BAD JOKE WEDNESDAY

A woman came into a bank and asked the teller if he could check her balance...so he pushed her over.

THE STREETS OF LAREDO

Rex Allen.

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

OVERLOOKED WESTERN: RIO RATTLER

From 1935, a Tom Tyler western.  Tyler was a popular action star in silent movies and the early sound era.  In addition to being the screen's first Captain Marvel and the screen's first Phantom, Tyler had supporting roles in several major films, including Gone With the Wind and Stagecoach.  Born Vincent Markowski in Hamtramck, Michigan, he became Bill Burns when he started in films, then becoming Tom Tyler when signed by FBO (Film Booking Offices) in 1925.  With the advent of talkies, Tyler overcame a strong Lithuanian accent to continue his career.  In the mid- to late-Forties Tyler developed a cripplimg case of rheumatoid arthritis.  Nevertheless, in the last six years of his life Tyler appears in 35 films and television shows, including an unsold western pilot written by Ed Wood (yes, that Ed Wood.

Tyler's sidekick Soapy is played by Eddie Gribbin (The Great dictator, Tell It to the Marines), who was one of the original Keystone Kops.  Further comedy relief comes from the "Singing Smith Brothers" who are ready to fight anyone who criticizes their singing.

Tom Denton (Tyler) and Soapy come across a dying Texas Ranger (Tom London, whom IMDb gives 644 credits from 1915 until 1953 -- mainly as a bit player) who had been working undercover.  The ranger gives Tom his identification papers, an act that ends with Tom being thought to be the ranger.  This puts Tom the crosshairs of Mason, town banker and secret head of an outlaw gang (William Gould, 265 credits, again, mostly minor roles), and of gunslinger Rattler Brown (Slim Whitaker, a prolific B-western baddie).  Of course there's a pretty girl -- Mary Adams, the sister of the dead ranger, played by Marion Shilling who was featured in films starring Buck Jones, Hoot Gibson, Tim McCoy, and Rex Bell, as well as non-western stars such as William Powell and constance Bennett.

Rio Rattler is a surprisingly interesting western from Hollywood's Poverty Row.

Enjoy.

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

HENRY LEE

Peggy Seeger.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qWWGrzAK1Y

INCOMING

• David Baldacci, Stone Cold.  A Camel Club thriller.
• Linwood Barclay, Too Close to Home.  Thriller.
• John Canning, editor, Adventure Stories for Boys.  Anthology with 36 stories and extracts (both fictional and non-fictional) supposedly geared to youth with the Y-chromosome.
• Harlan Coburn, The Innocent.  Thriller.
• J, California Cooper, Some Soul to Keep.  Literary collection of five stories.  Signed by the author and inscribed to the previous owner.
• Norman Daniels, The Rat Patrol.  Television tie-in novel.  See also David King, below.
• Marcelle Dube, The Shoeless Kid.  Mystery,
• "Leslie Egan" (Elizabeth Linington), A Feast of Egan.  Omnibus of the first four Vic Varallo mysteries:  The Borrowed Alibi, Run to Evil, Detective's Due, and The Nameless Ones.
• Martha Grimes, The Case Has Altered and The Old Wine Shades.  Richard Jury mysteries.
• Rick Hautala, Ghost Light.  Horror novel from an author too soon gone.
• Brian Herbert, The Garbage Chronicles.  SF.
• Greg Iles, 24 Hours. Thriller.
• William W. Johnstone with J. A. Johnstone, The Brothers O'Brien.  Western, the first in a new series by the dead author and a "carefully selected writer."
• Douglas C. Jones, Gone the Dreams and Dancing.  Western, winner of the 1984 Spur Award for Best Historical Novel.
• David King, The Rat Patrol #2:  The Desert Danger.  Television tie-in novel.  See Norman Daniels, above, for the first in the series
• Attica Locke, The Cutting Edge.  Mystery.
• Richard Lockridge, Write Murder Down. A Nathan Shapiro mystery.
• "Berkely Mather"  (John Evan Weston-Davies), The Break.  Suspense novel.
• Ralph McInerny, Sham Rock.  A Philip and Roger Knight mystery.
• Barbara O'Brien, Operators and Things:  The Inner Life of a Schizophrenic.  Supposedly the true story of a self-cured schizophrenic.
• Andrew J. Offutt, Cormac Mac Art:  The Mist of Doom.  Sword and Sorcery fantasy featuring the Robert E. Howard character.  Based on an outline by Geo. W. Proctor.
• Michael Palmer, Oath of Office.  Medical thriller.
• James Patterson & Howard Roughan, You've Been Warned.  Thriller.
• Richard North Patterson, The Race.  Political thriller.
• Otto Penzler, editor, The Big Book of Adventure Stories, The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries, The Big Book of Ghost Stories, and The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories.  Doorstop anthologies, with a total of a zillion and one stories and a bajillion pages.  Heavy on familiar stories and heavier on unfamiliar stories.  I read Penzler's zombie book and most of his vampire book, so when I had a chance to pick up these four it was a no-brainer.
• Ian Rankin, The Complaints.  ARC, the first Malcolm Fox mystery.  Also, Freshmarket Close.  The 15th in the Inspector Rebus novels.
• Alexander Yates, Moondogs.  ARC,  a first novel "about the disappearance of an American businessman in the Phillipines and the estranged son, jilted lover, misguided felon, and the supernatural saviors who all want a piece of him."  Sounded interesting.

THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS

W. F. Harvey's classic horror story, read by Phil Chenevert.

Enjoy.  Shiver, but enjoy.

https://archive.org/details/thebeastwithfivefingers_1503_librivox

HYMN TIME

Muddy Waters and Sister Rosetta Tharp.  Can it get any better than that?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2PdsnJCuko