SHORT-SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: PLEASE HELP ME

"Please Help Me" by Richard Christian Matheson (first published in Robert Bloch's Psychos, edited by Robert Bloch for the Horror Writers Association [and completed by Martin H. Greenberg, following Bloch's death], 1997; reprinted in the author's Dystopia:  Collected Stories, 2000)

Richard Christian Matheson (b. 1953) is the author of over 100 short stories, the Stoker-nominated novel Created By, and numerous teleplays and filmscripts.  Most of his fiction consist of short-short stories of psychological horror and magic realism, effectively delivering short, sharp shocks.

"Please Help Me," as with a number of his short tales, is written in partial sentences, providing an immediacy that amplifies the story's horror.  The story begins:

"So hot.

"Smells.  Exhaust.

"Memorize the road.  Curves, dips.  Ruts.  Draw a map in your mind.  A way to trace everything for the cops.  Take them wherever the hell I'm going.

"Five left turns since the Shop 'N Go.

"Three rights.  Over metal grating.  A bridge?  The tires buzzed for nine seconds.  Maybe the  bridge that links Canoga Park with Chatsworth.  that narrow one.  Remember?  Used to fish off it with Dad."

The beauty of this approach is is that there is as much unsaid as there is said.

We learn that the narrator is bound, gagged, and blindfolded in the trunk of a car, kidnapped because he witness a grocery store robbery.  The three robbers shot the store owner.  We don't know why they did not shoot the narrator, who is a married man with a wife and daughter.  He has seen the robbers' faces and can identify them.  They are young; one of them is a girl.  He hears metal clanking in the trunk as they speed along.  A jack?  A gun?  They stop.  Take him out of the trunk.  The girl kicks him sharply in the groin, twice.  She enjoys it.  The others laugh.  There is a scratching sound, digging.  He is thrown into a hole in the ground, a grave.  He feels the dirt as it lands on him...

And that's the story...a vignette with the effect of a punch in the gut.  The story is less than four pages long, yet it says more than stories ten times the length.

Not a pleasant story and certainly not everyone's cup of tea, but a vivid exercise in the power of economy of words.

The author is the son of writer and screenwriter Richard Matheson (I Am Legend, The Shrinking Man. Hell House, What Dreams May Come, The Memoirs of Wild Bill Hickok, Kolchak:  The Night Stalker).  He is also the older brother of screenwriter Chris Matheson (the Bill and Ted franchise, Mom & Dad Save the World, A Goofy Movie), as well as writer Ali Marie Matheson.  Talent runs deep in that family.

OVERLOOKED CRIME DRAMA: MR. DISTRICT ATTORNEY (1941)

This is the first of four films based on the popular radio series which ran from 1939 to 1952; the series moved to television twice, first on ABC from October 1, 1951 to June 23, 1952, then in syndication from 1954 to 1955.

The radio show was created by Ed Byron, who based the character on then New York Governor Thomas B. Dewey; Dewey's earlier campaign against racketeering had led to his election.  Producer Philips Lord, the creator of Gang Busters, helped develop the concept and created the title.  For many years the main character was known only as Mister District Attorney, and was later called Paul Garrett, which was also the name given the character in the syndicated television version.  In the first three films, his name was P. Cadwaller Jones; in the final film the name was Steve Bennett.  Over the years, many actors portrayed the title character: on radio -- Dwight Weist, Raymond Edward Johnson, Jay Jostyn, tony Randall, and David Bryon; in film --Dennis O'Keefe, James Ellison, and John Hubbard; and on television -- Jay Jostyn and David Brian.

The 1942 film of Mr. District Attorney took a screwball approach to the series; although it remains a crime drama, you really have to squint to call it  noir.  P. (for Prince) Cadwaller Jones (Dennis O'Keefe), is a newly appointed Assistant District Attorney who teams up with eager young reporter Terry Parker (Florence Rice) to track down missing crook Paul Hyde (Peter Lorre), whose hidden cache of embezzled loot suddenly turns up at a race track.  There's a few dead bodies, more than a few wisecracks, and some action -- all of which adds up to a very enjoyable time waster.  Also featured are Stanley Ridges as District Attorney Tom Winton and Minor Watson as Arthur Barret, the man eager to take over Winton's job, as well as a slew of Republic Pictures' most accomplished character actors.

Directed  by William Morgan, a former cinematographer whose directing career never matched his talent.  Written by Karl Brown and Malcolm Stuart Boylan; of the two, Boylan had the more noted career, penning three Boston Blackie films, one Lone Wolf film, as well as Trent's Last Case, A Yank at Oxford, and Dr. Cyclops.

O'Keefe also starred in the fourth film, also titled Mr. District Attorney (1947), a much more serious take, and this time the character was named Steve Bennett.

Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfX4YqeF2w8

MINI VAY-CAY

 See you next week!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KURT WEILL!

Kurt Weill (1900-1959), the German-American composer who% collaborated with Bertold Brecht to produce The Threepenny Opera, was born on this day 126 years ago.  The World of Kurt Weill in Song premiered off-Broadway on June 6, 1963, featuring Martha Schlamme and will Holt; it was revised as A Kurt Weill Cabaret for Broadway with Schlamme and Alvin  Epstein in 1979.

MGM Records released a cast recording of the 0ff-Broadway performance in 1963, featuring songs from The Threepenny Opera, Marie Gallante, Der Silbersee, Lady in the Dark, Knickerbocker Holiday, Happy End, and Lost in the Stars.  I literally wore out my copy of the record, it was so perfect  The link takes you to all fourteen songs; unfortunately, there are a number of irritating ads between each song -- fell free to skip over them.

Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNkkXfgsscE&list=PLbsqz0QMw2y7oVag4GOAx5pr_IrX7MMFR&index=1

HYMN TIME

Gryphon Hall (Hal Guerrero).  

Happy Women's History Month:  Words and music by Clara H. Scott (1841-1897), noted 19th century woman gospel poet and the first woman to published a book of anthems.  This hymn was inspired by Psalm 119, verse 18.  Sadly she died after being thrown from a carriage when her horse was spoked.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFjo6E6KU4c

BUSTER CRABBE #3 (MARCH 1952)

 Clarence Linden "Buster" Crabbe (1908-1983) was a 1932 gold medial Olympian swimmer in the 400-meter freestyle who parlayed his win into a film and television career, playing at various times Tarzan, Flash Gordon, and Buck Rogers.  He appeared in more than 100 films, often playing a "jungle man;"  he also starred as a good-guy version of Billy the Kid in thirteen movies and cowboy hero Billy Carson in twenty-three movies.  On television, footage from his films were shown on The Gabby Hayes show, and later on his own The Buster Crabbe Show, a New-York City-based series; from 1955 to 1957 he starred in Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion, with his real-life son Cullen playing the child role of Cuffy Sanders.

Two comic books series were named after him:  the twelve-issue Buster Crabbe Comics ("Your Television All-American Cowboy") from 1953 to 1955, and four issues of The amazing Adventures of Buster Crabbe in 1954.

In "Buster Crabbe and the Mankiller," Treasury Agent Jim Winters is sent to investigate a bank robbery that netted the crooks nearly half a million dollars.  There he meets his old friend Buster, who happens to have roamed into town with his sidekick whiskers (picture Al "Fuzzy" St. John).  Buster and Whiskers are deputized  to help Winters.  Meanwhile, a wild animal show has come to town -- that's "wild animal" singular; the only animal is a caged, very gentle tiger.  Walton, the tiger's owner, wakes up the next morning to discover the cage door open and the tiger missing.  Then Jim Winters' mangle and clawed body is discovered.  While the sheriff and the rest of the town go on a hunt for the tiger, Buster and Whiskers stay behind to investigate the robbery.  you know and I know -- and Buster suspects -- that the bank president and the sheriff are in cahoots for the robbery.  buster and Whiskers confront the gang and thew four outlaws are no match for Buster's lightning fast draw and accurate aim.  Later that day, the tiger wanders back into town and goes into his cage on his own.  Good artwork from Allen Ulmer.

Al Williamson drew the next story, "The Ogre," as well as providing the superb and interesting cover at fo=r the comic.  A couple of hunters are camping out getting ready for the opening  of the season, when a large, ugly, man-like, furred monster comes out of the woods and confronts them.  Could this be the ancient Indian legend of "Kagagak" come to life?  The hunters run into town to warn the townspeople,  but are no believed (the hunters are Easterners, so who would believe them?),  but white /wing, an ancient Indian, tells of the equally ancient myth of Kagagak.  Buster decides that he and Whiskers would go investigate.   At the abandoned campsite, Buster finds a large footprint that could not have been made by either man or animal.  It leads them to an extinct volcano and a cave at the bottom of the crater where they are attacked by the creatures.  Buster frightens them off with gunfire -- the noise scares them..  He figure these primitive monsters mean no harm and decides to keep their existence a secret, later telling the hunters that what they saw was a hermit dressed up to scare them.

Whiskers takes the stage in the next story, "Whiskers and the Ghoul Gang."  Whiskers is spinning tall tales of his brave exploits against outlaws, when the sheriff and his friends decide to pull a joke on him, telling him about the murderous "Ghoul Gang."  Before the sheriff leaves town on an errand, he deputizes Whiskers "in case" the Ghoul Gang show up (he also manages to swap the bullets in Whiskers' gun with blanks).  Suddenly the Ghoul Gang -- six men in ghostly sheets -- "rob" the bank.  whiskers shoots at them to no effect and they ride off, supposedly  to the cemetery.  in the end, the last laugh is Whiskers'.  The artwork by Bob Powell and Howard Nostrand has the desired comic effect.

The rest of the issue is taken up by various fillers:  a two-page text story about Black Bart, a one-page humor story in which homer on the Range is frightened of cactus at night, a one-page telling of the history of Rawhide in the West, a five-page story in which Buster narrates the true story of the 1887 "Showdown" between Sheriff Commodore R. Owens and the notorious Blevins Brothers, and a wordless one-page humor story about "Whiskers' Nag."  The back cover carries ads for items that might appeal to a youngster in 1952:  saddlebags for your bicycle ($2.69 a pair),  western ensemble for your bicycle (a bar blanket with two holsters, a saddle skirt, a tail streamer and two handlebar streamers -- all for just #3.25),  an 18-inch brown and yellow plush stuffed "Jackie Rabbit" ($3.95), a giant piggy bank that can hold over $2,000 in silver ($3.95), two pounds of hard candy (Black Walnut Flakes and Chicken Bones -- just $1.50), and a two-way electronic walkie-talkie telephone ($3.00 each)  -- what kid wouldn't want all of these? 

Enjoy.

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=97663&comicpage=&b=i

FORGOTTEN BOOK: ALPHA CENTAURI -- OR DIE!

Alpha Centauri -- Or Die!   by Leigh Brackett  (first published in paperback as half of an Ace Double with Legend of Lost Earth by G. McDonald Wallis [perhaps better known as actress and romance writer "Hope Campbell"], 1963; published separately in 1976; included in Brackett's e-Book omnibus The Solar System, 2008; the book was a fix-up of two previously published stories:  "The Ark of Mars C" [Planet Stories, Winter 1954-1955] and "Teleportress of Alpha C" [Planet Stories, September 1953] )

More straight science fiction than the lyrical space opera/adventure fantasy Bracket is more noted for, Alpha Centauri -- Or Die! begins on Mars.  Robots have taken over all space flight an6d mankind is not allowed to pilot rocket ships any more; in fact, mankind lives in a rigidly proscribe utopia where  most wants are met but freedom of movement is limited.  Kirby, who had traveled the solar system, was one of the last human space pilots before automation took over space flight.  Now he lives in a compound on Mars with his second wife, the Martian Shari, a mild telepath.  He is a number of men who are resentful of the limitations played on them by the government.  A few years ago, the government sent a robotic ship outside the solar system, where it discovered a habitable world in Alpha Centauri.  Now Kirby and other have built a spaceship capable of taking families to that planet -- a journey that would last five years.  Fearful of losing their hold on the populace, the government sends deadly robotic ships -- faster and much better armed than Kirby's ship -- after the would-be colonists.  That's perhaps the most exciting part of the story.

After years of hardship, danger, and near revolt, the ship finally arrives at their new home in Alpha Centauri= -- only to find it occupied by a race of creatures with teleporting powers.  Can the two races learn to get together?  And can they fend off the deadly robotic ships that have followed Kirby all the way from Mars?

In reviewing this book, Rich Horton wrote, "Mediocre stuff, really, though Bracket is never unreadable, and I did enjoy the book."  As did I.

Leigh Brackett (1915-1978) was a pioneering science fiction writer who also worked in other fields, including crime and western fiction.  Her  novel Follow the Free Wind won a Spur Award.  She was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2014, received a Retro Hugo for The Nemesis from Terra,  and was the recipient of the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award.  She was also noted for her screen writing (The Big Sleep -- with William Faulkner; The Long Goodbye; Rio Bravo; Hatari, and others, including an early treatment for The Empire Strikes Back -- she passes away while working on the draft).  She was married to science fiction writer Edmond Hamilton; Ray Bradbury was their best man.