IAN FLEMING – Casino Royale. James Bond #1.  Macmillan, hardcover, 1959. Reprinted many times. TV episode: 1954 starring Barry Nelson as Bond. Films: (1) 1967 ensemble satirical film starring David Niven, Peter Sellers and Woody Allen. (2) 2006 with Daniel Craig as Bond.

   The spy novels of Ian Fleming made James Bond — Agent 007 of British Intelligence — a household name and spawned a large number of films, as well as imitators both good and bad. This great escape fiction seemed just what was needed by the 1950s world — still austere after the sacrifices of World War II and newly frozen in the grip of the cold war-and the public’s reaction was tremendous. Fleming gave his readers richly detailed descriptions of exotic locales, exclusive hotels and resorts, fine foods and wines, expensive cars, luxury consumer goods, and beautiful women.

   And for the first time, sex — illicit, hedonistic, and sophisticated — came to the forefront in the British mystery. Bond’s basic character was nothing new lo the genre, since he is very much in the tradition of the snobbish, urbane gentleman, but the villains were something new and so hideously evil and inventive in their wicked ways as to often strain the reader’s credulity. The Bond novels, even with their rampant sexism and fervent anticommunism, can be great fun if read with the context of their times in mind.

   As Casino Royale opens, we find Bond at the casino at Royale-les-Eaux, watching a powerful agent of the Opposition (SMERSH) play baccarat. Bond is acting undercover, posing as a rich client of a Jamaican import-export firm, and his mission is to see that the agent, Le Chiffre, who is reported to be on the brink of financial disaster, is “ridiculed and destroyed.” Bond has been chosen for this assignment by his boss-known throughout the series only as M — because 007 is the finest gambler in the Secret Service.

   Much to Bond’s dismay, the Service also sends him a “Number Two”: a woman named Vesper Lynd. Bond’s comments are telling on this point: Although Vesper is a beautiful woman, 007 is “not amused …. Women were for recreation.” A true professional, however, Bond eventually establishes a rapport with Vesper and comes to respect her abilities –and, inevitably, also becomes romantically involved with her.

   Fleming gives his reader excellent glimpses into the operation of the grand casinos and the people who frequent them; a high-stakes baccarat game in which Bond becomes enmeshed with Le Chiffre holds even the attention of those who know or care nothing about cards. There are car chases, a literally torturous confrontation with the villain, and an ending that combines success with disillusionment in a manner characteristic of the series.

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   Reprinted with permission from 1001 Midnights, edited by Bill Pronzini & Marcia Muller and published by The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 2007.   Copyright © 1986, 2007 by the Pronzini-Muller Family Trust.

HOLIDAY IN SPAIN. Michael Todd Co., 1960. Denholm Elliott, Peter Lorre, Beverly Bentley, Paul Lukas, Liam Redmond, Leo McKern, Peter Arne, Diana Dors. Screenplay by Audrey and William Roos, based on their novel Ghost of a Chance as by Kelly Roos (novelized as Scent of Mystery). Directed by Jack Cardiff.

   Once upon a time Mike Todd married Elizabeth Taylor and wanted to make a movie of Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days, a big movie, and in that movie he wanted to use his new wide screen Todd-Ao process and new technology in sound, and generally revolutionize film in general because it was getting harder and harder to compete with television. And related to that he made a sort of experimental film called Scent of Mystery.

   As part of this he came up with a process called Smell-O-Vision where scenes in the film could be accompanied by scents that were sprayed onto viewers in the theater, and to best utilize this technology, he came up with a mystery where the scents would be clues to the mystery.

   For this project he purchased the rights to a book by Audrey and William Roos, who wrote as Kelly Roos, about a young man rushing around New York to prevent an innocent whose name he didn’t know and who did not know they were in danger from being murdered.

   Because the film was designed to show off Todd-Ao and Todd’s new sound system as well as Smell-O-Vision, he shot it in Spain, better scenery and more exotic scents, and being too clever for his own good called it Scent of Mystery.

   It was a pretty dismal failure. All the scents smelled the same and none of them any too good, and frankly the two hour and five minute running time was far too much for the slim plot, and despite a fine cast and a droll teaming of Denholm Elliott and Peter Lorre as the hero, mystery writer Oliver Larker on holiday, and a somewhat rascally taxi driver accompanying him on his Cook’s Tour of Spain, it was all a little much. Even an intermission that included a literal cliffhanger couldn’t help.

   It eventually played on television with scratch and sniff cards and in a more truncated form, but it didn’t really fare any better there.

   There is an unwritten rule that all films must be lavishly restored, so Scent of Mystery was lavishly restored as Holiday in Spain, and the good news is that it is gorgeous to look at. The bad news is that it is still a rather diffuse plot, and the experimental multi channel sound system doesn’t work at all on television and makes for confusing viewing as one track is dialogue and the other supposed to be the characters thoughts (well, Elliott the narrator and Lorre anyway).  It is difficult at times to know if they are actually talking to each other or thinking and if the other characters can hear them or should respond.

   The plot, as such is perfectly good, and the original Roos novel (Ghost of a Chance) handles it quite well. Here Oliver Larker and taxi driver/guide Lorre see a woman (Beverly Bentley) nearly run over. They think nothing of it at first until an unsavory character (Liam Redmond) says it was deliberate. Oliver dismisses that but then feels guilty and decides to find the woman and warn her, still feeling a bit of a fool until the unsavory type is murdered by Baron Paul Lukas, and Larker and his companion begin a scenic tour of Spain trying to reach the young woman before she can be killed.

   Is it her half brother, bullfighting aficionado Leo McKern who owns a resort where she appears to be hiding out at trying to kill her and who is the mysterious man in glasses (Peter Arne)? Who is the Baron, and why is he so friendly with McKern, and why are he and his henchmen trying to kill her and shooting at Larker? Even when you think you know, you don’t, and if they had cut this by forty minutes, left out the narration, and forgotten about the Smell-O-Vision it could have been a charming romantic suspense film.

   It is still gorgeous to look at and a little touch at the end with Todd’s un-billed wife Elizabeth Taylor is pleasant, but for the most part this film is a chore. It’s a gorgeous chore, but clearly a chore.

   Travelogues really shouldn’t have plots and plots really shouldn’t be travelogues, and when a movie stinks, it doesn’t help if that is also an actual physical fact. These are the lessons from Holiday in Spain.

   Critics as you might imagine had a field day with Scent of Mystery and Smell-O-Vision. It deserved it. Holiday in Spain is a better title, but the film is no holiday in Spain or anywhere else. One only hopes Elliott, Lorre, Lukas, McKern, and Arne enjoyed the paid vacation and wonders that it didn’t destroy any careers.

IAN FLEMING – Goldfinger. James Bond #7. Macmillan, hardcover, 1959. Signet #S1822, paperback, 1960. Reprinted many times.  Film: United Artists, 1964 (with Sean Connery, Honor Blackman, Gert Fröbe).

   This is perhaps Fleming’s wildest plot, involving a maniacal criminal with a lust for gold and a plan to rob Fort Knox. Bond’s association with Auric Goldfinger begins in Nassau when he encounters Junius Dupont, a rich American who feels he is being cheated while playing two-handed canasta with Goldfinger.

   Bond agrees to watch their games and soon discovers that Goldfinger — whose desire is to sport a golden tan at all times — has a very effective method of cheating his opponent. An excellent card-player himself, Bond quickly extricates Dupont from the man’s clutches, and considers the matter closed. Weeks later, however, Goldfinger surf aces in the files of British Intelligence as a possible international threat, and Bond finds himself once more involved with the man, this time professionally.

   There is the usual complement of beautiful girls, luxury clubs, and odd methods of torture and murder, but what this novel points up about the Bond series is that there is also a lot of low-key action: long, detailed card games, golf matches, and conversations. Those not interested in Fleming’s passions (cards, politics, golf, and business) may find some parts of these books tedious, but the author was skillful enough to hold the reader’s interest, at least minimally.

   Goldfinger was made into an immensely successful film in 1964, with Sean Connery as Bond. Connery appeared as Bond in other films, notably Dr. No (1962), From Russia with Love (1964 ), and Thunderball ( 1965). The character of James Bond has also been portrayed by Peter Sellers (Casino Royale, 1967), Roger Moore (Live and Let Die, 1973, among others), and George Lazenby (On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, 1969).

   The novel on which this latter film is based is notable because here we see Bond at his most human — in love and planning to be married. Agent 007 also appears in two short-story collections, For Your Eyes Only: Five Secret Occasions in the Life of James Bond (1960), and Octopussy, and the Living Daylights (1966). The Bond series was continued by John Gardner after Fleming’s death.

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   Reprinted with permission from 1001 Midnights, edited by Bill Pronzini & Marcia Muller and published by The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 2007.   Copyright © 1986, 2007 by the Pronzini-Muller Family Trust.

GALAXY SF – August 1967. Editor: Frederik Pohl. Cover artist: Dember. Overall rating: ***

ROBERT SILVERBERG “Hawksbill Station.” Novelette. Reviewed separately and appearing here. (4)

ROGER ZELAZNY “Angel, Dark Angel.” Dark Angels bring death to individuals who threaten the stability of galactic society, Of what significance is Sensibility? (2)

K. M. O’DONNELL “We’re Coming through the Windows.” A letter to Mr. Pohl about a time-machine. Funny but hopeless. (1)

R. A. LAFFERTY “Ginny Wrapped in the Sun.” Reversible evolution, told Lafferry-style. Is this based on an Asimov article? (3)

RICHARD WILSON “9-9-99.” Letters between the last two men on Earth, about a bet that can’t be paid off. (2)

H. H. HOLLIS “Travelers Guide to MegaHouston.” Non-fact article. The domed city of the future has its roots today in the Astrodome and the US pavilion at Expo76. Not very interesting. (1)

TED THOMAS “The Being in the Tank.” A strange man appears in the works of a hydrazine plant. Why didn’t this appear in Analog? (2)

LINDA MARLOWE “Hide and Seek.” Population controlled by a children’s game. (3)

MIRIAM ALLEN deFORD “The Great Stupids.” Discrimination because of age, and how to combat it — with soda pop. (2)

POUL ANDERSON “To Outlive Eternity.” Serial; part 2 of 2. Review to be posted here soon.

JOHN D. MacDONALD – The Dreadful Lemon Sky and A Purple Place for Dying.

   Was gonna write two separate reviews but now it’s been too long since I read them back to back a month ago and they bleed together.

   So started with Dreadful Lemon Sky because I was visiting my mother’s house for the weekend and figured two books would see me thru. But I finished those two and had nothing to read but the books I’d collected in high school on my old bookshelf. And I noticed a hardcover of The Dreadful Lemon Sky I’d bought at some library sale last century. And I thought, okay. I’ll read that one.

   And I really liked it a lot. Which surprised me. Because while I really dig all the John D. standalones I’ve read, I didn’t like the Deep Blue Goodbye. Mainly because I didn’t like Travis McGee. I just didn’t like him. And unlike unlikable characters in the standalones — this was a series character who literally could not die. Like James Bond.

   Which to me takes away from his feigned vulnerability. In fact, any vulnerability was only revealed to women as a seduction method. And the objectification of women. While John D. dissects women’s body parts with lascivious lechery, as well as the pleasure of the reader, in all his novels, somehow it’s worse in McGee.

   In the standalones you feel like John D. is just painting a picture, telling you a story. And whatever the people are thinking and seeing, that’s what they’re thinking and seeing. That’s all. But in the McGee books you feel like John D. is philosophizing. That he really buys all shit McGee is selling.

   It’s like the difference between watching Ricky Gervais in The Office versus watching his standup. In The Office, Gervais is funny because he is playing a daft asshole in charge. But in his standup Gervais IS the daft asshole in charge. And you’re supposed to laugh with him. I can disagree with the characters in a novel and still enjoy the book. But I can’t enjoy a philosophy lecture when I fundamentally disagree with the philosophy.

   Anywho, which is to say, I still meant to read Dreadful Lemon Sky because it’s the one Jonathan Yardley raved about years ago here.

   Yardley’s right. Dreadful Lemon Sky is terrific. I couldn’t believe how much I enjoyed it. I read it in a day because I literally could not put it down. And what was I thinking about McGee being a dink? He’s alright! In fact I really like his philosophy. He’s cool, he’s calm, he’s collected. He’s an environmentalist. He’s independent. Financially and in all the ways. He’s on a houseboat. Hey maybe I should buy a houseboat? Wouldn’t that be better than living in a house? Because it’s also a boat!

   And hey, you know, McGee really is doing a service for all the needy women in the world. He’s not using them. He’s just an attractive guy living an attractive life and what woman wouldn’t wanna come aboard at least one night? Maybe I was just jealous!

   So I loved Dreadful Lemon Sky so much that when I got home I dug thru all my McGees and did some internet research about which one I should read next and remember reading somewhere that the Purple Place for Dying is one of the more violent ones, so on that basis I picked that one. Plus I happened to have it in a fancy new trade paper edition (another library sale victim).

   So I hung with it, expecting nothing but the best.

   Similar setup, of course. A damaged waif in need of a big strong man. She comes to him. Woman seeking man. Big strong man. I can see the personal ad now.

   And like a genie, McGee magically appears. How can I grant your wish, dear maiden?

   And before I grant your wish, or by way of farewell, should we consummate your request with a……no. We’d better not. Perhaps another time.

   But no. There will be no other time. Because the woman in need is DEAD!!!! Old Travis he tried his best, but it was just too late! If only she’d come to him before. Earlier. Before this trouble started. Or at least while it still simmered. Before it boiled over.

   But it’s okay. Because Travis will stop at nothing til justice is served, the hardboiled killer battered and fried on a platter. The killer who started all this in the first place.

   And of course, on his journey, just like in Bond movies: the first beautiful woman he meets dies almost immediately; the second woman he meets is terribly shy, seemingly cold, and somewhat damaged too. But this time Travis is not too late. He’s just in time. To save the timid gorgeous little thing with his magic ding dong. Of course, she’s not interested in any long term commitments. No, Not with a man like Travis. No. A wild stallion tirelessly and compassionately spraying his seed along the Florida coast like a bee come to pollinate the broken flowers.

   So yeah. Like the joke goes. I shoulda quit while I was a head.

   The verdict? Unless you are and/or aspire to be a McGee, do not gobble down a bunch of these in a row. The addict experiences diminishing returns. Rather than higher tolerance, you’ll build lower tolerance. For McGee. Starting A Purple Place for Dying immediately after the last page of The Dreadful Lemon Sky was a mistake. Plain and simple. And now both books are diminished in my mind.

   So anyway. I guess what I’m saying is this. Of the three McGees I’ve read, if you can only read one, make it the Dreadful Lemon Sky. If you plan to make it more than one, plan a buffer zone between the two. Say, War and Peace, or something.

IAN FLEMING – Doctor No. James Bond #6. Macmillan, hardcover, 1958. Probably millions of reprint editions, mostly in paperback. Film: United Artists, 1962, with Sean Connery & Ursula Andress.

   Agent 007, on the road to recovery following a long convalescence after a particularly rough case (From Russia with Love, 1957), is sent to Kingston, Jamaica, to look into the disappearance of fell ow agents Strangways and Trueblood. Both have vanished without a trace while working on a case involving a nearly extinct bird, the roseate spoonbill, which lives in a sanctuary on a private island, Crab Key.

   The key is owned by a half-Chinese, half-German called Dr. No, who claims to have bought the island for a guano factory. Members of the Audubon Society have become concerned about the birds’ welfare, but investigators they have sent to the key have died in mysterious circumstances. Bond goes to Jamaica and arranges to be put ashore on the key, but not before he has a chilling encounter with a poisonous tropical centipede.

   Once ashore, he meets with a naked girl, killer dogs, hostile “Chinese Negroes,” and Dr. No himself- – a man whose ever-present “thin smile” disguises his truly sinister designs.

   The novel proceeds to a slam-bang ending that includes a vicious torture scene, a harrowing encounter with a giant squid, and a clever coup de grace aptly labeled in the chapter heading, “A Shower of Death.”

   This entry in the series is a fine example of the standard plot structure Fleming employed, and ends on a more positive note than many of 007’s adventures.

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   Reprinted with permission from 1001 Midnights, edited by Bill Pronzini & Marcia Muller and published by The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 2007.   Copyright © 1986, 2007 by the Pronzini-Muller Family Trust.

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS – Tarzan and the Forbidden City. Tarzan #20, Ballantine U2029, paperback; 1st printing thus, March 1964. First published in rather different form in Argosy as a six-part serial under the title The Red Star of Tarzan. March 19, 1938 – April 23, 1938. The story is a revised version of the radio serial, “Tarzan and the Diamond of Asher,” written by Rob Thompson in 1934. First hardcover edition: ERB Inc., September 15, 1938. Many reprint editions.

   Tarzan is asked by his friend Paul d’Arnot to help Brian Gregory’s father and sister in their search for the lost explorer. They have a map he sent, and a description of the lost city of Ashair, which contains the fabulous Father of Diamonds. Others know of the diamond, however, and are determined to get there first. An uncountable number of kidnappings, captures, and other forced separations keep the party divided and working to save the rest, until final victory.

   There is same formula here that Burroughs is famous for, but the buildups often lead to quick letdowns, or nowhere at all, as if he [Burroughs] were a bit tired of it. Tarzan is a superman – without him the group would have been quite helpless, facing total disaster by the second chapter. Flashes of surprising humor shine occasionally, with apt comments on religion (page 134) and Hollywood (page 176). Not to be read critically.

Rating: ***

STEVE FISHER – Saxon’s Ghost. Sherbourne, hardcover, 1969. Pyramid, paperback, 1972.

   Steve Fisher had a long career of writing mystery fiction. He wrote for the pulps — Black Mask, Adventure, and Argosy, among many others – and for the leading slick magazines: Esquire, Cosmopolitan, and the Saturday Evening Post. Fisher also wrote more than thirty motion picture screenplays, including Lady in the Lake (1946), Johnny Angel (1945), The Big Frame (1953), I, Mobster (1959), Johnny Reno (1966), and Rogue’s Gallery (1968).

   Steve Fisher’s writing style can best be described as hardboiled laced with sentimentality: His characters are prone to strong emotions; his plots are action-packed and melodramatic. But Fisher’s strengths are his professional style and honest presentation of characters pushed to their limits.

   The arguable best of Fisher’s twenty novels is Saxon’s Ghost. Joe Saxon. one of the world’s best stage magicians, known as the Great Saxon. finds himself involved in the occult arts when his beautiful young assistant, Ellen Hayes, disappears. Saxon has to use all his arts of legerdemain to arrive at the chilling truth: The ESP powers he and Ellen fooled audiences into believing in are real. When Saxon learns Ellen has been murdered. he uses these ESP powers to reach out to her beyond the grave to deliver a special brand of earthly justice.

   Other recommended novels by Fisher include The Night Before Murder (1939) and his most famous novel, Wake Up Screaming (1941; revised edition, 1960), which was filmed in 1942 starring Victor Mature and Betty Grable.

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   Reprinted with permission from 1001 Midnights, edited by Bill Pronzini & Marcia Muller and published by The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 2007.   Copyright © 1986, 2007 by the Pronzini-Muller Family Trust.

GIL SCOTT-HERON – The Vulture. World Publishing, hardcover, 1970. Belmont Books, paperback, 1971. Payback Press, paperback, 1996. Grove Press, paperback, 2013.

   Minor book about minor drug-dealers in Harlem, late 60’s.

   The book is in four parts, with a murder, a suicide, drug deals and a couple blocks in Harlem to bind them. Each of the four parts are narrated in the first person by a different member of the scene, describing loosely connected happenings. Each of the narratives touches the other. But only tangentially. And though we have four different perspectives, and each has a very different voice, still the reality remains the same. There are no Rashomon like problems of reliability in narration, each reality consistent with the drug-jive whole.

   So you’re left with a harmonious picture of Harlem disharmony, late sixties, among the drug dealing set. Credibly realistic slice of love and life and death in happening times.

WHITE TIE AND TAILS. Universal Pictures, 1946. Dan Duryea, Ella Raines, William Bendix, Donald Curtis, Seymour S. Hinds. Screenplay by Bertram Millhauser. Story by Rufus King and Charles Beahan. Directed by Charles Barton. Currently streaming on YouTube (see below).

   Charles Dumont (Dan Duryea) is the perfect butler, a man who can mix the perfect martini, keep up with his mistress’s spectacles, advise his master on art purchases, and solve their children’s teenage problems all in the course of readying the family to leave on their vacation. The Latimers just can’t function without him.

   He even reminds them to give the staff paid holidays while they are gone.

   But Charles Dumont has an ulterior motive. You see Charles is planning a staycation, where he will enjoy the lifestyle of his employer and indulge in the life of a playboy with a little help from the chauffeur George (Frank Jenks).

   What could possibly go wrong?

   Well… for instance on his first night on the town, Charles could meet beautiful wealthy Louise Bradford (Ella Raines) and her father (Samuel S. Hinds), and while endeavoring to impress the beautiful Louise as something of a charming mystery man, he could discover her sister is involved with Nick Romano (Donald Curtis) who works for casino owner Ludie (William Bendix) and owes Ludie $100,000 dollars, and naturally Charles offers to write a check to cover the amount because Mr. Bradford will repay him the next morning and Ludie, a charming fellow impressed by Charles clothes and manner, will happily call Romano off and cut off the sister’s future credit.

   Again, what could possibly go wrong?

   Save Mr. Bradford is going to need time to sell some bonds and raise that $100 K in cash and Mr. Ludie is going to come calling at the Latimer mansion to check on Charles legitimacy and seeing the Latimer’s art collection, which Charles can’t help but show off as his own, Ludie is going to take a few paintings as collateral until he cashes Charles check.

   And from there on it gets complicated, as Charles, who gave up a promising art career because it was easier to be a butler and now is falling for Louise, and his house of cards is getting more and more precarious.

   This charming romantic comedy is a surprise for Duryea who is perfectly suited to the lead and romances the lovely well-cast Raines, ably abetted by Bendix as an urbane figure (almost as much of a stretch for Bendix as Duryea) who would like a little tutoring in clothes and art and style from Charles if not for the little matter of that $100 K.

   Jenks even gets a nice scene as he tries to win back the $100K at Ludie’s casino at the crap table.

   In the manner of romantic comedy, the complications pile on until it seems as if there is no way a happy ending can be eked out of the mess, and then, being romantic comedy it somehow is and charmingly so.

   It is also refreshing that Raines and Duryea hit it right off, and she is level-headed and smart and not the least the flighty screwball heiress.

   This is not a mystery or crime film, though several times it seems as if it might be. Maybe it’s just Duryea’s presence though, and the fact that half of the writing team for the original story is mystery writer Rufus King, creator of Philo Vance-like Reginald De Puyster, Lt. Valcour, Colin Starr, and Chief Bill Dugan.

   What it is, though, is an involving attractive and intelligent romantic comedy. As far as I know it is Duryea’s only lead in a romantic comedy (he is in several comedies including Howard Hawks’ Ball of Fire, but usually playing comic versions of Dan Duryea roles). It is quite possibly unique in this aspect, though I think you will agree after watching it that it should not have been.

   I wouldn’t have wanted to miss out of Duryea’s great villain and character parts, but it would have been nice if he got a few more chances like this to show other aspects of his talent.