DEAN R. KOONTZ – The Fall of the Dream Machine. Ace Double 22600, paperback original; 1st printing, 1969. Published back-to-back with The Star Venturers, by Kenneth Bulmer (review of which to be posted soon). Cover art by Jack Gaughan. Never reprinted in English.

   McLuhan’s theories are made real in a future where Show dominates, a few actors and actresses acting out their emotions for an audience who can feel them through electric wizardry. The domination of Show extends beyond mere communication, however, since the economy of the country is already under Show’s power, and it is not difficult to see that complete political control is next.

   This revolution of media, Show having taken over the function of television, which has disappeared, along with books and movies, is spawning another revolution, one dedicated to bringing back the past. Is that possible? The books ends with the victors watching a movie made by 20th Century Fox, symbolizing their attempt to do so. It may be possible.

   Revolution is often bloody, as Koontz vividly reminds us, and I have no quarrel with the violence what happens. The emphasis shocks, and one does not like it, but it may have to be this way. And in a participatory government, where the leaders actually lead, the idea occurs that violence which is then officially sanctioned is by golly going to be required.

   I am not personally convinced that the disappearance of books, in particular, is going to take place that fast, without more of a struggle, or indeed that this world Koontz envisions could actually exist. The problem with direct communication of thoughts and emotions in drama is that science fiction, with its concepts of the as-yet impossible, could not exist. And such ideas and concepts die hard.

   Naturally, I am a romanticist, as are the story’s new revolutionaries. See page 31: “… collecting old books which he could not read, old movies which he could nut view…” And romanticists will delight in this book.

   Mike’s doubts of his love (page 43) are effective; his search for the revolutionaries motives (page 47) is not. Show has existed for 200 years, and yet only now is Director Cockley’s power growing so dangerous. Nit. I did not read this very fast. Ideas were being awakened right and left.

Rating: ****½

ANDREW GARVE – The Lester Affair. Harper & Row, US, hardcover, 1974. Published previously by Collins,UK, hardcover, 1974.

   Among Garve’s other interests is a keen one in boating and the sea, and this is one of his best novels dealing with that theme. James Lester, Britain’s Progressive party candidate, seems well on his way to becoming prime minister when a strange thing happens: A young woman, Shirley Holt, claims that she and Jim Lester met during a holiday; that they bathed nude together on a deserted beach; that she went aboard his boat to spend the night; and that during the night they had a sexual relationship.

   Well, all right, such things happen. And apparently no harm has been done. After all, at the time, and presently, Lester was single-a widower actually. But (and here comes the intriguing Garve puzzle) Lester himself not only denies that such a thing ever happened, he denies even knowing the woman.

   Needless to say, claims and counterclaims take over the election headlines. Why. Lester supporters wonder, would Jim tum his back on this woman? She is able to supply a very convincing account of that night, including details she seemingly would not have known otherwise, and the topaz ring she claims she lost on the boat is recovered from one of its drains. Still, Lester sticks to his story, and begins to lose his lead in the election polls.

   This complex mystery is told from a number of points of view of people investigating the incident. And, as is often the case with Garve’s stories, interest is sustained throughout without a single death or even the threat of death. The resolution is sure to surprise and satisfy the reader.

   Garve also displays his knowledge of the sea to good effect in The Megstone Plot (1957) and A Hero for Leanda (1959). Other equally fine adventures are The Cuckoo Line Affair (1953), which concerns a son’s fight to clear his father of a shameful accusation; Boomerang (1970), which is set in Australia; and The Case of Robert Quarry ( 1972), an excellent depiction of the eternal triangle.

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   Reprinted with permission from 1001 Midnights, edited by Bill Pronzini & Marcia Muller and published by The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 2007.   Copyright © 1986, 2007 by the Pronzini-Muller Family Trust.

ROADBLOCK. RKO Radio Pictures, 1951. Charles McGraw, Joan Dixon, Lowell Gilmore, Louis Jean Heydt, Milburn Stone. Story by Richard Landau and Daniel Mainwaring (as Geoffrey Homes). Co-screenwriter: Steve Fisher. Director: Harold Daniels.

   A hard-nosed insurance investigator falls hard for a girl, the kind of girl who wants nothing but money out of life, hardly the kind of money an insurance investigator makes, and he decides to do something about it.

   And he makes a mess of it,  especially after the girl decides it is really he she wants, not the fur coats. Joan Dixon does not seem to have had much of a Hollywood career, and I can’t see why. Her dark seductive eyes are very nearly in the Gail Russell class.

WILLIAM IRISH – Dilemma of the Dead Lady. Graphic Book #20; paperback, 1950.

   While nowhere the masterpieces that the back cover claims that these particular stories are, the work of Irish/Woolrich are always exciting. Looking back on them, the details don’t always fit, but the people are real, in almost real situations that are made to seem real, situations the world seems to be collapsing inward. Could it happen to you?

Overall rating: ***

“Dilemma of the Dead Lady.” A cheap crook with no conscience has to murder his girl friend before he can leave France and then has the body to deal with. Fate [that follows] says that he will die for a murder that could have been avoided, committed to cover up the first, which probably would not have been revealed. (3)

“The Lie.” The by-now classic story of a son taking the blame for a murder he believes his father has committed. The clues do not point to him, however, and [unfortunately] those pointing to his innocent father are never explained. (2)

“The Dog with the Wooden Leg.” A story of a man and his dog already has a lot going for it, but if he unknowingly is made the go-between in a narcotics racket, then you really have a story, The only flaw is the complicated business of their doing away with him once he is captured by the gang. (4)

“The Blue Ribbon.” The history of a fighter, from boyhood to championship, then the fall from glory to comeback. The fake supernatural ending destroys the mood. (3)

“Subway.” An exciting chase through a subway train, but occurring only at the expense of the guard’s intelligence. (2)

Rating: ***

RORY CALHOUN – The Man from Padera. Major Books, paperback, 1978. Novelization of the film The Domino Kid (1957)

   Years ago, Bill Crider gave me The Man from Padera by Rory Calhoun, and it’s interesting to compare Calhoun’s writing to Errol Flynn’s [follow the link]: just as virile, a bit more violent, but not nearly so graceful.

   This is adapted from a story Calhoun wrote for a movie he starred in back in ’57. And why he waited twenty-one years to novelize it is anyone’s guess. It’s a pretty standard thing, probably a bit old-fashioned by ’78 but still fun and quite violent, with a vengeful rancher out to get the owlhoots what killed his family.

   No surprises, but I never felt like putting it down, either.

ANDREW GARVE – The Ashes of Loda. Harper & Row, US, hardcover, 1965. Publisher earlier by Collins Crime Club, UK, hardcover, 1965. Popular Library, US, paperback, 1966. Perennial Library, US, paperback, 1978

   Andrew Garve (a pseudonym of Paul Winterton) has produced some forty well-crafted novels of suspense. In addition to their consistent high quality, what is notable about them is their diversity, both of setting and type. Garve writes adventure, espionage, detection, and even romance with equal facility.

   His stories are set in such far-flung locales as the English countryside, Australia, Africa, France, and Ireland. His heroes are often policemen or quite ordinary men who rise to meet unusual circumstances with unusual fortitude, and often his villainous characters are so finely developed as lo win the sympathy of his readers. Garve’s readers can count on a good adventure with a tantalizing central puzzle that will keep them reading until all is resolved.

   The puzzle in The Ashes of Loda involves the past — specifically the war record — of a Polish chemist, Dr. Stefan Raczinski. Was he, as he claims, merely a survivor of the German concentration camp at Loda, or was he guilty of war crimes in that camp? The question threatens to tear apart the relationship of the two people who care most about him: his daughter, Marya, and her fiance, Lord Timothy Quainton.

   Tim, a newspaperman normally stationed in Moscow, meets Marya while on leave in London. During their courtship he discovers an old newspaper article condemning Dr. Raczinski in absentia for war crimes. Marya adamantly ref uses to believe this, but there is enough doubt in Tim’s mind to make him launch an investigation when he returns to Russia. It is an investigation that will leave him cut off from all official help-and eventually marked for death in the middle of a Russian winter.

   Garve is well acquainted with Russia and her people, since he was a foreign correspondent for the London News Chronicle in Moscow from 1942 to 1945. He puts this. knowledge to good use in this exciting story, particularly in the sequence in which Tim finds himself stranded in the countryside, trying to escape the police, foraging for the essentials, and trying to survive the deadly winter weather.

   Garve’s other novels that make use of his knowledge of Russia include Murder Through the Looking Glass (1952), The Ascent of D-13, and the The Late Bill Smith (1971).

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   Reprinted with permission from 1001 Midnights, edited by Bill Pronzini & Marcia Muller and published by The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 2007.   Copyright © 1986, 2007 by the Pronzini-Muller Family Trust.

WILLIAM CAMPBELL GAULT – County Kill. PI Brock (the Rock) Callahan #6. Simon & Schuster, hardcover, 1962. Charter, paperback, 1988.

   PI Brock (the Rock) Callahan’s client in this case is a small boy whose father has disappeared and (unknown to him) is suspected of murdering his partner in crime. What the crime is, nobody is saying, and the San Valdesto city police seem to be overly involved.

   Note the title. San Valdesto is a town split between millionaires on one side, and poverty row on the other. Everyone is very money conscious, and it interferes with the investigation. Callahan has the right instincts, however, and eventually they pay off.

ANALOG SF. December 1967. Editor: John W. Campbell. Cover artist: John Schoenherr. Overall rating: ***½.

ANNE McCAFFREY “Dragonrider.” Serial; part 1 of 2. See report following that for the January 1968 issue.

ALEXEI PANSHIN “The Destiny of Milton Gomrath.” Men find their own level in life. (3)

JACK WODHAMS “Whosawhatsa?” Novelette. Judge Forsett’s latest case and nightmare is a comedy of sex changes, complicated by various pregnancies. Still, imagination can provide even more legal complication. The point is valid. (4)

PIERS ANTHONY “Beak by Beak.” Contact, but with the wrong inhabitants of Earth, For bird lovers. (3)

CHRISTOPHER ANVIL “A Question of Attitude.” The testing routine for joining the Interstellar Patrol requires that one look at both sides of the problem. (1)

MACK REYNOLDS “Psi Assassin.” A killer sent out by Section G on behalf of United Planets must be stopped before he eliminates the wrong man. Even the lectures are not new. (1)

LOVE’S LABOURS LOST. Miramax, 2000. Alessandro Nivola, Alicia Silverstone, Natascha Elhone, Kenneth Branagh, Carmen Ejogo, Matthew Lillard, Adrian Lester, Emily Mortimer, Richard Briers, Geraldine McEwan, Stefania Rocca, Jimmy Yuill, Nathan Lane, Timothy Spall, Anthony O’Donnell, Daniel Hill, and Richard Clifford. Presented by Martin Scorsese and Stanley Donen. Screenplay and directed by Kenneth Branagh. Available for rent on Amazon and Apple TV.

   And now I must face an internal struggle between propriety and ease; should I slight your smarts by adding that this is based on the play by William Shakespeare (sorta) which I’m sure everyone here knows? or say nothing and perhaps be taken to task for slighting Shakespeare himself?

   My critical reputation could be at stake here, if I had any. What shall I do? Please send your comments and suggestions to Steve, as I can’t be bothered with them.

   At any rate, this is the movie that stalled out Kenneth Branagh’s career and didn’t do Shakespeare any good, either. I’ve always thought of it as a thin slice of Sheer Genius: a tribute to old musicals, the Bard, clowns, and Casablanca.

   What serves for a plot is set in or around the mid-1930s, in the Kingdom of Navarre, a largely fictitious pocket monarchy, where the King secludes himself and a few friends in a program of monastic study, just as Hitler is sweeping across Europe gobbling up nations and peoples like they was salt peanuts — a device cleverly tacked on by Branagh himself, conveyed in mock-newsreel footage (rather than mock-Shakesperean dialogue) to lend a sense of movement and urgency to a paper-thin story.

   Because as you might have expected, Love comes pounding on the castle moat when four total babe princesses come a-callin’, ostensibly and sensibly to negotiate some sort of treaty with the King of France, but actually to sing & dance.

   I’ll admit it comes as a bit of a shock when the players suddenly shuck their Elizabethan prose for the lyrics of Gershwin, Berlin and Cole Porter, but I think Branagh carried it off wonderfully. The numbers are well-chosen, boldly imagined, and presented with enthusiasm that almost-but-not-quite makes up for the amateurish status of the performers.

   In fact, Branagh covers rather well for the deficit of terpsichorean talent in his cast with deft camera trickery. Not the enervating step-cut-step editing of Chicago, where the camera does all the dancing, but cleverly coordinated set-up and follow-through moves of camera and dancer that combine to impart grace and harmony to actors who sing like Astaire and dance like Crosby.

   In case you’re not familiar with the story of Love’s Labours Lost,  I won’t spoil it for you. Much. I’ll just say that a sudden reversal late in the game sends the whole thing spinning off in an unexpected direction. And Branagh swings the bat and hits a touchdown. Or scores a strike. Or whatever it is they call it in Polo.

   I joke, but in fact, Branagh provides us with one of the most moving endings I’ve ever seen on film. Fast-moving, poignant, and suffused with Romance — or perhaps it’s Love. An incredible montage of images that carry the Bard’s tale to a surprising and hugely satisfying conclusion.

   Which did no good at all. LLL was what is usually and charitably called a Box-Office Disaster, though possibly stronger terms are called for here. Statistically speaking, the movie-going public stayed away at a rate of 97% plus-or-minus 6% — which means that this film might have been shunned by movie-goers either dead or not born yet. Branagh had a three-picture deal going here, but the studio lawyers must have decided it’d be cheaper to be sued than make another movie like this.

   Of course, I really really like Love’s Labours Lost, and once again I find myself waiting for Fashion to catch up with me.

RICHARD DEMING – The Sock-It-to-Em Murders. The Mod Squad #3. Pyramid X-1922, paperback original; 1st printing, December 1968.

   While the job of translating the TV program to book form is professional enough job, especially given the lack of time allowed, and while the outer essence of the characters is there, what it is that makes the show successful is not.

   But then, the TV programs seem to be content lately with putting Peter, Linc and Julie into exotic locations than taking advantage of their ability to communicate with youth, at the same time as they are finding themselves.

   In this book, the title of which means nothing, they are assigned to undercover work in a factory troubles with sabotage and industrial espionage, We get all the details of plant work, but nothing more meaningful, The solution works out clearly enough, but it would not have been difficult to write this without involving the Mod Squad at all.

Rating: ***