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.
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.
— Reprinted from Mystery.File.4, March 1988.
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
BLUE STEEL. MGM, 1990. Jamie Lee Curtis, Ron Silver, Clancy Brown, Elizabeth Pena), Louise Fletcher. Director: Kathryn Bigelow.
Sleek and stylish, Kathryn Bigelow’s Blue Steel features Jamie Lee Curtis as Megan Turner, a rookie New York City cop who is being stalked by Eugene Hunt (Ron Silver), a psychologically disturbed commodities trader.
After witnessing Turner shoot a suspect in a supermarket holdup, Hunt absconds with the suspect’s weapon and begins using it on unsuspecting New Yorkers, leaving Megan’s name on bullet casings. There’s no rationale given for his actions, really, other than that he is a “thrill killer” and is obsessed with Turner. Simply put, he’s doing it because he can – which is often the scariest thing of all.
Much of the movie focuses on Hunt’s romantic pursuit of Turner which eventually turns sour once he reveals himself to be a complete psychopath and implies he is the man behind the killings. Problem is: there’s no real concrete and compelling evidence that he’s the thrill killer stalking New York. So Turner and her newfound partner Detective Nick Mann (Clancy Brown) have to find a way to stop Hunt before he kills again.
Filmed on location in gritty New York City, the movie works very well in delivering all the goods you would expect in a police procedural. Silver, in particular, is great in this. His portrayal of an everyman on the brink of complete psychological collapse is something to behold.
While his character’s antics may seem implausible, they are nevertheless grounded in reality, something that couldn’t be said for Halloween (1978), another movie in which Curtis finds herself stalked and forced to take desperate measures to fight back. Final assessment: Blue Steel is a suspenseful, compelling, and over the top thrill ride.
NAT EASTON – A Book for Banning. Bill Banning #7 (?), Boardman / British Bloodhound series, UK, hardcover, 1959. No US publication.
Bill Banning is so successful as a writer of crime fiction that he can be taken for a doctor by the Bentley he drives. He also, on the side, owns and operates a private detective agency, complete with a small staff of amateur, but dedicated, operatives.
In this, his fifth adventure, he’s hired by a worried aristocrat to find a book that’s mysteriously disappeared, claimed to contain forbidden official secrets. The man, as Banning quickly discovers, also has a nymphomaniac for a wife, and a pair of spoiled, but married, daughters.
Banning is not the brightest detective in the world. His secretary-assistant, Josie, seems to have the sharpest mind in the firm. Banning is also — how should I put this? — woman hungry. Sex starved.
This is all pretty much tolerable, but the last couple of chapters are mucked up something awful. The killer is fairly obvious, but the “book” is impossibly found in the wrong apartment, and the interview leading into the final summing up is badly set up.
Or was I just asleep already?
Rating: C minus.
— Reprinted from The MYSTERY FANcier, July-August 1981.
NOTE: There were in all eleven Bill Banning books. The Goodreads list of the books is here. Nat Easton is assumed to be a pen name, but who actually wrote the books does not seem to be known.
RAY BRADBURY “Gotcha!” First published in Redbook, August 1978. Collected in The Stories of Ray Bradbury (Knopf, 1980). Reprinted in The Year’s Finest Fantasy Volume 2, edited by Terry Carr (Berkley, 1979) and A Century of Horror 1970-1979, edited by David Drake & Martin H. Greenberg (MJF Books, 1996). TV Adaptation: Ray Bradbury Theater, February 20, 1988 (Season 2, Number 4). [See comment #15.]
There are authors whose work you can easily recognize – or even more easily, make a pretty good guess – by reading only the first paragraph or two, even if it’s a game you’re playing and it’s hidden from you. Case in point:
They were incredibly in love. They said it. They knew it. They lived it. When they weren’t staring at each other they were hugging. When they weren’t hugging they were kissing. When they weren’t kissing they were a dozen scrambled eggs in bed. When they were finished with the amazing omelet they went back to staring and making noises.
Well, what do you think?
On the particular night that this story takes place, the lady suggests they play a game. In bed. One called Gotcha, she says. He hesitates but then he agrees, That’s when things get scary. Very very scary.
There was a scurry like a great spider on the floor, but nothing was visible. After a long while her voice murmured to him like an echo, now from this side of the room, now that.
“How do you like it so far?”
“I…”
“Don’t speak,” she whispered.
It gets scarier. You may want to leave the light on tonight when you go to bed, whether alone or with someone else. The ending is not quite as effective as what has come before, but it’s good enough:
JACQUES FUTRELLE – Great Cases of the Thinking Machine. Dover, softcover, 1976.
Editor E. F. Bleiler has selected from the almost fifty stories about the incredible brain, “The Thinking Machine,” thirteen cases for this book. Only one has appeared in book form before; the others were collected from newspapers of 1906-1908.
These have been called “societal stories,” different from the stories in Best “Thinking Machine” Detective Stories. The journalistic, telegraphic writing style illuminates the American Edwardian period of the tales, which involve mostly the shenanigans of rich Back Bay Boston life. Once again the testy professor is able to recall his maxim, “Nothing is impossible. It might be improbable, but not impossible.”
The stories are short — they are set up as a Problem, then the professor’s explanation. or Solution. Many involve exotic suspects, impersonations, vague stock-market machinations, jewel thefts, and menagerie solutions (animals hold the crucial clue).
From “The Problem of the Cross Mark,” we learn to beware of drugged cigars. From “The Roswell Tiara.” we learn to keep our eye on the cockatoo. And if there’s an old house, there’s a treasure. These tales pale in comparison to the earlier volume — science hardly enters into most of the solutions. It seems that a thoroughly bizarre situation is set up, allowing the mastermind to give an explanation and then say, “Any problem may be solved by logic.”
The longest story, “The Haunted Bell,” was put into some editions of one of Futrelle’s novels. It contains an exotic dream sequence, but the solution is straightforwardly scientific; only the ending has a surprise, even for the Thinking Machine.
GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION. October 1967. Seventeenth anniversary issue. Editor: Frederik Pohl. Cover artist: Gray Morrow. Overall rating: ****
ROGER ZELAZNY “Damnation Alley.” Novelette. Previously reviewed here. (*****)
POUL ANDERSON “Poulfinch’s Mythology.” Non-fact article. A look from the future at twelve gods of contemporary America. This did not interest me enough to make me want to see if I agree with Anderson or not. (1)
H. L. GOLD “The Transmogrification of Wamba’s Revenge.” Novelette. A secret formula of the Pygmies, capable of shrinking all living beings to a tenth of their former size, is used on mankind. This means the end of all warfare under the benevolent rulership of the Pygmies, on whom the formula does not work. Pretty obvious when you think about it. (3)
GEORGE O. SMITH “Understanding.” A fifteen year old boy, Terry Lincoln, without Understanding, is given a secret message to Earth that he cannot understand. To obtain the message from him, the Xanabarians must see to it that he obtains Understanding. Which is impossible to explain to he who has it and unnecessary to mention to he who has it, but it is a sort of refined premonition or intuition, necessary for all interstellar traveling cultures, ready to take on responsibility. So why not a better story to go with it? (3)
THE SOUND OF FURY. United Artists, 1950. Frank Lovejoy, Kathleen Ryan, Richard Carlson, Lloyd Bridges, Katherine Locke, Adele Jergens. Director: Cyril Endfield.
There’s a lot going on in The Sound of Fury (also released as Try and Get Me!), a film adapted by screenwriter Jo Pagano from his novel, The Condemned (1947), which itself was based on real life kidnapping case which ended in a public lynching. Directed by Cy Endfield (Zulu), the movie begins with a street preacher passionately bellowing about something. I forget what exactly, but it probably had something to do with repenting.
Which would make sense given the themes of the film; namely, crime, guilt and punishment. Indeed, one can argue that those themes permeate this film noir from beginning to end, with each main character’s arc reflecting these thematic aspects (or lack thereof) throughout the overall narrative.
The story is as follows. Down and out Howard Tyler (Frank Lovejoy) has moved from Boston to California in search of a better life for himself and his growing family. Things are, to put it mildly, not going well financially for him. A chance meeting with low-level criminal Jerry Slocum (Lloyd Bridges) in a bowling alley changes things dramatically. Initially, the two knock off gas stations and the like. But then they move onto kidnapping and murder, choosing the son of a wealthy citizen as their target.
It doesn’t take long for guilt to overcome Tyler, who believes he is being watched by God. Slocum, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to have much remorse. The contrast between the guilt-ridden Tyler and his sociopathic accomplice couldn’t be more pronounced. Even after the men are captured by law enforcement, the divide between the two criminals remains poignant.
At the same time that all this is happening, local news columnist Gil Stanton (Richard Carlson) is using his position to incite rage against the two suspects. His vitriol is so strong that even the local sheriff worries that Tyler and Slocum might not get a fair trial. As it turns out, he’s right.
This is where the movie shifts tonally from film noir territory to a morality play about the rights of the accused, mob violence, and the like. It’s a notable departure from the gritty first half of the film and is, in my opinion, less effective. Grating at times, even.
That said, where the movie goes next is a return to film noir. There’s a harrowing scene of a mob storming the courthouse, freeing the two men, and then dragging them out into the street for a lynching. When that happens, it is Stanton’s chance to feel guilt. He rightfully recognizes how his overwrought yellow journalism columns contributed to this act of mob justice.
Overall, I appreciated this film and particularly liked Lovejoy’s transformation from model citizen to accessory to murder. I’ have always believed he has been underappreciated as an actor. Here, he’s great as an everyman who gets in way over his head. The cinematography by Guy Roe (Armored Car Robbery) is standard noir fare. Nothing spectacular, but solid enough.
Recommended, but with the caveat that not everyone will appreciate the morality play aspect of the film, particularly given how notable a departure it is from the film’s beginning.
Devoted to mystery and detective fiction — the books, the films, the authors, and those who read, watch, collect and make annotated lists of them. All uncredited posts are by me, Steve Lewis.
