OVERLOOKED FILM: CRIMES AT THE DARK HOUSE

Crimes at the Dark House (1940)

Loosely -- very loosely -- based on Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White, this movie hung around for three years before being released.

The culprits behind this gem were Director George King (THE DEMON BARBER OF  FLEET STREET, SEXTON BLAKE AND THE HOODED TERROR) and scriptwriter Edward Dryhurst (THE FRIGHTENED LADY, THE NIGHT INVADER).  The star of the movie is none other than Tod Slaughter, the King of the villainous hams.  Who else could have played Sweeney Todd in three different films (THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET, BOTHERED BY A BEARD, and PUZZLE CORNER NO. 14)?

This was the fifth time The Woman in White was filmed.  I suspect more people prefer the 1948 sixth version to this one.  Let's face it, Hay Petrie as Dr. Isador Fosco here can't hold a candle to Sidney Greenstreet's deliciously oily Count Fosco in the 1948 version.

 Aesthetics aside, this one is a fun romp.  Bad flicks quite often are.

http://archive.org/details/Crimes_at_the_Dark_House_1940

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

It's my understanding that today is Todd Mason's birthday.  If that is true, Happy Birthday, Todd!  If it is not true, the Happy Unbirthday, Todd!  Either way, I think we should all celebrate Todd.

INCOMING

A quiet book week where I spent more great family time than I did book buying time.

• [anonymously edited], Warcraft Archive.  Gaming tie-in omnibus with four novels:  Day of the Dragon by Richard A. Knaak, Lord of the Clans by Christie Golden, The Last Guardian by Jeff Grubb, and Of Blood and Honor by Chris Metzen.  (That last is more of a novella, if you're really picky about classifications.  But, to be fair, it was previously published only as an e-Book and they can be any size as long as you put an e- before the Book.)  These were evidently the first four Warcraft tie-ins.   
• Paul Fairman, That Girl.  Television tie-in from 1971.  Fairman was the founding editor of If Science Fiction and the one time editor of Amazing and Fantastic, author of a number of tie-in novels and others, and a ghost writer for Ellery Queen and Lester del Rey.
• Dean James. Posted to Death.  A Simon-Kirby Jones mystery.
• Walt Kelly, Impollutable Pogo.  Classic, classic, classic.
• Jeffrey Marks, editor, Canine Crimes.  Collection of fifteen dog mysteries.
• Fletcher Pratt, A Compact History of the United States Navy.  Nonfiction.  In addition to his well-known work in fantasy and science fiction, Pratt was a respected populizer of military and Civil War history.
• Georges Simenon, Maigret's Failure.  Translation of Un Echec de Maigret by Daphne Woodward.

HYMN TIME

If a hymn is a song of faith, this one (originally from Russia) certainly qualifies.

I first heard this from Pete Seeger and more lately from John McCutcheon.  It wasn't until I just checked on Youtube that I realized how popular the song was with kindergarteners.  (**headslaps self for not realizing the blatently obvious**)  I picked this version because the kids carried the tune through in eight different languages.  There are also links to many other versions here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgHdTch-4YQ

BTW, this one is for my friend Beverly and her daughter Wynter.

QUERY

I've run into a reference to 10.30 to Folkstone Express, a Sax Rohmer novel supposedly published by Lloyds (London) sometime around 1915, but I have not been able to find anything to show this book actually exists.  Is this a phantom book?

Any help would be appreciated.

JUST SCRATCHING THE SURFACE

Glancing over the megamountain and over my wish list, I find a lot of mysteries and fantasy.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Some of the books on Mount TBR:

• Peter Ackroyd, Hawksmoor.
• Marvin Albert, Clayburn.  (as "Al Conroy")
• Grant Allen, Miss Cayley's Adventures.
• __________, Hilda Wade (completed by Arthur Conan Doyle)
• Charlotte Armstrong, The Black-Eyed Stranger.
• Robert Arthur, Somebody's Walking on My Grave.
• J. G. Ballard, Crash.
• R. H. Benson, A Mirror of Shalott.
• John Blackburn, A Scent of New-Mown Hay.
• Lawrence Block, Random Walk.
• Charles Brockden Brown, Weiland.
• Arthur J. Burks, Look Behind You!
• John Dickson Carr, Papa la-Bas.
• Agatha Christie, Anknaton.
• Basil Copper, The House of the Wolf.
• Robertson Davies, Tempest-Tost.
• Walter de la Mare, The Return.
• August Deleth, The Hills Stand Watch.
• Thomas M. Disch, Clara Reeve (as "Leonie Hargrave")
• Arthur Conan Doyle, The Mystery of Cloomber.
• H. F. Heard, The Lost Cavern.
• Edward D. Hoch, The Transvection Machine. 
• William Hope Hodgson, The Voice of the Ocean.
• Shirley Jackson, Hangsaman.
• J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Uncle Silas.
• Stiuart Palmer, The Riddles of Hildegarde Withers.
• Bill Pronzini, Six-Gun in Cheek.
• G. W. M. Reynolds, Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf.
• Anne Rice, The Witching Hour.
• Craig Rice, Telefair.
• James Malcolm Rymer, Varney the Vampire.
• Henry Slesar, Enter Murderers.
• Bram Stoker, The Lady of the Shroud.
• Rex Stout, Red Threads.
• Theodore Sturgeon, The Rare Breed.

Some of the books I hope to add to Mount TBR over the next year:

• Robert Aickman, The Collected Strange Stories of Robert Aickman. (2 volumes)
• Margery Allingham, Darings of the Red Rose.
• Gertrude Atherton, The Foghorn.
• Charles Beaumont, A Touch of the Creature.
• Ben Benson, The Burning Fuse.
• E. F. Benson, Sea-Mist.  (Volume 5 of his collected weird stories)
• Charles Birkin, Devil's Spawn.
• Algernon Blackwood, The Magic Mirror.
• Anthony Boucher, Ellery Queen:  A Double Profile.
• Ray Bradbury, It Came from Outer Space.
• Joseph Payne Brennan, The Chronicles of Lucius Leffing.
• Fredric Brown, The Pickled Punks.
• A. M. Burrage, Intruders.
• Hugh B. Cave, Murgunstrumm and Others.
• R. Chetwynd-Hayes, The Psychic Detective.
• Max Allan Collins, Target Lancer.
• Ivan Cook, The Return of Arthur Conan Doyle.  (Supposedly a posthumous work "channeled" by the spirit of ACD)
• Basil Copper, The Dark Mirror.
• Mary Elizabeth Counselman, Half in Shadow.  (Consul paperback edition)
• William R. Cox, Luke Short and His Era.
• John Creasey, Gideon's Men. (as "J. J. Marric")
• Bill Crider, Murder of a Beauty Shop Queen.  (Can't wait!)
• "Deanna Dwyer"  (Dean Koontz), Children of the Storm.
• Harlan Ellison, Harlan Ellison's Movie.
• Jack Finney, I Love Galesburg in the Springtime.
• Neil Gaiman, Black Orchid.
• Ed Gorman, Cages.
• Parnell Hall, The Wrong Gun.  (as "J. P. Hailey")
• Edward Heron-Allen, The Collected Strange Papers of Christopher Blayre.
• Joan Hess, Future Tense.
• Carl Jacobi, East of Samarinda.
• Rick Jennett, The Relunctant Ghost-Hunter.
• __________ and A. F. Kidd, 472 Cheyne Walk:  Carnacki:  The Untold Stories.
• Gerald Kersh, The Horrible Dummy.
• Joe R. Lansdale, Atomic Chili.
• Marjorie Lawrence, Number 7, Queer Street.  (British edition)
• Frank Belknap Long, The Darkling Tide:  Previously Uncollected Poetry.
• Arthur Machen, The Secret of the Sangraal.
• Francis M. Nevins and Ray Stanich, The Sound of Detection:  Ellery Queen's Adventures in Radio.
• William F. Nolan, Rio Renegades.  (as 'Terance Duncan")
• Hugh Pentecost, The Complete Adventures of the Park Avenue Hunt Club.  (2 volumes)
• Ellery Queen, The Adventure of the Murdered Moths.
• Seabury Quinn, The Collected Jules de Grandin.  (3 volumes)
• James Reasoner, Texas Wind.
• Ray Russell, Absolute Power.
• F. Paul Wilson, Nightworld.  (revised edition)

BAD JOKE WEDNESDAY

Without geometry, life is pointless.