C. S. FORESTER – Payment Deferred. Little Brown, hardcover, 1942. Reprinted many times, including Bantam #816, paperback, 1951.

   Payment Deferred is not a mystery. It is, rather, a stunning tour de force detailing “the perfect crime,” and its devastating aftermath on a working-class British family. Everything is in the telling.

   Will Marble and his family exist rather drearily on his income as a clerk at a bank. When a long-lost relative arrives from the colonies (Africa) with a fortune in cash and a sad story about having no other living relatives, Mr. Marble seizes the moment. He murders the boy, buries him in the backyard, and doubles the fortune through a series of crooked financial manipulations. He becomes a man of wealth and station. He has committed the perfect murder and has gone unpunished. All seems right with the world.

   What follows is a tale of retribution visited on Mr. Marble, his wife, and ultimately his children. The family, never close, begins to fall apart. The daughter, embarrassed by her parents’ common background, turns her back on the family (if not their newfound wealth) and leaves home. The son, bought off with expensive gifts and enrollment in the public school system, is both unloved and unloving. Mrs. Marble, discovering her husband’s terrible secret, is forced to share his nightmare world of fear and suspicion. Mr. Marble, forever brooding, sits by an open window refusing to leave home and maintains a constant vigil on the unmarked grave. His drinking, always a problem, gets worse. A blackmailing neighbor bleeds him financially. The family seems farthest apart at those times spent together.

   Forester’s prose is first-rate and his characterizations haunting. And the ending is guaranteed to surprise, with just the right fanciful touch to make it a perfect ironic counterpoint to the somber tone of the rest of the novel.

   C. S. Forester’s fame rests on his later, non-criminous writings, in particular his series of sea adventures featuring Captain Horatio Hornblower, which remain in print to the present. Several films have been made from his novels, among them the 1942 MGM production of Payment Deferred (starring Charles Laughton) and the 1951 Humphrey Bogart/Katharine Hepburn film The African Queen.

   His only other crime novel, Plain Murder, was published as a paperback original by Dell in 1954.

     ———
   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.

PLUNDER ROAD. 20th Century Fox, 1957. Gene Raymond, Jeanne Cooper, Wayne Morris, Elisha Cook Jr. Director: Hubert Cornfield.

   This one is lean and mean and doesn’t take its sweet time in plunging the viewer into the action. The opening sequence, set on a dark rainy night, involves five masked men as they steal a shipment of US Mint gold from a train. This scene, as well as its immediate follow up, in which the bandits load their getaway trucks with the loot, is largely silent with very little dialogue to accompany it. It works well enough. Indeed, that much can be said for the entirety of Plunder Road. For what it is, namely a short, punchy crime film, it works well enough.

   Gene Raymond helms the cast as Eddie Harris, the ringleader of the outfit, whose cool demeanor helps him pull off an impossible heist. His cohorts are portrayed by Wayne Morris, Steven Ritch, Stafford Repp, and the always enjoyable-to-watch Elisha Cook whose character dreams of absconding to Rio with his young son.

   There’s not that much tension between the main characters, which is somewhat unusual and may contribute to a sense of the movie not quite clicking. As readers of this blog well know, more often than not films of this sort will have the criminals turning on each other. That’s not what happens here. It’s more bad luck or their own guilt that gives them away.

   What else to say? I particularly appreciated the on location shooting, be it the California highways or, in the last fifteen minutes of the film, gritty Los Angeles. Speaking of the last fifteen minutes, a new character is introduced quite close to the end of the movie. Jeanne Cooper portrays Fran, Eddie’s   girl. There’s an argument to be had that she should have been introduced earlier. Then again, this is a 72 minute film without much padding.

BOB SHAW – The Two-Timers. Ace SF Special H-79; paperback original, 1968. Cover art: Leo & Diane Dillon.

   Nine years earlier John Breton’s wife Kate had been saved from a murderer;s attack by an unknown rifleman who disappeared as suddenly as he had appeared. Now when he returns, he claims Kate as his wife; his point seems well taken, for he is John Breton himself.

   In his alternate, parallel universe Kate had died, and guilt had forced him to find a way to travel in probability, as it were. A new sort of eternal triangle, but before the new John Breton’s plans for resolving it can be carried out, his presence in what is for him World B changes the fabric of space/time itself, foreshadowing the end of the world.

   If migraine is a symptom, there are many frustrated time travelers! Imagine the troubles or the police lieutenant still investigating the case: a hopeless sort of detective tale, but effective in science fiction. The characters are real enough to be living creatures, and the effort to make them so is clear and appreciated,

   Anyone who has ever been uneasy about answering the phone will understand Breton’s fear of opening his life to the unknown caller on page 6. The touches of the future involved are natural, so only the ending fails to live up to the originality one is led to expect. As a mathematical note, Shaw makes a mistake about a topological problem on page 108, but it is nothing that affects the story.

Rating: ****1/2

   Before reading the memories of British writer Reg Dolphin as recorded below by his nephew William Smith, let me suggest  that you first read Jonathan’s review of the former’s short story “Off the Map” (Weird Tales, July 1954), along with a lengthy list of comments on Mr. Dolphin’s writings.
   

   Reginald Charles Dolphin (13.03.1915 – 05.02.1990). Reg Dolphin was my uncle

   Reg was born at ‘The Elms’, Crabbe Common, Wadborough, Worcester on 13th March 1915. The birth took place at the house of his aunt and uncle, Edith and Robert Cruse (my great aunt & uncle).

   Reg was the first child to be born of Charles Biddle and Amy Beatrice Dolphin (née Palfrey).

   His siblings were Phyllis Gwendoline (my mother) 10.10.1916 – 10.07.2020, Muriel Beatrice 30.03.1918 – 28.02.2002. There was also a half-brother William Henry Dolphin (29.02.1908 – 28.07.1982) who was the only child of Reg’s father’s first marriage. The mother died soon after the birth, and Reg’s father married again — to Amy — in 1914.

   Reg lived in Coventry soon after his birth, which probably explains why he was born in the home of his mother’s sister. His father and the family went to Coventry as his father had secured a job with Daimler working in the factory during WW1.
Then in 1925 the family returned to Worcestershire (Charles and Amy originated from Pershore) and they lived in Pershore in a house belonging to Reg’s grandfather.

   In 1929 Reg moved with his family to Wadborough to ‘Sunnyside’ (where I also was born and lived 1945-1968)– a terraced cottage built by the estate of Lord Coventry for Railway workers. Reg was educated at Eckington School and then at the Royal Grammar School, Worcester.

   After school he was employed in the accountancy dept in a furniture shop in Birmingham, where he lived in lodgings. Then he was called up in WW2 –joined the Royal Engineers and then transferred to the REME for the duration.

   He met a girl – Irma van Kerkoven – in the NAAFI and married her during the war.

   After the war he and Irma lived at 13, Meadow Way, Hyde Heath, Amersham, Bucks. This was his home –and Irma’s- till their deaths. They had 2 children, Tony and Liz (my cousins). After the war Reg worked for Sobell in Slough. The firm made radios.

   I saw Reg and family every year until I left home in 1968. They came to stay every year with us in Wadborough. It was where Reg grew up.

   We knew that Reg was a writer. I remember the first Sexton Blake 64pp. 1/- book that came out. He sent us a copy. I remember seeing this and the subsequent other 64pp 1/- books as they appeared on the shelves of W H Smith bookstall at Worcester Shrub Hill railway station on my way to the Grammar School in Evesham.

   My grandmother, Reg’s mother was thrilled at his writing (she wrote snippets to various publications –recipes, hints etc. and so I suppose what Reg did was somewhere in the family blood).

   Sadly, when my grandmother died in 1962, Reg and his family only came to Wadborough to see his sisters — and the house where he grew up — a few times.

   We did keep in touch, but after Reg’s funeral his family did not want to keep in touch despite our writing to them. The last time I saw Reg’s wife (my aunt) and my cousins was at Reg’s funeral in Hyde Heath when I took part in the service to read the eulogy.

TANGIER. Universal Pictures, 1946. Maria Montez, Robert Paige, Sabu, Preston Foster, Louise Allbritton, Kent Taylor, J. Edward Bromberg, Reginald Denny. Director: George Waggner.

   Capitalizing on the American movie-going audience’s love for exotic locales, Tangier is a somewhat confusing adventure/espionage film that’s nevertheless perfectly watchable lowbrow escapism. It stars Robert Paige as Paul Kenyon, a down and out reporter and Maria Montez, as Rita, a nightclub dancer, who end up working together to track down a Spanish Nazi collaborator named “Balthazar.”

   The atmosphere and coterie of unscrupulous characters are meant to take the viewer out of his humdrum existence and into a dangerous world of criminals, informants, and collaborators. It works well enough for the very short running time of the film (a mere 76 minutes), but anything longer would have likely sunk the already somewhat padded programmer.

   Directed by George Waggner, best known for the highly atmospheric The Wolf Man (1941), the movie succeeds in creating an ambiance – a sense of time and place – but is far less successful in holding together a cohesive, easy to follow plot. It’s one of those films where everyone ends up in the same room at the end and all is revealed. Not particularly sophisticated material.

   Still, it has its moments. Look for character actor J. Edward Bromberg in a small, but pivotal role, and for Sabu as an ambitious nightclub guitarist seeking to ingratiate himself with  Kenyon (Paige). Montez, for her part, is cast in a far more serious role than in the colorful exotics she did with Jon Hall.

   I was asked the following question by email a couple of days ago. I won’t include the name of the person asking in case he doesn’t want it circulating online without his knowing about it, but I thought it interesting enough to see how others besides myself might answer it:

    “I am a fan of old, rare books and I wonder if there is any mystery/crime/horror/suspense not widely known book from the past decades that hasn’t been turned into a feature film that deserves it?”

DASHIELL HAMMETT “$106,000 Blood Money.” First published in Black Mask, May 1927. Collected in The Big Nightmare (Random House, 1966).

   Sequel to “The Big Knockover.” The brother of a murdered gunman attempts to collect the reward money for bringing in Papadopolos. These two stories together vividly describe the underworld and its inhabitants, the temptation of crime, and its viciousness. (4)

HOLLYWOOD STORY. Universal International, 1951. Richard Conte, Julia Adams, Richard Egan, Henry Hull, Fred Clark, Jim Backus, with Francis X. Bushman, Betty Blythe, William Farnum, Helen Gibson & Joel McCrea. Director: William Castle.

   A movie about movies. A heartfelt tribute to the silent movie era with all its salaciousness and scandals, Hollywood Story follows film producer Larry O’Brien (Richard Conte) who becomes obsessed with the unsolved 1929 murder of silent film director Franklin Ferrara. So much so that he has decided to make a movie about Ferrara’s death. But to make the movie authentic, he realizes he needs to play PI and solve the crime. This, of course, puts a target on his back.

   There’s a wide range of characters who could all be suspects, including Sally Rousseau (Julia Adams), whose mother Amanda was an actress who worked with Ferrara. There’s also O’Brien’s friend, Sam Collyer (Fred Clark) whose gun was used in the killing. And then there’s a gaggle of former silent movie stars, all of whom may have had a reason to want Ferrara out of the way. Complicating matters is the longstanding rumor that Ferrara had an estranged brother who died in China.

   It’s just convoluted enough to work. At least that’s my opinion. With William Castle at the helm and with plenty of on-location shots in LA, the movie never stalls. It moves along at a solid clip and provides plenty of suspense about who or what may lie behind the Ferrara murder. While the ultimate resolution may be a bit of a letdown, it’s plausible enough to make Hollywood Story worth a casual watch should you find the premise intriguing. Just don’t go in with the highest of expectations. Sunset Boulevard (1950), this is not.

JANICE LAW “The Best Thing for the Liver.” Madame Selina #2 (?). First published in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, July/August 2012.

   According to the evidence found in this, perhaps the second of the Madame Selina stories. they all take place in either New York City, or as in this particular case, fairly close by, in upstate New York in the spa area around Saratoga.

   Due to some notoriety caused in an earlier adventure in which the folks at Tammany Hall were sorely annoyed, Madame Selina and her young assistant, an orphan by the name of Nip Tompkins, decide to take a sudden “vacation” from the big city.

   This also places the time of the take as being (well, I’m guessing) perhaps the mid-1800’s. As a medium with quite a following, Madame Selina is doing quite well, and the seances she conducts are quite the rage. There are times, however, when discretion is quite the right route to take.

   The story is told by young Nip, and he is rather an observant lad. He notices a young girl, the heir to a large fortune, who appears paler and paler each times he sees her. He wonders, of course, if she is ill. Since this is a mystery story, we the reader are in sync with the rest of the story as it plays out. The even greater pleasure obtained from the tale. however, is in the telling, elaborately fashioned after the times, but without flowing into the excesses of an era now so long ago.

         ____

Note: The online Crime Fiction Index includes the Madame Selina tales, but at this point of time, it is unaware that this story is part of the series. Here’s the list of her adventures, as known so far, with this one inserted in bold as (for now) number two:

      The Madame Selina series —

Madame Selina, (ss) Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine June 2010
The Best Thing for the Liver (ss) Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine July/August 2012
A Political Issue, (ss) Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine September 2013
The Psychic Investigator, (ss) Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine December 2013
The Irish Boy, (ss) Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine January/February 2015
The Ghostly Fireman, (ss) Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine April 2015
The Spiritualist, (ss) Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine March 2016
The Organ Grinder’s Daughter, (ss) Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine July/August 2016
A Fine Nest of Rascals, (nv) Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine July/August 2019

   As for the author herself, Janice Law is one of very few mystery writers still producing fiction who are older than I am. Her most recently published work is listed as “Up and Gone,” Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, July/August 2024.

GRIEF STREET. Chesterfield, 1931. Barbara Kent, John Holland, Dorothy Christy, Crauford Kent, Lillian Rich, James P. Burtis, Larry Steers. Screenplay: Arthur Hoerl. Director: Richard Thorpe.

   A noted Broadway actor is found strangled in his dressing room. There is only the one door, and it was under observation by the stage doorman from the time the man entered until his body was found. While the cops are quite visibly busy enough, most of the investigation follows a reporter around (stalwartly played by John Holland).

   The fellow’s nose for news primarily (and most notably) comes up with a young actress (saucily played by Barbara Kent) who has been let go from the current production but who seems strangely determined to keep hanging around.

   There are a lot of players in this aged pre-Code production, and a lot of romantic playing around has been going on, or so it turns out. It is difficult to keep all of this straight, but if you keep your eye on where it needs to be, you may well deduce how the deed was done. Nevertheless I have my doubts you will remember who the killer is when at last his or her identity is uncovered. It’s that kind of mystery, and one not particularly recommended.