Cover Cavalcade

  JANUARY IS SINGING COWBOYS MONTH!!

A Rex Allen cover from 1957.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Suspense: "The Man Who Cried Wolf" 2/9/53

 William Powell plays a Russian desperately trying to defect, only to discover no one believes he's sincere because he had been a part of a deceptive Russian operation in the past.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

Storm Fear (1955)

 

A friend of mine recently pointed out a cool YouTube channel to me called Full Moon Matinee. The guy who runs the channel posts Film Noir movies, adding an introduction and an intermission where he--as "the Detective"--makes intelligent observations about the movie and gives us background on the actors. It's a great channel--great selection of films and intelligent commentary.

It's through this channel that I discovered 1955's Storm Fear. Dan Duryea plays Fred,  a failed author who has brought his wife and kid to a remote mountain cabin because of his health. He has a lung disease and the mountain air is supposedly good for him.

But when his brother Charlie (Cornel Wilde) shows up, things get dangerous. Charlie and his friends--another man and a woman--have just robbed a bank. Charlie's been shot in the leg and they need a place to hide out. Tensions rise, mostly because Charlie's fellow robber Benjie (Stephen Hill) is obviously nuts and Charlie can only barely keep him under control.

The evolving situation involves a lot of melodrama--Charlie once had a thing for Fred's wife. Fred is angsting over his failure as a writer and feels like a failure as a husband & father. Fred's son David starts to think that Charlie is pretty cool and wants to run off with him. Charlie and Fred's wife--it turns out--once had a thing for each other. And there's soon doubt over who David's real father is. The "moll" of the gang (played beautifully by Lee Grant) is a bit of an obnoxious drunk. 

In a weaker movie, this could have descended into cliched Soap Opera territory. But a good script and a strong cast allow the melodrama to add to the overall tension.

When Charlie learns from a radio report that the police will be searching the area, the gang forces David to lead them over the mountain to the highway, though the deep snow makes this a dangerous endeavour.  Also, Benji is working up the courage to back-shoot Charlie and take the bank loot for himself. Pursing them is Hank (Dennis Weaver), a handyman who also has a thing for Fred's wife.

Cornel Wilde was always good in a Noir film and its a treat to see Duryea in a Noir film in which he does not play a bad guy. Stephen Hill goes on to play the lead in Mission: Impossible's first season and later the grumpy DA on Law and Order, so its fun to watch him play a bad guy who is probably a few marbles short of a full bucket. And it really is impressive for a movie to toss in as much melodrama as does this one and still make it work effectively as a crime film. 

I generally provide a clip from movies I review, but in this case, I'll just share the entire movie from the Full Moon Matinee channel. Don't skip past "the Detective's" commentaries--he's worth listening too.

Justice League Annual #1 (1983)--Chapter 5

 

cover art by Rick Hoberg

JLA Annual #1 (1983): Plot by Paul Levitz, script by Len Wein, art by Rick Hoberg

Chapter 5 is pretty short, existing to first-- let Ralph Dibney overcome the self-doubt he was having at the beginning of the story; and second -- to set up the big battle coming in Chapter 6.

Back on the JLA satellite, Zatanna has magically traced Dr. Destiny to the dream dimension. She transports there, bringing Red Tornado and Ralph along.

They are attack by giant, nightmare versions of Dr. Destiny. Ralph briefly thinks this is the sort of situation he dreaded, where his skills as a detective are meaningless. But he realizes he's got to do something and uses his powers in a clever way to take out one of the nightmares. The other heroes dispose of their opponents as well.

After spending several pages setting up Ralph's self-doubt in Chapter 1, the resolution of this does come across as a little abrupt, but it does make sense. Ralph is tossed into a "the chips are down" situation where he's got to either act or give up. It is a little abrupt for storytelling purposes, but it makes complete character sense. And, to be fair, Ralph will get a Moment of Awesome in the final chapter.

Anyway, this confirms that Dr. Destiny is in the dream dimension, so Zatanna ends this brief chapter by summoning the rest of the League.

It is another well-written chapter. The brevity makes me a little embarassed to dedicate an entire post to it, but it does logically advance the story and resolve Ralph's character arc, leaving the comic book free to use the last chapter for a epic final battle with a fun plot twist. We'll look at that final chapter next week.

Cover Cavalcade

  JANUARY IS SINGING COWBOYS MONTH!!

Here's a Gene Autry cover from 1955.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Gunsmoke: "Sutler" 9/5/53

Dillon goes up against a man selling rifles to the Indians.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

Tryst in Time

 

cover art by Howard V. Brown

The December 1936 issue of Astounding Stories features an atmospheric and bizarre time travel tale written by the great C. L. (Catherine Lucille) Moore. 

We immediately meet Eric Rosner and get his backstory--by the time he's 30, his life as an adventurer has left him feeling as if he's done everything. And Moore establishes this effectively in the first few paragraphs, giving enough examples of Eric's accomplishments to make us feel that maybe he has done everything:

At thirty there was not a continent nor a capital that had not known him, not a jungle nor a desert nor a mountain range that had not left scars upon his Viking body. 

Then he meets a scientist who has invented a sort of time machine. You were it as a back pack and everytime you activate it, it unanchors from inertia and essentially tosses you at random into another time and place.

Well, Eric wants to give this a try, with full understanding that he will be lost in the time stream without being able to navigate back to his home time.

But perhaps it's not so random. Eric jumps back and forth along the time stream, but he keeps meeting the same beautiful woman with "smoke blue eyes" and a confident, aristocratic manner. Or perhaps he's meeting different incarnations of her.  Twice, he arrives at a time and place just as she's being killed.

On another occassion, he saves her from being sacrificed by barbarians, but--though they feel an instant connection towards one another--she's promised to another and will not dishonor that promise. 

Once, he finds her while she's still a child. But each time they meet, she recognizes him a little quicker than the last time--even though he's not meeting her in historically chronological order.

In the end--well, its one of those endings that is open to interpretation and that only a author with Moore's skill can pull off and leave the reader feeling satisfied. 

"Tryst in Time" is a great example of Moore's ability to endow a story with an otherworldly atmosphere and great characters in just a few words. You can read it yourself HERE. 

I've been reviewing a lot of short stories recently. This wasn't on purpose--my Thursday posts are randomly chosen other than when I'm doing a Read/Watch 'em In Order post. So it's just been random chance up until now. But I'm thinking of going through an issue of Adventure from the 1920s as my next Read/Watch project, so more short story reviews will be forthcoming.

Justice League Annual #1 (1983)--Chapter 4

 

cover art by Rick Hoberg

JLA Annual #1 (1983): Plot by Paul Levitz, script by Len Wein, art by Rick Hoberg. 

Chapter 4 takes us to Gotham City, where Wonder Woman and Flash are joined by the John Stewart Green Lantern to continue the search for Dr. Destiny.

John isn't a League member at the time, was suddenly found himself in costume with his ring filling him in on the case. Apparently, the Guardians have sent him to lend a hand.

I don't think we get an explanation for what brought the heroes specifically to Gotham, but John is soon using his ring to home in on some delta wave activity. This gives us a wonderful panel in which John manifests a giant green bloodhound sniffing out the delta waves. It's probably not a necessary thing for John to do, but it's awesome all the same and using a GL ring to call up cool images to represent whatever practical thing you are doing should be standard practice among all members of the Lantern Corps.

Soon, they find the missing artists mentioned in the previous chapter. When John tries to free them from the equipment to which they are attached, this manifests villains from Wonder Woman's subconscious. The three heroes are fighting dream versions of the Tornado Tyrant, Amazo and Dr. Light.

What follows is a short fight scene--each hero only gets a few panels for his/her part of the fight. But in each case, the hero uses his/her powers intelligently to defeat one of the dream villains. I especially like the swift and practical method Wonder Woman uses--wrapping the Amazo manifestation in her Lasso of Truth, forcing it to realize its just an illusion, which in turn forces it to vanish.

The heroes find Dr. Destiny in a back room, but this is just a hologram. The real Destiny has become "one with his dream machine," though Wonder Woman wonders how he can do this when he can no longer dream.

That's it for Chapter 3. Next week, we'll pay a visit to the Dream Dimension,

Cover Cavalcade

 JANUARY IS SINGING COWBOYS MONTH!!

A Roy Rogers cover from 1957.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Tarzan: "All Presumed Dead" 10/11/51

Tarzan is asked to investigate a plane crash in the jungle. All who were on board are presumed to be dead, but this might not be the case.

Click HERE to listen or download.