Saturday, January 30, 2021
Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Mini-Podcast #36--Tarzan of the Apes Chapter 28--"...
Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Mini-Podcast #36--Tarzan of the Apes Chapter 28--"...: The final chapter of the 1912 novel "Tarzan of the Apes" brings us the threat of vigilante murder and a pair of marriage proposa...
Friday, January 29, 2021
Friday's Favorite OTR
Molle Mystery Theater: "Lady in the Morgue" 5/15/45
A woman's body is stolen from the morgue. The morgue attendant and--later--an undertaker are murdered. It's up to private eyes Crane and O'Malley to find the killer in this goofy but entertaining mystery.
This episode is a recording from when it was re-run on Mystery Playhouse, an Armed Forces Network show hosted by Peter Lorre.
Click HERE to listen or download.
Thursday, January 28, 2021
The Thirteenth Hour
But at least his acting career ended on a strong note. The Thirteenth Hour (1947) is another strong, well-written entry in the Whistler series, with Dix giving yet another fine performance.
In this one, he plays a truck driver named Steve Reynolds. Steve's life is going well. He's engaged to a pretty widowed mom named Eileen (Karen Morley) and he's recently paid off his truck.
But a moment of bad luck changes everything. His truck is run off the road by a reckless driver, but no one else sees the other vehicle. He has alcohol on his breath because he drank a glass of punch at Eileen's birthday party before hitting the road. A hitchhiker he had picked up disappears and can't back up his story. And, perhaps worst of all, the motorcycle cop who shows up after the crash also had a thing of Eileen.
The end result is Steve getting his license suspended for six months, which means he has to hire other drivers to stay in business. But when a driver calls out sick, Steve takes a chance on getting back behind the wheel of the truck to make that night's delivery.
He figures all he has to worry about is getting pulled over by the cops. But what happens is a tad bit worse than that. A hijacker knocks him out, uses the truck to kill the motorcyle cop and leaves Steve to take the blame.
So the movie becomes a "man on the run to find the real killer" story. It's a well-used plot devise, but that's because it makes for a good mystery when well-written. And The Thirteenth Hour is indeed well-written, with a logical plot and several unexpected plot twists.
I actually don't want to give too detailed a summary because I don't want to spoil the nicely done twists for anyone. Suffice to say that Steve and those helping him, which includes a good friend, Eileen and Eileen's son, act in an intelligent and logical manner when pursing leads to find the real killer. They also keep their heads to outsmart the bad guy when the situation turns dangerous during the climax.
The bad guy's identity is a real surprise (though many alert viewers will tumble to it a few minutes before the film reveals it) and he also acts with reasonable intelligence, making him an effective villain.
I like this one a lot and it runs neck-to-neck with Mysterious Intruder as my favorite in the series so far.
Of the eight Whistler films, I have six on DVD (recorded off of TCM a few years ago). The Thirteenth Hour one of the two I don't have on disc, so I watched it on YouTube. I'm posting that YouTube video below. But I don't know what the copyright situation is for the movie and don't know if it might one day get pulled. So, as I stated with the other Whistler movie shared here, if my future biographers visit this post in the future (while researching my influence that made me the cultural savior of civilization) and the post below isn't active--it's NOT MY FAULT!
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
King of the Hill
cover art by Joe Kubert
The U.S.S. Stevens stories, written and drawn by Sam Glanzman, appeared periodically as back-up stories in most of DC's war comics during the 1970s. Based on Glanzman's experiences aboard the real-life Stevens (a destroyer) during World War II, the stories are fictionalized vignettes of events he saw or heard about. They are excellent and often heart-felt tales that talk about the boredom, terror, danger and tragidy of war.
"King of the Hill" appeared in Star Spangled War Stories #174 (October 1973) and is a great example of just how good these stories are. It begins with the Stevens finishing up a mission shelling a Japanese facility on a remote island. (I love the the caption here: "We were lying off Borneo shelling an oil refinery or perhaps it was a storage facility... Who knew... few crew members knew or cared about the target.")
Afterwards, they stop at a supply depot to re-stock on ammunition, with a petty officer "volunteering" some of his men to fill out the ammo detail that goes ashore. But once there, someone notices that, aside from ammo, there's quite a few crates of fresh food lying about.
They are told that they can take ONLY the ammo. But somehow, 15 crates of fresh food end up being stored below decks on the Stevens. How did that happen?
At first, the Marine sergeant in charge of the depot is seriously ticked off and uses words such as "#%&!$%" and "*&@!#!$!." But then a small apes is seen taking a crate. The poor animal effectively frames himself for the crime.
A Marine climbs to the top of the ammo crate pile to playfully wrestle with the ape. At first, both Marines and sailors enjoy the show, laughing at the antics. But then the situation takes an abrupt and tragic turn when the ape loses his temper.
And that's it. A man who had survived the campaign on Gaudalcanal dies senseless because he wanted to play with a big monkey. And that's war. However justified a country may be to go to war--however well-led the military may be--people are going to die for stupid reasons.
That's it for now. Next week, we'll lighten things up a bit as we accompany Casper the Friendly Ghost to school.
Monday, January 25, 2021
Sunday, January 24, 2021
Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Mini-Podcast #35: Tarzan of the Apes Chapter 27: "...
Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Mini-Podcast #35: Tarzan of the Apes Chapter 27: "...: In an analysis of the penultimate chapter of Tarzan of the Apes, we see Tarzan arrive in America only to find that Jane STILL needs to be ...
Friday, January 22, 2021
She/He MADE Me!: ANGELA MAKES TIM WATCH: Sabrina (1995)
She/He MADE Me!: ANGELA MAKES TIM WATCH: Sabrina (1995): SABRINA (1995), starring Harrison Ford & Julia Ormond. Written by Barbara Benedeck & David Rayfiel. Directed by Sydney Pollack. TI...
Friday's Favorite OTR
Lone Ranger: "Silver Summit" 1/21/44
Rigor McClure is the toughest construction foreman ever to lay down track, but even he might need the help of the Lone Ranger in order to finish building a line through rough territory in the face of sabotage.
Click HERE to listen or download.
Thursday, January 21, 2021
The Deadly Orchid
cover art by Walter de Maris
The excellent Thrilling Detectives website compares Trixie Meehan and Mike Harris to a couple of television shows that ran decades after these stories were published. Moonlighting and Remington Steele both used the premise of a male/female detective team in which they constantly argued with one another, but still managed to get the job done. With perhaps a dollop of romantic tension tossed in.
It's become a well-used trope, but it was probably much fresher when the first of the 16 Harris/Meehan stories was published in 1933. (Most of the others were also published in the '30s, though the last appeared in 1951).
T.T. Flynn (who wrote a lot of pulp stories and is mostly remembered for his Westerns) was the author and he proves that even if a trope such as this is used a lot, it can still be the basis for good stories. Tropes and cliches become common specifically because, when used well, they can still be a part of effective storytelling.
Anyway, the first story is "The Deadly Orchid," appearing in the April 15, 1933 issue of Detective Fiction Weekly. We meet Mike Harris, a detective with the Blaine Agency, as he is tasked with catching a beautiful blackmailer known as the Orchid. She currently has some letters written by a wealthy and influencial banker that are worth at least a quarter-million dollars.
Mike is to go undercover, checking into the same hotel at which the Orchid is staying, posing as a rich oil man to catch her interest. To Mike's annoyance, Trixie Meehan is given the job of posing as his wife. But, though Mike claims to dislike Trixie, he admits to himself that she has "forget-me-not eyes, a knock 'em dead face, and a clinging vine manner that covered concentrated hell. She has a razor tongue, muscles like steel springs, a brain that made me dizzy at times, and absolutely no fear." She also carries a pistol and a pen that squirts tear gas.
The ensuing story, as Mike and Trixie dip into a large expense account to set up their cover as rich idiots, is a good one. The humor needed to make their adversarial relationship work is there and the plot itself is solid and logical. This has been the only story from the series I've been able to locate, so I do wish that Trixie had been a little more involved in Mike's plan to outwit and trap their target, but she does get to step in to capture a couple of thugs who were getting away from Mike. In the end, she does feel like she is as good a detective as Mike claims she is. If I can ever dig up other stories in the series, I'll be curious to see if she ever gets to be more proactive in coming up with clever plans.
Heck, here's yet another pulp series that needs to be reprinted. Once again, I'M WAITING!
"The Deadly Orchid" can be read online HERE.
Wednesday, January 20, 2021
An Adventure with a 40-Year Time Out
cover art by Gil Kane
For a few years in the early 1970s, Marvel Comics held the rights to do comic book stories about Doc Savage. Doc's book, A comic book series that began in 1972 ran 8 issues, while a black-and-white magazine premiered in 1975 and also ran 8 issiues. Both series were good--it's a pity it didn't run longer.
Naturally, Marvel also brought Doc into the Marvel Universe, using time travel shenanigans to team him up with the Thing in Marvel Two-in-One #21 and Spider Man in Giant Size Spider Man # 3 (January 1975). Undoubtably, both stories were written in part to help plug Doc's own books, but both were entertaining stories in their own right. Especially the Spider Man tale.
And that's the story we are looking at today. Written by Gerry Conway and drawn by Ross Andru, the action picks up in then-modern day, with Spider Man checking out a light near an office building that is scheduled to be demolished. He runs into an alien woman who at first speaks her own alien tongue, but soon has her translator device calibrated to English.
She needs help to solve a problem left over from when the building was constructed back in 1934. To explain, she uses some super-science to show Spider Man what happened 40 years back.
Doc Savage had recieved a note asking for help at the building's construction site. He and his men go there and foil an attempted assassination of Mayor La Guardia, but Doc realizes the note is written on paper not made on Earth. Whatever the call for help is referring to, it wasn't the assassination attempt. That was just a coincidence.
From a story construction point of view, foiling the assassin was a way for the story to introduce Doc and his five assistants to us, as well as highlight just how capable they are. It's an effective trick, accomplishing its goal while keeping the action moving.
Anyway, Doc and his team head back to the building. But at this point, we are brought back to 1974, where a electricity-based giant appears, speaking the same language DeSinna (the alien girl) was speaking earlier while he apparently tries to kill her. After a fun fight sequence illustrated with Ross Andru's usual skill, Spider Man manages to at least temporarily banish the creature by short-circuiting it with an electic-powered jack hammer.
Terros then puts in his appearance. It's the second time we've seen him, but chronologically, this is indeed his initial arrival on Earth. There's another cool fight scene (I have always admired Andru's ability to choroegraph cool comic book action), with Doc eventually using his scientific knowledge and a secret weapon quickly fetched from his HQ to trap Terros in the building's cornerstone.
Which brings us back to 1974, where the impending demolition of the building is threatening to release Terros. So Spider Man... picks up a jack hammer, shatters the cornerstone and let's Terros loose?
It turns out that Terros is the good guy and DeSinna is the bad guy--something Spidey had deduced over the course of the adventure. Terros snatches up the girl and they disappear, presumably going back to their own dimension.
Spidey swings off, thinking that it is changing times and changing attitudes to allow him to figure out DeSinna was the villain after Doc and his team saw her simply as a Damsel in Distress.
Also, DeSinna's back story, told from her point-of-view, turns out to be at least partially untrue, but we never get to learn the truth. What was going on with her and DeSinna? Can we even be sure Spidey was right and DeSinna was indeed the villain? There's simply not enough information for us to know.
But the positives outwiegh the negatives. I've already mentioned how cool Ross Andru's art is. And having the story jump back and forth between the two time periods was clever and well-done.
It's too bad that Doc Savage's time at Marvel didn't see more commercial success. He had himself from fun adventures during that time.
Next week, we'll go sailing aboard the U.S.S. Stevens.
Monday, January 18, 2021
Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: SPECIAL EPISODE: Tim interviews first-time readers...
Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: SPECIAL EPISODE: Tim interviews first-time readers...: Tim DeForest interviews his nephew Josiah DeForest and artist Ben Alvarez (who designed and drew our website banner) about "The Land ...
Saturday, January 16, 2021
Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Mini Podcast #34--Tarzan of the Apes--Chapter 26--...
Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Mini Podcast #34--Tarzan of the Apes--Chapter 26--...: A look at Chapter 26 of Tarzan of the Apes, in which Tarzan reaches civilization and, after a stop in Paris, heads to America to find Jane...
Friday, January 15, 2021
She/He MADE Me!: ANGELA MADE TIM WATCH: Sabrina (1954)
She/He MADE Me!: ANGELA MADE TIM WATCH: Sabrina (1954): SABRINA (1995), starring Humprhey Bogart & Audrey Hepburn. Written by Billy Wilder, Ernest Lehman & Samuel A. Taylor. Directed by...
Friday's Favorite OTR
Dragnet: "Big Crazy" 8/30/51
A woman disappears and her husband hints that he murdered her while bragging about having been an abusive husband. But his neighbors all agree that he had been a hen-pecked milquetoast. So the detectives have a mentally unstable suspect for a murder that might not have been committed.
Click HERE to listen or download.
Thursday, January 14, 2021
The Secret of the Whistler
Read/Watch 'em In Order #121
The sixth movie in the Whistler series--movies based on the radio show of the same name--is another quietly suspenseful story. The Secret of the Whistler (1946) is similar in a way to the previous year's Voice of the Whistler, in that a large chunk of its 65-minute run-time is devoted to setting up the crimes that will eventually be committed.
But that short run-time and another strong performance by Richard Dix keeps the story from dragging. This time, Dix plays an artist named Ralph Harrison, who has very little talent but is able to live off his wealthy wife's fortune.
His wife, by the way, is physically frail and has suffered several heart attacks. So when Ralph falls for a pretty model named Kay Morrell (Leslie Brooks), he figures it won't be long before they are free to get married. In retrospect, though, he should have made sure his wife wasn't nearby listening when he explains this to Kay.
Ralph soon learns he's going to be kicked to the curb and cut out of his wife's will. In response to this, he drops poison into his wife's medicine.
I mentioned Dix's strong performance as Ralph. Dix is playing a guy who is definitely a self-centered jerk, but murder is something that is normally far above his pay grade. Dix portrayal of him as nervous and sometimes near outright panic--both while committing the murder and later worrying about being found out--gives backbone to a good script.
Ralph marries Kay, but news about another husband who was arrested for killing his wife worries him constantly. The fact that he can't find his first wife's diary and doesn't know if there is anything in it that can hurt him is yet another worry. And, after a while, Kay begins to wonder about Ralph as well. Has she indeed married a murderer?
This all leads up to a violent and satisfyingly ironic climax.
Another good, solid entry in a well-written and well-produced series.
Wednesday, January 13, 2021
Batman and Robin in Future-Space!
cover art by Lew Sayre Schwartz;
(Batman and Robin figures drawn by Bob Kane)
One can argue that during the Silver Age, Batman comics walked a little too far out of the shadows, with the silly stories featuring a Dark Knight who was no longer dark. (Mirroring the 1990s, when Batman walked way too far into the shadows.) But therre is no denying that many Silver Age Batman stories were lots of fun.
Batman #59 (June-July 1950) includes a story that gives us a perfect example of Silver Age silly fun. "Batman in the Future," written by Bill Finger and drawn by Lew Sayre Schwartz (with Bob Kane drawing the Dynamtic Duo), is a joy to read.
The story begins with Batman and Robin catching the Joker and tossing him in the slammer. When the Joker mentions that he commits crime in part because his ancestors were famous clowns, Batman decides the thing to do is to travel 100 years into the past to study these influences. He and Robin go to Professor Nichols, who has a method of sending people into the past via hypnotism.
But Nichols inadvertantly sends them 100 years into the future, where they see a future version of the Joker chasing someone. They stop the arch-criminal--only to discover this Joker is not an arch-criminal,
He is a decendent of Joker, but he fights on the sides of good as Police Chief Rokej.
So at first it appears that Batman and Robin are going to be tossed in the Future Slammer. But Batman has Rokej compare his skin pores to a 20th Century picture of himself to prove he's the real thing. Before you can say "Holy Plot Device!" the two time travelers are recruited to help with a case.
Someone is sabotaging a particular brand of new space ship, leaving them easy prey for space pirates. It's suspected to be an inside job, so Bruce and Dick get jobs in the factory that makes the ships.
Soon, they've saved the owner of the factory and get permission to build a Space Batplane. That allows them to take their adventure into space, where they foil and capture the pirates.
But a Bat Signal projected on the moon brings them back to Earth, where they learn the space ship factory has been badly damaged by sabotage. One wonders how large a budget Chief Rokej has available to him if he can whip up a Bat Signal that projects an image half-a-million miles away.
Anyway, the only way the space ship company can survive is to win a major upcoming space race and the only way for this to happen is for the Space Batplane to compete. But things go awry early in the race when the Batplane's fuel supply is sabotaged and it drifts into a Sargosso Sea of lost spaceships.
They win the race by cutting a close orbit around the sun. All through the story, they've also been stumbling across clues that eliminate suspects as to who the saboteur is and now one last clue lets them finger the guy. Justice is served just as the hypnotism wears off and kicks Batman and Robin back to 1950.
It is indeed a silly story, but it is internally logical (sort of), visually eye-catching and--as I've said--a joy to read. The best Batman stories are from the 1970s, when he was the Dark Knight without being too dark and his skills as a detective and escape artist were properly appreciated. But the world would be a poorer place indeed without Silver Age Batman's goofy adventures.
Next week, a modern Marvel hero teams up with a 1930s pulp hero.
Monday, January 11, 2021
Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Mini Podcast #33--Tarzan of the Apes--Chapter 25--...
Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Mini Podcast #33--Tarzan of the Apes--Chapter 25--...: A look at Chapter 25 of Tarzan of the Apes, in which the Ape Man decides to leave the jungle and seek out civilization. Click HERE for th...
Saturday, January 9, 2021
She/He MADE Me!: ANGELA MADE TIM WATCH: Daddy Long Legs (1955)
She/He MADE Me!: ANGELA MADE TIM WATCH: Daddy Long Legs (1955): DADDY LONG LEGS (1955), starring Fred Astaire and Leslie Caron. Written by Henry and Phoebe Ephron. Directed by Jean Negulesco. TIM SAYS...
Friday, January 8, 2021
Friday's Favorite OTR
Gunsmoke: "What the Whiskey Drummer Heard" 4/17/54
Marshal Dillon learns that someone has been hired to kill him, but doesn't know Who, Where or When.
Click HERE to listen or download.
Thursday, January 7, 2021
The (Almost) first Bond
When Roger Moore died a few years ago, I felt obligated to watch one of his Bond movies. That was The Spy Who Loved Me, which epitomizes that actor's films. It was absurdly over the top, but also enormous fun. It also gave us Jaws, arguably the best henchman ever (however badly he was handled in the awful Moonraker).
So when Sean Connery died recently, I wanted to watch one of his Bond films. (I also want to watch Connery's best ever films--The Wind and the Lion and The Man Who Would be King.) But which one? Goldfinger and Thunderball are my favorites and I will undoubtably watch them soon, but I decided to watch Dr. No (1962), Connery's first Bond movie.
I know most of my readers are likely to be members of the global Nerd Herd, so a lot of you probably already know this: Connery actually isn't the first person to play James Bond. In 1954, the TV series Climax! produced a live adaptation of Casino Royale, the first Bond novel. Peter Lorre was the villain and and Barry Nelson played the American spy Jimmy Bond.
But Dr. No took Bond back to his appropriate British roots. The movie also gives us the iconic Bond theme music, though we don't yet get to hear a title song unique to this particular movie. That's a tradition that would begin two movies later with Goldfinger.
There's also no spy gadgets--we wait another movie (From Russia, With Love) to meet gadgeteer Q and watch him explain how a booby-trapped briefcase works. In Dr. No, we meet the an armorer who (at M's orders) takes away Bond's .25 caliber Berreta and gives him the Walther PPK the character would carry for decades.
By the time we get to the end of Connery's run, the films were mixing self-aware parody into the plots, but with Dr. No, the elements that create a Bond film were just being introduced. There was nothing to parody yet and, though there is humor injected via Bond's dry sense of humor, the movie takes itself seriously. Dr. No is a well-constructed spy thriller with a strong hero, one of the most memorable Bond girls and a great villain.
It does take us awhile to actually meet the villain, though. Bond spends most of his time in Jamaica, investigating the disappearance of another British agent. It's relatively late in the film that the case takes him to Crab Key, a remote island on which the Chinese/German mad scientist Dr. No has set up shop. In addition to a small army of guards, he also has an atomic-powered Macguffin that he's using to electronically knock down American rockets.
Joseph Wiseman gives a great performance as Dr. No, exuding just the right mixture of brilliance and insanity. I wish he had been given more of a presence in the movie, but it can also be argued that his late introduction gives the character more dramatic punch.
Connery, in the meantime, humanizes Bond. He is capable and professional. He can also be ruthless, as we see when he rather casually assassinates one of No's agents. But he can also be hurt (he's pretty disheveled after being brutally beaten by Dr. No's men). And he can be frightened. When he awakes at night to find a tarantula has been put in his bed, he's very near panic.
The movie has its flaws. Bad rear projection during a car chase spoils the tension of that scene. Dr. No's lair doesn't look anywhere near as impressive as lairs we'll see in later movies and his atomic reactor is absurdly easy to sabotage.
In the book, Bond kills Dr. No in a very original way, while the movie ends with a so-so and far-too-short fight between the two before the doctor bites it. Also, Bond's escape through a booby-trapped air vent was a lot more epic in the book. (I include a clip of that scene here, though, because it does show us a disheveled and bloodied Bond we'll rarely see again.)
So, yes, I will be watching the best-of-the-best Connery Bond films again soon. But I was glad to revisit Dr. No.
Wednesday, January 6, 2021
Flying Armored Cars and Flying Telephone Booths
Man From U.N.C.L.E. #8 (September 1966) is arguably the most entertaining issue in the comic book career of Napoleon and Illya. Written by Dick Wood and illustrated by Mike Sekowsky, it is cleverly plotted and fast-paced, with the story twisting into unexpected directions several times.
It begins with the two U.N.C.L.E. agents infiltrating a THRUSH base, intending to acquire information. But they are forced to improvise when THRUSH launches a mission. Wearing stolen THURSH uniforms, they tag along, hoping to thwart whatever the bad guys hope to accomplish.
It turns out they are after an anti-gravity formula (designated AG#4), which was made from a substance recovered from a meteor. The professor who created it tries to escape by using it, but THRUSH manages to get hold of a pail-sized container full of the stuff.
Soon, THRUSH is using the formula to rob an armored car carrying an army payroll. This sets off a wonderful action sequence that stretches across the second half of the book. The armored car is sprayed with AG #4. Napoleon manages to steal back the remaining forumla and the U.N.C.L.E. agents board the floating car, defending it against THRUSH and even managing to capture a THRUSH helicopter.
THRUSH agents steal back the forumla and cause confusion by spraying bystanders with it. But, despite the need to save a few innocent lives, Illya steals the formula back for the good guys, only to have a THRUSH agents steal it from him. He recruits a pretty young lady on a scooter to pursue the villain.
Illya gets the stuff back again, but is soon cornered in a phone booth. Using some AG#4 (and inadvertently spilling the rest of it), he goes airborne inside the booth. He's soon rescued by U.N.C.L.E. and the good guys more or less win (though no one ends up with the anti-grav formula.)
Next week--Batman in SPACE!
