Mon 8 Feb 2016
Reviewed by David Vineyard: GREEN EYES Book and Film (1934).
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies , Reviews[11] Comments
H. ASHBROOK – The Murder of Stephen Kester. Coward-McCann, hardcover, 1931. Forthcoming from Resurrected Press, softcover, 2016.
GREEN EYES. Chesterfield, 1934. Charles Starrett, Shirley Grey, Claude Gillingwater, John Wray. Screenplay by Andrew Moss, based on The Murder of Stephen Kester by H. Ashbrook. Directed by Richard Thorpe.
Until Resurrected Press began reissuing the novels of Harriette Cora Ashbrook (1898-1946) who wrote as H. Ashbrook and Susannah Shane, she was a virtually forgotten follower of the Philo Vance school of detective fiction that featured talented amateurs with connections and more than a little contempt for the authorities. As H. Ashbrook she wrote thirteen mysteries featuring Philip “Spike†Tracy and six as Shane about Christopher Saxe.
The Murder of Stephen Kester is a Spike Tracy mystery. Tracy, the brother of New York District Attorney Richard Tracy (yup, Dick Tracy is his brother), is a layabout and playboy with a penchant for lolling about making wisecracks while either suffering a hangover or drinking, getting thrown in various jails for being drunk and disorderly, and brilliantly solving crimes.
If that doesn’t sound like much of a recommendation it should be pointed out that Ashbrook writes well, the dialogue has a certain crackle, the wise cracks are fairly good, and the pace much better than usual for the Van Dine school.
The plots and detection are workmanlike at best, no Ellery Queen here, and equally no Rex Stout with characters as fascinating as Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin, but still well above most of her competitors. As in many of the Van Dine school there is also a bit of social commentary thrown into the mix.
The adjective that comes to mind is crisp.
Here, wealthy Stephen Kester is murdered at a costume ball given by his granddaughter Jean. Numerous people attending have reason to kill the old man including Jean and her fiancé who have stolen money to elope, Kester’s manager/accountant with the high maintenance wife, the butler who calls the old man a Simon Legree, the housemaid who loves Jean and knows where the old man buried the bodies, and the mysterious Wall, who showed up and argued with Kester, but is staying at the house, and who Jean seems to know but can’t remember.
Tracy sorts through the evidence and suspects, uncovers the truth despite being hindered by his brother and lunk-headed cop Inspector Hershman, and two murders later lets the killer escape by means of suicide in true Philo Vance fashion, though the spineless weasel killer in this one deserves no such grace.
The film, renamed Green Eyes for no apparent reason other than a pair of glow-in-the-dark marbles that feature in the solution, stars Charles Starrett as Michael Tracy (no idea why Spike was dropped much less Philip), a writer who specializes in being a pain in the police posterior, and who has an admitted history of visiting various jails around the world for drunk and disorderly charges. He’s at the party when Kester is murdered and injects himself in the investigation by Captain Crofton and his version of Hershman, both of whom know Tracy.
Why any of these changes were made is a greater mystery than the plot, but that’s Hollywood for you. Maybe they thought Tracy was more appealing as a total outsider and a bit more sober and collegiate. Maybe they didn’t want the public to make the Dick Tracy connection with the brother.
At just a bit over an hour it moves well, Starrett makes a pretty good amateur sleuth even though it is a bit hard to imagine him dissolute in any way, and the plot doesn’t veer too significantly from the book. It’s a pleasant enough well made little mystery, and frankly better written and acted than any of the God awful Ellery Queen pictures from the same era. I wouldn’t have minded seeing Starrett in a second outing as Tracy.
Read the book and see the film. Both are available, the book from Resurrected Press, and the movie on YouTube. Of the two the book offers more pleasures, but the movie looks and plays better than most of its type thanks to a good cast and Richard Thorpe’s direction.
I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by both.
February 8th, 2016 at 9:06 pm
Lots of photos relating to the movie, not a single one from the book. It’s a scarce one. I’ll have to check out this title and whatever else is coming out from Resurrected Press. We’re in the midst of a flood of old mysteries coming in reprint form, with most of them very hard to find in any other way.
I remember reading one book Ashbrook wrote as Susannah Shane, but nothing else about it. Too long ago!
February 8th, 2016 at 11:58 pm
This was fairly old hat stuff when published, but today can be read with a certain appreciation. Keep in mind the hard boiled revolution was fully in gear by 1937 and the Van Dine school, while far from dead, beginning to wheeze — Stout and Queen, the last full fledged top name adherents of the style other than Van Dine were both moving away from the style and even Van Dine was mixing things up a bit.
Books like this were still doing well, but not getting the attention they might have gotten earlier.
But, that said, Ashbrook writes well and if, like me, you still have some affection for the Van Dine school she did it well.
February 9th, 2016 at 12:02 am
Steve,
Resurrected Press is doing all sorts of titles both in attractive editions and e-book form and reasonably priced. Check out their catalogue, there are quite a few books on it and more coming out every week.
February 9th, 2016 at 4:21 am
I read Ashbrook’s THE PURPLE ONION MYSTERY. Thought it was awful.
So unfortunately, I never wrote an article about it for my history-of-mystery website. This has perhaps helped make her “forgotten”: something I regret.
Thank you for an informative review.
February 9th, 2016 at 12:07 pm
Out of curiosity. I looked up when the Dick Tracy comic strip began. It was 1931, the same year THE MURDER OF STEPHEN KESTER was published. And since KESTER was Ashbrook’s second book, I’m positive that her Dick Tracy came first.
Not that anyone’s concerned about it, I’m sure.
February 9th, 2016 at 12:13 pm
Here’s a link to the mystery section of the Resurrected Press website:
http://www.resurrectedpress.com/category/resurrected-press-mysteries/
Lots of Carolyn Wells novels, if anyone’s interested, and if you go looking, quite a few by R. Austin Freeman, but I don’t think the list is up to date. Ashbrook’s novels don’t seem to be listed there yet.
February 9th, 2016 at 3:19 pm
They list all of the Ashbrook and Shane titles in the back of the e-book so they may not all be in actual book form yet. Their catalogue, at least in e-book form is extensive.
February 9th, 2016 at 3:28 pm
Mike,
The mystery is no great shakes here, but the book is a bit better written than most of its type and flows more smoothly. I found the killer pretty obvious, but there is a little misdirection that would probably have worked for non critical readers.
Chiefly I liked Spike Tracy, whose drinking at least forms an excuse for the obnoxious behavior of the Van Dine school sleuths. His brother really is a bit of a twit, and Hershman makes Sgt. Heath look like a genius, so you do pull a bit for Spike to show them up.
I really didn’t see why he let the killer commit suicide in this one though. Vance usually does so because he lacks physical evidence and is bluffing or out of respect for a family member who would be hurt by a trial, but in this case it seems arbitrary. They only person to be hurt is far from innocent, and none of the innocents would be involved as anything but witnesses, on top of which Tracy has solid evidence.
Steve,
So, Spike’s brother left the DA’s office four years later sick of putting up with Spike and became a plainclothes Dick* …
*And for anyone who doesn’t get it PLAINCLOTHES DICK was the original name of the DICK TRACY strip.
February 9th, 2016 at 9:33 pm
David,
Was it “Plainclothes Dick” or “Plainclothes Tracy”?
February 10th, 2016 at 3:50 pm
Gary K.,
TRACY of course, but the joke didn’t work that way.
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