HOME AT SEVEN. British Lion Film Corp., 1952. Released in the US as Murder on Monday, 1953. Ralph Richardson, Margaret Leighton, Jack Hawkins, Campbell Singer, Michael Shepley, Margaret Withers. Based on a play by R.C. Sherriff. Director: Ralph Richardson.

   That scene toward the end of Interrupted Journey came strongly to mind as I watched another British Film, Home at Seven, the only film ever directed by Sir Ralph Richardson, and a pleasant surprise from start to finish.

   When Great Actors turn to Directing Fillums, they often get a bit mannered. Sometimes unbearably so. I’m reminded of Laurence Harvey’s awful The Ceremony and John Wayne’s ponderous The Alamo. Even films I rather enjoy, such as Olivier’s Hamlet and Brando’s One-Eyed Jacks suffer from a certain amount of self-conscious narcissism.

   Which is why I was so charmed by Home at Seven’s unpretentious spontaneity. From start to finish, it’s a quiet, workmanlike job of entertainment never flashy — boasting fine performances from Richardson (always a delight to watch) Margaret Leighton and Jack Hawkins.

   I can tell a little about the plot this time: Richardson plays a Bank Clerk who returns home from work one night — carrying the evening paper; promptly at Seven as usual — to find his wife in tears. His first impulse is to soothe her, of course, and when she tells him he’s been missing for the last 24 hours, he poohpoohs the notion, pointing out that he’s clean, shaved, his clothes not slept in, and carrying the Monday Paper: Hardly the appearance of a man who’s lost a day.

   Surely, he tells her, it must have been a dream she had while napping. Must stop working so hard, and all that. At which point he discovers that it’s Tuesday’s Paper he’s holding.

   It’s an intriguing notion to start a film with, and it gets better as Richardson discovers that money he was responsible for is missing and a close associate is dead. Very swiftly, the film becomes another paranoid nightmare, on the order of Interrupted Journey, but done with just a touch more realism and consideration to character.

   Unlike the characters in most thrillers, everyone in Home at Seven seems perfectly real and very likable: Richardson’s Average-Guy Hero, his fretful wife, Jack Hawkins’ sympathetic Doctor and even someone named Campbell Singer as an apologetic but insistent Police Inspector. One gets a real sense of ordinary people who’ve had some awful intrusion into their lives and can’t figure how to cope with it.

   There is a stunningly effective scene in Home at Seven where Richardson and his wife are at home and he thinks the Police are coming to arrest him for Murder. Sound familiar? I thought so too. But wait; Feeling the Long Arm of The Law at his back, Richardson sits down with his wife at the kitchen table and quietly begins to explain to her how to do the Accounts.

   It’s a moment all the more touching for its restraint with both of them trying hard not to cry as they deal with the commonplace aspects of a nightmare, and it shows a sensitivity and intelligence that are just too rare in the Film Thriller.

        #2. HAPPY McGONIGLE, by Paul Allenby.

   The Happy McGonigle stories by Paul Allenby was a short series of at least eight stories published in Detective Fiction Weekly from 1940 through 1941. The stories are about the misadventures of petty criminal Happy McGonigle and his partner in crime, Blackie Roberts.

   The stories are narrated in first person by Blackie Roberts, who tries to explain the problems of trying to plan and commit crimes with a person like Happy McGonigle. In the first story Roberts explains very briefly what McGonigle is like:

   Roberts notes that he has trained Happy over a ten year period, and that Happy is handy with burglar tools and in fights, but often makes him sorry he knows him. Blackie explains that he is the brains of the duo, and Happy is the brawn. Trying to plan crimes with help like Happy is difficult. He has to be careful to explain the crime plans very carefully to Happy, who is often not paying close attention.

   Happy is happiest when he is involved with his latest hobby. He has been through many hobbies, and in the first story in the series, “A Cockeyed Wiggley,” his hobby is collecting matchbook covers. This hobby causes problems with their crime plan for this story, but somehow everything turns out all right, though they don’t make any money from their crime.

   The next story, “Red, White and Very Blue,” finds the two criminals on their way back from gambling on horse racing at Pimlico, stopping off in Washington, D.C. for some rest and relaxation. Happy turns into a typical tourist, going to see all the sites and spending a lot of money on fancy clothes.

   They run into trouble when they encounter a group of spies. The spies con the two out of all of their money, and also con them into stealing airplane plans from a house. Fortunately for them, they realize what is going on and hand the plans back to the U.S. Government, and wind up making themselves look like heroes in the process.

   As shown in the story, Black Roberts can be just about as gullible and naïve as Happy McGonigle. So Blackie’s comments about his partner need to be taken with a grain or two of salt.

   In the story “In the Bag,” the two are planning a jewel robbery, but another of Happy’s hobbies interferes with the plans. Happy has started taking dancing lessons in order to be an “adagio” dancer.

   Blackie thinks this is ridiculous and tries to get Happy to work with him on the robbery. But Happy has promised to deliver a suitcase for the dance teacher. The title refers to the fact that three new identical leather suitcases become involved in the plot and the guys try to keep straight which contains what.

   When the newspaper reports that the dance studio staff has been arrested for drug smuggling, the bag situation gets more complicated.

   In “Gone With the McGonigle,” Happy’s newest hobby is to become a writer. So he buys a lot of paper, a filing cabinet, a portable table, and a typewriter. After spending all of this money he thinks he is ready to become a writer.

   However, he finds being a writer is not all it is cracked up to be. Happy finally goes on a destructive rampage through his editor’s house, which he and Blackie are burglarizing.

   In “McGonigle the Great,” Happy is struck with the wish to be a professional magician. He learns a number of magic tricks while he and Blackie are staying at a large hotel. Unfortunately, he makes so many mistakes that people laugh at his act.

   Even though the audiences enjoy the mistakes, Happy does not like being laughed at. Blackie notes that Happy is somewhat deficient in a sense of humor. While all of this is going on, Blackie Roberts and a newspaper reporter (who is teaching Happy magic tricks) are searching the hotel for an absconding bank teller who has stolen a hundred thousand dollars. The magic act plus the search make for a situation that is sure to get out of hand quickly.

   â€œMcGonigle Makes a Bid” finds the duo trying to take a vacation and behave in a law-abiding manner. They head off to the wilds in a car, but wind up stranded at a large house occupied by a crazy man. Unknown to them, the grounds are also the hiding place of three criminals who don’t like the interruption of Happy and Blackie.

   In “Bombs Tick Once Too Often”, Happy and Blackie are visiting the World’s Fair and trying to enjoy themselves. However, Happy thinks that someone is trying to plant a bomb at the Fair. Their first move is to follow two suspicious acting characters (who are carrying a suitcase) around the Fair. Later, when Happy discovers a bag that is ticking and whirring, he is positive he has found a bomb. Altogether, a very stressful day for Blackie and Happy.

   â€œThe Skeleton of Danny Force” is atypical of the other stories in the series. Happy McGonigle does not play the primary focus of the story. Blackie Roberts is more the focus of this story, as he and Happy go out to a rural town to help one of Happy’s friends in his dealings with the local Scrooge-like banker. A skeleton is dug up by a local, and this provides the means by which Blackie can counter the banker and get the better of him.

   The final story, “In Union There Is McGonigle,” The two guys get into union activity, primarily because they think they can make some money in it. Definitely not in it for the benefit of the workers of pretzel salters industry, which is their working area.

   As usual, they run into numerous complications in the process, and only Blackie’s planning gets them out of the situation and with a profit for a change. Also as usual, it was Happy’s doing that they got into union activity in the first place. He doesn’t appear to ever think through the consequences of his actions.

   As you no doubt can tell from the above story descriptions, this series is meant to be a light comedy series of stories. No seriousness invades the stories, and the cast bumbles their way along the story lines without any serious damage or landing in jail.

   The series is not really that funny, however, though it aims to be. It is okay as a mildly humorous look at two bumbling criminals.

   There were other humorous series in DFW in the past, including two (Fluffy McGoff , 1931-37, and Murray Magimple, 1935-37) by Milo Ray Phelps, who died in 1937. Not having read much of the various humorous series, I can’t say which ones are the best or succeed at being funny.

        The Happy McGonigle series by Paul Allenby:

A Cockeyed Wiggley     March 9, 1940
Red, White and Very Blue     March 30, 1940
* Grand Marshal McGonigle     June 1, 1940
In the Bag     June 15, 1940
Gone With the McGonigle     June 29, 1940
McGonigle the Great     August 3, 1940
McGonigle Makes a Bid     August 17, 1940
Bombs Tick Once Too Often     October 19, 1940
* Insurance for Sale     November 23, 1940
The Skeleton of Danny Force     January 18, 1941
In Union There Is McGonigle     April 26, 1941
* It’s All in the Angle     May 31, 1941

(*) These three were added after the list was first posted. Thanks to Phil Stephensen-Payne for pointing them out as likely possibilities in the comments, and for Walker Martin for confirming that they are indeed McGonigle stories.

Previously on this blog:   #1. Shamus Maguire by Stanley Day.

   Several days ago I posted a notice of author Lou Cameron’s death last October. As it turns out, this was in error. I received an email from his daughter this morning saying that while his health is not the best, he is definitely still with us.

   The Louis J. Cameron who died had the same date of birth as given in Contemporary Authors for Lou Cameron the author. This suggests that either CA is in error, which is a good possibility, or that what happened was just another of life’s many mysterious coincidences.

   I apologized to his daughter for the mistake and asked her to accept the page and the comments that were left as a tribute to her father, which I’m happy to say that she has. To that end, I will rework the page into a brief biography to go along with the previous cover gallery of many of the books he wrote, but this time without a mention of his non-existent passing.

QUEEN HIGH. Paramount, 1930. Charlie Ruggles, Frank Morgan, Ginger Rogers, Stanley Smith, Helen Carrington, Rudolph Cameron, Tom Brown. Music arranged by John Green. Director: Fred C. Newmeyer. Shown at Cinefest 28, Syracuse NY, March 2008.

   This early sound musical, based on a Broadway musical comedy that co-starred Charlie Ruggles and Frank McIntyre, was adapted for the screen with McIntrye replaced by Frank Morgan, and an enlarged ingenue role for Ginger Rogers.

   Morgan and Ruggles are combative partners in a garter-manufacturing business, which is the basis for some naughty dialogue and semi-risque situations in the opening scenes. When the two partners decide to dissolve their relationship, their lawyer devises a plan in which the loser at a game of cards will serve as valet to the other partner for a year, after which the partnership will be dissolved.

   Ruggles loses the game and his increasing dissatisfaction with his new role and his attempts to sabotage it fuel the comic situations until it’s all happily resolved. There’s a nicely staged musical number early in the film, but the music is generally incidental to the comedy.

KWEI QUARTEY – Wife of the Gods. Random House, US, hardcover, July 2009; trade paperback, August 2010.

Genre:   Police procedural. Leading character:   Det. Inspector Darko Dawson; 1st in series. Setting:   Ghana, Africa.

First Sentence:   The forest was black and Darko was afraid to enter.

    DI Darko Dawson is ordered to investigate the murder of a young woman in Kentau, the town from which his mother disappeared many years before. Fighting an incompetent local policeman, Inspector Fiti, superstition and a local priest to whom young women are given as trokosi or wives of the gods, Dawson sets about trying to solve both mysteries and prevent an innocent man from being hanged.

    I very much enjoyed this book. On one hand, it is a wonderful look into life in Ghana, which was fascinating; on the other hand it’s a good, solid mystery.

    Quartey creates a very strong sense of place whether it be in the town or the small village. We see the customs, even down to the manner of salutations, and superstition, as well as the contrast between lives in the two environments.

    Dawson is well-crafted character. He comes from a family history that is less than ideal, smokes marijuana, although it is illegal, a critically ill son and a difficult relationship with his mother-in-law. Although it wasn’t focused upon, I did wonder whether Dawson has a form of synesthesia from there being a couple mentions of his being able to feel voices.

    I appreciated the contrast between Dawson, who uses standard investigative techniques, and Fiti who believes in superstition and forcing a confession to prove his belief. However, I also appreciated there being repercussions for Dawson’s actions, which is unusual.

    The story is well plotted and I certainly did not figure out the killer rior to it being revealed. It is wonderful to see more new authors appearing from other countries. I look forward to reading Mr. Quartey’s next book.

Rating:   Very Good.

Coming soon:   Darko Dawson #2. Children of the Street, Random House, trade ppbk, July 2011.

INTERRUPTED JOURNEY. British Lion, UK, 1949. Valerie Hobson, Richard Todd, Christine Norden, Tom Walls, Ralph Truman, Vida Hope, Alexander Gauge. Screenplay: Michael Pertwee. Director: Daniel Birt.

   Interrupted Journey is sort of a PG version of Fatal Attraction and a film I recommend to any man thinking of cheating on his wife.

   Richard Todd plays a struggling young writer whose wife wants him to get a job. He elects to run off with a wealthy married woman who flatters him, but as they’re preparing to leave he finds himself persecuted by doubts, nagging conscience, and the strange feeling they’re being followed.

   They board a train that happens to pass close by his house and, on impulse, he pulls the Emergency Cord, stops the train and flees back to his wife. But then…

   Well, again, it’s one of those films so full of surprising twists that I hate to tell any more. Suffice it to say that the screenwriters turn Todd’s aborted fling into a finely-honed paranoid nightmare, well-played by a bunch of folks I never heard of, and produced with that quiet, comfortable, sumptuous care typical of post-war British films at their best.

   There is, incidentally, a scene in Interrupted Journey that caught my attention for reasons I’ll discuss next time: It’s that moment that comes in about every third thriller ever made, where the Hero’s accused of Murder, the Police are coming for him, and he convinces the Heroine (in this case his doubting wife) to hide him.

   It’s done here with more intelligence than usual, and a real feeling for the poor wife’s tortured struggle with herself over how far she ought to trust her punic husband.

NO TIME FOR LOVE. Paramount Pictures, 1943. Claudette Colbert, Fred MacMurray, Ilka Chase, Richard Haydn, Paul McGrath, June Havoc, Marjorie Gateson. Director: Mitchell Leisen.

   Sandhog Jim Ryan (Fred MacMurray, who is surprisingly buff with his shirt off) is suspended for four months from his job digging a tunnel because of a “friendly” fight with fellow workers that was by happenstance shot by society photographer Katherine Grant (Claudette Colbert).

   Because the picture was run by her jealous boyfriend in his magazine (without her knowledge and against her wishes), and its publication led to Ryan’s job loss, Katherine feels responsible and hires Ryan to assist her while he is suspended for four months — which turns into a disaster as he clashes with her on all of her assignments, including picking a fight with a body builder she is try to photograph.

   The two are the perfect mismatched pair: she is elegant and refined, and he thinks all her friends are stuck-up jerks and chases after blond floozies. Obviously they are going to fall in love.

   A few good lines, but mostly the movie is carried by the charm of the lead actors. The underground tunnel set is very well created and the movie was deservedly nominated for an Oscar for Art Direction. The actors must have loved working in all that mud!

   Definitely worth a look, but MacMurray and Colbert are much better paired in The Egg and I.

Rating:   B.

   When present day critics and historians look back at the Golden Age of Detection as it took shape in its British form, they almost never go beyond the four “Mystery Queens” of the era: Christie, Sayers, Allingham and Marsh.

   Curt Evans, a frequent guest blogger here on Mystery*File, accepts all four as “royalty,” but as you will know from his reviews and his followup comments on the reviews of others, he is a devoted champion of the male authors of the same time period, now deposed and all but relegated to the dustbins of the past.

   In this regard, may I recommend to you a two part part series on The American Culture website, in which Curt takes on the present day one-sided view of the past? Names are named, and claims that have been made are hung up for inspection, analyzed and rejected.

   And who are the Crime Kings of the era? Curt will tell you. His two-part essay is long, but it’s well worth your time and consideration.

http://stkarnick.com/culture/2011/03/01/the-british-golden-age-of-detections-deposed-crime-kings-part-1-of-2/

http://stkarnick.com/culture/2011/03/03/the-british-golden-age-of-detection%E2%80%99s-deposed-crime-kings-part-2-of-2/

GEORGE BAGBY – I Could Have Died. Doubleday Crime Club, hardcover, 1979.

   I find the stories that “Bagby” tells us about the exploits of Inspector Schmidt of New York City Homicide about as fast and easy to devour as a fresh batch of hot, buttered popcorn. And he must write them at just about the same rate — after all, this does make seven now that have appeared in just the last three years.

   It doesn’t actually begin as a case of homicide. Following the kidnapping of Bagby and two lady companions as part of a successful hotel robbery, quite inexplicably the younger of the two ladies finds herself falling in love with one of her captors. And of course a murder eventually occurs.

   There are a few too many holes for the engagingly pleasant and witty plot that results to hold up well under close observation, but in all honesty it also very nearly works the way it’s supposed to.

[UPDATE] 03-03-11.   I’m going to suggest this book to Patti Abbott for inclusion in tomorrow’s weekly roundup of Forgotten Friday mystery novels on her blog. I don’t believe that George Bagby — in real life Aaron Marc Stein, under which name he wrote an equally long list of other detective novels — got nearly the critical attention that I always thought he should have, and he’s definitely forgotten by all but a few devoted aficionados now.

   Perhaps he was too prolific, and maybe the endings didn’t match the cleverness of other writers’ mysteries (nor perhaps the openings of his own books), but I always admired the way he had for descriptive passages, making the most prosaic actions — such as taking the cap off a toothpaste tube or hunting for a set of lost keys — seem interesting.

   George Bagby, by the way, if the review wasn’t quite clear on this, was both the pen name and the character in the Bagby novels who tagged along with Inspector Schmidt and chronicled his cases for him.

JOSEPH FINDER – Vanished. St. Martin’s Press, hardcover, August 2009; reprint paperback, August 2010.

   Vanished is the first book in a new series by a writer who specializes in financial intrigue, and who has written several best selling roman a clef’s (The Moscow Club, Power Play) that benefited by prefiguring events that made the headlines across the world, and made his debut with a controversial non-fiction work, The Red Carpet, that exposed the ties of the KGB to American entrepreneur Armand Hammer..

   Vanished introduces Finder’s first continuing character, Nick Heller, chief investigator and trouble shooter for Stoddard International and Jay Stoddard, its CEO. Heller is an ex-Special Forces type (de rigueur in today’s thrillers) replete with personal demons and a tough no-nonsense approach to his work.

   If that echoes many of the heroes in today’s thriller fiction, what separates Finder from the pack is that he both can really write, and his plots dealing with corporate intrigue have the ring of truth.

   The glamour of big business and ruthless corporate back fighting is nothing new in thrillers. John D. MacDonald frequently used shady business as a background in this thrillers as did Hammond Innes, and as have many writers including Michael Thomas, Thomas Gifford, and more recently Christopher Reich. For that matter Emma Lathen’s John Putnam Thatcher series gave us a banker sleuth in that cut-throat world — albeit with more than a dash of humor.

   Heller proves to be a likable and believable protagonist. In his first outing the job he’s on for his boss gets pushed aside when his brother Roger disappears after Roger’s wife Lauren is nearly killed. Roger’s panicked teen age son calls on his uncle.

   Nick and Roger have a complicated relationship — dating back to their childhood, and their father who is still in Federal prison for securities fraud and insider trading and has been since Nick was only thirteen. Roger followed in Dad’s footsteps — at least in regard to working in the financial world.

   Heller proves a competent guide through the complexities of financial finagling as he pursues his brother — who may not want to be found — as well as a tough no nonsense fighter pitted against a variety of gun-waving types and a ruthless killer known as the Surgeon. Along the way he also grows closer to his nephew, Gabe, who reminds him of himself when confronted with the duplicities of the adult world.

   Vanished is a fast read, written in short clipped, staccato chapters and clear prose that is refreshingly free of the jingoism, posing, and diatribes that crowd too many of today’s thrillers.

   Finder is satisfied to tell a good story well and let the facts speak for themselves without undue editorializing, while still allowing Heller to emerge as a believable protagonist with a recognizable voice and manner.

   I will admit I got to the solution before Heller did, but not by much, and less based on evidence than being overly familiar with thriller structure. It’s not a flaw of the book by any means, and it is a neat and simply explained scheme at the heart of the matter that even readers who think the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times might as well by written in Chinese will have no trouble following.

   Heller admits he is channeling Batman as much as Philip Marlowe, but remains humanly tough and never cartoonishly so. Heller has been compared to Lee Child’s Jack Reacher, but I found him a much more believably human character.

   Nick Heller proves a refreshingly bright and straightforward protagonist who even gets away with introducing himself with “It was a dark and stormy night.” You have to admire that kind of chutzpah from one of the more believably likable and competent thriller heroes I’ve encountered in some time, who manages to suffer from a complex background and angst without making the reader suffer through them as well.

Editorial Note:   Buried Secrets (Nick Heller #2) will be published in hardcover this coming June.