OVERLOOKED FILM: THNK FAST, MR. MOTO (1937)

When Charlie Chan creator Earl Der Biggers died in 1933, The Saturday Evening Post began looking for another writer to create a series about an Asian hero.  They found the writer in John Marquand and the hero in Japanese secret agent Mr. I. A, Moto.  The first Mr. Moto novel, No Hero, was published in SEP six part from March 30 through May 4, 1935, and was released in book form later that year as Your Turn, Mr. Moto (British title Mr. Moto Takes a Hand).  Five more Mr. Moto novels followed; the fifth novel, Last Laugh, Mr. Moto. was written before Pearl Harbor but was published afterward. the final novel was published in 1957 and was a Cold War tale.  The character appeared in eight popular motion pictures between 1937 and 1939, but was reimagined as a detective working for Interpol.  (By 1938 there was some distrust about Japanese foreign policy and studio executives considered making the character Korean instead of Japanese, but the idea never went too far.)

In the great tradition of Hollywood bigotry, Mr. Moto was portrayed by a white actor, Peter Lorre.  Moto returned to the screen in 1965's The Return of Mr. Moto, again being portrayed by a white actor, Henry Silva.  (The final Mr. Moto novel was filmed in 1957 as Stopover:  Tokyo and featured Robert Wagner and eliminated the Moto character altogether.)

The practice of "yellowface" -- using white actors to portray Asians -- cut a wide swarth through Hollywood history, from Dr. Fu Manchu to Charlie Chan to Madame Butterfly.  Actors cast in yellowface roles included Mary Pickford, Norma Talmadge, Bessie Love. Lon Chaney. Myrna Loy, Edward G. Robinson, Bela Lugosi, Paul Muni, Louise Ranier, Emlyn Williams, Anthony Quinn, Boris Karloff, Gale Sondergaard, J. Carroll Nash, Katharine Hepburn, Walter Huston, Turhan Bey, Agnes Moorehead, Hurd Hatfield, Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell, Fred Astaire, Anita Ekberg, Mike Mazurki, Jennifer Jones. John Wayne, Susan Haywood, Yul Brynner, Rita Moreno, Marlon Brando, Ricardo Montalban, Kurt Jurgens. Robert Donat, Mickey Rooney, Christopher Lee, Alec Guinness, Dorothy Dandridge, William Schallet, Tony Randall. Robert Morley, James Mason, Vito Scotti, Ray Walston,  David Carradine, John Gielgud, Charles Boyer, Peter Ustinov, Peter Sellers, Max von Sydow, Lind Hunt, David Suchet, Barbara Hershey, Edward James Olmos. Joel Grey, Roddy McDowell, Piper Laurie, Groucho Marx, Christopher Walken, Eddie Murphy,  Nicholas Cage, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, James D'Arcy, Jon Voight, Emma Stone, and (marginally) Scarlett Johansson, along with many. many others.  A lot of these portrayals will leave you scratching your head, while others are totally cringe-worthy.

Peter Lorre's portrayal of Mr. Moto, while worthy of some head-scratching, was not completely cringe-worthy.  Here, in the first Mr. Moto film, Moto is after a gang of international smugglers.  While Moto is on a Shanghai-bound ship, he recognizes his steward as a man wanted for murder in San Francisco.  The steward tries to steal a letter from passenger Bob Hitchings (Thomas Beck), the son of the owner of the shipping line.  After a stopover in Honolulu, beautiful Gloria Danton (Virginia Field) comes aboard and falls in love with her, not realizing that she is a spy for smuggler Nicholas Marloff (Sig Ruman).  Fast action and some nifty plot twists helped propel Mr. Moto into a film franchise.

Also featuring Murray Kinnell, John Rogers, Lotus Long, George Cooper, J. Carrol Nash, Frederik Vogeding, and Philip Ahn.  Directed by Norman Foster (Charlie Chan in Reno, Journey Into Fear, Davy Crockett:  King of the Wild Frontier), and written by Foster and (according to IMDb and the actual film credits) Howard Ellis Smith.  (Wikipedia mistakenly credits mystery writer Philip MacDonald as the co-writer: MacDonald wrote three of the Mr. Moto films, but not this one.)

Try to ignore the yellowface and enjoy this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9lUInobAdE

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JONI JAMES!

Joni James (birth name Giovanna Camilla Babbo) was born non the day in 1930 and rose to become one of the most popular singers of the Fifties and Early Sixties.  She had 23 top 40 hits from 1952 to 1960, and has sold over 100 million records.  She started her career with a local dance group in South Chicago, moved to join a chorus line at a Chicago hotel before deciding to try her luck with a singing career.  She changed her name to Joni James on the advise of one of her managers.  After being spotted in a television commercial, she was signed by MGM in 1952 and soon had her hit "Why Don't You Believe in Me?," which sold over two million copies.

"Why Don't You Believe Me?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUkWyaCQXds

"How Important Can It Be?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTawWjUfngA

"Have You Heard"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxkgA5Z4FmE

"Your Cheatin' Heart"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFUpLAN3gNA

"Almost Always"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_boal0Mf4tA

"My Love, My Love"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwVjr-t7EAw

"You Are My Love"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaKp0PyBmlY

"You Belong to Me"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXfs0YEG1Pk

"There Goes My Heart"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZGZwqYFWAM

"When I Fall in Love"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSmctsEIIwA

"You Don't Know Me"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0rLwcBW-lA

"You're Breaking My Heart"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwOkViC4ZA8

"Vaya con Dios"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMPJoHcS_lA

"Secret Love"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fENKshMhL-w&list=PL6F8BBF7574D78ED5&index=12

"Cold, Cold Heart"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwJLim-up5w&list=PL6F8BBF7574D78ED5&index=16

"Let Me Call You Sweetheart"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCzCo2GlX_k&list=PL6F8BBF7574D78ED5&index=18

"On a Slow Boat to China"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aJFIuUg4ng&list=PL6F8BBF7574D78ED5&index=20

"The Party's Over"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRuZnSSqXrg&list=PL6F8BBF7574D78ED5&index=24

HYMN TIME

 Guy Penrod:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiY5yIbqmDs

And an instrumental from Elizabeth Cotton;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pUdUX5Gagc

SHOWCASE #30 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1961)

Aquaman was created by Paul Norris and Mort Weisinger as a backup feature for DC's More Fun Comics in 1941.  He spent years as both a backup and main feature for various Dc anthology comic books, and was one of the few DC heroes to continually appear throughout the 1950s.  In 1961 he copped a four-issue feature run in Showcase, beginning with this issue, while also gaining his very first cover art.  In 1962, Aquaman scored his very own title, which ran (in it's initial run) for 56 issues.  Over the years, the character has been reimagined numerous times and has been featured on television and in films.

The original Aquaman was Arthur Curry, the son of a lighthouse keeper and an exiled princess of Atlantis.  He can breathe under water and telepathically communicate with various ocean life.  Rigorous training and about a "hundred scientific secret" have helped make him a superhero.  He is married to Mera, a princess from an aquatic dimension; they have a kid called -- what else? -- Aquababy.  Because he's a DC hero, he had to have a young sidekick and his is Aqualad, a.k.a. Garth, an exiled Atlantean boy whom Aquaman took under his wing (flipper?).  Aquaman carries the Trident of Neptune, bestowed by Poseidon to one who is 'the rightful ruler and protector of the sea.'  He faces many villains, including Black Manta and his own half-brother, The Ocean Master.

Now let's get to the story:

A storm at sea. A ship carrying a deadly cargo in crates -- a rare, very lethal, new poison.  Lighting strikes the front of the ship, setting it on fire.  Oh no!  If the fire reached the cartons in the cargo hold, they will burst, releasing the poison into the sea, killing thousand of Aquaman and Aqualad's "finny friends."  This cannot be allowed to happen, so Aquaman orders whales to spray the fire using their blowholes.  this extinguishes the surface fire, but the fire has also entered below deck.  Aquaman then has swordfish saw their way to the cargo hold, then has octopi grab the deadly carton and bring the to him on top of the back of a whale.  The cartons are then lashed to the whales' back using electric eels as ties.  Aqualad pilots the whales to port where the ship (having now put out all the fires) can limp back and get their cargo.

Phew!  Time for a rest.  Aquaman returns to the Aqua-Cave, only to find his lantern fish blinking an S.O.S. from Atlantis.  (This gives us a chance to segue back in time to rehash Aqauman's origin.)

Responding to the distress call, Aquaman is taken captive outside Atlantis by some demonic and intelligent sea creatures.  All of Atlantic has been taken over and turned into a prison camp by these aquatic aliens from another dimension, whose rule is the evil Trino.  The Atlanteans, and now Aquaman, are being forced to build some sort of interdimensional gateway, the purpose of which cannot be good.  But, hark!  A small guppy has managed to sneak through the hatch and Aquaman gives it a message to send throughout the ocean.  Soon a fantastic army of fish are attacking the aliens but they manage to repel them with a powerful invention that turns the ocean currents against them,  The fishy attack fails.  Also, it seems that Troni has stolen master plans from his government for a weapon which he plans to use to conquer the surface world. 

Things don't look good.  Is all lost?  Is the world doomed?  Not by a longshot.  We still have ten pages of panels ahead of us, with all sorts of twists and turns, and a possible deus ex machina or two.  Remember Aqualad?

And there's a big ocean battle with whales smashing into things, octopi hurling hand grenades, and flying fish dropping bombs from above.  (My grandson is a zookeeper and he just wishes he could get his animals to do cool things like that.)

i never cared much for the Dc comics of this era, but there are a lot of people who do.  If you're one of those, you might want to check out the link.

https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/luminist/CB/SC_1961_02.pdf

FORGOTTEN BOOK: KILL NOW, PAY LATER

 Kill Now, Pay Later by Robert Terrall (original published under the pseudonym "Robert Kyle, 1960; reprinted under the author's name by Hard Case Crime, 2007)

Ben Gates was one of the more effective fictional private eyes in the late 50s and early 60s.  He was tough but not too tough.  He was attractive to the ladies, although he did not really seek them out.  He valued his reputation.  He would follow case wherever it led.  He sometimes had quirky associates.  He smoked cigars.  Several have noted that Ben Gates was the perfect in-between detective, nestled snuggly between Chandler's Philip Marlowe and Richard Prather's Shell Scott.  He appeared in five novels; Kill Now, Pay Later was the third.

Gates is hired to stand watch over wedding presents at a ritzy mansion.  It's an easy gig and the guests are pretty well lubricated.  Among those lubricated is one of the bridesmaids who comes in to gawk at the presents.  She picks up a diamond bracelet and puts it on.  Gates is keeping a close eye on her.  She tries to get Gates to drink some champagne; all he's had was some coffee that a maid had brought up earlier.  He takes a sip of champagne and passes out.

When he wakes up, all hell has broken loose.  The mother of the bride had gone to her room and frightened a thief who had begun to ransack the room.  She had a weak ticker and dropped dead from the shock.  When the burglar tried to escape, he was shot dead by one of Gates's fellow detectives.  Everything was recovered except for the diamond bracelet... Well, may not everything.  We learn later that the bride's father said there was $75,000 missing from the safe in the dead woman's room -- the missing money was not reported to the police because the old man had been trying to pull a scam on the IRS.

Gates is fired and the insurance company that hired hi to guard the wedding gifts has vowed to blackball him throughout the industry.  In addition, the local police chief is accusing Gates of stealing the diamond necklace himself.  All pretty cut and dried so far.  But Terrall is an expert of mixing thing up and adding complication to complication to his plots.  (The author had a hand-drawn sign at his desk which was given to him  to remind him of his tendency to overplot; the sign read SIMPLIFY -- of course the sign was printed in the most ornate fashion possible.)  So there's arson, blackmail, pornographic pictures, nubile and willing ladies, corrupt politicians, and another dead body to consider.

Can Gates untwist all the plot complications, solve all the mysteries, and save his job/  Of course he can, but getting there is where all the fun is.

Terrall (1914-2009) published at least 53 books under his own name and as "Robert Kyle," "J. D. Gonzales," and as "Brett Halliday" -- he took over the Mike Shayne series of detective novels from Davis Dresser after Dresser hit a writer's block, writing at least 20 books in the series.  In addition to the Ben gates books, Terrall also authored the Harry Horne series as Gonzales, as well as a number of stand-alones.  One book that was ahead of its time was 1950's A Killer Is Loose Among Us. is an early novel dealing with biological threat (and one that really deserves reprinting).  Virtually forgotten today, Terrall was much admired by his contemporaries and his work in the 50s and 60s influenced many later writers.  Terrall died at age 94 and had gone for 23 years without publishing a book.

THE DAUGHTER OF TIME (BBC RADIO - DECEMBER 25, 1982)

This is the second radio adaptation of Josephine Tey's classic detective novel.  I have not been able to locate the first, which aired in 1952, one year after the novel was published.  The novel was listed as number one in England's Crime Writers Association's 100 Crime Novels of All Time and number four in the Mystery Writers of America's Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time lists.

Scotland Yard Inspector Alan Grant, who was featured in five other novels by Tey, is hospitalized with a broken leg and confined to bed.  To distract from his boredom, he begins looking into historical mysteries and becomes interested in King Richard III.  Grant prides himself on being able to read faces and Richard appears to be a kind and gentle man.  Why, then, has history accused of of being a murderer, the man who supposedly killed the Princes in the Tower?

The princes were the deposed King Edward V, age 12, and his brother Prince Richard, the Duke of York, age 9.  They were lodge in the Tower of London by their uncle and England's regent, the Duke of Gloucester in preparation for Edward's coronation.  BeforTe the coronation, both boys were declared illegitimate by Parliament and Gloucester assumed the throne as Richard III.  Both boys were never heard of again and a common assumption was that they were murdered by Richard to strengthen his hold on the throne.  The fate of the Princes in the Tower has never been known.

Grant spends weeks going over whatever information and historic documents exists to try to come up with an answer to the puzzle.  Using his detective's logic, he finally comes up with an answer that satisfies him.

A blend of rational logic, and historic fact and fiction, The Daughter of Time is a fascinating twist on the traditional detective story and deserves all the accolades it has received.

Dramatized by Neville Keller, the program features Peter Gilmore as Alan Grant.  Also featured are Frances Jester, Rosalind Shanks, Jill Lidstone, Simon Hewitt. Steve Hodson, Nigel Lambert, Lewis Stringer, Miranda Forbes, Graham Faulkner, Katherine Parr, Stuart Organ, Peter Tuddenham, Alex Jenkins, and James Thomason.

"Josephine Tey"  was a pen name of Scottish author and playwright  Elizabeth MacKintosh (1896-1952).  She is often considered, with Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, as one of the "Big Three" classic female mystery writers -- "Big Five," if you add Ngaio Marsh and Margery Allingham.  Tey's other novels include The Franchise Affair, A Shilling for Candles, Brat Farrar, The Singing Sands, and Miss Pym Disposes.

Let's take a trip back in time to a British hospital room and further back in time to 1483 England.  Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJpUU2pwi0s

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: HALF-PINT HERCULES

Half-Pint Hercules" by William Lindsay Gresham  (from Collier's, February 23, 1952)

Steve Lorenz is a midget who has been working as a strong man at a carny for years, but during the war years he was employed at an airplane factory.  Because of his size, he was able to reach places and do assembly that normal-sized persons could not and was greatly appreciated for his skill.  But when the war ended, so did his employment at the aircraft factory, so he went back to the carny.

Besides being very strong (he could straighten and bend horse shoes with his bare hands), Steve was also a talented mechanic, among other skills.  He came from a prominent family that was embarrassed by his, size keeping him essentially hidden from view.  Among the carny folk he found people that accepted and respected him -- something he also had briefly during the war year at the factory.  But he also met with rude and ignorant comments from the carnival's customers, full-sized people who considered it fair game to make fun of him.  Steve had met, fell in love with, and married another midget at the carnival, Dora.  now his insecurities are getting the best of him.  He's afraid of having a child with Dora.  What if it were normal-sized and grew up embarrassed by his parents and hating them?   What of it were a midget and had to endure what Steve had when he was younger?  Various pressures led Steve to blow up at a rude customer, frightening off others and reducing the day's take.  Steve is glum and down in the dumps and generally feeling sorry for himself.

Then a news item came over the radio.  A six-year-old girl was strapped in a well.  Efforts to save her failed when a tunnel collapsed and killed one of the rescuers.  Microphones lowered into the well could hear shallow breathing and authorities fear that she may not survive.  Steve came out of his funk and drove the 60 miles to the site.  There, recue workers \try to dissuade him from trying to reach the girl through the narrow pipe that had been built.  Steve's response:  "I'm a mechanic, a welder, and an acrobat.  I've got a Red Cross First Aid Instructor's card.  I've got no children of my own to be left orphans,  Now, do I take a chance on that pipe or do more guys get killed going down that big hole in the sand that's always caving in?"

The well had been built thirty years before and went down two hundred feet.  A shift in the earth had burst the pipe some eighty feet down and it now sloped off at an angle.  The girl was trapped about fifteen feet from the angle of the pipe.  The pipe is very rusty and there might be a pocket of water surrounding it.  If the girl is tightly wedge, a section of the pipe will have to be cut out, perhaps risking both the girl and Steve of drowning.  The girl may injured and need a shot of morphine.  Steve will have to rescue her using only a cold chisel, a small sledge, and a hacksaw.   He will not be able to maneuver well in the pipe.

So you know what's going to happen.  Steve goes down and rescues the girl.  But it's not easy and there's a lot that goes on.  It's a thrilling rescue and, for a moment, it seemed like Steve was not going to survive.  But he does.  And he has that epiphany the readers had all been hoping for.  Just because you are thirty-eight inches tall does not make you less of a man.  And Steve is now thinking about becoming a father.  The end.

A good story, told realistically.

William Lindsay Gresham (19009-1962) is best known for his first novel, Nightmare Alley (1946), which was adapted for a 1947 film starring Tyrone Power, and was later filmed in 2021 with Bradley Cooper.  Nightmare Alley takes place in a second-rate carnival and remains one of the most significant noir novels published.  Gresham was fascinated with sideshow and carnivals and they inspired mush of his work, including his nonfiction book Monster Midway (1954).   Grindshow:  The Selected Writings of William Lindsay Gresham (2013) contains 24 articles and stories about "fairgrounds, spook shows, and hucksters."  Another noted work was his biography Houdini:  The Man Who Walked Through Walls (1959), written with the assistance of magician and skeptic James Randi.

Gresham was an alcoholic and serial adulterer who had occasional bouts of violence.  His wife, Joy Davidman, who was suffering from cancer, went to England to visit writer C. S. Lewis, with whom she had had a warm correspondence.  In her absence, Joy asked her cousin. Renee Rodiguez, to stay with Gresham and look after their two children.  When Joy was in England Gresham and Renee began an affair  Gresham eventually divorce Joy and married Renee.  Joy, meanwhile became a non-sexual companion to Lewis; she loved him and he respected her intellect -- eventually they married and he later fell in love with her.

Gresham eventually joined Alcoholics Anonymous but by that time he was going blind and had developed cancer of the tongue.  He committed suicide at age 53.  The only notice of his death in the New York paper was by Albert H. Morehead, a bridge columnist for the New York Times.

The February 23, 1952 issue of Collier's is availnable online at Internet Archive.