THE CAT’S PAW. Paramount, 1934. Harold Lloyd, Una Merkel , George Barbier, Nat Pendleton, Grace Bradley, Alan Dinehart. Screenplay: Sam Taylor, based on a story by Clarence Budington Kelland (serialized in the Saturday Evening Post, August 26-September 30, 1933). Director: Sam Taylor.

   We like to think of the Past as a simpler, better time. Just how un-simpler and un-better that Time actually was is evinced with unsettling clarity in The Cat’s Paw, which is also Capraesque (not surprising, since it was written by Clarence Buddington Kelland, who authored Mr. Deeds Goes to Town) but in a more distinctly early-30’s style.

   Harold Lloyd stars as a super-naive Missionary vacationing from China, who returns to his American home town in search of a wife. He quickly gets involved with corrupt local politics, local hoods (Grant Mitchell, Nat Pendleton and Warren Hymer: as bluff an ensemble of plug-uglies as graced any Gangster Film.) and the local wise-cracking soft-hearted Jean Arthur type, played here by the lovely Una Merkel.

   In less time than it takes to tell, he becomes a local hero, gets elected Mayor, is framed, disgraced, and about to be indicted.

   At which point I expected him to save the day with an impassioned filibuster or some such, and was mildly amazed to watch meek little Harold pull the Fat out of the Fire with some surprisingly grim (not to say Fascist) tactics better suited to Mussolini than Mr. Deeds.

   This is an unusual — eschewing the star’s trademark inventive slapstick for a more thoughtful — and less funny approach. And while it’s not entirely successful, it’s fascinating to watch and wonder what else Lloyd might have done had he opted for Social Commentary instead of settling for being the Talkies’ best Physical Comedian.

   I doubt that he could ever have come up with anything to match the Marx Brothers’ Duck Soup (1933, also Paramount) but it’s interesting to see him try.

FRANK TALLIS –

    ● Fatal Lies. Random House, US, softcover, February, 2009. Century, UK, hardcover, January 2008; Arrow, UK, pbbk, August 2008.
    ● Vienna Secrets. Random House, US, softcover, February, 2010. Century, UK, hardcover, April 2009, as Darkness Rising.

   The third and fourth installments in the Max Liebermann series which take place in early 20th-century Vienna maintain the high standards set by the first two.

   In Fatal Lies, Dr. Liebermann and his homicide colleague, Detective Inspector Oskar Reinhardt, investigate what first appears to be an accidental death in a laboratory at St. Florian’s, an elite military academy.

   Max is somewhat distracted by a flirtation with a visiting Hungarian violinist but both the amorous relationship and the investigation of the suspicious death of the young student soon begin to expose unsuspected dark undercurrents.

   Vienna Secrets returns to the kind of bizarre crimes that characterized the first two Vienna novels. A series of murders in which the victims’ heads are violently torn from their bodies exposes, once again, the festering political and social climate that pits right-wing zealots, fueled, by anti-Semitism. against the more liberal artistic and intellectual community, with Max, largely indifferent to his Jewish heritage, finding himself shaken by events that put his indifference to the test.

   I might add that all the Liebermann “papers” (as they are referred to on the title pages of the four books) should be approached with caution by readers with a weakness for culinary pleasures. The characters eat frequently, and well, and the descriptions, particularly of the famous Viennese pastries, are mouth-watering. Murder is only one of the arts celebrated in the pages of this sumptuous series.

Previously reviewed by Walter:

    1.   A Death in Vienna
    2.   Vienna Blood

   Barry Gardner’s recent list has inspired me to do one of my own. I’ve tried to give a good variety by limiting myself to no more than two titles per author (or pseudonym). I’ve also tried to include books that impressed me greatly when read, even if it was twenty years ago and I’d probably not read that book today. On some heavily read authors (McBain, Simenon) titles were chosen nearly at random. Still, it’s a list that I can live with, and one you might find worth checking for titles to try.

Neil Albert, THE JANUARY CORPSE
Eric Ambler, A CORPSE FOR DIMITRIOS
Delano Ames, SHE SHALL HAVE MURDER
Linda Barnes, A TROUBLE OF FOOLS
Lawrence Block, WHEN THE SACRED GINMILL CLOSES
Christianna Brand, GREEN FOR DANGER
Jay Brandon, FADE THE HEAT
Herbert Brean, WILDERS WALK AWAY
Fredric Brown, THE FABULOUS CLIPJOINT
          NIGHT OF THE JABBERWOCK
Paul Cain, FAST ONE
John Dickson Carr, THE THREE COFFINS
Raymond Chandler, FAREWELL, MY LOVELY
         THE LADY IN THE LAKE
George C. Chesbro, BONE
Agatha Christie, AND THEN THERE WERE NONE
          PARTNERS IN CRIME
Liza Cody, BUCKET NUT
Max Allan Collins, TRUE DETECTIVE
K. C. Constantine, THE MAN WHO LIKED SLOW TOMATOES
William J. Coughlin, DEATH PENALTY
Bill Crider, SHOTGUN SATURDAY NIGHT
James Crumley, THE LAST GOOD KISS
Peter Dickinson, KING & JOKER
Jerome Doolittle, BODY SCISSORS
Arthur Conan Doyle, THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES
John Dunning, BOOKED TO DIE
Aaron Elkins, OLD BONES
James Ellroy, THE BLACK DAHLIA
Loren D. Estleman, SUGARTOWN
          PEEPER
Michael Gilbert, DEATH IN CAPTIVITY
Joe Goes, HAMMETT
James W. Hall, UNDER COVER OF DAYLIGHT
Parnell Hall, DETECTIVE
Donald Hamilton, DEATH OF A CITIZEN
Dashiell Hammett, RED HARVEST
          THE MALTESE FALCON
Joseph Hansen, A COUNTRY OF OLD MEN .
Thomas Harris, RED DRAGON
Carl Hiaasen, TOURIST SEASON
Tony Hillerman, DANCE HALL OF THE DEAD
          A THIEF OF TIME
William Hjortsberg, FALLING ANGEL
P. D. James, SHROUD FOR A NIGHTINGALE
Faye Kellerman, DAY OF ATONEMENT
Jonathan Kellerman, WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS
Joseph Koenig, FLOATER
Jonathan Latimer, MURDER IN THE MADHOUSE
Elmore Leonard, CITY PRIMEVIL
Ira Levin, A KISS BEFORE DYING
Michael Z. Lewin, NIGHT COVER
Dick Lochte, SLEEPING DOG
Peter Lovesey, WOBBLE TO DEATH
          THE FALSE INSPECTOR DEW
Arthur Lyons, CASTLES BURNING
Frank McAuliffe, OF ALL THE BLOODY CHEEK
Ed McBain, LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE DEAF MAN
Gregory Mcdonald, FLETCH
John D. MacDonald, THE END OF THE NIGHT
          THE DREADFUL LEMON SKY
Ross Macdonald, THE GALTON CASE
          THE CHILL
Dan J. Marlowe, THE NAME OF THE GAME IS DEATH
Margaret Maron, BOOTLEGGER’S DAUGHTER
Ngaio Marsh, ARTISTS IN CRIME
W. Somerset Maugham, ASHENDEN
Archer Mayor, OPEN SEASON
L. A. Morse, THE OLD DICK
Robert B. Parker, GOD SAVE THE CHILD
Marcia Muller, PENNIES ON A DEAD WOMAN’S EYES
Ridley Pearson, UNDERCURRENTS
Anthony Price, OTHER PATHS TO GLORY
Bill Pronzini, BONES
Ellery Queen, CALAMITY TOWN
          CAT OF MANY TAILS
Barnaby Ross (Queen), THE TRAGEDY OF Y
Dorothy L. Sayers, MURDER MUST ADVERTISE
Laurence Shames, FLORIDA STRAITS
Richard Shattuck, THE WEDDING GUEST SAT ON A STONE
Georges Simenon, MAIGRET GOES HOME
Roger L. Simon, THE BIG FIX
Gerald Sinstadt, THE FIDELIO SCORE
Maj Sjowall/Per Wahloo, THE LAUGHING POLICEMAN
Julie Smith, NEW ORLEANS MOURNING
Richard Stark (Westlake), BUTCHER’S MOON
Rex Stout, TOO MANY COOKS
Grif Stockley, PROBABLE CAUSE
Josephine Tey, THE DAUGHTER OF TIME
Ross Thomas, THE FOOLS IN TOWN ARE ON OUR SIDE
          CHINAMAN’S CHANCE
Jim Thompson, THE KILLER INSIDE ME
          A HELL OF A WOMAN
Arthur W. Upfield, DEATH OF A LAKE
Donald E. Westlake, DANCING AZTECS
Teri White, FAULT LINES
Kate Wilhelm, O, SUSANNAH!
Charles Willeford, MIAMI BLUES
Stuart Woods, CHIEFS
Eric Wright, FINAL CUT

Editorial Comment:   I have one more list like this one to post, and perhaps two. Yours would be welcome, if you’d like to do one. The ground rules are pretty much up to you; any restrictions or boundaries you’d like to place on it are yours to make and to abide by. If you’d care to come up with only a top 10, 15, or 50, that’s fine, too.

    When he agreed to let me reprint this list, Jeff promised to give his reactions when he saw it again. He came up with this list of books and authors 17 years ago, and he hasn’t seen or thought about it since.

   In 1969 as I was in the process of writing many letters to dealers, collectors, bookstores and so on, in order to locate back issues of Black Mask, I naturally wanted to also collect the main competitor to Black Mask. Dime Detective was one of the early titles put out by the new publisher at the time, Popular Publications. It lasted for 273 issues during the period 1931 through 1953.

   At first the new magazine looked like a combination of hardboiled detective, gothic horror, and weird menace fiction. The early issues had examples of these type of stories and I was puzzled to see horror titles like “The Shadow of the Vulture,” “The Devil’s Jackpot,” “The Phantom of the Porthole,” “The Chamber of Doom,” and “Horror House.” But I was relieved to see such favorite Black Mask writers as Frederick Nebel, Erle Stanley Gardner, and even the much maligned Carroll John Daly.

   As the main competitor to Black Mask, Dime Detective paid higher than usual pulp rates, even going as high as four cents a word to tempt writers away from the other magazine.

   In fact, by 1936 Black Mask was having circulation problems and editor Joseph Shaw even left the magazine in that year over some disagreement concerning money and the direction the magazine was going.

   When Shaw left, Raymond Chandler switched to Dime Detective and its higher rates and published seven excellent novelettes during 1937 through 1939. These issues especially go for high prices, and I’ve recently seen copies sell for hundreds of dollars each.

   I personally am sure that soon we will see nice copies going for over a thousand. Raymond Chandler, like Hammett, has claim to being among the very best of the pulp writers and in fact both writers are now routinely accepted as part of the great American literary tradition.

   However, in 1969 and in the early 1970’s I had very little competition and managed to pick up just about all the issues for only $2.00 or $3.00 each. Even in those days I did not consider these prices a drain on my finances, and most other collectors continued to happily concentrate on SF and the hero pulps.

   Instead of letting these guys continue on their wayward ways, I made the mistake of praising the magazine as being an untapped lode of great detective fiction, and before I realized it I had again created my own competition. As I think back on myself 40 years ago, it was almost like I was some sort of mad doctor creating my own Frankenstein monster.

   This hideous monster turned out to be other collectors fighting me for Dime Detective and my other favorite pulp titles, that once were fairly unknown until I opened my big mouth.

   Speaking of “mad doctors,” author Ron Goulart thought pulp collectors were so strange that he put several of us in novels, including the Avenger series of paperbacks that he wrote in the 1970’s under the Kenneth Robeson name. I appeared as the mad Doctor Walker-Martin in Red Moon (1974). Other collectors to appear in Ron’s novels were Bob Briney, Jack Irwin, Jack Deveny, Bob Weinberg, Bob Sampson, Richard Minter, and even Mystery*File honcho, Steve Lewis, among others.

   Fortunately I managed to complete my set of 273 issues within a very short time thanks to Richard Minter’s mail order business and my letter writing scheme which unearthed all sorts of Dime Detective’s for little cost.

   I say “unearthed,” and this actually happened when a collector from Ohio discovered stacks of the magazine in a basement of a house about to be demolished. By now in the early 1970’s, many collectors considered me the village idiot who would buy just about any pulp, as long as no one else was interested in the title. I was happy to let them continue to think this way as I started to amass a collection of pulps numbering into the thousands.

   Other collectors who were smart enough to see that I was on to something by collecting Black Mask, Dime Detective, and other high quality pulps, began to visit me and listen to my rants and raves about how great these titles were.

   Many ignored me until prices rose too high, but a few decided to also start reading Dime Detective, an so on, and I then no longer had a free field to leisurely buy issues at super low prices. I even had to resume my greedy plan of sending dealers more money than they asked in order to get my wants.

   Before I knew it and shortly after Pulpcon started in 1972, it became a dog-eat-dog type of existence. Now, I have several friends among pulp collectors because I eventually reached my major goals and I’m not as hyper, but back in the early days there were some major misunderstandings and hurt feelings among collectors.

      One collector was banned from attending Pulpcon and several others started to boycott the convention because of various arguments. During one so called “feeding frenzy” at some dealer’s table I even saw a minister elbow other collectors out of the way and take control of a box of pulps.

   Another time, I kidded a medical surgeon about collecting weird menace pulps and Dime Detective’s with mad doctors on the covers, and he not only stopped coming to Pulpcon, but refused to answer my letters. And I once had a friend who proposed that we commit a criminal act in order to steal some pulp paintings. Fortunately I said no, otherwise my story would be completely different, more like “My Life of Crime as a Pulp Collector.”

   By the year 2000, I had just about read all the good stories in my complete run of Dime Detective’s except for the early and mid thirties which had some lower quality fiction. So when a friend offered to buy the set I foolishly sold it to him, and within a very short time regretted my decision.

   Even though I had read all I wanted to in the 30 years that I had the set, I found I wanted to reread my favorite stories. I checked with all my friends and other collectors but no one had another set to sell. I then began a project that lasted for a few years of buying copies one by one off eBay, the online auction site. I now have over 200 of the 273 issues, and I probably won’t bother with the early issues that I find less readable. The Chandler stories I have in reprint, so again there is no need to spend a lot of money to get those issues.

   I’m making a point of mentioning all this because I want to stress and make clear that even today it is possible to collect pulps that are enjoyable to read. You don’t have to be an older collector who started way back in the 1960’s or 1970’s.

   For Dime Detective, the thirties for the most part are more expensive, often over $100 in nice shape. Lesser copies can be obtained for below a hundred. The forties and fifties I find are the most readable and still can be obtained for $25 to $50 each.

   I personally find it hard to believe but some collectors do not read and collect just for the covers. The covers are quite well done and I’ve owned six or more Dime Detective cover paintings by such excellent artists as Walter Baumhofer, Norman Saunders, and Raphael Desoto.

   I’ve always been amused by the name Dime Detective because eventually the price went up to 15 and 25 cents but the name stayed the same. I imagine many a newsdealer was almost driven mad by customers complaining “but why do you want 25 cents for a Dime Detective?”

   Despite the different names, Black Mask and Dime Detective were basically the same magazine during the 1940’s. Same publisher, same editor (Ken White), and the same policy concerning fiction. It is true, however, that Dime Detective did not publish serials and emphasized series characters even more than Black Mask.

   To give you an idea of some of the authors and series, here is a list of some of my favorite characters from Dime Detective:

       Inspector Allhoff — D. L. Champion (29 stories)
       Bail Bond Dodd — Norbert Davis (8 stories)
       Jim Bennett — Robert Martin (13)
       Bill Brent/Lorna Lorne — Frederick C. Davis (16)
       Cardigan — Frederick Nebel (44)
       John Dalmas — Raymond Chandler (5)
       The Dean — Merle Constiner (19)
       Mr Maddox — T. T. Flynn (35)
       Steve Midnight — John K. Butler (9)
       Needle Mike — William Barrett (15)
       Rambler Murphy — Fred MacIsaac (18)
       Cash Wale — Peter Paige (17)
       Jeffrey Wren — G. T. Fleming-Roberts (7)

   There were other good series but the above will give an idea of the variety.

   Many of these writers were getting very good rates, even as high as three to five cents a word. I had quite a collection of cancelled checks from Popular Publications and they showed for instance that Peter Paige (real name Morton Wolson) was receiving $500 per Cash Wale novelette. In the forties that was very good pay.

   A couple of writers did not really specialize in series characters but should be mentioned: John D. MacDonald who also used the name of Scott O’Hara (39 stories) and Cornell Woolrich (31 stories).

   Also several writers came to sad ends. Norbert Davis and Fred MacIsaac committed suicide. Max Brand and Robert Reeves were killed in WW II. Roger Torrey died an early death in his 30’s of alcoholism.

   For further reading on Dime Detective, Ron Goulart has written three valuable books dealing with the magazine:

       The Dime Detectives
       Cheap Thrills
       The Hardboiled Dicks

   I recommend all three highly and I’m also pleased to say that Matt Moring of Altus Press will eventually be publishing the Dime Detective Companion by James L. Traylor. This will be a revised and expanded edition of his book Dime Detective Index published in 1986. This new book will not only be an index but also have several articles on the magazine and writers.

   We indeed live in the Golden Age of Pulp Reprints and if you don’t have the money and time to find back issues I can recommend the following collections of stories from Dime Detective:

       Hard-Boiled Detectives, edited by Weinberg, Dziemianowicz, and Greenberg.
       Tough Guys and Dangerous Dames, edited by the above.
       The Adventures of Max Latin, by Norbert Davis
       The Adventures of Race Williams, by Carroll John Daly
       The Adventures of Mike Blair, by Hank Searls
       The Adventures of Cardigan, by Frederick Nebel
       The Adventures of Paul Pry, by Erle Stanley Gardner
       Footprints on the Brain, by D. L. Champion (Inspector Allhoff)
       At the Stroke of Midnight, by John K. Butler(Steve Midnight)
       The Compleat Adventures of the Dean, by Merle Constiner (Battered Silicon)
       The Compleat Adventures of Bill Brent, by Frederick C. Davis (Battered Silicon)

Previously on Mystery*File:   Part One — Collecting Black Mask.
Coming next:   Part Three — Collecting Detective Fiction Weekly.

   I was recently asked if I could produce a list of my “100 Best” mysteries, and list lover that I am I couldn’t resist. I wouldn’t call them my 100 best, though – “best” implies a more rigorously articulated set of standards than I can lay claim to.

   Let’s say that these are 100 books that, after 40-odd years of reading in the field, I might choose to build a basic library of the kinds of books I like most to read. If I were to go through the same process tomorrow a number of the individual titles might change, but there would be very few changes among the authors.

ADAMS, Harold – The Man Who Met the Train
ATLEE, Philip – The Green Wound
BLEECK, Oliver (Ross Thomas) – The Procane Chronicles
BLOCK, Lawrence – When the Sacred Ginmill Closes
         A Walk Among the Tombstones
BOYER, Rick – The Daisy Ducks
BROWN, Fredric – The Fabulous Clipjoint
BROWNE, Howard – The Taste of Ashes
BURKE, James Lee – The Neon Rain
      Black Cherry Blues
CAMP, John – The Empress File
CARR, John Dickson – Castle Skull
CHANDLER, Raymond – The Big Sleep
      The Long Goodbye
CHARTERIS, Leslie – The Last Hero
CHESTERTON, G. K. – The Man Who Was Thursday
CLEARY, Jon – Now and Then, Amen
COLLINS, Max Allan – Neon Mirage
COLLINS, Michael – Freak
CONSTANTINE, K. C. – The Man Who Liked Slow Tomatoes
DICKSON, Carter (J. D. Carr) – The Punch and Judy Murders
      The Judas Window
ESTLEMAN, Loren D. – Sugartown
FAULKNER, William – Knight’s Gambit
FREEMANTLE, Brian – Charlie M
      Charlie Muffin, U.S.A.
FRIEDMAN, Kinky – When the Cat’s Away
GAULT, William Campbell – Day ofthe Ram
GILBERT, Michael – Game Without Rules
      Mr. Calder and Mr. Behrens
GILL, Bartholomew – The Death of Love
GORES, Joe – A TIme of Predators
GRANGER, Bill – The November Man
GREENLEAF, Stephen – Fatal Obsession
HALL, Adam – The Quiller Memorandum
HAMILTON, Donald – Death of a Citizen
HAMMETT, Dashiell – Red Harvest
      Blood Money
      The Maltese Falcon
HARE, Cyril – An English Murder
      Tragedy at Law
HARVEY, John – Wasted Years
HEALY, Jeremiah – The Staked Goat
HILL, Reginald – Recalled To Life
HILLERMAN, Tony – Skinwalkers
HIMES, Chester – The Big Gold Dream
INNES, Michael – Seven Suspects
      Appleby’s End
JAMES, P. D. – An Unsuitable Job for a Woman
KAMINSKY, Stuart M. – A Cold Red Sunrise
KELLERMAN, Jonathan – Over the Edge
LINDSEY, David L. – In the Lake of the Moon
      Body of Truth
LYONS, Arthur – Dead Ringer
MacDONALD, John D. – A Purple Place for Dying
      The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Everything
MACDONALD, Ross – The Doomsters
      Black Money
MALCOLM, John – The Gwen John Sculpture
MARON, Margaret – Bootlegger’s Daughter
MAYOR. Archer – Open Season
McCLURE, James – The Song Dog
      Steam Pig
McGOWN, Jill – Murder at the Old Vicarage
McILVANNEY, William – Strange Loyalties
NEEL, Janet – Death on Site
OLIVER, Anthony – The Pew Group
PARKER. Robert B. – Mortal Stakes
      Early Autumn
PERRY, Thomas – The Butcher’s Boy
      Metzger’s Dog
PICKARD, Nancy – I.O.U.
PIERCE, David M. – Down in the Valley
PRICE, Anthony M. – The Labyrinth Makers
      Colonel Butler’s Wolf
      The ’44 Vintage
PRONZlNI, Bill – Shackles
QUEEN, Ellery – Calamity Town
RENDELL, Ruth – Murder Being Once Done
RIGGS, John R. – Haunt of the Nightingale
ROBERTS, Les – Deep Shaker
      Seeing the Elephant
ROSS, Jonathan – Here Lies Nancy Frail
SAYERS, Dorothy L. – The Nine Tailors
      Gaudy Night
SAYLOR, Steven – Roman Blood
SPICER, Bart – Blues for the Prince
STARK, Richard (Donald Westlake) – The Hunter
      The Outfit
      Butcher’s Moon
STOUT, Rex – Fer de Lance
      Too Many Cooks
      Black Orchids
      The Black Mountain
THOMAS, Ross – The Fools in Town Are on Our Side
      The Seersucker Whipsaw
      Chinaman’s Chance
      The Cold War Swap
VALIN, Jonathan – The Lime Pit
WOODRELL, Daniel – Under the Bright Lights

   Obviously, my preferences lean more to the modern than the classic, and to the hard-edged than the cozy. When I make one of these, I’m always surprised at some of my choices, and at how hard it is to make them. I could have done 200, and still been happy with the quality.

Editorial Comment:   If Barry were still with us today, it would be interesting to have him compare his favorites now with those he came up with back then. It’s hard work making up a list like this — I’ve never been able to do it myself — but if anyone would like to take up the challenge, I’d be glad to post it here.

   I do have one ready in hand from Jeff Meyerson, one he also did in 1993, and in fact it was in direct response to this one from Barry. I’ll post it here on Sunday.

HOLD THAT GHOST. Universal Pictures, 1941. Bud Abbott & Lou Costello, Joan Davis, Richard Carlson, Misha Auer, Evelyn Ankers, Russell Hicks, Marc Lawrence, William Davidson, Shemp Howard, Thurston Hall, Nestor Paiva, Don Terry, Ted Lewis and his Orchestra, the Andrews Sisters. Director: Arthur Lubin.

   Well, Universal certainly was. Abbott and Costello were a major success, and their films seemed to flow out of the studio, one hit after another. Hold That Ghost is one of their best, with some of their best routines and snappiest lines.

   On top of that it has one of the best casts of their film career with Joan Davis equally as funny as the boys as a professional radio screamer, Richard Carlson an eccentric doctor, veteran Universal horror star Evelyn Ankers as the romantic interest, and Marc Lawrence as a gangster playing the boys along.

   Hood Moose Matson (William Davidson) leaves all his money and property to whomever is with him when he dies, which turns out to be the boys, a pair of gas station attendants who end up in a high speed car chase with him ( “We were very close to him at the time of his surmise.”). The property turns out to be an old roadhouse — replete with a ghost and the loot from one of Matson’s holdups.

   When the boys, Ankers, Davis, Carlson, and Lawrence get stranded in a storm in the roadhouse they don’t know there is a killer and a fortune in the house.

   When Lawrence goes missing, they go looking and discover the roadhouse used to be a speakeasy. In many ways this is a preview of their best film Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein ( Carlson: “He’s been strangled?” — Lou: “Is that serious?”) with the comic possibilities of being scared given full reign ( “I’d be awfully silly if I was scared wouldn’t I?” — “Yes you would.” — “Boy am I silly.”).

   In 1941 when this was made, Abbott and Costello were at the top of their game, and this one could spare the time and effort to cast Misha Auer and Shemp Howard in little more than walk-ons. This one is a class act from the animated titles to the musical numbers that include Lewis’s famous “Me and My Shadow.”

   Davis, one of the few female physical comics equal to the manic Lou, is a delight, fast with a quip (when the soup tastes funny: “Just like Mother used to make — It stinks.”) and lethal with her elbows and angles in a comedic dance number with Lou that soon descends into mayhem, thanks to a bucket filled with rain water.

   One of the best routines involves a hidden gambling salon that folds back into the walls whenever Lou hangs up his coat and goes back whenever he takes it off the hook ( “Don’t get yourself in a frenzy.” — “I ain’t makin’ frenzies with nobody in here.”).

   The old dark house was an ideal set up for the boys and they make the most of it, hitting every cliche with as much zest as if it had never been done before, from Davis tap dance routine on the stairs with a ghost to Lou and the moving candle (“Do you feel a draft?” — “No.” — “If these candles move, you will”).

    “Is everybody happy?” You likely will be too with this bright comedy that never takes time for a breath:

   It may not always be art, but there is no doubt it’s funny, and at this point in their careers it seemed the quips and invention would never end. Of course it did, but with the exception of a few bad films at the end and some comparative duds they had a remarkable run for their, and our, money.

   This is a reminder just how fresh they made some of the old routines feel at the time. This one, Who Done It?, and Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer are all good mixes of mystery and comedy with the boys aided and abetted by some of their best casts, including Boris Karloff in the latter, and in the former, William Bendix (outstanding as a cop even dumber than Lou), Don Porter, Patric Knowles, Thomas Gomez, Mary Wickes, and William Gargan.

RICHARD ABSHIRE – Turnaround Jack. Morrow, hardcover, 1990. Penguin, paperback, 1992.

   According to the short biography inside the front cover, Abshire was a policeman for 12 years before becoming a real-life PI for two. And not so coincidentally, this is exactly why the activity in this mystery, the second recorded case of fictional PI Jack Kyle, is authentic enough to be — dare I say it? — boring.

   Which is by no means meant to be derogatory. In fact, quite the opposite. Most real-life PI work consists of endless hours doing nothing but watching, checking down leads, looking up information, and sitting and driving and sitting again.

   That’s just what the case is here, and it’s well into the second half of the book before anything at all out of the ordinary begins to happen.

   Kyle is hired to take some pictures of a rich man’s wife, and on page 127 he has turned in his report, along with some well-received video tapes. The client is very pleased.

   Case closed? No, sir. Seven pages later Kyle is worked over by a couple of professionals. A body is found, then two, and a customs agent suddenly seems to have disappeared.

   This is a hard-boiled detective story, and in spite of the slow beginning, the second half of the book is well worth waiting for. And so that you don’t get me wrong, let me hasten to add that even in the first half Abshire is nearly as witty in descriptive passages as Robert B. Parker, say, and it doesn’t drag. It speeds by almost as fast as a hot rod on roller skates. (This is NOT an example of the author’s wit.)

   Sometime in his past, Kyle earned his nickname — the book’s title — from his tendency to become involved in cases amply endowed with the inscrutable art of the double-cross, in its several and sundry forms.

   So it is with the story in this book. There are a couple of small glitches in the plot, but none, I dare say, that are even closely essential to the story line. They’re just enough to make you wonder why editors don’t bother to edit any more.

   The first Jack Kyle mystery was Dallas Drop (1989). Did a third one ever appear? If so, I’ve missed it, and from the evidence shown here, I certainly hope I haven’t.

[UPDATE] 09-29-10.   There was a third one, as I suspected at the time, The Dallas Deception (1992), but that was it. No other cases for Jack Kyle besides these three, which may be a case of Too Bad, given my comments above.

   In the 1980s Richard Abshire was the co-author of two mystery novels with a series character called Charlie Gants, who according to one website, is an ex-homicide detective who as a PI of sorts investigates cases with a super-natural twist. In 1991 he and William R. Clair collaborated again under the name of Terry Marlow, producing one police novel, a thriller titled Target Blue.

   As Cliff Garnett, a house name, in 2000 Abshire wrote at least one of the “Talon Force” men’s adventure books, but he doesn’t appear to have written anything since.

NANCY PICKARD – The Scent of Rain and Lightning. Ballantine, hardcover, May 2010. Trade paperback: February 2011.

Genre:   Mystery. Leading character: Jody Linder; standalone. Setting:   Kansas.

First Sentence:   Until she was twenty-six, Jody Linder felt suspicious of happiness.

    In 1986, ranch hand Billy Crosby was known for being resentful, a drunk, and an abuser. Fired from working on the Linder family ranch, he was accused of killing a cow and tearing down fences, but the charges didn’t stick.

   Fearing retribution, 3-year-old Jody Lindner was taken from her parent’s home in town to spend the night at her grandparent’s ranch farmhouse. The next morning, her father was found murdered and her mother missing, with only her blood-stained dress found in Billy’s truck.

   Now, after serving 23 years on circumstantial evidence, Billy’s sentence has been commuted and he is returning to town. Jody learns that not everyone, including his son, thought Billy was guilty. The past isn’t always past.

   Ms. Pickard has a great voice. She draws you in from the first sentence and captivates you to the very last sentence. She brilliantly conveys the aftermath of murder and its impact on the lives of both the families of the victim and the accused.

   Yet even in tragedy, there is humor. When Jody’s grandmother realizes Jody is afraid of God because of the prayer “…if I should die before I wake…” and mentally tells God, “…You ought to be ashamed of yourself.” She heard a deep voice in her mind retort: “I never told anybody to say that stupid prayer.”

   Pickard’s skills with dialogue and story balance are only two aspects of her talent. Other areas in which she shines are character and sense of place. Her characters are alive, nuanced and real in that they are not all or always likable. The family is tight-knit but not perfect; the townspeople are representative of any small town.

   I felt connected to the principal characters and appreciated seeing them grow and change over time. The depiction of ranch life, the small towns around them, the impact of weather on the life and livelihood of both is so well done.

   This is a beautifully written book and a very good mystery with excellent twists and escalating tension. While it didn’t have quite the “wow” factor of The Virgin of Small Plains, it is powerful, effective and affecting. I highly recommend reading it.

Rating:   Very Good Plus.

A TOUCH OF FROST: “If Dogs Run Free.”   ITV1 [UK], 04-05 April 2010. David Jason (Insp. Jack Frost), Bruce Alexander (Supt Mullett), John Lyons (D.S. Toolan), Arthur White, Niamh Cusack, Phyllis Logan (Christine Moorhead). Screenplay: Michael Russell, based on characters created by R.D. Wingfield. Director: Paul Harrison.

   After 17 years this venerable programme has come to an end, ostensibly because David Jason took the perhaps rather belated decision that he was too old credibly to play a serving police officer.

   This final two-parter (two two-hour episodes, less adverts), “If Dogs Run Free”, starts with an illegal dog-fight that the police are staking out thanks to a tip-off. Frost is involved because there is a major criminal involved in the drug trade who is living in Denton and is known to like dog-fights.

   By chance he is late and when the police move in he has not arrived. However his consequential desire to punish the informant leads to major consequences. Meanwhile someone seem to be repeating some criminal acts of 20 years before, including violent death, that Frost was involved in.

   This was a highly enjoyable episode in this long-running season and I enjoyed watching it, although Frost’s burgeoning romance with the RSPCA lady, Christine Moorhead, was not as riveting for me as the investigations.

   Amid much publicity, the production company filmed two endings and, after the showing, screened the alternative (and similar, except in personnel) ending on the internet.

   Sad to say both endings were rather low key and it seems a little odd that the producers should choose to go out that way, though I suspect that, rather crassly, they thought that by airing the two possible endings approach they may get more viewers.

IT STARTED WITH EVE. Universal, 1941. Deanna Durbin, Charles Laughton, Robert Cummings, Guy Kibbee, Margaret Tallichet, Catharine Doucet, Walter Catlett, Charles Coleman, Mary Gordon, Sig Arno, Mantan Moreland. Screenplay by Norman Krasna and Leo Townsend; cinematography by Rudolph Mate; music director, Charles Previn. Director: Henry Koster. Shown at Cinevent 42, Columbus OH, May 2010.

   Tycoon Jonathan Reynolds (Charles Laughton) is expected to die momentarily, but when his playboy son Johnny (Robert Cummings) arrives at his bedside, Reynolds asks for his son’s fiancee Gloria Pennington (Margaret Tallichet), whom he’s never met.

   The distraught son, unable to locate her at her hotel, persuades hatcheck girl Anne Terry (Durbin) to substitute for Gloria in what he believes to be his father’s final moments. Of course, the father recovers and is delighted with his son’s choice. And the plot is off and heating up rapidly.

   Durbin is, as always, a perky delight, Laughton is wonderful as the irascible father, and Cummings is bearable. (I’ve never forgiven him for being the major casting flaw in King’s Row.)

   But it’s Walter Catlett, as Reynolds’ frantic doctor, who walks off with the comedy honors. Durbin sings prettily and she and Laughton dance a mean conga in this very entertaining comedy.