HYMN TIME

Sam Cooke.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaSmjdWEK9E

FANTASTIC FOUR #1 (NOVEMBER 1961)

Let's hop back in time 65 years (has it really been that long?) and meet a new comic book superhero group -- The Fantastic Four -- Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben.

Here's their origin story and their clash with their very first villain...The Moleman!

Enjoy.

https://archive.org/details/ff01_1961/mode/1up

FORGOTTEN BOOK: THE ICE-COLD NUDE

The Ice-Cold Nude by Carter Brown, 1962

Now let us sing the praises of Alan Geoffrey Yates (1923-1985), the English-born Australian author who developed a world-wide fan base writing as "Carter Brown."  He was more of a publishing phenomenon than a good writer, and the total number of books he sold may well number in the tens (perhaps hundreds) of millions.  Art Scott has described the Brown books as exhibiting "no pretentions to being other than lightweight, breezy entertainment, to be read in one sitting and forgotten."  Scott goes on:  "The Brown books are indeed formula potboilers, and can be cruelly picked apart on grounds of sloppy plotting, minimal characterization, uninspired prose and, of course, unbelievability (the plots and characters have tended to  become sillier over the years).  Yet the formula has proven consistently popular; this uncanny mix of action, sex, and humor, with its attendant refusal to be taken at all seriously, is escapism pure and simple."

I can personally attest to that.  The Carter Brown novels, which came in a steady stream from Signet Books, helped put me through college; they were far more interesting than many of my classes, and I once tore through five Carter Browns in a single day.  (The other thing that helped me through college was that there three barrooms within walking distance from my dormitory; well, four actually, but the fourth was a rough Mexican bar often cited in the local police report, a place where any student with a lick of sense and a hope for survival avoided.)  Think of the Carter Brown novels as potato chips, or peanuts, or popcorn.

I don't know if there is an actual count of how many books Alan Yates published.  There were at least over 220 Carter Brown books, as well as over 75 novellas, many of which were published separately; Wikipedia gives the count as 322 published Carter Brown novels.  Add to that uncounted western, horror, and science fiction novels under various pseudonyms.  Many l\of the early Carter Browns were published in Australia and England as  by Peter Carter-Brown (or Peter Carter Brown).

And then there were the characters.  Carter created at least fifteen series characters.  The most popular were:

• Al Wheeler, a California homicide detective (52 books, many being reprinted by Stark House, bless them)
• Rick Holman, a Hollywood troubleshooter for the stars (34 books)
• Danny Boyd, a New York private detective (33 books)
• Mavis Seidlitz, a tough and sexy female private eye (12 books)
• Larry Baker, a Hollywood scriptwriter with a perpetually drunk partner (6 books)
• other series detectives were Randy Roberts, Paul Donavan, Andy Kane, Mike Farrell, Mark Jordan, Joe Kahn, Ivor MacCullum, Max Dumas, Greg Ballard, and Carter Stanton.

The Ice-Cold Nude was the twelfth book in the Danny Boyd series.  Boyd is an egotistical (every woman should be falling for his profile; if  not, there's something wrong the the woman) and brutal private eye, the type that often appears the the '30s and '40s pulp detective magazines.

Boyd's normal beat is New York City, but this case brings him to Santo Bahio, California, tasked with finding and returning a one hundred thousand dollar (that's 1962 dollars) diamond tiara.  The tiara has been on display at a posh jeweler's and was intended to be a publicity ploy for a beauty contest sponsored by a plastics manufacturing company -- the winner to be crowned and photographed wearing the tiara.  There were three finalists in the contests and, under heavy security, each was photographed wearing the crown for advance publicity photos.  After the photo session, the tiara was placed back on display, only to be discovered later that it was a fake.  The switch had to have been made during the photo session.

The suspects were the jewelry store owner (Boyd's client), his assistant (who designed the original tiara and is fond of painting naked ladies), the president of the plastics company (a bully philanderer who likes to hit women), his wife (who hates him and constantly strays), the publicity manager for the plastics company (who first suggested using the tiara), the photographer, and the three finalists in the contest, lone of whom is a blackmailing "tramp" with what appears to be mob connections.  Ad o that list, that model's older sister (the only "plain jane" in the book, one of those who, at the end of the movie, releases her hair from a bun and takes off her glasses, and VAVOOM!), and the red-haired  buxom Jeweler's receptionist (who appears to be impervious to Boyd's charms -- what is wrong with her?).

And pretty soon we have a murder.  A naked lady in a shower, no less.  And Danny Boyd's local police nemesis is planning for Danny to take a fall.

And, just for fun, here's two examples of the author's deathless prose:

• Her eyes were moist, like wet olives, a she smile into my face and I felt my crew cut stand up in stiff revulsion.
• I left her still thinking about it, and I could tell she was thinking hard because of the disturbing thought waves that rippled down the front of her orlon sweater.

Reading a Carter Brown book is akin to wallowing in the shallow end of the detective novel pool.  I love it!

Somewhat off subject, but a few things should be mentioned.  A  number of sources, including the St. James Guide to Crime & Mystery Writers states that Yates was also gothic suspense writer "Caroline Farr," who published at least 48 books from 1966 to 1980, 45 of which were published by Signet in the U.S.  Not so.  "Caroline Farr" was a by-line of another prolific Australian author Richard Wilkes-Hunter (1906-1991).

The Yates estate says that he wrote all of his books himself, with the exception of ten books from 1958 when Yates was overseas.  Those were written by C. J. McKenzie, an editor for Yates's Australian publisher, Horwitz.

Stories have circulated that prolific writer Robert Silverberg once wrote four Carter Brown novels while he was client of the Scott Meredith Literary Agency, but the novels were never published.  I've seen no proof of this. but I believe it.

DUFFY'S TAVERN: ARCHIE PROPOSES TO MARIE "THE BODY" McDONALD (APRIL 6, 1945)

Duffy's Tavern, where the elite meet to eat, ran from March 1, 1941 to December 28, 1951 on several radio networks (CBS, 1941-41; NBC Blue, 1942-42; and NBC, 1945-1951), and featured Ed Gardner as Duffy's bartender Archie.  (Gardner had originally created the character as early as November1939 on NBC's Good News for 1940.)  The show was co-created  by Gardner and Abe Burrows, who also served as head writer for the first five years.  In 1949, Gardner moved the show to Puerto Rico, hoping to take advantage of tax  breaks, but many of the high-powered guests stars, who were a main feature of the program, opted not to travel that far, and the program died in 1951.

The show moved to the big screen, once, in 1945, with Paramount Pictures' release of Ed Gardner's Duffy's Tavern, with a line-up of 32 of Paramount's biggest stars playing themselves, including Bing Crosby, Paulette Goddard, Betty Hutton, Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Dorothy Lamour, and Robert Benchley.  In 1954, Duffy's Tavern re-emerge as a syndicated television series for 39 episodes.  Because of other commitments, Gardner restricted himself to merely acting in the series.  The show was not a success:  "woefully cookie-cutter in design,"  "TV-sitcom cliches," and "this isn't the same Duffy's Tavern we had known for so many years on the radio."  (an earlier, hour-long version of Duffy's Tavern had been filmed for the All Star Revue series; it was never aired because the sponsor [Pet Evaporated Milk] was a milk company and the barroom conflicted with the company's image.)

For those too young to remember, Marie "The Body" McDonald (1923-1965) was an actress, singer, and popular World War II pin-up girl.  Despite her popularity, her career was hampered by press attention to her romantic life.  She had numerous high-profile romances and seven marriages (including one re-marriage) and once made a questionable claim of being kidnapped by two men and held for ransom.  She died at age 42 from what was deemed to be an accidental "active drug intoxication due to multiple drugs."

In this episode, also known as "Archie Tries to Impress Marie,"  Archie pretends to be an wealthy eccentric to win her heart.  Predictably, things backfire.

Enjoy.

https://archive.org/details/duffys-tavern-205-archie-proposes-to-marie-the-body-mc-donald-04-12-46

A SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY TWOFER, PART 2: THE HOAXTERS

"The Hoaxters" by Richard Wilson (from Galaxy Science Fiction, June 1952; reprinted in the collection Those Idiots from Earth, 1957)

Sam and Alex, lone researchers on a lone asteroid, are bored.  They have already spent three months of their hitch with absolutely no results for their work, which consisted of hand rolling pieces of the asteroid in search of something -- they have note been told what they are looking, or why they are looking for it, or even why they must do the searching by hand rather than by using the technology that is available.  They are bored and feel useless and are homesick.  The asteroid, for all intents and purposes, is devoid of life; the only living thing is a tiny one-celled organism that buries itself deep within the asteroid, presumably feeding on some element in the soil -- Sam and Alex called the organisms "vizzies," for "invisibles."

Every day for the past three months, they have been broadcasting their results to Earth, always with the dame four words:  "All well. Progress nil."  Then, because he was bored, Alex want to change the daily message to:  "All well.  Progress...Break for urgent.  S.O.S.  Research Station Nineteen.  Attack on station  by alien life form from coordinates zero four eight x two seven.  Request patrol craft blast spot as own armament ineffective."  Sometime boredom needs  some excitement to break things up.  Sam was reluctant, feeling that Alex's scenario (which postulated an attack by one of Jupiter's patrol ship) would blow up in their faces.  He suggested an attack by the vizzies, rising from the ground in some sort of migratory pattern and forming an unspecified multi-cellular threat.  That sounded even better to Alex.

Not only did the patrol come and leave an o-bomb crater a quarter of  mile wide, but they were followed by reporters covering the event.  

The two managed to pull off their hoax,  but soon they got bored again, and like the boy who cried wolf...

And now officials began to consider the "attacks" to be "problematical."  Although official reports backed up Sam and Alex's story, in private the patrol and the corporation just did not believe them.

And then Sam and Alex learned that they really did not known anything about the vizzies...

A cute story about man-made hysteria and its consequences, although this time with a redeeming ending.

Richard Wilson (1920-1987) was a journalist and long-time news director.  A founder of the legendary science fiction group The Futurians in the 1930s, He was the author of some 120 short stories and three well-regarded satirical science fiction novels.  Wilson was instrumental in having prominent science fiction authors donate their papers to the George Arents Research Library of Syracuse University, now acknowledged as "the most important collection of science fiction manuscripts and papers in the world."  Wilson received  Nebula Award in 1968 for his novellette "Mother to the World," and tow other of his stories have been nominated for Nebula Awards.  "In his later years, Wilson reportedly made it clear to colleagues that he remained too content in his professional life to continue seriously in a writing career."  [John Clute]  His writing was marked by a polished professionalism, often with a gentle satiric and humorous edge.   One can do far worse than seek out his writing.

A SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY TWOFER, PART 1 : THE SERPENT

 THE SERPENT

 THE SERPENT

Three boys were playing together in a field; and as they played, one passing by called to them:  "Beware!  in the corner of that field is a poisonous serpent, whose bite is death."

"Alas!" said one child.  "How terrible, to think that anything evil should be in a place so lovely.  Let me flee from it!" and he wept, and ran from the place.

"Why," said the second child, "should such a thing be here?  what is the reason of it?"  and he found himself a safe place, and sat down to ponder on the matter.

The third child picked up a stone.  "Show it to me!" he said.

-- Laura E. Richards, The Silver Crown:  Another Book of Fables, 1906

Laura Elizabeth (Howe) Richards (1850-1943) was the daughter of Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, an abolitionist and the founder of the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind, and of Julia Ward Hlowe, who wrote the lyrics for "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."  She was a pre-kindergarten- to-second-grade elementary schoolteacher in Gardiner, Maine.  She published some ninety books during her lifetime, including biographies, poetry, and children's books.  Julia Ward Howe 1819-1910, a biography she co-wrote with her sisters, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1917.  Her children's book, Tirra Lirra:  Rhymes New and Old, won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1959.  Among her best-known books was Captain January, 1891, which was made into a Shirley Temple movie in 1936.  One lof her most popular poems for children was "Elephony," 1932 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJVSDAdxpNc).

OVERLOOKED FILM: THE STRANGE CASE Of DR. Rx (1942)

From IMDb:  "A mysterious vigilante known as 'Dr. X' strikes again.  Assigned to the case is private detective Jerry Church but the crimes are baffling and involve strangulation and a possible attempt to implant a gorilla's brain into a human body."  Don't you just hate when they try that?

Featuring Patric Knowles (The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Wolf Man, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man) as the detective and Lionel Atwood (who ended his career by frequently playing criminal doctors or mad scientists in low budget B-movies).  The two are abetted by Anne Gwynne (House of Frankenstein, Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome, Arson, Inc.), Samuel S. Hinds (It's a Wonderful Life, You Can't Take It with You, Scarlet Street), and Mona Barrie (Something to Sing About, Skylark, Cairo).  Throw in appearance from Shemp Howard, Mantan Morland, and an uncredited Ray "Crash" Corrigan (in one of his early gorilla suits as Nbongo the gorilla) and you have a campy low-budget wonder.

Directed by William Nigh (Rose of the Rio Grande, Mr. Wong in Chinatown, Lady from Chungking) and scripted by Clarence Upson Young (Madame Spy, Night Monster, The Ghost That Walks Alone), from a story by Alex Gottlieb (Mystery of the White Room, Susan Slept Here, and the creator of the television shows Dear Phoebe and Love That Jill).  It should be noted that, although the film was scripted, most of the characters ad-libbed their lines.

The film got poor reviews on release ("[an] incredulous and wearisome tale"), although the Leonard Maltin Classic Movie Guide later called it a "fast-paced whodunit...but not particularly puzzling."

What do you think?

https://archive.org/details/the-strange-case-of-doctor-rx-1942

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TOR JOHNSON!

Karl Erik Tore Johansson (1903-1971) was a Swedish wrestler and B-movie star, perhaps best known for his appearances in films of Ed Wood, Jr.  He stood 6' 3", weighed up to 440 pounds, and shaved off his full blond hair to give him a more threatening appearance.  In person, he was quite different from his stage persona -- one co-worker described him a "a big sugar bun" -- a friendly, likable guy with a big heart.

Johnson had already been working in films for twenty years (mostly in uncredited roles) when Ed wood gave him second billing to Bela Lugosi in 1953's Bride of the Monster.  Johnson never had many lines in his films -- just being Tor Johnson was enough for his fans, but his screen presence always added something special to whatever film he was in.

Here's the MST3K presentation of  Bride of the Monster.

Enjoy.  And Happy Birthday, Tor!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1G8FvQyfnI

HYMN TIME

From 1977, The Million Dollar Quartet -- Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Roy Orbison.

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

THOROUGHLY RACIST CARTOON: STEVE OF THE RIVER (1937)

I recently came across this cartoon on YouTube.  Steve the Horse was a hugely popular carthorse featured in Roland Davies' British newspaper comic strip in the Sunday Express, Come On Steve! from 1932 to 1947, and spawning several children's annuals and six animated features.  The name of the strip came from a popular cheer given to the legendary jockey Steve Donaghue.  Steve was a wordless but genial horse whose stemmed from his light-hearted adventures and sight gags.

Steve of the River was the fourth of the six cartoons and a parody of Edgar Wallace's popular character Sanders of the River, a British commissioner in darkest Africa.  The Wallace stories (twelve collections from 1911 to 1928, with at least two additional collections written by Francis Gerard following Wallace's death) were also stereotypically racist.  (But, hey, this was England still in its the colonial era, so I guess the blatant racism was okay, maybe.)  Wallace's Sanders of the River reigned over his fictional portion of Africa (modeled, in part, on Nigeria) with a firm, but fair, hand, dealing with tribal hatreds, ju-ju, and various uprisings.  I enjoy the Sanders stories for what they are -- a snapshot of a time, place, and attitude that I hope I never have to see.

In Steve of the River, Steve and his human companion Sam are in Africa, "where they must escape local cannibals.  Lord Sandy, the Commissioner, leaves his African district for the weekend, and is waved off on his plane by Steve, a white horse, and his rider, Sam.  The Africans beat their drums to announce Lord Sandy is gone, while the local King laughs.  Now ignoring a sign saying 'Cannibal stew pot not to be used again by order - Lord Sandy', the locals throw spears, capture Sam and fling him in their pot.  The locals perform magic, as the King rides off on Steve.  Steve throws the King over a cliff and outwits the locals by pretending to be dead.  He beats his own message announcing that Lord Sandy has returned and the locals flee.  Steve is now able to rescue Sam and they escape in a chase sequence after they pretend to be a zebra and a tortoise."  [YouTube description]

The description is bad enough, but the execution is execrable.  The artwork is crude and does not have even the distinction of rising to a Windsor McKay level of racism.  Stereotype done with a wink and a nod can be fun, but stereotypes which exist merely to promote the idea of white superiority are off-putting.

It is important to preserve items such as this so that we know we know where we came from and can judge how far -- if at all -- we have come from that point.  To do otherwise lies the path to MAGA-dom.

So, warts and all, here's Steve:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIcXgzJTMH4&t=3s

BING BANG COMICS #30 (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 1946)

Bing Bang Comics was a Canadian title from Maple Leaf Publishing Company in Vancouver and ran from late 1941 to at least mid-1946.  As you can tell from this cover, editions were also published in the British Isles.

Pinky Poe. a young boy, is one of the main characters in many issues of Bing Bang.  in this issue he is upset because all of his friends are going elsewhere for summer vacation and he has to stay home in his boring town with nothing to do.  It turns out he's not the only one staying home.  Roger, a poor kid in ragged clothes, is also staying home; his family cannot afford a vacation.  The pair bond and vow to spend their days playing together.  but when Pinky got home, his mother had news -- his father has to go to San Francisco for business and he's taking the family with him.  Pinky got so excited he forgot his promise to Roger.  Feeling guilty, Pinky concocted a scheme to have Roger go with him on the trip.  It was a pretty feeble scheme and Pinky's father caught on right away,  but everything turns out fine in the end.  Evidently in these stories, Pinky tries his hardest to be good.

Peter and Peggy, brother and sister, continue their adventures in London in "The Mystery of Grimstead Grange."  Previously, Peter has been robbed of the Kawlpore Ruby by Anuk, a Majoram.  We join him as he vows to recover the gem, but is being warned by another Majoram armed with a sword that the "Jewel of Gizah" must remain in the sect's temple; to try to recover it is to court death.  Just as the sword-bearing villain is about to slay peter, he is stopped by the Blessed Akabar. Peter is taken to the temple where his fate will be determined by the god Gizah.  The idol decrees that Peter must die.  Meanwhile, Peggy wakes in a viaduct beneath Waterloos Street feeling that something has happened to Peter.  Peggy and her Londoner friend go looking for Peter.  Their search takes them to the Athenaeum Club.  They enter the club just as Akabar swings the sword to execute Peter.  the girls hear a scream and a "thud," as Peggy faints in shock and horror.  "Is this the end of Peter? Can Peggy do anything to save him?  Or will her own life be endangered?  You can't afford to miss the next episode of 'GRIMSTEAD GRANGE' "

The nest story features Sergeant Canuck and his chubby assistant, Constable Clancy.  "Who ;placed the body of the former Humber butler in a culvert -- not far from the home of old Neil Humber, recently deceased?  ..We now know it was Percy, son of the wealthy recluse, who had disposed of the servant in order to claim his father's estate by means of a forged will!"   Now all Sergeant Canuck has to do is prove it, which he does, following an escape attempt in which Clancy is wounded.

Tur Hozak and Zar swing their timeship from  the age of Lomar to the Pleistocene Era, about 1,000,000 BC.  There they first face a sabretooth tiger, which is disintegrated by a blast from Zor's atom gun just as the beast was leaping at Tur.  Then they rescue a cave man from an attacking mastodon.  They follow the cave man to his tribe, which they found huddling from the cold.  A wild boar attacks and they shoot it with the atom gun, but the gun also sets off an explosion of natural gas, which starts a fire.  the cave men huddle around the fire for warmth, never before realizing that fire could  bring warmth.  So Tur and Zor head off in their time ship for the far future and another adventure.

Eve is showing her friend Hilda some of Adam's old baby pictures.  Adam meanwhile has come out of the shower and realized that the dry towels and his clothes are in the bedroom.  Eve is laughing so hard at the old pictures that she cannot hear Adam trying to get her attention.  finally dressed, Adam joins the girls bit they are too busy laughing at his baby pictures.  Upset, Adam tries to get the album from them but fails.  He inwardly promises his revenge.  Later, when Eve is giving herself a pedicure, Adam sneaks a photograph, and still later, while she is in the bath.  He soon finds he can make a bundle selling the photos as pin-up pictures.  What I assume passes for hilarity ensues.  A tawdry example of sexism and exploitation from a time long before the Me-Too Era.  Sad, and frankly disgusting.  A complete 180 from the feel-good nature of the first story.

An all black and white issue with stylized minimal art ranging from very crude to quite effective.  The scattershot approach to stories diminishes the effect of the comic book.

What do you think?

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=102630

BTW:  TODAY IS NO KINGS DAY!  HOPE YOU ARE ABLE TO PARTICIPATE!

FORGOTTEN BOOK: RIPTIDE

Riptide by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child  (1998)

Every time you think you've hit rock bottom, you find there's a bottom below.

That could be the basic theme of Riptide, a treasure hunting adventure thriller based on the legend of Oak Island.

Legend had it that notorious English pirate "Red Ned" Ockham had buried his vast hoard of treasure on Ragged Island, off the coast of Maine.  Red Ned was the deadliest, most feared, and most successful pirate of his day; his fleet consisted of nine ship laden down with booty -- gold, silver, jewels, artwork, fine clothes, and much more -- including the legendary St. Michael's Sword, which gave its bearer the power of life and death over his foes.  Red Ned had his treasured buried at the bottom of a huge pit -- the Water Pit (for some reason, I want to call it the Money Pit) -- designed to frustrate anyone other than Red Ned who tried to retrieve the treasure.  But before Red Ned could retrieve his fabulous wealth, his ship was found with all aboard mysteriously dead.

The first attempt to retrieve the treasure was in 1792; it ended in tragedy when a seal was  broken and sea water rushed in to claim the Water Pit's first victim.  Over the years, other unsuccessful attempt to get the treasure failed -- in 1800, in 1831, in 1840, in 1869, in 1883, then three more time between 1900 and 1907, and finally in 1940.  All attempts ended in failure, bankruptcy, and death...

The 1940 attempt was made by Alfred Westgate Hatch, Sr., who had gone so far as to purchase the island from a land speculator, and to move his family to the nearby, isolated village of Stormhaven.  As had happened every time ion the past, the island defeated the treasure hunter and Hatch soon found himself bankrupt.  Hatch turned to drink and soon died, leaving the island to his nineteen-year-old son.  the son, A. W. Hatch, Jr., destroyed all of his father's papers and refused to have anything to do with the island, which remained barren and unoccupied for more than two decades.

In 1971, young Malin Hatch was bored and, because his parents were not at home, convinced his older brother Johnny to go with him to explore the forbidden island as a great adventure.  The two boys rowed out to the island and were not impressed...a few scrawny trees, a lot of rocks, and not much else.  Then they discovered a fissure in the ground, which led to a cave or a tunnel.  Now, this was more like it; this was adventure!  They entered and slowly made their way through the tunnel until they came to a door.  By this time Maline was getting scared and wanted to leave, but Johnny called him a coward.  Johnny opened the door.  A blast pushed him into the darkness, water began to converge, and Johnny was swept away.  Malin had no real memory of what had happened.  The townspeople and the Coast Guard searched for Johnny's body,  but could find nothing.  The curse of the Water Pit had struck again, and Malin grew up with the guilt of his brother's death.

Fast forward some twenty years.  Malin's father drowned soon after, bereft, and possibly a suicide.  Malin and his mother stayed in Stormhaven for a few years, enduring the looks of the townspeople, and finally moved to Boston.  As if to make up for Johnny's death, Malin pushed himself through college and medical school, spent years working the world's most dangerous spots for Doctors Without Borders, and then began a practice and research at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge.

Over the years, Malin had been approached by many people -- clairvoyants, dowsers, psychics, oil barons, engineers, and other, all with their own "foolproof" scheme -- seeking to recover the treasure, and had rejected them all; the treasure could be real, or could be a myth, but the search for it had cost many lives over the past three centuries, and Malin, still stricken by the death of his brother, refused to have any part of it.  Then Malin was approached by Captain Gerard Neidelman, an experienced "recovery specialist" and the head of a company called Thalassa Holdings, who also wanted to recover the treasure.  Neidelman -- and Thalassa -- had found and recovered many hidden  treasures in the past, many of them thought impossible to retrieve, using the very latest in scientific methods and equipment.  a group with deep pockets, Thalassa had raised 22 million dollars to fund such an expedition to Ragged Island.  Their researchers had estimated the Water Pit treasure to be worth, conservatively, two billion dollars.  He offered Malin half of the amount -- one billion -- for permission to search the island.   Malin rebuffed Neidelman at first, but then began thinking about the offer.  Here was a chance to put his demons at rest, perhaps find Johnny's body, and use the money to set up a foundation in his brother's name.  He decide to agree, but with several conditions:  first, that he join the team as their medical doctor, and also that he reserved the right to cancel the project at any time if he felt such a decision was neccessary.

Time was of the essence.  Neidelman had about a month before the start of hurricane season, which would halt all work on the project.  But Neidelman had done his preliminary work: he had already assembled a team of experts in everything from engineering and computing to archaeology and history, and had discover a lost dairy of the seventeenth century architect who had designed the Water Pit.  Sir William Macallan was acknowledge to be England's greatest architect next to Christopher Wren.  Macallan had been a passenger on a vessel sailing to America when it was taken by Red Ned, who slew everyone on board except for Macallan, forcing him to design a foolproof place to protect his treasure.  But Macallan had also been a government secret agent, and kept a detailed description of his plan and how to get around all the traps designed in it in his journal, using invisible ink and several highly sophisticated codes.  Neidelman's experts had already broken the code for the first part of the journal using the latest computer technology, and were working on breaking the second part, recorded in another highly complicated code.

So, Malin returned to Stormhaven for the first time since he had left as a teen.  His mother, for some reason, had kept the family home their, unoccupied, all this time, and since her death from cancer, Malin had done the same.  The small village of fishermen and lobstermen had not changed much in the intervening years, except perhaps with the addition of the Reverend Woody Clay, a dour and uncompromising fundamentalist minister who had married Malin's high school sweetheart.  Stormhaven was a poor town and its residents welcome the sudden influx of cash that Thalassa's crew brought, but they also feared the so-called curse of the fog-bound and normally unapproachable island.

Among the experts that Neidelman had brought on board were Isabel Bonterre, archaeologist and dive leader, Christopher St. John, the expedition's historian who was researching Macallan, Kerry Wopner, a rather unusual computer expert, Lyle Streeter, the stoic team foreman, Sandra Magnusen, the team's chief engineer and remote sensing specialist, and Roger Rankin, geologist.  Most appeared friendly, but Malin got bad vibes from Streeter, who had been working with Neidelman throughout the latter's career.  As for Neidelman, Malin soon learned that the competent, highly organized man was also a driven monomaniac determined to achieve his goal at any cost. 

The Water Pit itself was a maze of tunnels, some natural and some engineered, and traps; it descended hundreds of feet below the surface, shored up by buttresses and blocked off at several points.  The first tragedy soon took place: a worker had somehow triggered the collapse of a buttress which had him pinned to the ground, water began seeping into the area and would soon drown him.  Efforts to remove lift the heavy buttress from the victim failed and Malin was forced to amputate the man's legs on the spot in order to possibly save his life.  This helped to increase the talk of a curse among the townspeople.

Other problems kept cropping up.  Macallan's traps kept being sprung.  The computers kept giving conflicting data for no discernable reason.  Workmen began to appear at Malin's onsite clinic with varying complaints.  And Bonterre had discovered a large gravesite which held the skeletons of at least eighty men from Red Ned's crew -- the skeletons showed no sign of violence but had still been hastily placed in the grave; tests on the various bones showed that the men had died of disease, but each of a different disease, eliminating the theory that plague had struck the island.  Talk became frequent of the island's curse and of a possible supernatural explanation.

Injecting dye into the Water Pit revealed that five of the tunnels went directly to the sea, so Neidelman used explosives to block each of the tunnels at its entry point to the Atlantic.  Still the money pit flooded.  Eventually, Neidelman elected to build a wall around the island to keep the sea out, much as Macallan had Red Ned's men do while the Water Pit was being constructed.

Meanwhile, the townspeople were getting restless.  Clay, the minister, had been fomenting opposition to the project and was organizing a large group of fishermen and lobstermen to go to the island to protest.  And then a fierce Northeaster struck...  And Lyle Streeter began hunting Malin and Isabel Bonterre with a high velocity weapon...  All this as Neidelman finally reached the treasure:  wealth and riches beyond imagining, as well as the legendary jewel-encrusted St. Michaels Sword...But the curse of the Water Pit was not finished, because there is always a bottom below...

A highly detailed and richly imagined novel that pulls the reader page by page to its exciting and inexorable ending, Riptide was an early standalone novel from the writing pair best known for their long-running thrillers about Special Agent A. X. L. Pendergast.  It was the fourth book from the pair and their second standalone.  Interestingly, it is the only one of the pair's four standalones in which they did not mine some of their characters and later insert them into their Prendergast, Nora Kelly, or Gideon Crew series; this, in itself, gives the novel a unique sense of completeness.

Riptide is a thrill ride that stands well with the best of modern adventure novels, a battle between modern science against an ancient -- and possibly supernatural -- foe.

NOTHING FAZES MARK

 https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1804711890778092&set=a.700461257869833

MR. MOTO: A FORCE CALLED X07 (MAY 20, 1951)

Following the death of Charlie Chan creator Earl Der Biggers in 1933, the Saturday Evening Post was eager another Asiatic detective to replace Chan.  Novelist and short story writer J. P. Marquand, who was a familiar author to readers of SEP, was tasked to coming up with Chan's replacement.  The result was I. A. Moto,  a senior intelligence officer for a pro-Western Japanese government.  Marquand wrote six novels about the character, beginning with Your Turn, Mr. Moto in 1935.  Peter Lorre played the character in eight films from 1937 to 1939.  In 1965 the character returned to the screen in The Return of Mr. Moto, featuring Henry Silva.  Mr. Moto joined the radio airwaves in a 23-episode series beginning in 1951, starring James Monks, who had a 20-year radio career and played supporting roles on stage, before retiring to become a male fashion model.

Here, in the first episode of the radio series, Moto is faced with a dangerous new biological weapon and a murdered scientist.

Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4FH7Bd2GWM

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE PHANTOM DEATH

 "The Phantom Death" by W. Clark Russell (first published in The Idler, October 1893; republished as the title story in Russell's The Phantom Death and Other Stories, 1895; and in Waves of Terror, edited by Michael Parry, 1976)

In April 1840, having finished his business in South America, West booked passage out of Rio de Janiero to Bristol on the Lord of the Isles, a small barque with a company consisting of twelve men; West was happy to be the sole passenger for the Atlantic crossing for he had had a disagreeable crowded crossing earlier while traveling from England to Brazil.  On this voyage, both the crew and the captain were pleasant companions.

On the eighth day out, West shared drinks with the captain in the captain's cabin before retiring for the night.  The next morning he was awakened by the first mate, who was horrified at the state in which he had found the captain:  "Captain Joyce lay in his bunk dressed in a flannel snirt and a pair of white drill rousers.  All his throat and a considerable portion of his chest were exposed, and his feet were naked.  I looked at him scarcely crediting my sight:  I did not know him as the man I had parted with  but a few hours ago.  He was swelled from head to foot as though drowned:  the swelling contorted his countenance out of all resemblance to his familiar face; the flesh of him that was visible was of a pale blue, as if rubbed with a powder of he stuff called 'blue' which the laundresses use in getting up their linen.  His eyes were open, but were rolled out of sight, and the 'whites', as they are called, were covered with red blotches."  His hand was cold, his breathing thin, and he soon began convulsions.  Within a few hours he was dead.

What had killed him?  What could cause such a rapid transformation to death?  The first mate was convinced that only a poison could be the cause.  West, himself, wondered if it could have been some illness that had lingered, latent, within his body from before he had set sail -- but that did not seem likely.  And if it was poison, how had it been administered?  If accidently, certainly not in food, for the captain ate only the same food as the rest of the crew, who remained unaffected.  If it had been self-administered, where was the poison now?  No trace of it could be found in the cabin.  Or could he have been deliberately poisoned by someone on the ship?  But the captain was well-liked by all on board, no one had a reason to harm him.  This might have to remain one of the mysteries of the sea as the crew went about their duties and the first mate took over the captain's quarters.

Then, a few days later, the first mate knocked on West's cabin, saying, "I am in terrible pain -- I am horribly ill -- I am dying."  Indeed he was.  Soon he was evincing the same symptoms the captain had.  As the convulsions grew upon him, he screamed, "Oh, my God!  I have been poisoned -- I am dying!" Within five hours he was dead, his skin an even darker blue than West had noted in the captain.  Was it really poison, and if so, how?  Or could it be some form of the plague?  Was there some human explanation?  Or was the ship in the grip of some supernatural hand?

The second mate took over the running of the ship, moving into the late captain's quarters, where the navigating instruments were.  Sailors can be a superstitious lot, and within another two days, the second mate apologetically locked West into his cabin, saying the the crew suspected west had a hand in the two deaths and were afraid, if West were to remain free, he might then somehow kill him (the second mate) next.  For West's safety, and the ease of the crew's mind, he was to remain locked in his cabin for the rest of the cruise; a young steward would bring him his meals but he would otherwise have no contact with the rest of the ship.

A few days later, West was released by the boatswain with the deepest apologies of himself and the crew.  They knew now that West could have had nothing to do with the mysterious deaths because the second mate had just succumbed to the same horrid fate.

The Lord of the Isles had two problems.  How had three men died such a grisly death and will others meet the same fate?  And, without the captain and his officers, there was no one on board who knew how to navigate the ship, now in the middle of the Atlantic.  Things were starting to look bleak...

W. Clark Russell (1844-1911) although born in New York, was the son of a well-known English composer and his first wife.  Russell went to sea at age thirteen, joining the United Kingdom's Merchant Navy, spending eight years at sea, leaving after his health was permanently damaged.  His experience at sea gave him plenty of fodder for his career as a writer.  No one since Captain Marryat some forty years before had written so convincingly about the sea from actual knowledge.  In Masters of Victorian Literature, 1837-1897, Richard D. Graham wrote that Russell "is the true successor of Marryat, and may even be aid to excel the older writer in the power with which he has described the cruel mystery of the sea, its dangers, and the crimes and superstitions of the men who do business upon it."  The majority of the 57 novels he published were sea stories.  His novels included The Wreck of the Grosvenor, the Frozen Pirate, and The Death Ship.  Among his admirers were Herman Melville, Algernon Swinburne, and Arthur Conan Doyle (in "The Five Orange Pips," Doyle had Dr. Watson "deep within one of Clark Russell's fine sea stories").

Russell's wide popularity allowed him to advocate for merchant seaman, whose hardships had been unchanged since the repeal of the Navigation Acts in 1854.  Ships were being sent out to sea overladen and undermanned, and unscrupulous shipowners were proving deplorable rations for the seamen on their ships.  The naval reforms of 1880, 1883, 1889, and 1892 owed much to Russell's influence, as did the eventual inclusion of seamen and firemen being represented on the shipping commission.  The future King George V said that the great improvements in the conditions of the merchant service owed much to Clark Russell's writings.  His sympathy toward the brutal treatment captive natives of Tasmania faced at the time helped record and reveal the atrocities done by the British.

Many of W. Clark Russell's books are available to be read online.  The Phantom Death and Other Stories can be found on Project Gutenberg.

OVERLOOKED FILM: TEENAGE DEVIL DOLLS (1955)

How bad a movie can you make for $14,000, $4000 of which you borrow from your wife?  The answer is pretty bad, especially if you write, produce, direct, edit, and star in the movie yourself.  For some reason this is the only film that Bamlet Lawrence Price, Jr., a former Army Air Force pilot, ever produced, the only film he ever directed, the only film he ever edited, and the only film he ever starred in.  Perhaps it was because Price made this movie as his Master's thesis while he was a student at UCLA Film School.  Or, perhaps it was because he had no talent.  It was filmed in 1953 and released two years later.

I have no idea what happened to "Bam" (as he was known) after this, other than a string of broken marriages -- four of them, the first was to actress Anne Francis (Forbidden Planet, Bad Day at Black Rock, The Blackboard Jungle, television's Honey West); she was the one who loaned him the four grand.  Bam's marriage toll was as follows: Anne Francis (1952-1956), Diane J. Coldwell (1958-1966), Margaret E. Richardson, (1973-1976), and Diana Joy Dubois (1981-1988).  No, I have never heard of the last three either.  The only other reference I could find about Bam was that famed songwriter Robert Sherman once confused him with Hollywood choreographer Marc Breaux in a photo because they looked somewhat similar.

About the film, also known as One Way Ticket to Hell, here's Steven Puchalski's take, from his book Slimetime:  A Guide to Sleazy, Mindless Movies:  "This is an obscure, anti-drug, anti-juvenile delinquent, anti-rebellion morality story, all told in not-so-glamorous Dragnet style narration...it's overwrought, paranoid, fear-mongering, and totally idiotic...basically, this is drug-paranoid propaganda at its bleakest and least entertaining, with grainy black and white photography, static direction...it just drones on for sixty or so minutes, and though the plot tries to be controversial and hard-hitting, the flick is actually so unsleazy that it never gets off the ground."  Compared to this, Reefer Madness comes off as a big-budget, Oscar-worthy film.

Pretty Cassandra Leigh (Barbara Marx, no other credits on IMDb) gets mixed up with the wrong group in high school.  They are delinquent bikers, and soon she is doing drugs, failing classes, and losing out on any chance of college.  She marries Johnny Adams (Robert Norman, one role in an episode of Fireside Theatre in 1951, one episode of I Love Lucy in 1956 as an uncredited trumpet player in a band, and an unnamed character in the 1957 television movie Aladdin), her clueless high school sweetheart, but soon slides back into her old destructive habits.  Bam plays Miguel "Cholo" Matinez, the biker who leads Cassandra astray.  The film is narrated by Kurt Martell as police lieutenant David Jason; Martell was in four episodes of Dragnet (1953-1955), played himself in one episode of You Asked for It, and had uncredited roles in two films in 1952.  Although Martell narrated the film as David Jason, he did not get to play the character on-screen -- that job fell to Robert A. Sherry, whose only other credit was an uncredited role in the previous year's The Bridges at Toko-Ri.  In fact, none of the actors on-screen had any lines, none, nada, zip.  This adds to the phony documentary feel of the film while also cutting down on expenses.

So, is a film this bad worth watching?  You bet your exploitative boots it is!  How can you pass up a gem like this?

Please note that the link brings you to a slightly shortened version of the film, but to make up for it, it includes the movie's trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI7twb_8xVA

FROM THE OTHER SIDE

Well, Isaiah came and went and we survived.

Despite a few branches hitting the roof, no damage was done to the house.  We lost at least six big trees in the backyard, the backyard fence is now toast, and a portion of the back porch was taken out  -- all in all, not a big deal.  Everyone is fine, including animals.  We lost power at 7:05 Friday evening and it just cane back at 8:00 tonight (Sunday), although it is flickering a bit.  We are under a boil water watch.  At least one gas station and a couple of stores are open so we can get food (much of the stuff in the refrigerator may have to be tossed).  Roads are clear; the one tree that fell a cross our street was cleared up by Saturday afternoon.

Jessie lost a couple of trees and part of her back yard fence.  The shingles were blown off the roof of an old she on her property, but her roof is in good condition.  She got power back late on Saturday.

Erin got her power back about three hours ago.

Kaylee and Amy are still without power.  They lost a couple of trees and one window shutter.

Mark, who had to face the storm the the Gulfarium, which is directedly on the Gulf, is doing okay.  Mark is very laidback and nothing bothers him, so the storm could have done absolutely no damage or could have destroyed buildings and exhibits, freeing various alligators and reptiles and sharks and manatees and other wildlife, and Mark would still say it's no big deal and handle it, so who knows?

Christina, a local police dispatcher, was on twelve-hour shifts for the duration.  During the storm, the police station lost its power, its generator, its water (thus no working toilet, yuck!), and all communication devices and had to resort to using pen and paper, while her partner passed the messages on to the police on duty via text.  Several police cars were in accidents and one firefighter broke his arm when a branch landed on him.  Everything was back to what passes for normal on Saturday, and Christina was able to shower at the police station earlier this evening.

Saturday morning, Walt Senior was in extreme discomfort, so Walt took him to the hospital where he was finally released early Saturday evening; on his way back home Walt Senior bought me a cup of coffee (with the power out, he wasn't able to make his morning two pots of coffee).  Saturday, Erin, Trey, and Jack began clearing some of the mess in the back yard and on the roof; we're now able to walk a good portion of the yard; a professional tree service will have to deal with the rest of it.  It's also heartwarming to see many of our neighbors out helping each other.

So, in short, all is fine.  It could have been much worse.

Being without power and locked out of the internet, I don't know how much damage Isaiah (and, yes, I learned how to pronounce the name) has done since making landfall.  It will be interesting, and most likely saddening, to find out.

ISAIAH

We are battening down the hatches in preparation for Hurricane Isaiah to land here tomorrow.  Everything has been moved indoors; I have all the potted plants from the front yard in my bedroom; Christina and Walt have the front porch swing in theirs.  Plywood has been placed over all the windows.  Cars have full tanks of gas.  Gallons and gallons of water have been set aside and we have plenty of pet food.  We are ready, and praying that the storm will be a big nothing burger.

It's at a Cat 2 now and, depending on which news source you go to, may increase to a Cat 3 or shrink to a Cat 1.  [UPDATE:  As of 7:45 Friday morning it is now a Cat 3.]  Thank you, Donald Trump, for slashing the budget of NOAA.  Also, it appears that the center of the storm will be in the middle of out driveway.  A three- to five- to seven- to nine-foot storm surge, again depending on who you listen to.  Winds from 85 to over 110 mph, who knows?  The Three-Mile Bridge over Pensacola Bay will be closed once winds hit 35 mph.  [UPDATE:  the bridge was closed early Friday afternoon.]  School has been cancelled for the past two days.  Christina will be working at the police station on 12-hour shifts through the weekend (there appears there will be a problem in getting overtime for the storm); she packed a cot and sleeping bag in her car on the way in today.  Local police shifts are teaming up, but once the storm hits a certain size, they will not be responding immediately to emergencies; anyone kin trouble will have wo wait until it is safe for the police to respond.  The rumors at the police station are that ALL Waffle Houses in the area will be closed, so you know it's going to be bad.  [UPDATE:  1:37 pm Friday:  they have officially closed the local Waffle House.]  Amy, who works in the County traffic department. is expected to work from 7 to 7 over the next three days, doing technician and admin work not in her job description.  Kaylee and Ivory, who work at the County jail are expected to report in early so a shift can leave early; whether they will be able to leave when their shift is over is up in the air.  Okaloosa County has declared a mandatory evacuation, but Mark, who works at the Gulfarium on Okaloosa Island directly on the shore of the Gulf, can't evacuate because he is one of the few guys tagged to remain at the Gulfarium during the hurricane to keep an eye on the animals -- so we are concerned about his safety.  Casey's, a local chain gas station, has had several of its location run out of gasoline.  Walmart is out of both bottled water and Chef Boyardee.

Evacuation orders for many parts of Escambia County (Pensacola) and Santa Rosa County (us) went into effect this noontime.  [UPDATE:  The evacuation order for Santa Rosa County has been expanded to include "Zone C."  Christina checked the map before heading into work three hours early and "Zone C" literally ends JUST ONE HOUSE before ours.]

And Jim Cantore is having a jolly fine time reporting from Pensacola Beach.

It's going to be an interesting time.

See you on the other side.

BBC RADIO 4's SATURDAY NIGHT THEATRE: CHARLIE MUFFIN (JULY 5, 1986)

Brian Freemantle's Charlie Muffin, who appeared in sixteen novels over a forty-year period,  has been called on of the most underrated characters in spy fiction.  That should not stand!  "Most Muffin books follow a 'heist' story pattern.  Muffin has a mission, it appears he doesn't know what's going on, typically with higher ups plotting against him, until at the end it's revealed that he's figured out a way to flip the entire situation on its head while pulling one over on his betters,"  [Jeff @ Spywrite.com]  the books are fast, breezy, and entertaining, with the first in the series, Charlie Muffin (U.S. title Charlie M.), being consider a classic of the genre.  It was filmed in 1979 as Charlie Muffin (U.S. title A Deadly Game) by Jack Gold, with David Hemmings as Muffin, and featuring Ian Richardson, Sam Wanamaker, Clive Revill, and Sir Ralph Richardson.

The book was adapted for radio and appeared on BBC Radio 4's Saturday Night Theatre on July 5, 1986, with Philip Jackson (perhaps best recognized as Poirot's Inspector Japp) in the title role.  Also featured were Sandor Eles, Peter Howell, David Learner, Andrew Branch, Stephen Rashbrook, Peter Wood thorpe, Marcia King, Manning Wilson, Barrie Cookson, Don Fellows, John Church, Richard Durden, and Jennifer Piercey.  Directed by Matthew Waters.

Charlie's own Department is out to get him, but so is the KGB.  But Charlie Muffin is a survivor and he's determined to come out of it alive and rich.

Enjoy.

https://archive.org/details/brian-freemantle-charlie-muffin

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: ARREST

"Arrest" by Donald E. Westlake (from Manhunt, January 1958; reprinted in Giant Manhunt, 1958; in Opening Shots, edited by Lawrence Block, 2000; and in The Best of Manhunt 2, edited by Jeff Vorzimmer, 2020)

Let's face it, first published stories are not necessarily good stories; they are the ones, usually, that finally made it across and editor's desk and happened to fill a need that may or may not have required good writing.  As a rule, first stories are passable fiction.

Donald E. Westlake's "Arrest" was actually his third published story, but it was his first published crime story; it followed a brief six-page science fiction story published two years earlier and another brief sory in the early men's magazine Rogue in 1957.  At the time Westlake was working for famed (or, perhaps, infamous) literary agent Scott Meredith while at the same time submitting his own stories to Meredith.  One of the stories finally hit and was accepted for Manhunt, the hardboiled crime digest secretly edited by Meredith under another name; Manhunt, it turns out, was a virtual closed shop for Meredith's clients, although it would occasionally range further (and pay a bit  more more money) to get "big-name" writers to promote on its covers.  (Meredith was noted for being penny-pinching, the literary agent equivalent of Hugo Gernsback, perhaps.)

William Winthrop, 24, comes home to his apartment, gets a gun from the bureau drawer and puts it to his head.  He can't pull the trigger.  He throws the gun at a mirror, breaking it, has a few drinks, smokes a few cigarettes, then dresses in a conservative gray suit.  And waits.  Soon the police arrive.  He calls a friend -- a lawyer -- who says he wants nothing to do with him.  He offers the cop a drink, which is refused, and then they head off together to where he will be booked for his mother's murder.

A mood piece, nothing special, but fairly evocative.  Even with this rude beginning, there are hints of Westlake's future talent,

Westlake, of course, would go on to become one of the most honored and respected mystery writers of the last half of the twentieth century, the creator of violent thief Parker and of bumbling thief John Dortmunder -- both highly popular and influential characters.  He was a three-time Edgar winner, one of the few to win in three different categories -- best novel, best short story, and best motion picture screenplay.  He was named a MWA Grand Master in 1993.  All of his books are highly recommended.

OVERLOOKED FILM: THANK YOU, JEEVES! (1936)

If you are a P. G. Wodehouse purist you might not fully appreciate this adaptation of the master's 1934 novel -- actually, the very first full-length novel following a successful series of short stories.

Bertie Wooster is here and Jeeves is here and the book title is here, but that's about it.  The plot and characters have been changed almost unrecognizably.  In the  novel, Sir Roderick Glossip, the famous nerve specialist, hopes to marry the aunt of Bertie's friend Lord "Chuffy" Chuffnell, while Chuffy has fallen in love with one of Bertie's ex-fiances, Pauline Stoker, whose father Chuffy hopes to sell his falling-down manor.  Bertie, eager to please his old pal, plans to make Chuffy so jealous that he will propose to Pauline.  Things get out of hand, everyone displays their stupidity, and Jeeves is left to sort out the mess.

For the film, say goodbye to Chuffy, his aunt, Roderick Glossip, Pauline and her father.

From IMDb:  "Erudite manservant Jeeves hopes to keep his frivolous employer Bertie out of new harrowing adventures, but a damsel in distress, carrying half of some mysterious plans, intrudes on their London flat one rainy night.  Bertie follows her to the country hotel Mooring Manor, prepared to do slapstick battle with crooks posing as Scotland Yard men."  

Featuring David Niven as Bertie, Arthur Treacher as Jeeves, and Virginia Field as the mysterious woman.  Buried down in the cast is Willie Best as Drowsy, a hitchhiking saxophonist who helps them catch the crooks.  

Niven makes a good Bertie and Treacher made his bones playing Hollywood's idea of the perfect butler in the 1930s.  Treacher went on to lend his name to the fast food franchise Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips, beginning in 1969; it had 826 stores in the 1970s, but has dwindled down to just four stand-alone stores in northeastern Ohio today.  Sic transit gloria mundi.  Wodehouse, BTW, did not care for Treacher's performance"  "Awful. The supercilious ,manner of his is all wrong for Jeeves."   Complaining about the film adaptation, Wodehouse said, "They didn't use a word of my story, substituting another written by some studio hack."

That studio hack was actually two people, Joseph Hoffman (The Officer and the Lady, Against All Flags, Has Anybody Seen My Gal) and Stephen Gross (his only screenplay).  Directed  by Arthur Greville Collins (Paradise Isle, Seven Little Australians, Strong Is the Seed).  

Despite the butchery to the source material, Thank You, Jeeves! can be a pleasant and amusing way to spend your 57 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7yk3lSER9I&t=6s

HAPPY BIRTHDAYS, MRS. MILLER AND BILLY LEE RILEY!

October 5th was a monumental day in current culture.  On this day in 1921, the World Series (the New York Giants vs. the New York Yankees, with the Giants taking the series five games to three in a nest of nine contest)was broadcast on radio for the first time; in 1947, President Harry Truman made the first televised Oval Office address; in 1962, the first of the James Bond film series, Dr. No, had its premiere; on the same day in 1962, the Beatles released their first single, "Love Me Do"; and in 1982, Tylenol recalled products in Chicago after seven people who shown to have died from bottles tampered with cyanide, leading to stricter nation-wide safety packaging.

October 5 was also the birthday of both Larry Fine of The Three Stooges and Roy Kroc of McDonald's in 1902; Bil Keane of The Family Circus in 1922; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Steve Miller in 1943; and British authors Peter Ackroyd (1949) and Clive Barker (1952).

But a couple of musical Libras may have flown under your radar.  But, fear not, I am here to correct that possible oversight.

I hesitate to call Elva Ruby Miller (1907-1997) musical, but she did have an astonishing career as a novelty singer in the 1960s.  She was a poorly trained mezzo-soprano with a torturous vibrato and a willingness to ignore both standard pitch and tempo.  Think three stray cats, a lovesick peacock, and a dyspeptic screech owl being forced through a meat grinder at the same time.  At age twenty-seven, she began studying music and voice at Pomona College, eventually recording several self-financed projects, while describing singing as a hobby.  In 1960, radio disc jockey Gary Owens featured her on his program, which led to music arranger Fred Bock encouraging her to perform contemporary popular songs.  She was signed to Capitol Records in 1965, which promoted her amateurish style.  During recording sessions, she was often ahead of or behind the beat; she complained that the studio released the worst of her takes.  Her first album, Mrs. Miller's Greatest Hits (1966) sold 250,000 copies ion its first three weeks.  She was a frequent guest on talk shows, inclulding The Merv Griffith Show, where I would occasionally watch her.

"Downtown"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw07CDid0JM

"Green Tambourine"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBmR1skSQKg

"A Hard Day's Night"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2wheSpxL94

"These Boots Are Made for Walkin' "

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgoGq6PTXZ4

"Strangers in the Night"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV0MtVWIN8Y

"A Lover's Concerto"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqlX88H4_Cg

Billy Lee Riley (1933-2009) was signed  by Sam Phillips for Sun Records in 1955, but was unhappy when Phillips kept diverting to promote Jerry Lee Lewis's career instead of his.  As with many other artists on Sun Records, chart success eluded him.  His talent far outshone his recording success, although he was a strong influence on following artists.  One of the great rockabilly artists

"Red Hot"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nxt_7sD9znM

"Flyin' Saucer rock and Roll"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nxt_7sD9znM

"Speed Lovers" the title song from a bottom of the barrel 1966 stock car racing flick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOP2WqNqD8c

"Rock with Me Baby"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhvbHH9ah58

"Baby Please Don't go"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Btt6-naL9XU

"Trouble Bound"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vv5ZJ8LP5M0

"Open the Door Richard"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-7cmbcRlHk&list=PLAA2DD72376EBE0EC&index=18

"I Hear You Knockin' "

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbQYo7QWQN0&list=PLAA2DD72376EBE0EC&index=21

"Mountain of Love"  NOT by Billy Lee Riley, but he and Roland James produced this hit on their Rita Records for Harold Dorman; Riley can be heard here on bass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y72SaV8al5k

HYMN TIME

The Carter Family.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrIM9U4mfpY

MAXIMO THE AMAZING SUPERMAN (1940)

 "The hero of this story, Maximo Miller, is a new kind of superman.  He is gifted with a superbrain which he learns how to use to do things which no other man can do.  And that is what makes the tale."

Writer Russell R. Winterbotham (1904-1971), who also penned mysteries as "J. Harvey Bond", is perhaps best known for his western and science fiction stories, although for a period in the forties he wrote some sixty Big Little Books -- including three about Maximo.  Big Little Books were a popular juvenile series of cheaply made novels, measuring about 3 5/8 inches wide, 4 1/2 inches high, and were about one  inch thick, and featured text on the left hand page and a line drawing illustration on the right.  Issued by Whitman Publishing Company of Racine, Wisconsin, they typically featured popular comic strip, radio, television, or movie heroes, and were sold for dime (later 15 cents) through such retail outlets as Woolworth's.  The first Big Little Book -- The Adventures of Dick Tracy -- went on sale in December 1932; the series. with a later name change to Better Little Books, continued into the 1960s; more than 1300 titles were published. with some 508 core titles issued between 1932 and 1949 by Whitman.  The Big Little Books were quick, easy reading, well-suited to their core audience.  Topday, they are very popular in the collector's market.

As Maximo watches a speeding roadster approach a railroad intersection, he knows the young female driver does not see the approaching train.  A fatal crash seems imminent, but then:

"Some powerful new force surged through his muscles, seeming to leap from his body toward the speeding motor car.

"The young man's nerves tingled as if some unseen magnetic force were whipping energy through the ir around him."

Then, by golly, the car rises through the air and avoids the on-rushing train.  The girl is saved, and Maximo is left wondering exactly what happened.  The girl, Ella Arvid, is the daughter of a professor at Curfman College.  she said, "He'd be greatly interested in what you did just now.  You see he's a physicist and he has always said that science has never been able to plumb the depths of human brain power."

So off they go to plumb the depths of Maximo's brain power.  Along the way they meet danger, a vicious gang, and spies out to do dirt to America.

Not great literature perhaps, but a serviceable story to entertain a young kid in the 1940s -- and perhaps to also entertain you.  Let's see.  All three Maximo books are available online at Comic Book Plus; here's the link to the first:

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=102552

FORGOTTEN BOOK: THE GAMECOCK MURDERS

The Gamecock Murders by Frank Gruber  (originally published as The Scarlet Feather, 1948; reprinted in paperback as The Gamecock Murders, 1949)

Johnny Fletcher and Sam Cragg, Frank Gruber's hapless detecting heroes, return in their eleventh full-length outing to join the dangerous world of cock-fighting.  The pair are con men -- glib, impetuous Fletcher and stolid mass of muscle Cragg -- whose main source of income is hawking a book on the secrets of Sampson (Sampson being Cragg, who displayed his strength by expanding his chest to break iron chains binding him during a medicine show-like spiel from Fletcher).  Because Johnny is so impetuous, the pair often lose what money they make and are currently scraping for rent and food money; somehow they often come across murders which Fletcher is forced to solve, while during every case they make (and lose) vast amounts of cash.  As a plot device, the formula is well-worn  but extremely workable, making the pair's adventures bright, easy reads.

This time they are in Chicago, broke and about to be kicked out of their rented room and having no money for their last two meals.  It's a cold November day, and the pair are walking despondently along the deserted lake front when a nearby car stops.  A young woman in a mink coat gets out and walks to the edge of the water.  She drops her coat and jumps into the lake, intending to drown herself.  Johnny dives in after her.  She fights him and Johnny has to knock her out to rescue her.  The papers in her care say that she is Lois Tancred and give her address as a tony neighborhood on Lake Shore Drive.  Sam bundles her into the car and Johnny drives them to her home, a large mansion.  They bring her to her door where she is received by her imperious mother, who ushers her in and slams the door in Johnny and Sam's faces.  In the glove compartment of Lois's Cadillac coupe, Johnny finds an envelope containing a cryptic message, Come Tomorrow, and a red feather...

This leads Johnny and Sam to the Midwest Poultry Breeders' Exhibition where prize gamefowl are on display and the body of one of the owners is found underneath his chicken coop.  The dead man is the one who sent the mysterious note to Lois, and she shows up, not realizing that he had been killed.

Suddenly Johnny and Sam are in the midst of a violent world of cockfighting where millionaires indulge in the blood sport, and where they come across a wealthy breeder of Jungle Shawls (a prize breed of fighting cocks), a respected doctor who breeds Whiteshackles (another type of fighting cock), a shady publisher of a cheap journal about game birds, an aw-shucks barber from a small town in Iowa who has great confidence in Big Red, his fighting bird, and has a habit of always winning at cards and dice, a big-time Chicago gambler, blackmail, a second murder, and a number of vicious thugs -- all while trying to avoid an arrogant homicide detective and their landlord who wants his rent.

The pace is fast and furious and ends with Johnny trapped with a pair of violent cocks with three-inches of sharp steel gaffs on their feet and a thirst for Johnny's blood...that's right, our hero has to face off against killer chickens in a harrowing climax.  Johnny survives and manages to wrap things up in the very last pages, nailing the killer and exposing a large money-making plot.

 Over on The Thrilling Detective Website, Kevin Burton Smith quotes one critic who said that Gruber used the plotting of Gardner and the humor of Latimer in his Johnny Fletcher books, especially the humor of Latimer.  A pretty good description.  Smith went on to write, "[E]very one [of the Fletcher books] one I've read has been a fast-paced, entertaining romp.  Not essential, maybe, but fun, fun, fun."

Just a few minor notes.  The dentist from Iowa is named Otto Bender; I can't help but wonder is that is a nod to Chicago-born Otto Binder, a fellow pulpster and a comic book writer (he created Supergirl, among many other accomplishments); just a thought I had with nothing to back it up.

The edition I read was the 1949 Signet paperback.  On chapter nineteen, the book dropped a complete lie, replacing it with one from three paragraphs later.  A  minor and confusing irritation, perhaps, but one that grated on me.  Publisher should do better.

The last page of the book had a three-quarter's page advertisement of Mickey Spillane's I, the Jury, which Signet had published in paperback a year before.  The book, which had modest sales in hardcover, had become a runaway best-seller in the Signet edition.  For some reason, this advertisement made me smile.

All of which has nothing to do with Gruber's book itself, which retains a spot very near the top of my "Books I Like" list.