Mon 6 Feb 2023
A 1001 Midnights Review: LILLIAN de la TORRE – The Detections of Dr. Sam Johnson.
Posted by Steve under 1001 Midnights , Reviews[4] Comments
by Thomas Baird
LILLIAN de la TORRE – The Detections of Dr. Sam Johnson. Doubleday Crime Club, hardcover, 1960. Dolphin Books, paperback, 1962. Intl Polygonics Ltd, paperback, 1984.
At first glance, the great eighteenth-century English lexicographer Dr. Samuel Johnson seems an unlikely detective. On closer consideration, however, the idea of the man who, after years of sleuthing, published the first English dictionary (1755), and who had the original Boswell close at hand to chronicle his literary detections and adventures, seems just right. The combination of the grumpy sage Johnson and his Scottish biographer, James Boswell of Auchinleck, forms the model for the classic detective-story Holmes-Watson relationship.
The eight stories in this book are pastiches, written in Boswell’s style with the fancy of the author woven into the fabric of history. The detections take place around the 1770s, mostly in London ( “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.” -S.J.), and in Bath and Stratford-onAvon. Johnson, or “Cham,” as he is sometimes called, investigates crime and chicanery, fraud and felony.
His unique position enables him to mix with all classes of society and get involved in various events-from the soldiers’ court-martial on the greensward of Hyde Park, to the robbery of Gothic enthusiast Horace Walpole, to the espionage exploits of the female American patriot against Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne. In “The Tontine Curse,” he hears of dying children and blesses a Roman parent. The “harmless drudge” probes the pitfalls of antiquarianism and exposes forgery in “The Missing Shakespeare Manuscript.” “The Triple-Lock’ d Room” is a case of murder and theft at Boswell’s lodgings with its weird inhabitants.
The Dr. Sam tales are scholarly and quaint and quite the best of their kind. An earlier collection is Dr. Sam: Johnson, Detector (1946), and there are more to come. Most of the stories originally appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.
Contents:
- The Black Stone of Dr. Dee · ss Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Feb 1948
- The Frantick Rebel · nv Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Dec 1948
- The Missing Shakespeare Manuscript · nv Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Jul 1947
- Saint-Germain the Deathless · ss Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Jan 1958
- The Stroke of Thirteen · ss Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Oct 1953
- The Tontine Curse · ss Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Jun 1948
- The Triple-Lock’d Room · nv Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Jan 1952
- The Viotti Stradivarius · ss Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Aug 1950
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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.
February 7th, 2023 at 8:43 pm
“The Frantik Rebel” was adapted as an episode of the television series ESPIONAGE with Roger Livesey as Dr. Sam. It was available on YouTube, a light hearted war of wits between Dr. Sam and a Rebel woman protected by her status as the best friend of General Burgoyne’s socially and royally prominent London mistress.
The Dr.Sam stories are among my favorites of what was almost a second Golden Age of detective shorts (the later Poligolli’s, Hoch, Fish, and no few others).
February 7th, 2023 at 9:25 pm
Unfortunately, Google agrees with you when you used the past tense when you said “was available,” David. I couldn’t find it when I went looking just now, alas!
February 7th, 2023 at 9:31 pm
What I did find was a 10 minute clip from the ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS adaptation of de la Torre’s story “Goodbye, Miss Lizzie Borden,” entitled “The Older Sister.”
More from:
https://elizabethfoxwell.blogspot.com/2013/04/lilliandelatorre.html
“A female reporter pursues an interview with the reluctant sister of Lizzie Borden in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode “The Older Sister.” Carmen Mathews plays Lizzie, and Patricia Hitchcock (daughter of Alfred) plays the servant Margaret. The episode is adapted from the play Goodbye, Miss Lizzie Borden (Suspense radio version, 1955) by Haycraft-Queen author and Edgar nominee Lillian de la Torre McCue (1902–93), who was known for her portrayal of Dr. Samuel Johnson as a master sleuth.”
March 5th, 2023 at 3:47 am
The tv play of The Frantick Rebel can be viewed for free at website ok.ru; search the title. It’s directed by Michael Powell.