by Lester Dent and Will Murray). But if you can't wait, you can order right now direct from Altus Press. Click HERE!

A Brief Review: Gahan Wilson - 50 Years of Playboy Cartoons

2011-07-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

Buy it. You'll like it.

Overlooked Cartoons: The First Fleischer SUPERMAN

2011-07-12T06:00:00.001-07:00

70 years old, and still pretty cool!

More Overlooked Films, Etc. at Sweet Freedom!

Art Gallery: Ken Maynard

2011-07-10T07:00:00.000-07:00

1933

1931

1930

Forgotten Books: The Gracie Allen Murder Case by S.S. Van Dine

2011-07-08T06:01:00.000-07:00

Back in the Golden Age of second-hand bookstores (meaning the Pre-Internet age), I used to see this book a lot, and was intrigued. But by the time I got intrigued enough to buy it, it wasn’t there. And soon, neither were the stores.

But a couple of weeks ago I attended the annual Rose City Book Fair, which is sort of throwback to those by-gone days, where I ran into several old friends - and one old book I could no longer resist - The Gracie Allen Murder Case.

Prior to this, my only acquaintance with Philo Vance was seeing William Powell in The Kennel Murder Case, and that was so long ago I don’t remember anything about it, except that he was not playing Nick Charles.

But I was only mildly curious about old Philo. The real attraction was Gracie, one of my favorite comediennes of all time.

Apparently this book came about when, near the end of S.S. Van Dine’s writing career, Paramount asked him for a screen treatment pairing Philo Vance with Gracie Allen. Van Dine delivered a story involving Gracie, her mother, her brother and George Burns and collected his dough. Then everything went sideways. Burns opted out of the movie project and Paramount decided to do their own thing with Vance and Gracie.

I haven’t seen the film (released in 1939), but it sounds fun, with Gracie taking over the action and repeatedly calling Vance “Fido.” In this one, Vance was played by Warren William, the screen's first Perry Mason.

Meanwhile, Van Dine wrote the novel based on his screen story, resulting in a strangely amusing book. As a character, Philo Vance is okay, though he talks funny and goes to the well for too many foreign words and literary allusions. The big surprise was that Van Dine simply did not get Gracie Allen. Her distinct brand of humor should have translated easily onto the page, but Van Dine failed miserably. This could have been a great book if the studio had approached Raymond Chandler or Rex Stout instead.

As presented here, Gracie is ditzy, scatterbrained and lovable, but never funny. I was on the lookout for a couple of good lines I could quote, and failed to find a single one. The best that can be said is that she wanders on and off stage (mostly off) like some sort of magical creature and unwittingly provides Vance will all the clues he needs to solve the case. And Van Dine's handling of George Burns is even more inept. He’s a typical jealous boyfriend who could have been played by anyone out of central casting. It’s no wonder George had no interest in the film.

Want to see for yourself? Download the book for free HERE.

Crave Forgotten Books? Find more at pattinase!

Overlooked Films: THE THREE STOOGES in "Punch Drunks"

2011-07-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

Here's one of my favorite Stooge shorts, from 1934. This one introduces the notion that hearing "Pop Goes the Weasel" makes Curley go berserk.

For more Overlooked (but less berserk) Films, check out Sweet Freedom!

Forgotten Books: Doc Savage in PYTHON ISLE by Will Murray

2011-07-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

When I heard that Will Murray had a new Doc Savage coming out this month (his first in 18 years), I had to get warmed up by rereading his first, Python Isle.

Python Isle was the first of seven all-new Doc adventures Will wrote for Bantam between 1991 and 1993, and it’s a classic. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear this was a lost work by Lester Dent. Actually, it was based on a Dent outline, but every word of prose rings true. Will nails the characters, the relationships, the dialogue, and the humor better than any of Dent’s contemporaries - a list that includes Laurence Donovan, Harold A. Davis, William Bogart, Alan Hathaway and Ryerson Johnson.

This one features a lost civilization, a mysterious babe, a zeppelin, a gang of ruthless thugs - and, as you may have guessed, a mess of giant pythons. It was a kick in the butt to go adventuring with Doc and the gang again, and I’m now looking forward more than ever to the new one coming from Altus Press - The Desert Demons. Even cooler, it will be the first of a seven book series, with the next, Horror in Gold, coming late this Summer. You'll find more on The Desert Demons HERE.

And f that isn’t enough good news for you, you’ll be pleased to know that Python Isle is now available as an audio book from Radio Archives. They plan to release all seven of Will’s earlier Doc novels on CD, plus classic adventures of The Spider and Secret Agent X. I know what you’re dying to say about that, so I’ll say it for you. I’ll be super amalgamated!

Forgotten Books is a weekly service of Patti Abbott via pattinase.

Forgotten Music: ODESSA by the Bee Gees

2011-06-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

It's fashionable these days to dis the Bee Gees, along with every other recording artist tainted with Disco (and most deserve the dissing). But eight years before succumbing to Saturday Night Fever, these guys released their masterpiece, their answer to Sgt. Pepper, the four-sided concept album called Odessa.

Released in 1969, this album has so many good songs it was hard to pick just six, but I knuckled down and did the deed. Two of these, "Give Your Best" and (especially) "Whisper Whisper" sound like they could have been recorded by the Beatles. The only clunkers are a couple of orchestral numbers, in which the Gees themselves barely took a hand.

MARLEY PURT DRIVE

SUDDENLY

FIRST OF MAY

GIVE YOUR BEST

MELODY FAIR

WHISPER WHISPER

FORGOTTEN MUSIC is brought to you each month at this time by Mr. Scott Parker (and by me when I can remember, which is too seldom).

Overlooked Cartoons: Bingo Crosbyana (1936)

2011-06-28T05:43:00.000-07:00

Here's a fun one. Supposedly Bing Crosby sued Warner Brothers because this cartoon depicted him in a negative light. I reckon that's because when the spider attacks, he's exposed as a coward. My favorite part is the song by the Andrews Sisters bugs, who are apparently not voiced by the real Andrews Sisters.

More Overlooked Entertainment at Sweet Freedom.

Death Stalks the Rangers - The Video

2011-06-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

My fellow OWLHOOT James J. Griffin, author of a fistful of traditional Texas Rangers adventures, has a new one, and a cool video to go with it:

Forgotten Story: "A Man Couldn't Breathe" by David Goodis (writing as David Crewe)

2011-06-24T06:00:00.000-07:00

While looking at Carroll John Daly pulps on Abe last week, I happened to see the issue at right (which I own) offered by a dealer for $750. What the hell?? I've seen some overpriced Daly items, but never one that far out of line. But reading on, I discovered Daly wasn't the reason for the outrageous price tag. According to the dealer, this issue sports the third crime story ever published by David Goodis (the first, according to that same dealer - also under the David Crewe pseudonym - was "The Shape of Murder," in the October 13, 1934 issue of the same magazine, which he will kindly sell you for the low, low price of $1,850).

Now, I'm no Goodis expert, and have no reason to doubt that those are his first and third crime stories. I am, though, a longtime book and pulp collector, and consider those prices absolutely ridiculous. So it gives me great pleasure to present to you, free of charge, that third story, "A Man Couldn't Breathe," from the April 6, 1935 issue of Detective Fiction Weekly. My only regret is that I don't have "The Shape of Murder" to share with you too.

NOTE: Goodis supposedly wrote about 400 pulp stories under various names. If anyone has a list, I'd sure like to see it. Chances are I have others I don't know about, and would be happy to post them here.

ANOTHER NOTE: This issue of DFW introduced Mr. Strang, my 3rd favorite Carroll John Daly character, and the hero of two novels. See my review of Mr. Strang HERE.

Check out this week's amazing Forgotten Books at pattinase.

RANCHO DIABLO 1: Shooter's Cross by Colby Jackson (Mel Odom)

2011-06-22T06:00:00.000-07:00

Bottom Line first: I enjoyed the hell out of this book.

I guess I’m not really surprised, it’s just that I didn’t know what to expect. And whatever those nebulous expectations were, Shooter’s Cross exceeded them by a country mile.

I knew James Reasoner and Bill Crider were involved in this project, and knew they’d written books 2 and 3 in the series, respectively. I’ve read a good number of books by both those gents, and they’ve always delivered the goods. But the author of this inaugural entry, Mel Odom, was a mystery to me.

No more! Mel delivers, too, introducing the Rancho Diablo saga in grand fashion. Shooter’s Cross is sort of an origin story, in which nail-tough Army scout Sam Blaylock lays eyes on Rancho Diablo and never looks back. The locals, residents of the nearby town of Shooter’s Cross, think the place is haunted, but Sam thinks it’s the perfect place to make a home for his friends and family.

In this one, we meet two of Sam’s old friends: Duane Beatty, a stalwart Cajun with a knack for engineering, and Michael Tucker, a wizard with a six-gun. And two new ones: An aptly-named old coot called Gabby (think Hayes) and a young whippersnapper from the town named Randy. These four appear slated to be regulars in the series, and offer many directions for future storylines.

Meanwhile, back in Shooter’s Cross, there’s stern-but-fair Marshal Tolliver, who seems destined to be strong ally, and newspaperman/gambler Mitch McCarthy, a capable adversary. With these members of the cast in place, we’re ready for the arrival of Sam’s wife and kids in the next installment.

The story is compelling, the prose smooth and the dialogue tight. It all adds up to a great read, and has me eager to see what Misters Reasoner and Crider have for us in the next two books. And thankfully, I won’t have to wait. All three books are available for Kindle RIGHT NOW, and for us old-fashioned paper book collectors, Shooter’s Cross is also offered in paperback.

More info at the Rancho Diablo Blog, including the very good news that this intrepid trio already has a spin-off series in the works!

Overlooked Cartoons: Cab Calloway and Betty Boop in "The Old Man of the Mountain"

2011-06-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

Don't overlook today's other Overlooked Films! Links at Sweet Freedom.

Coming Friday: A Forgotten Story by DAVID GOODIS

2011-06-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

Until recently, I had no idea David Goodis was selling stories to the pulps as early as 1934, when he was a mere 17 years old. Seems to be true, though. This Friday, I'll be posting scans of the 7-page story, "A Man Couldn't Breathe," from the April 6, 1935 issue of Detective Fiction Weekly, published under the pseudonym David Crewe. If this tale has ever been reprinted, I can't find any record of it. Come on back and check it out!

PIRATES of the M.P.C.!

2011-06-18T07:00:00.000-07:00

In the late 50s and early 60s, the Multiple Plastics Corporation (known as MPC) produced 60mm soft plastic figures known as "ringhands" because their hands had holes to accommodate a variety of accessories. Each guy was about 2 5/8 inches tall. There were cowboys, Indians, frontiersmen, Civil War and Revolutionary War soldiers, African warriors, G.I.s, cops, firemen, space explorers, and probably others that are slipping my mind. My favorites were the pirates.

Each figure also had a hole in the base, to slip over a peg on certain larger accessories. For cowboys, these pegs were in wagons, for Indians they were in canoes. The pirates had ships!

Some of the accessories pictured here are the row boat and oars, shovel, anchor, sword and hat.

At the bow of the blue ship there's a plank, in case anyone needs to walk it, and a red lantern. (At the upper right is a Skyler Hobbs accessory. This is the actual Superman-blue PT Cruiser driven by Jason Wilder in the Hobbs stories.)

This peg-legged guy, no doubt inspired by Long John Silver, has a parrot on his shoulder. Near his right leg is a treasure chest.

I know it's hard to see, but the guy steering the red ship has a cat-o-nine tails. Nautical trivia: The cat, a short whip tipped with nine knotted strips of leather, was normally kept in a bag when not in use. When the time came to flay some unlucky transgressor, the cat came out. This was the origin of the saying - yep, you guessed it - "the cat's out of the bag."

This dangerous looking dude has a pick in his left fist. The yellow guy visible behind him is preparing to bop somebody with a boarding pike.

More ringhands coming soon!

Forgotten Books: UP JUMPED THE DEVIL by Cleve F. Adams

2011-06-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

Remember Rex McBride? He debuted in Sabotage (1940) and returned in And Sudden Death (1940) and Decoy (1940), all previously featured as Forgotten Books.

This fourth volume of the series, from 1943, boasts the coolest title, lending itself to some of the coolest artwork. Why then, when Signet reprinted the book in 1950, did they retitle it Murder All Over? Beats me! (BTW, beware of the Handi-Books edition. It's abridged.)

Reading Cleve F. Adams is always a joy. My brain slides right into the familiar rhythm of his prose and the jaded attitudes of his heroes. In Up Jumped the Devil, Rex is in San Francisco on the trail of a fabulous string of diamonds known as the Adelphi necklace. It’s gone missing, and the company that insured it for a hundred grand has hired Rex to get it back.

He’s up against the fatcat owner, a Cesar Romero lookalike sniffing around the owner’s wife and adopted daughter, a dirty cop who hates his guts, an unscrupulous diamond dealer, a gambling den magnate and an assortment of small time hoods and grifters. And just to make things tougher, the FBI is using him as a stalking horse in their investigation of sabotaged war plants on the West Coast.

For this one, Adams employed the art of “cannibalization” made famous by his friend Raymond Chandler. The first third of the book began life as the novelette “Exodus” in the Jan. 13, 1940 issue of Detective Fiction Weekly. In the story, the detective is a McBride clone named Regan. Some of the supporting cast retained their names in the novel, while others were rechristened. That same issue of the mag featured Part 5 of the 6-part Rex McBride serial published later that year as And Sudden Death. While "Exodus" later proved to be a fine title for a movie - and a great Bob Marley song - I consider "Up Jumped the Devil" a big improvement.

If you haven’t read Adams, the first two pages of “Exodus” (below) will give you a good taste.

On this reading, the character of Rex McBride struck an extra chord, and I got the possibly crackpot notion that John Sandford, author of the Prey series, might be a Cleve F. Adams fan. Like McBride, Sandford’s hero Lucas Davenport is dark complexioned, a fancy dresser and a womanizer. Both like to spend money on themselves, both have quick, violent tempers, and both have contacts at all levels of society. How about it, Mr. S? Is Lucas is Rex’s nephew?

(click to enlarge)

Crave more Adams? I posted scans the complete short story "Jigsaw" right HERE.

For links to more Forgotten Books from the usual suspects, visit pattinase.

Guest Post by Nancy Farrell: Introducing the Noir Series from Akashic Books

2011-06-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

One wouldn't usually expect the most recent, surprising, and ground-breaking noir series to be published by a small press; yet, that's exactly what Akashic Books has done with their location-specific Noir Series, a series that began with the award-winning Brooklyn Noir anthology in 2004, and has since gone on to visit American and international locations alike: Dublin, Wall Street, Queens, Rome, San Francisco, with anthologies forthcoming based in St. Petersburg, Long Island, and so on. Most recently the press struck gold with their Haiti Noir anthology, edited by celebrated Hatian-American writer Edwidge Danticat. The anthology received excellent reviews in The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, and the Los Angeles Times, as well as a mention in Oprah Magazine.

So what exactly does a long-running noir series include and how has it become so successful with mainstream audiences? Well, Akashic Books has taken an interesting editorial vision regarding how it presents noir, what it considers noir, and who it selects to edit these volumes. Essentially, the publisher has greatly expanded what it considers to be noir: a woeful, dark story that ends unhappily. Certainly, many stories in the series have a criminal and violent feel, but there are also many stories that seem quieter and painful in other noir-ish ways. Diehard fans of noir might find those stories to be a bit tepid; however, consider the mainstream success of the anthology, and you can see how other readers might appreciate the subtler stories as well. Overall, the anthologies have a good mix of stories.

Secondly, the publisher has sought out a variety of factors to influence the feel of each collection: specifically the guest editors, from crime mainstays like Dennis Lehane to the aforementioned Edwidge Danticat, a literary writer who has made her name writing subtler fictions, and the settings. The tastes of each editor significantly influence the feel of each manuscript, just like the atmosphere of each location lends its own feel. Imagine the differences you'd feel in, say, Baltimore versus San Francisco, and that will give you an idea as to how the anthologies differ as well. Think of each editor as a guide, who has selected certain parts of the city to show you. In this way, the series has been able to go on for quite some time without seeming tired or repetitive.

If you're at all interested in taking a peek at this series, I recommend starting with either the original Brooklyn Noir anthology or the Haiti Noir anthology. If you're still interested, you can read an excerpt of Pete Hamill's story, "The Book Signing," which appeared in Brooklyn Noir; hopefully that will be enough to whet your appetite!

Author Bio:
Nancy Farrell is a freelance writer and blogger. She regularly contributes to criminal justice schools, which discusses about child abuse, human rights, divorce, and crime related articles. Questions or comments can be sent to: nancy.farrell13@gmail.com.

Overlooked Films: Ken Maynard in Between Fighting Men (1932)

2011-06-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

I’ve been chugging through the movies on the 50-film collection The Way West and so far I've seen over a dozen of them. (I talked about a few of the films and posted the complete list of titles HERE.)

The movies in this set are mostly from the 30s, and feature a lot of guys I’d heard of - or seen on movie posters - but had never seen on screen. Some are better than expected, some worse, and at least one (to be discussed in a future post) is unbelievably bad.

Ken Maynard was one of the good surprises. He had the look, the personality and the screen presence it took to be a first-rate B-Western star. And Between Fighting Men was a good vehicle to show off those qualities.

The story here is familiar: Sheepmen are moving into cattle country, and the cattle guys are pissed. But it just so happens that the first sheepherder to arrive has a beautiful daughter. And the leading cattle rancher has a skirt-chasing son.

Ken is NOT the son. He’s the son’s best pal, and top hand at the ranch. One of the good things about this film is that Ken doesn’t need a goofy sidekick for comedy relief. Ken and the son provide that themselves, with their good-natured competition for the attention of females. The sheepherder’s daughter does cause friction between them, of course, but when the chips are down their friendship proves stronger than the rivalry.

Make no mistake, this is a B-Western cheapie, but it’s still mighty dang good entertainment.

Gallop on over to Sweet Freedom for more of today's Overlooked goodies.

The OTHER James Arness

2011-06-13T06:00:00.000-07:00

He wasn't ALWAYS Matt Dillon. Just 99% of the time.

(OK, you caught me. I couldn't resist just one Dillon pic.)