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.

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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 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.

BARRY FANTONI – Mike Dime.  Mike Dime #1. Hodder & Stoughton, UK, hardcover, 1980. Sphere, UK, 1982. Franklin Watts, US, hardcover, 1980.

   In 1948 the two leading detective pulp fiction magazines were Black Mask and Dime Detective Magazine, probably in that order, Neither, alas, is around today, but Black Mask it was which provided the birthplace and main stomping ground for all the great private detective heroes of the 1920’s and 1930’s. And from Dime Detective comes the name of Barry Fantoni’s new detective hero, Mike Dime, and he’s a private eye. What else?

   In Mike Dime the novel, Fantoni does his best to recreate the world and atmosphere of the year 1948. The city is Philadelphia, and Harry Truman has just pulled off his surprising upset victory over Tom Dewey.

   But 1948 was a long while after Dashiell Hammett had quit writing, and Raymond Chandler had long since been swallowed up by Hollywood. In their wake, all the wise-cracking imitators had taken over, and Mike Dime, the detective, manages to place no higher than in the midst of these, most of whom — anybody remember Rex McBride? – -are forgotten today.

   It’s not because Barry Fantoni hails from England. He has the local lingo down pat, and historically all his people and places are exactly right. Dime, who is hired first to protect a bagful of money and then to help a girl with a blackmailer problem, is grubby but honest.

   His greatest problem is rather that, as Fantoni attempts to develop a sense of the comedic as well as the dramatic, in what are obviously intended to be the lighter moments, the result, twice at least, is outrageously silly slapstick instead.

   It’s fun to read, in a way, but unfortunately what it also does is to remind us that this is the sort of private eye caper which is nothing more than a make-believe fairy tale, with beautiful women falling willy-nilly, for example, all over the feet of the invincible hero, who comes complete with dirty socks and a three-day old beard .

   It is the story of a dream, a fantasy, one that doesn’t exist, and as Fantoni inadvertently reminds us, except in the world of fiction, it never really did. This book has its heart in the right spot, but its world is built on a faulty foundation.

Rating: C

NOTE: A second and final book in the Mike Dime series was Stickman (1982). There were also two short stories: “Hopper and Pink” (New Crimes, 1989) and “Holy Smoke” (New Crimes 2, 1990).

PERFECT MURDERS “Un Bon Chanteur est un Chanteur Mort.” France, 19 Decemeber 2017 (Season 1, Episode 1). MHz, streaming in the US, 2020. Isabelle Gélinas (Agnès), Arthur Mazet (Thibaud). Director: Didier Le Pêcheur.

   Roughly translating, the title of this first episode is “A Good Singer Is a Dead Singer,” in which a record producer is having trouble making ends meet. To assist in alleviating his financial problems, he decides that a singer he has had under contract for quite a while would be more helpful to him dead than he would be if he stayed alive.

   Thus it is only a short while before the singer ends up dead, drowned in the producer’s swimming pool. This is an elaborate production on his part, involving drugs, a watch, an automatic lawn sprinkler system, and a lot of nerve. Investigating the case are Isabelle Gélinas, as the senior officer, and Arthur Mazet as the new recruit and her new partner, fresh from a desk job to this, their first case together.

   The series is billed as one covering impossible crimes, but the fact is, this one isn’t. It’s a well concocted one, but it’s more like one to be solved by a Columbo-like character, not a fictional Gideon Fell, or a Jonathan Creek in a TV sense. The two leading characters have a good rapport, but maybe that’s because the male half of the new partnership is still in the learning stage of his career, and he allows the female half to do all of the detective work.

   It also seemed to me that much of the key detective work is done off screen, perhaps to cover over the fact that the case against the killer does not take up a lot of time and effort on their part, and other things are done instead.

   It’s still an enjoyable episode to watch, and perhaps after the “getting to know the characters” episode is over and one with, later cases will afford a greater challenge for them. The series has been on for five seasons, but note that the leading characters in this first one do not show up in all of them.

ALEXEI PANSHIN – Star Well. Anthony Villiers #1. Ace G-756; paperback original; 1st printing, October 1968. Cover by Kelly Freas. Reprinted by Ace, paperback, August 1978. Cover by Vincent Di Fate.

   An Anthony Villiers adventure, a costume piece of the 15th Century, common reckoning, or the year 3418 AD. Villiers himself remains an unknown quantity, but he has that something about him that causes events and crises.

   In this instance, a smuggling operation working out of Star Well, a planetoid in the Flammarion Rift, is broken up by the coincidental visit of Villiers; an Inspector General; and a group of girls being chaperones to Miss McBurney’s Finishing School.

   Emphasis on customs and costumes; clothes make the man, custom eliminates decision-making. Which will become more and more difficult as pressures of society grow and grow.

   A conversational style of writing is used. Here and there, it reminded me Lafferty , and also of Delany. The story, not told precisely in chronological order, but never mind, is slight, and the effort may not hold up over an entire series.

Rating: ****

         The Anthony Villiers series –

1. Star Well (1968)
2. The Thurb Revolution (1968)
3. Masque World (1969)

   A fourth book in the series. The Universal Panthograph, was announced but never published and perhaps never finished.

GEORGE HARMON COXE – Focus on Murder. Kent Murdock #15. Knopf, hardcover, 1954. Dell 970, paperback, February 1958.

   A newspaper colleague of Ken Murdock, a reporter named Stacy, is found murdered in his apartment. Murdock had been with him earlier in the evening when he had been shot at in his car, and two women had been looking for him after that, at least one with a gun.

   What is amazing is that the next morning Murdock is shocked to hear of the man’s death. It also take him to page 61 [of the paperback edition] for him to realize that the dead man was doing a brisk sideline business in blackmail. Other than that, the mystery is solved in typically good Coxe style.

ELLERY QUEEN “The Adventure of the Seven Black Cats.” Ellery Queen. First published in The Adventures of Ellery Queen (Stokes, hardcover, 1934). Reprinted in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, January 2016, the opening story in the first month of the magazine’s year-long 75th anniversary celebration.

   Ellery stops at a pet store thinking perhaps to buy a dog and ends up solving a very strange case involving cats, seven of them, all black, all purchased from the store at a rate of one a week by a bedridden older lady named Euphemia Tarkle, who is known to hate cats. Ellery’s curiosity is aroused. What is going on?

   The owner of the story is one Marie Curleigh, young and very pretty. Realizing he needs assistance in any sort of investigation to follow, Ellery asks: “Miss Curleigh, I’m an incurable meddler in the affairs of others. How would you like to help me meddle in the affairs of the mysterious Tarkle sisters?”

   And of course she does. The story that follows is meticulously planned out, and will be a lot of fun to read by any mystery fan who likes, no loves, following along with the clues. One negative note should be mentioned, however. The culprit at the end can easily be discerned by the judicious process of elimination. Too few suspects there are, that is. (Not that I did, but I could have, and should have.)

   And if asked, I could come up with a couple of other notes. The superintendent of the building where Miss Tarkle lives is named Harry Potter. And Miss Curleigh is such an agreeable assistant in this case that one wishes she might have appeared as well in other tales in Queen canon. I don’t believe she did. She should have.

THE RIVER’S EDGE. 20th Century Fox, 1957. Ray Milland, Anthony Quinn, Debra Paget, Harry Carey Jr., Chubby Johnson. Director: Allan Dwan.

   Ray Milland and Anthony Quinn face off in The River’s Edge, a contemporary western/thriller directed by Allan Dwan. Filmed in Cinemascope with some terrific on location shooting in Mexico, the movie tells the story of Nardo Denning (Milland), a scoundrel and criminal who shows up out of the clear blue sky at Ben Cameron’s (Quinn) small, modest farm.

   His plan? To win back the affections of Cameron’s wife, Meg (Debra Paget) and to abscond across the border to Mexico with stolen loot. It doesn’t take long for Meg to agree to her proposal, bored as she is by the quiet, but challenging, life on her husband’s farm.

   What Meg doesn’t quite realize is how her affections for Nardo are misplaced and that the guy is a cold blooded, heartless killer. After Nardo kills a state policeman, he convinces Cameron at gunpoint to take both him and Meg across the border, first by truck and then by foot. This gets to the heart of the movie, a story about a woman torn between two men, one of whom is very dangerous.

   Overall, I somewhat enjoyed watching this one, even though I don’t think there was enough material in it to sustain some ninety minutes or so of screen time. It’s also not quite clear what genre the movie fits into. In many ways, it’s both a contemporary western and a thriller. But it’s also a drama and a romance. One wonders who the exactly intended audience was.

   Final assessment: a relatively minor film in the scheme of things, but with Milland and Quinn as the leads, you can do far worse.

JACQUES FUTRELLE – Best “Thinking Machine” Stories. Dover, softcover, 1973.

   The career of Jacques Futrelle was heroically cut short by his choice of holiday transportation — he sailed aboard the Titanic. Before that, however, he created one of the most notable eccentric detectives in crime history, Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen (with plenty of degrees after his name), “the Thinking Machine.”

   The professor is a famous scientist with an enormous, domelike head (he wears a hat size 8); a wilderness of straw-yellow hair; and squinty, watery blue eyes. He has thick spectacles, long white hands, and a small body. His henchman and gofer is Hutchison Hatch. a newspaper reporter. Most of the Thinking Machine’s cases arc brought to him by Hatch, who knows that to get a good story, one brings it to the man who can get to the bottom of an “impossible crime.”

   The professor, in the fine tradition of armchair detectives, knows that any puzzle has a logical explanation. His sententious principle is “two and two always make four — not sometime but all the time.” Much of the legwork is done by Hatch off stage; the professor himself is a phone fanatic — he often goes into his little phone room and returns with the complete solution.

   The Best “Thinking Machine” Detective Stories are a dozen collected from The Thinking Machine (1906), which contains seven stories, and The Thinking Machine on the Case ( 1907). Two of Futrelle’s tales were shown on public television in The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes.

   The Thinking Machine was introduced in a story, much anthologized, called “The Problem of Cell 13.” From a simple arguing point, a challenge is proposed. The professor undertakes, on purely scientific grounds, to escape from a death cell in the penitentiary in one week. And does so.

   Other stories contain puzzles about dying messages, perfect alibis, buried treasure, and an occult legacy. Excellent “locked-room” variations are presented in “The Stolen Rubens,” “The Phantom Motor,” and “The Lost Radium.” Another, “Kidnapped Baby Blake, Millionaire,” where a person vanishes from footprints in a snow-filled yard, is not quite up to snuff.

   In “The Missing Necklace,” the crook is about to give Scotland Yard the bird except for the intervention of the Thinking Machine. He is able to sum up one case thus: “The subtler murders — that is, the ones which are most attractive as problems — are nearly always the work of a cunning woman. I know nothing about women myself.”  Shades of Sherlock Holmes.

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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.