ROBERT BLOCH “Is Betsey Blake Still Alive?” First published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, April 1958. First collected in Blood Runs Cold (Simon & Schuster, hardcover, 1961). First reprinted in Ellery Queen’s Murder—in Spades!, edited by Ellery Queen (Pyramid, paperback, 1969). Reprinted and collected many other times since, often with changes in the title. (See Comment #5.) TV adaptation: Alfred Hitchcock Presents (March 27, 1960) as “Madame Mystery,” with Audrey Totter as the title character.

   This small chiller of a story takes place in Hollywood, where a writer turns down the chance offered him by a live-wire PR agent to help him publicize a movie star’s latest and possibly final film by building up a huge campaign on her life after her assumed death in a motorboat accident. When I say huge, I mean the works. Ads and magazine stories galore. Is she alive? And if so, where is she?

   All is going well, extremely well, when … you probably guessed it – [Plot Alert] the lady shows up. All that work? For next to nothing? Usually this is as far as I’d go in telling you about a story, but since you’ve been warned, I will let you know the lady disappears again. In all likelihood this time she is as dead as she can be. [End Plot Alert.] But of course that is not the end of the story.

   Author Robert Bloch tells the story as smoothly as he ever did, and maybe even more. Once started you are not likely to put this one down. And yes, the very last line is a small masterpiece.

THUNDER OVER THE PLAINS. Warner Bros., 1953. Randolph Scott, Lex Barker, Phyllis Kirk, Charles McGraw, Henry Hull, Elisha Cook Jr. Director: André De Toth.

   Randolph Scott stars in this early 1950s western directed by André De Toth (House of Wax). The plot is as follows: it’s Texas and the year is 1869. The Civil War has ended, but Reconstruction continues apace. Carpetbaggers are taking advantage of the situation, leaving native Texans resentful. It’s up to men like Federal Captain David Porter (Randolph Scott) to keep the peace.

   Not an easy task, given the animosity that Texans have for exploitative Northerners. Some even support an outlaw by the name of Ben Westman (Charles McGraw) who has been active in fighting back against the Reconstructionist military occupation.

   When Westman is wrongfully framed for a murder, Porter takes matters into his own hands, teams up with the rebels, and seeks to bring justice to the state. Filling out the cast are Lex Barker and Elisha Cook Jr., among others. Cook is always enjoyable to see on screen. Here, he portrays a corrupt tax official who has been deliberately raising taxes on the locals.

   There’s nothing technically wrong with Thunder Over the Plains. In fact, it’s a well choreographed and directed western with some great outdoor cinematography. The movie begins and ends with a lot of action. Indeed, there’s no shortage of chases, fistfights, and killings.

   Despite that, however, there is something rather tiring about the whole affair. I know that may sound like a contradiction, but it really isn’t. After a while, the chase scenes all blend together and it feels as if you’re watching a movie on repeat, with the story not going anywhere interesting for a long time.

   Final assessment: an interesting film, but not a particularly compelling one. Scott, though, is a formidable presence here and is leaning into a grittier version of himself. There’s no silly sidekick in this one.

WILLIAM FULLER – Tight Squeeze. Brad Dolan # . Dell First Edition A189; paperback original; 1st printing, August 1959.

   Brad Dolan is an adventurer, a man with a boat scrounging for a living in the Florida keys. Not averse to making a few dollars illegally, he accepts a girl’s offer of $3000 to run a shipment of guns to Castro’s guerilla army, still in hiding in the Cuban hills.

   The plan goes wrong, of course. These were the heady days of the Cuban revolution, and Fuller’s description of it, in bold, vivid strokes, makes it seem a grand venture. Dolan has a head of rock, otherwise there’d be no story. A gripping macho fantasy.

   
      The Brad Dolan series —

Back Country.
Goat Island.
The Girl in the Frame.
Brad Dolan’s Blonde Cargo.
Brad Dolan’s Miami Manhunt.
Tight Squeeze.

   All were first published by Dell in the 1950s as paperback originals.

EMILE GABORIAU – Monsieur Lecoq. E. Dentu, France, 1868. Edited version published in the US by Dover, softcover, 1975. Many other editions published in the US.

   Monsieur Lecoq, Gaboriau’s twelfth book and his fifth novel in which the French detective of the title appears, is today often considered his best and most readable book. Changing reading habits, plus indifferent translations, have left the pioneer French mystery writer all but unread today, but he deserves a place in any survey of classic detective fiction.

   Lecoq, introduced in his first book as a secondary character, was a minor Surete detective with a shady past somewhat like that of the real-life Vidocq. But he soon takes center stage in the Gaboriau novels, and in Monsieur Lecoq he investigates a triple murder in a poor section of Paris. The killer, apprehended at the scene, appears to be a petty criminal who cans himself May, but Lecoq suspects he might really have another identity.

   The duel of wits between the two men extends through the first volume of the novel. The second volume, sometimes published separately as The Honor of the Name, is really a separate and inferior historical novel set around the year 1815, with Lecoq and the evasive villain only reappearing in the final twenty-two pages.

   Though there have been numerous British and American editions of the novel, the recent Dover edition cited above (skillfully edited and introduced by E.F. Bleiler) is the first to eliminate the extraneous historical novel and jump at once from the end of volume one to the important final pages of volume two.

   Gaboriau’s books are not without their weaknesses, and they often suffer from cardboard characterizations and inconsistencies. Their strengths lie in plotting and background. They arc not exactly the books we think of as detective novels today, but enough elements are present to argue effectively that Gaboriau deserves his title as the father of the detective novel.

   Lecoq first appears as a secondary character in The Widow Lerouge (1866), but stars in his next two cases, The Mystery of Orcival (1867) and File No.113 ( 1867). He also makes a brief appearance in The Slaves of Paris (1868), but this is more a crime novel than a detective story.

———
   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.

ANALOG SF – November 1967. Editor: John W. Campbell Cover art: Kelly Freas. Overall rating: **

GUY McCORD “Coup.” Novelette. [Guy McCord is a pen name of Mack Reynolds.] A planet originally settled by colonists from Scotland is rediscovered by the crew of an explorer ship. Their ignorance of local customs, developed by necessity, enables the natives to count coup on them A coup is a telling blow inflicted by an unarmed warrior upon one who is armed. Standard but interesting, yet unsatisfying. (3)

PIERS ANTHONY “Prostho Plus.” Dr. Dillingham #2. Dr. Dillingham’s dentist’s office is taken over by two aliens, one of whom has a problem with his teeth. The story ends just as it’s beginning. (1)

MARTIN LORAN “The Case of the Perjured Planet.” The Librarian #2. Novelette. [Martin Loran is a joint pen name of John Baxter and Ron Smith.] Librarian Stephen Quist uses hard-boiled private eye techniques to discover the secret of planet Napoleon 6. An unlikely premise that fails miserably, though the story is barely tolerable. (1)

JACK WODHAMS“The Cure-All Merchant.” To the consternation of an inspector representing the drug industry, Dr. Malmy practices medicine without the use of drugs, relying on human resources for his cures. Too long. (2)

JOE POYER “Mission: Red Plague.” A super-high-altitude reconnaissance pilot observing warfare in Asia is exposed to a Chinese bacteriological attack and comes down with … the flu. A story hidden in technical junk. (2)

THE FALLEN SPARROW. RKO Radio Pictures, 1943. John Garfield, Maureen O’Hara, Walter Slezak, Patricia Morison. Based on the novel by Dorothy B. Hughes. Director: Richard Wallace.

   John Garfield stars as a former prisoner in the Spanish Civil War, now investigating the murder of a friend on the police force – the same one who helped arrange his escape from Spain (about which he finds he still has more to learn).

   This was the age of Nazis and war-torn Europe, and the tone of the movie follows suit. Slezak is immediately suspicious as a refugee well-versed in matters of torture, but Maureen O’Hara’s role as the granddaughter of a deposed prince in a bit more puzzling.

ROBERT L. FISH – Always Kill a Stranger. Captain Jose Da Silva #6. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, hardcover, 1967. Berkley X1511, paperback, February 1968. Foul Play Press, paperback, 1998.

   Captain Jose Da Silva of the Brazilian police and his friend Wilson, US assignee to Interpol in Brazil, combine to thwart the planned assassination of a diplomat attending a conference of the OAS.

   The relationship between the two men, friendly, humorous, and occasionally antagonistic, is the most satisfying part of the book. Most pertinent, perhaps, is their agreement to disagree on the merits of the CIA, and American efforts on foreign policy in general. As a member of the US Embassy in Brazil, however, Wilson has the opportunity of meeting and recognizing various types of ugly American. Indeed, what Brazil needs from the US is more Wilson.

   The surprise ending is dependent on the previously unknown [WARNING; Plot Alert.] of a brother who looks very much like the intended victim. Deducible, I suppose. [End Plot Alert.] The incompetence of several members of the Brazilian police, though probably realistic, on at least two occasions allows the assassination plot to head on to a climax undisturbed.

Rating: ***½

MARCIA MULLER – The Legend of the Slain Soldiers. Elena Oliverez #2. Walker & Company, hardcover, 1985. Signet, paperback, November, 1987. Mysterious Press, paperback, 1996.

   Elena Oliverez is director of Santa Barbara’s Museum of Mexican Arts, but when a friend of her mother is found dead, murder is suspected, and she becomes an amateur detective again. (Her first mystery was The Tree of Death, which I haven’t read, and I should.)

   The man was a historian, writing a book about the area’s labor struggles in the 1930s. Elena, as a Chicana, in a primarily white world, is also trying to come to grips with her cultural heritage, making the background an essential part of the story, nicely told.

NOTE: There were only the two books in the series.

QUEENS LOGIC. 7Arts, 1991. Kevin Bacon, Linda Fiorentino, John Malkovich, Joe Mantegna, Ken Olin, Tony Spiridakis, Tom Waits, Chloe Webb and Jamie Lee Curtis. Written by Tony Spiridakis and Joseph W. Savino. Directed by Steve Rash.

   A perfectly ordinary film, but done with such sheer panache that I found myself charmed by the players and involved with the characters.

   “Panache” is perhaps a charitable way of describing the overall attitude here. The Italianate natives are uniformly portrayed as volatile, immature, and borderline violent. Their language is crude, civility sporadic, and faithfulness a matter of convenience. And that’s just the nuns.

   Sorry, just kidding. But I really have to warn prospective viewers about the ethnic stereotyping here. I found the characters sympathetic and amusing, but those closer to the milieu may justifiably see the broad brushstrokes as ethnic denigration. Viewer beware.

   The main threads of the plot involve a self-described Fishmonger whose wife literally throws him out of the house on their anniversary. He remembered the date, he remembered the gift, but he stopped off for a drink with the boys on his way home to take her out for Dinner and lost track of time — for several hours! This thread gets counterwoven (Hey, I invented a word there!) with another about an artist who gets the proverbial cooling tootsies as the day approaches for him to marry the Fishmonger’s sister.

   They’ve made plenty of movies with one or the other of these elements, but this one does the weaving so adroitly, I was barely aware of any plot structure at all; everything just seemed to be happening. Happening to a likeable and genuinely funny ensemble that includes Malkovich as a gay man who can’t relate to gay men, Waits as a spaced-out jewel hustler, and Curtis as a sincerely daft dowager with a dangerously innovative approach to problem-solving.

   I could go on: Bacon as a local boy returning after a stint in Hollywood, Fiorentino as a Wife and Mother that don’t take nothin’ from nobody….

   And it occurs to me now that when you talk about the characters here, you’re talking about the plot. Because in this instance, the plot is all about these people bouncing off each other, much as we do in what is sometimes called Day to Day Living. The artistry here is in making something so cohesive and consistently funny out of anything as messy as Real Life.

KENNETH ROBESON – The Other World. Doc Savage #83. Bantam F3877, paperback, October 1968. Previously published in the January 1940 issue of Doc Savage Magaine.

   The struggle between two fur dealers over strange and beautiful furs leads Doc Savage and his crew to an underground world, the entrance to which is hidden somewhere in the Arctic wilderness. This world still lives in prehistoric times, with the usual assortment of dinosaurs and other menacing creatures.

   The villains are vicious – to stop a letter from getting to Doc Savage, they simply smash the mailbox open with a sledgehammer – and in spite of being short on science, scenes in the other world (especially the one illustrated on the [paperback] cover) are exciting, But the idea is not new, rather third – or fourth-rate by this time

Rating: **