THE BRIDE COMES HOME. Paramount, 1935. Claudette Colbert, Fred MacMurray, Robert Young, William Collier, Sr., Donald Meek, Edgar Kennedy, Johnny Arthur, Jimmy Conlin. Screenplay by Claude Binyon, from a story by Elizabeth Sanxay Holding. Photography: Leo Tover; special photographic effects by Dewey Wrigley. Producer/director: Wesley Ruggles, producer/director. Shown at Cinecon 45, Hollywood CA, September 2009.

   The best, and funniest, part of the film is the final scene in which the great Edgar Kennedy, playing a small-town Justice of the Peace, attempts to complete a ceremony uniting a reluctant Claudette Colbert and an eager Robert Young.

   Meanwhile, suitor number two (Fred MacMurray) is racing in a car with the would-be bride’s father (William Collier, Sr) to stop the ceremony and claim the prize. This sequence lifts a charming romantic comedy into a more inspired comic realm.

   And now you know why I referred to the “great” Edgar Kennedy. Everybody’s good, but he provides the comic leaven that not only puts the frosting on the cake but makes it rise to the occasion.

SUZY. MGM, 1936. Jean Harlow, Franchot Tone, Cary Grant, Lewis Stone, Benita Hume, Reginald Mason, Inez Courtney. Co-screenwriter: Dorothy Parker (one of four). Director: George Fitzmaurice.

   So far as I can tell, and I may very well be wrong about this, here’s a movie with both Cary Grant and Jean Harlow in it, and it’s not available on DVD. It was released at one time on VHS, and I recently taped a copy from TCM, but there’s no other commercial release that I’m aware of.

   And why, you might ask, might that be? I wonder if it’s because Cary Grant’s image takes a beating in this movie. He probably played cads in movies other than in this one, but I hope I won’t be giving too much away to say that in the second half of this historical adventure drama he’s about as despicable as he can get.

   As a down-and-out American showgirl in England, though, circa 1914, it’s really Jean Harlow’s film, all the way.

   Franchot Tone is her lover and husband in the first half, the latter for less than an hour, a carefree inventor of airplane motors who whisks Suzy Trent (that’s Jean Harlow) off her feet before being killed by a gang of spies, or so Suzy believes.

   And thinking she’ll be accused of the crime, Suzy heads off for France, which is where Cary Grant comes in. As a French war ace, he sweeps Suzy off her feet again, only to dump her in his father’s mansion while he heads off for the just declared war. And immediately returns to his carefree womanizing ways, the bounder.

   I promised myself that I would refrain from telling you the complete story, and I haven’t, not yet, at least. I suppose I can safely add that the first half of the story eventually meets up with the second half, which is a lot more somber.

   Wars have a way of doing that with stories, and the mood certainly changes once the Andre leaves Suzy and heads off for the front.

   I’ve never been overly impressed with Jean Harlow’s acting ability, but as a screen personality, she was second to almost none, and that holds true for Suzy as well, especially in the first half of this film — but in the second half as well, where she wins over disapproving Andre’s father (Lewis Stone) in her own charming way, as only someone exactly like Jean Harlow could.

   What part of the story Dorothy Parker wrote I don’t know, but I have to think she had something to do with the first half, which remains cheerful and light, in spite of the protagonists’ mutual lack of funds.

   Living in poverty, if it can be refused to be taken seriously, sometimes does that to a tale, if it’s a Hollywood one, and this one definitely is.

PostScript: I found on YouTube a clip of the scene in which Suzy first meets Andre. Her singing voice, I’m told, is not Jean Harlow’s, but Cary Grant’s? Yes, that’s definitely his. A highlight of the movie. Watch it!

EDWARD MARSTON – The Queen’s Head. St. Martin’s Press, US, hardcover, 1989. Bantam, UK, hardcover, 1988. Paperback reprint: Fawcett Crest, US, 1990.

Genre:   Historical mystery. Series character:   Nicholas Bracewell, 1st in series. Setting:   London-Elizabethan/1500s.

First Sentence:   Death stalked her patiently throughout the whole of her imprisonment.

   Mary, Queen of Scots, is dead and the Spanish Armada has been defeated. In celebration, Lord Westfield’s Men is preparing to present a new play, “The Loyal Subject.” The company is beset with problems beginning with the death of an actor in a bar brawl.

   Nicholas Bracewell, the company’s manager and keeper of the books, was present and promised to find his friend’s killer. As other incidents occur, Bracewell suspects much more is at stake.

   After a very dramatic opening, Marston moves on to bring the inner working of Elizabethan theater to life. Some elements — the hard work, competitiveness, jealousies, stagecraft and the disappointment — haven’t changed through time.

   It was interesting to learn about the role of the keeper of the books and to learn how special effects were done. The structure of acting companies and the legal and political aspects were very different and made this fascinating.

   The sense of time and place are elements I should have liked to have been stronger. It was there but not as evocative as it could have been. However, one of the appeals of stories set in London is that many of the locations still exist today. The inclusion of a map would have been nice.

   The dialogue flowed well and did hint to the period. That did help. I like Marston’s characters. Even those who play to stereotype are enough developed that they don’t read flat.

   Bracewell is certainly the most developed of the characters and is very interesting. I learned enough about who he is to have gained my empathy, while knowing there is much more I want to learn.

   I felt the plot was very well done with a very good flow to it. It certainly kept me interested to where it was one of those books I read straight through. The climactic scene was very well done, even for my having figured it out. However, there is a very good twist on motive and its revelation leads to one of the truest lines written.

   While I enjoyed the Elizabethan theater series by Philip Gooden, judging only by this first book, this may be a better series. The second book awaits me.

Rating: Very Good.

Editorial Comment:   There are now 16 books in this series. Marston has 44 in all under this pen name, in four different series. He’s also written another eight mysteries under his own name, Keith Miles; two as Martin Inigo; then (amazingly enough) another eight as Conrad Allen.

   (When the count gets this high, I start to doubt my math ability. You can do it for yourself by checking out either the author’s own website or the Fantastic Fiction pages for him.)

P. D. JAMES – Devices and Desires. Faber & Faber, UK, hardcover, 1989. Alfred A. Knopf, US, hardcover, 1990. Reprinted many times in softcover including Warner, 1992. Six-part TV miniseries, UK, Anglia-ITV, 04 January to 08 February 1991; repeated in the US on Mystery! (PBS, Fall 1991).

   I read P. D. James’ Devices and Desires before watching it on Mystery! so the television adaptation would not influence my evaluation of the book. It’s good in each medium, though a bit confusing on the screen when one doesn’t have time to reflect on all the characters “thrown” at the viewer, almost at once.

   I’ve never met a P. D. James book I didn’t like, and this is no exception. I think she deserves her enormous success because she plots well, creates characters who live, and often creates fine word pictures. For example, here she says that in detective work you get “a jumble of facts like an upturned waste paper basket.”

   However, I believe that the success of the television adaptations of her Dalgliesh stories has had a negative effect on her work. She seems to be trying for dramatic effect. Thus, she actually reduces suspense by giving us a flash-forward which discloses who the victims of a serial killer will be.

   For the second book in a row, she has an cnding which is very melodramatic. It may play well on the screen — but it is not especially fair play and based on clues. (As James has become successful, she has probably become “above” editing. Thus we get 1880 given as the year of Jack the Ripper, instead of 1888.)

JOEL TOWNSLEY ROGERS – Lady with the Dice. Handi-Book #56, paperback original, 1946. Ramble House, hardcover/softcover, 2009. No prior publication known.

   Rogers was a prolific writer for both the pulp and slick-paper magazines, with hundreds of published stories and a handful of novels between 1920 and 1959, which is why I went searching for an earlier version of Lady with the Dice, but I came up empty.

   It reads very much like a pulp story, though, very much in the Cornell Woolrich vein, but Rogers is not nearly as effective as the writer who in my opinion was the ultimate master of overwrought and gripping suspense fiction.

   Or noir, if you will. And if you don’t believe in coincidence (see my previous review), then Lady with the Dice is not the book for you.

   It’s only 127 pages long, so you can read it in about the time you can watch a noir film of the 1940s — somewhere in between sixty and ninety minutes –- and once you reach the midway point, I guarantee that you’ll read faster and faster, about as fast as you can turn the pages.

   Or should I go back and rewrite that as “if you reach the midway point,” as I’m sure that purple prose like this is not for everyone. Here’s a lengthy passage from page 57:

   Some background. Costovain is the heel who married his last wife for her money, and murdered her for it, a murder officially called a suicide. The “old man” referred to above is her father, now paralyzed and helpless and who cursed him with the vengeance of Lachesis. His daughter died on the twelfth day of the twelfth month on the twelfth stroke of the hour.

   It is now one year (twelve months) later, and Costovain has lost his last $1200 on 12 rolls of the dice, throwing boxcars (a pair of sixes) each time. He’s down to his last nickel, good for a single one way subway ride …

   Costovain is an utter cad, utter and absolute –believe me on this — nearly dwarfing any villain you can think of, and he deserves his fate – but he’s also extremely clever and may even get away with his latest plan, not knowing that when the Dice are against you, there’s nothing you can do about it. (Look up Lachesis on Wikipedia, for example.)

   Oddly compelling in spite of its flaws, slurs against blacks, and only superficial characterization, Lady with the Dice is designed to stick in your mind for a while. No classic by any means, but if you’ve read this far into the review, you just might enjoy the ride.


Previously reviewed on this blog:

    The Red Right Hand (by Geoff Bradley)
    The Red Right Hand (by Marcia Muller, from 1001 Midnights)

SARA ROSETT – Magnolias, Moonlight, and Murder. Kensington, paperback, March 2010; hardcover, April 2009.

   As can easily be deduced from the title, perhaps, this is a cozy mystery novel that takes place in the South, middle Georgia, in fact. Most cozies today have leading characters who solve mysteries involving their hobbies (making quilts or teddy bears) or who run into murders in their everyday line of work, which are usually unusual.

   Take Ellie Avery, for example. This is her fourth run-in with murder, but in her everyday life she’s a mother with two small children (lots of diapers!) and a professional organizer (lots of reasons for meeting lots of people, most of who are also suspects).

   In Magnolias Ellie discovers the remains of two bodies in one grave unearthed by rain in a cemetery near the house she and her Air Force husband have just moved into. (This, by the way, is another theme of the series: the constant moving from home to home that an Air Force wife has to get used to and endure.)

   Neither, however, is the body of the young reporter who’s been missing for several months, Jodi Lockworth, who as it turns out, lived in the house where the Averys are now residing, a fact that gets Ellie involved in another case to solve, much to husband Mitch’s displeasure.

   Whether there’s any entertainment factor in this novel for you depends, I would imagine, on you. I found it enjoyable enough to finish, certainly, or I wouldn’t be telling you about it, but I was a trifle disappointed when it came to the detective side of things. There are a couple of cases in Magnolias, somewhat tangentially connected. Ellie’s work as a sleuth is a lot more effective on the minor one.

   As to the major one, it takes a telephone clue out of the blue before she can put things to right. Nothing she does on her own, or could have done, would have cracked the case – one that also depends on a huge hummer of a coincidence, now that I’m thinking about it.

   One that’s managed in one single swallow, though, or maybe two. Detective and mystery fiction are full of them. Neither can leave home without them.

      The Ellie Avery “Mom Zone” Series —

1. Moving Is Murder (2006)

2. Staying Home Is a Killer (2007)
3. Getting Away Is Deadly (2008)

4. Magnolias, Moonlight, and Murder (2009)
5. Mint Juleps, Mayhem, and Murder (2010)

PETER LOVESEY – Bloodhounds. The Mysterious Press, US, hardcover, December 1996; reprint paperback, September 1997. Trade paperback: Soho Crime, December 2004. UK edition: Little Brown, hc, May 1996.

Genre:   Police procedural. Series character:   Peter Diamond, 4th in series. Setting:   Bath UK.

First Sentence:   Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond was suffering in the rear seat of a police car scorching toward Bath along the Keynsham bypass with the headlamps on full beam, blue light pulsing and siren wailing.

   Peter Diamond is back with the Bath police as a DS in charge of homicide. The media and police receive a poem which seems to indicate that a valuable painting, in the town’s museum, by Turner will be stolen.

   Instead, it is the theft of a Penny Black, one of the world’s most valuable stamps. The stamp turns up in the possession of a member of the town’s mystery club, “The Bloodhounds,” and the body of another of the group’s ends up on the suspect’s boat.

   Lovesey’s wry humor and use of metaphors is always delightful. In this book, he does a wonderful send-up of book groups and on-line groups, and I thoroughly enjoyed the all the references to mystery authors and their books.

   Lovesey provides a very full construction of each character in very few words. He accurately depicts the pettiness, jealousy and fight for power which seem to be part of any group of people. He clearly exemplifies the tendency of those who are insecure to public degrade others in order to feel better about themselves.

   Diamond is a delightful character; he can seem brusque, yet is aware of his flaws and can be kind. I am particularly taken with his very understanding wife, Stephanie, and his young policewoman, Julie Hargraves.

   The story provides some interesting, amusing, and lesser known, history about Bath. The inclusion of those small details adds richness to the setting and a variance from the common inclusion of the Roman Baths.

   It is not all lightness, however, as there is murder and deception. As a John Dickson Carr fan, I found the set up of doing a locked-room — in this case “boat” — mystery and learning the solution to be fascinating.

   The plot was filled with red herrings and twists; so much so, I found the lead-up to the resolution a bit confusing, causing this to not be my favorite book in the series. I do, however, like the characters enough that I shall continue with the series.

Rating:   Good Plus.

Editorial Comment:   There are now ten novels in the Peter Diamond series, plus a number of short stories he’s also been in. Visit the Peter Lovesey’s website for a complete list of all his fiction, beginning with Wobble to Death in 1970. At the age of 74, he’s still going strong.

PAUL DOHERTY – The Spies of Sobeck. Headline, UK, hardcover/softcover, December 2008. St Martin’s, US, hardcover, February 2010.

   This is the seventh in Doherty’s dynastic Egyptian mystery series, with Amerotke, Chief Justice of the Hall of Two Truths, attempting to ferret out the instigators of a series of murders that threaten the stability of the regime of Queen Hatusu.

   Once again, Doherty recreates the pomp and circumstance of one of the great Egyptian dynasties, highlighted by the vivid characterization of Pharaoh’s Chief Justice.

   I will just note, in passing, that I’ve also read, and much enjoyed, the historical trilogy by Doherty that portrays the troubled and brilliant reign of the monotheistic Pharaoh Akenhaten, and that of his successor, Tutankhamen, through the eyes of Mahu, one-time Chief of Police and intimate of both pharaohs.

   These are not traditional mysteries, but there are always secrets at the heart of every empire, and Mahu, like Amerotke, is adept at uncovering them. For the record, the three novels are An Evil Spirit Out of the West, The Season of the Hyena, and The Year of the Cobra, all also published by Headline.

MARGARET MILLAR – Mermaid. William Morrow, hardcover, 1982. Paperback reprint: IPL, 1991.

   Tom Aragon, whose position as a junior member of a prestigious Southern California law firm has him largely doing legwork for the senior members, occasionally has the opportunity of adding detective duties to his list of chores. He’s no expert at it, by any means, but for an amateur he does pretty well.

   This case has to do with a runaway girl — which comes as no surprise, since the west coast must be full of them — but with a difference. Cleo Jasper is a member of a very wealthy family, she is pretty, if not beautiful, and she is exceptional.

   Mildly retarded, that is, and just beginning to become aware of her “rights.” As in all good drama, the characters in Millar’s panoramic novels are often a mysterious mixture of the comic with the tragic. While she does not realize it, unfortunately, Cleo Jasper is the supreme archetype of each.

[UPDATE] 05-10-10.   If I were to have written this review today, this afternoon, for example, I’m sure it would have been a whole lot longer. I didn’t have a set word limit when I back when I was writing reviews for the Courant, but I knew that I went way long on one, the others would have to be shorter or would be cut altogether.

   One reason for pointing this out is that when it appeared in The MYSTERY FANcier, I added a letter rating of an “A,” and I’m not sure that if I didn’t mention it now, you wouldn’t have known how highly I thought of it. Nor, at this later date, would I, and it’s certainly worth pointing out.

THE STRIPPER. A musical comedy based on the novel of the same title by Carter Brown. Details below:

   So there I was, browsing through the local weekly free paper when there was an article about Richard O’Brien, songwriter for The Rocky Horror Show, and how he had a musical being performed at the Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch.

   I idly took in that the production was called The Stripper, and my mind was trying to work out where I had heard that title before as my eyes got to the next bit “based on the book by Carter Brown.”

   Now I have spoken before of my attachment, from a relative early age, to the books of Carter Brown, and I quickly made my way up to the Carter Brown section of the loft where I found the 1961 Signet edition of the book (reviewed here ).

   I quickly found the Queen’s Theatre website and booked tickets for the Saturday matinee and then set to re-reading the book. Travel to Hornchurch, about 25 miles away, was very convenient by train so Helen and I had a leisurely journey followed by lunch in Hornchurch and a walk to the theatre.

   I bought a programme and read that Richard O’Brien had read lots of Carter Brown’s books. On entering the theatre, the first thing to see was a large rectangular book-shaped screen with, projected on to it, the Signet cover.

   As the show started the projection changed to the outside of the 15th floor of the hotel with Patty Keller perched on the ledge. From then on the action followed the book faithfully (although Sergeant Polnik is, unfortunately relegated to a walk-on part and, for some reason, Sherry Rand of the book is renamed as Sherry Mendez), with huge chunks of dialogue lifted verbatim until an understandable alteration to the ending that changed setting and timing but not culprits.

   This was interspersed with song whose lyrics would not, perhaps, compete on a Cole Porter level, but worked in the more lowly context of Carter Brown. A six piece band (with trumpet, sax and piano prominent), sited on a raised platform at the back of the stage, were excellent, playing the jazz-tinged score.

   Jonathan Wrather was terrific as Al Wheeler and Morgan Deare made a very acceptable Sheriff Lavers. Richard O’Brien, himself, took the role of Arkwright but the stand-out performance was perhaps Jack Edwards as Harvey Stem, in particular when his corpse rose up to sing the contents of his supposed suicide note, “I Confess.”

   Music was written by Richard Hartley, lyrics by Richard O’Brien and Carter Brown was credited, quite rightly, with the book.

   Richard O’Brien says in the programme that he was asked to write a musical for the Sydney Theatre Company back in 1980 and being familiar with the works of Carter Brown, a chance meeting with his daughter, turned his thoughts to using a Brown book as the source material. He originally intended, he says, to write another rock’n’roll musical but came to realise that Brown’s characters were more likely to listen to Ella Fitzgerald and Sinatra.

   After the performance, Helen (on my behalf, I’m a bit shy in that regard) asked if there were any spare posters for the production lying around and eventually a very kind lady produced one for me. At that point she said why don’t you get Richard O’Brien to sign it, he’s just coming down the corridor.

   So as I asked O’Brien to sign my poster, I confessed that I had been a Carter Brown reader since my adolescence. He told me that he had met Brown (Alan Yates) and had got to know his family quite well. Also that it was his copy of The Stripper (Signet, 1961) that had been used on for the pre-show image that was projected on to the book shaped screen.

   It wasn’t until I got home that further reading in the programme told me that he owned a lot of “pulp fiction” and he had collected it for years.

   A spot of Googling enabled me to find details of the original production in Sydney with one site listing all the original lyrics (though there had obviously been some revision since Polnik has a song in the original) and another on which the soundtrack LP could be listened to.

   I have to say that the whole production was excellent. The scene changes were smoothly and cleverly done, the cast were excellent, the songs were witty and the music enjoyable. The production, for which the best single word to describe it is perhaps ‘fun,’ was enthusiastically received by the audience and both I, as a Carter Brown veteran wanting a faithful interpretation of the book, and Helen, with no interest in the Brown or the comedy-pulp sub-genre, both thoroughly enjoyed the whole performance.

Editorial Comment: The webpage for the Queen’s Theatre production appears to have been archived, so perhaps the link will stay active for a while.