Monday, November 8, 2010
Last Friday's post
Sorry, I just realized I neglected to include a link to last Friday's OTR show. That's been corrected and the link is now active.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Friday's Favorite OTR
Molle Mystery Theater: “Two Men in a Furnished Room” 9/27/46
By the way, if anyone’s wondering why this episode introduces itself as a Mystery Playhouse episode, it’s because that show was an Armed Forces Radio Network anthology that did re-runs of various network shows. That’s the recording I happen to have of it. But it did originally air as an episode of the Molle Mystery Theater.
The plot involves one man urging his roommate to lie to help establish an alibi after a girl is murdered. That there will be a twist at the end is no surprise to anyone listening. What kept me interested was not just the skill with which the story was told, but also that I didn’t know exactly what the twist would be. It was equally likely that this could go in one of two directions, but I was guessing until the last moment which of those directions it would be.
Click HERE to listen or download.
By the way, if anyone’s wondering why this episode introduces itself as a Mystery Playhouse episode, it’s because that show was an Armed Forces Radio Network anthology that did re-runs of various network shows. That’s the recording I happen to have of it. But it did originally air as an episode of the Molle Mystery Theater.
The plot involves one man urging his roommate to lie to help establish an alibi after a girl is murdered. That there will be a twist at the end is no surprise to anyone listening. What kept me interested was not just the skill with which the story was told, but also that I didn’t know exactly what the twist would be. It was equally likely that this could go in one of two directions, but I was guessing until the last moment which of those directions it would be.
Click HERE to listen or download.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Hopalong Cassidy, Superman, the Shadow and Robert Mitchum
A few months back, someone actually read my blog. He posted a comment, too, in which he mentioned a Hopalong Cassidy movie in which a young Robert Mitchum appeared.
I own a number of Hoppy DVDs, but I didn’t happen to have that particular film (Hoppy Serves a Writ from 1942), so I immediately Netflixed it. And, by golly, not only is Bob Mitchum in it, so is George Reeves and Victor Jory.
Jory played the Shadow (the toughest of pulp magazine tough guys) in a 1940 serial. Reeves, of course, played Superman (the toughest of comic book tough guys) on TV in the 1950s.
And Mitchum, of course, is one of the toughest of tough guy actors. Heck, he’s so tough he probably hung around the back lot between movies chewing on nails along with Richard Widmark, Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson.
In the Hoppy movie, Jory is the leader of a gang of rustlers and stage coach robbers. Reeves and Mitchum are members of his gang. Despite the fact that all three men are playing outlaws and thugs, it is by default the most manly gang of real men in the history of manliness.
There’s one scene in which one of Hoppy’s sidekicks is captured by the gang and knocked around in an attempt to get him to talk. To his credit, he doesn’t talk, despite the fact that the Shadow and Superman are taking turns punching him while Bob Mitchum holds him up.
The movie as a whole, by the way, is a typically good B-Western. William Boyd gives his usual boisterous and likable performance as Hoppy, there’s an effective use of outdoor locations and the plot is well-constructed. And there’s a great saloon brawl in which Hoppy beats the snot out of the Shadow. Now THAT’S tough.
My appreciation to the gentleman who left the comment that inspired me to catch up on another great black-and-white Western. I just wish the film had a better title. Hoppy Serves a Writ just isn’t tough enough. But I suppose Hoppy Beats the Snot Out of The Shadow wouldn’t have fit on the theater marquee.
I own a number of Hoppy DVDs, but I didn’t happen to have that particular film (Hoppy Serves a Writ from 1942), so I immediately Netflixed it. And, by golly, not only is Bob Mitchum in it, so is George Reeves and Victor Jory.
Jory played the Shadow (the toughest of pulp magazine tough guys) in a 1940 serial. Reeves, of course, played Superman (the toughest of comic book tough guys) on TV in the 1950s.
And Mitchum, of course, is one of the toughest of tough guy actors. Heck, he’s so tough he probably hung around the back lot between movies chewing on nails along with Richard Widmark, Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson.
In the Hoppy movie, Jory is the leader of a gang of rustlers and stage coach robbers. Reeves and Mitchum are members of his gang. Despite the fact that all three men are playing outlaws and thugs, it is by default the most manly gang of real men in the history of manliness.
There’s one scene in which one of Hoppy’s sidekicks is captured by the gang and knocked around in an attempt to get him to talk. To his credit, he doesn’t talk, despite the fact that the Shadow and Superman are taking turns punching him while Bob Mitchum holds him up.
The movie as a whole, by the way, is a typically good B-Western. William Boyd gives his usual boisterous and likable performance as Hoppy, there’s an effective use of outdoor locations and the plot is well-constructed. And there’s a great saloon brawl in which Hoppy beats the snot out of the Shadow. Now THAT’S tough.
My appreciation to the gentleman who left the comment that inspired me to catch up on another great black-and-white Western. I just wish the film had a better title. Hoppy Serves a Writ just isn’t tough enough. But I suppose Hoppy Beats the Snot Out of The Shadow wouldn’t have fit on the theater marquee.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
History of the Marvel Universe: October 1965, part 3
TALES TO ASTONISH #72
Namor, still on his quest to find Neptune’s trident, manages to defeat the seaweed monster long enough to find the next clue—it turns out he must now travel to the Diamonds of Doom.
Meanwhile, Lady Dorma refuses to marry Krang and gets exiled to the realm of the Faceless Ones. What this means we aren’t yet told, but we are not given the impression that it’s a good thing.
Namor finds out about this--via fish telepathy—a power more commonly associated with Namor’s DC parallel Aquaman. Even though he’d been around for a few years now, Namor’s powers were still in flux. Stan Lee never seemed to remember what Namor could or could not do. Sometimes he could do fish telepathy, sometimes he couldn’t. In later years, he pretty much seemed not to have this power, though he could always summon up a few undersea monsters whenever the plot demanded it of him.
Anyways, Namor can’t take time to save Dorma because Krang will start a world-encompassing war unless he’s defeated. So it’s off to the Diamonds of Doom. The Doom part, he discovers, comes from their ability to suck out the life force of any living thing that comes close to them. Namor realizes this a little too late, giving us this issue’s cliffhanger.
Meanwhile, the Hulk has been teleported by the Leader to the villain’s secret base. Soon after, the army blows up Banner’s mountain lab (thinking the Hulk is still inside), destroying the equipment Banner needs to keep himself from turning human again. (Remember, the bullet in his skull kills him if he turns back into Banner.)
The Leader wants Hulk to work for him, but the two really can’t manage to play nice. To make matters worse, Hulk begins to slowly turn back into Banner while fighting the Leader’s Humanoids. Weakened by this, he falls to a barrage of energy weapons. If the weapons don’t kill him, turning human will.
AVENGERS #21
A mercenary who worked for the late Baron Zemo is still hanging around Zemo’s lab in South America. The Enchantress shows up and uses the same machine that turned Simon Williams into Wonder Man (back in issue #9) to turn the merc into Power Man.
Then she and her new ally begin using magically created illusions and a series of dirty tricks to make it look like the Avengers are destroying property and breaking laws. Eventually, the government issues a court order, forcing them to disband.
The idea of discrediting the Avengers is an old one. Count Neferia tried it just a few issues back. But Enchantress’ plan is a pretty clever one and the circumstances are used to highlight some of the strained relations within the Avengers (most notably between Cap and Hawkeye). That will really come to a head next issue.
DAREDEVIL #10
A criminal known as the Organizer, um, organizes a cadre of criminals respectively known as Cat Man, Frog Man, Bird Man and Ape Man. All have costumes and talents that mimic the animals they dress up as.
They are, to be frank, a pretty silly looking bunch. Only Wally Wood’s effective layouts save the story, in which the bad guys steal from or otherwise attack the political Reform Party (which has recruited Foggy Nelson as their candidate for D.A.). As the issue ends Cat Man has been captured, but the others are still loose and Daredevil has to rescue a kidnap victim who doesn’t really seem to be all that much of a victim. That the villain is secretly making the Reform Party look good to the public is obvious from the start and no surprise when this is revealed in the next issue.
That’s it for October. Before moving on to November, we’ll take a week next time to look at the 1965 annuals. Reed and Sue are goin’ to the chapel and gonna get married; Spider Man has a strange encounter with Dr. Strange; and Thor meets the official Marvel Universe version of Hercules.
Namor, still on his quest to find Neptune’s trident, manages to defeat the seaweed monster long enough to find the next clue—it turns out he must now travel to the Diamonds of Doom.
Meanwhile, Lady Dorma refuses to marry Krang and gets exiled to the realm of the Faceless Ones. What this means we aren’t yet told, but we are not given the impression that it’s a good thing.
Namor finds out about this--via fish telepathy—a power more commonly associated with Namor’s DC parallel Aquaman. Even though he’d been around for a few years now, Namor’s powers were still in flux. Stan Lee never seemed to remember what Namor could or could not do. Sometimes he could do fish telepathy, sometimes he couldn’t. In later years, he pretty much seemed not to have this power, though he could always summon up a few undersea monsters whenever the plot demanded it of him.
Anyways, Namor can’t take time to save Dorma because Krang will start a world-encompassing war unless he’s defeated. So it’s off to the Diamonds of Doom. The Doom part, he discovers, comes from their ability to suck out the life force of any living thing that comes close to them. Namor realizes this a little too late, giving us this issue’s cliffhanger.
Meanwhile, the Hulk has been teleported by the Leader to the villain’s secret base. Soon after, the army blows up Banner’s mountain lab (thinking the Hulk is still inside), destroying the equipment Banner needs to keep himself from turning human again. (Remember, the bullet in his skull kills him if he turns back into Banner.)
The Leader wants Hulk to work for him, but the two really can’t manage to play nice. To make matters worse, Hulk begins to slowly turn back into Banner while fighting the Leader’s Humanoids. Weakened by this, he falls to a barrage of energy weapons. If the weapons don’t kill him, turning human will.
AVENGERS #21
A mercenary who worked for the late Baron Zemo is still hanging around Zemo’s lab in South America. The Enchantress shows up and uses the same machine that turned Simon Williams into Wonder Man (back in issue #9) to turn the merc into Power Man.
Then she and her new ally begin using magically created illusions and a series of dirty tricks to make it look like the Avengers are destroying property and breaking laws. Eventually, the government issues a court order, forcing them to disband.
The idea of discrediting the Avengers is an old one. Count Neferia tried it just a few issues back. But Enchantress’ plan is a pretty clever one and the circumstances are used to highlight some of the strained relations within the Avengers (most notably between Cap and Hawkeye). That will really come to a head next issue.
DAREDEVIL #10
A criminal known as the Organizer, um, organizes a cadre of criminals respectively known as Cat Man, Frog Man, Bird Man and Ape Man. All have costumes and talents that mimic the animals they dress up as.
They are, to be frank, a pretty silly looking bunch. Only Wally Wood’s effective layouts save the story, in which the bad guys steal from or otherwise attack the political Reform Party (which has recruited Foggy Nelson as their candidate for D.A.). As the issue ends Cat Man has been captured, but the others are still loose and Daredevil has to rescue a kidnap victim who doesn’t really seem to be all that much of a victim. That the villain is secretly making the Reform Party look good to the public is obvious from the start and no surprise when this is revealed in the next issue.
That’s it for October. Before moving on to November, we’ll take a week next time to look at the 1965 annuals. Reed and Sue are goin’ to the chapel and gonna get married; Spider Man has a strange encounter with Dr. Strange; and Thor meets the official Marvel Universe version of Hercules.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
Friday's Favorite OTR
The Adventures of the Saint: “Fighter’s Contract” 7/23/50
Yet another episode in which Vincent Price handles with perfect aplomb the often hilarious verbal by-play with various suspects and witnesses. This time around, the case involves an up-and-coming boxer, his manager and the manager’s wife. The wife, we are assured, is a “real tomato” and may be, um, in training (so to speak) with the young boxer.
A mystery writer used these three as characters in his latest novel. Now one of them may be planning to murder him, or perhaps murder one another. Simon looks into it, but soon one of the characters is indeed killed. But Simon doesn’t miss a beat in his barrage of witty barbs before finally nailing the killer.
Click HERE to listen or download.
Yet another episode in which Vincent Price handles with perfect aplomb the often hilarious verbal by-play with various suspects and witnesses. This time around, the case involves an up-and-coming boxer, his manager and the manager’s wife. The wife, we are assured, is a “real tomato” and may be, um, in training (so to speak) with the young boxer.
A mystery writer used these three as characters in his latest novel. Now one of them may be planning to murder him, or perhaps murder one another. Simon looks into it, but soon one of the characters is indeed killed. But Simon doesn’t miss a beat in his barrage of witty barbs before finally nailing the killer.
Click HERE to listen or download.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Tarzan vs. T Rex. Does it get any better than this?
I know the T-Rex looks formidable, but my money is always on Tarzan.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
History of the Marvel Universe: October 1965, part 2
JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #121
Thor and the Absorbing Man fight a running battle through the streets of New York. Both are invulnerable and both are evenly matched in power (since Crusher can absorb Thor’s power every time the Thunder God clocks him one). But when Thor has to turn his back to protect an innocent bystander, the villain clocks HIM a good one and apparently knocks him out.
The fight is yet another example of Jack Kirby’ superb ability to choreograph an exciting action sequence. A full-page panel in which we see Absorbing Man grow to gigantic size while Thor flies in to attack is by itself worth the price of admission.
Sandwiched into the fight scene is a reminder that Jane is being held prisoner by a guy in a mask (though the guy claims he’s just protecting her). Also, we get a couple of glimpses at Loki back in Asgard, who is making sure no one realizes he’s up to mischief again while he watches the Thor/Absorbing Man battle via a crystal ball.
The Tales of Asgard feature has Thor’s giant ship sailing into a maelstrom, while some of the crew grow panicky and Loki plots to foment mutiny. It ends with Balder climbing to the top of the huge ship’s figurehead to carry out some sort of plan to save them all. This back-up feature continues to be a real showcase for Kirby’ powerful and imaginative art.
TALES OF SUSPENSE #70
More cool fight scenes as Iron Man and Titanium Man continue to duke it out. And there’s a nice bit of characterization mixed in as well, when Happy risks his life (and seems to get killed) getting a piece of equipment to Iron Man in the nick of time. What makes it an even better moment is that Happy has realized Iron Man and Tony are the same guy—the guy he sees has coming between him and Pepper—but he sacrifices himself to save Tony just the same. As annoying as the whole Tony—Happy—Pepper thing has been most of the time, Stan Lee manages to pull a really cool moment out of it.
Anyway, the issue ends with the battle between the two armored man still unresolved while Happy lays unconscious and possibly dead nearby.
Back in World War II, Cap flies the captured Nazi bomber to the castle where Bucky is held prisoner. He’s warned by the mad scientist’s innocent sister that it’s a trap. This allows him to put up a good fight against Nazis wearing medieval armor and a bunch of stormtroopers laying a barrage of submachine gun fire down on him. But he’s finally taken down with some knockout gas.
The mad scientist then finds out that working for Nazis is never a good idea. As punishment for her helping Cap, the sister will be shoved inside a V-2 rocket before its fired at 10 Downing Street to blow up Churchill.
We also get a reminder that Steve Rogers’ Ranger platoon, still on its raid into France, is surrounded by a German armored column. It’s all done very well, with the exposition never getting in the way of the action (or visa versa). Stan Lee continues to demonstrate his skill at pacing a multi-chapter serial.
We’ll leave Thor, Cap and Iron Man all in big trouble for the moment. Next week, we’ll visit with Hulk, Namor, the Avengers and Daredevil.
Thor and the Absorbing Man fight a running battle through the streets of New York. Both are invulnerable and both are evenly matched in power (since Crusher can absorb Thor’s power every time the Thunder God clocks him one). But when Thor has to turn his back to protect an innocent bystander, the villain clocks HIM a good one and apparently knocks him out.
The fight is yet another example of Jack Kirby’ superb ability to choreograph an exciting action sequence. A full-page panel in which we see Absorbing Man grow to gigantic size while Thor flies in to attack is by itself worth the price of admission.
Sandwiched into the fight scene is a reminder that Jane is being held prisoner by a guy in a mask (though the guy claims he’s just protecting her). Also, we get a couple of glimpses at Loki back in Asgard, who is making sure no one realizes he’s up to mischief again while he watches the Thor/Absorbing Man battle via a crystal ball.
The Tales of Asgard feature has Thor’s giant ship sailing into a maelstrom, while some of the crew grow panicky and Loki plots to foment mutiny. It ends with Balder climbing to the top of the huge ship’s figurehead to carry out some sort of plan to save them all. This back-up feature continues to be a real showcase for Kirby’ powerful and imaginative art.
TALES OF SUSPENSE #70
More cool fight scenes as Iron Man and Titanium Man continue to duke it out. And there’s a nice bit of characterization mixed in as well, when Happy risks his life (and seems to get killed) getting a piece of equipment to Iron Man in the nick of time. What makes it an even better moment is that Happy has realized Iron Man and Tony are the same guy—the guy he sees has coming between him and Pepper—but he sacrifices himself to save Tony just the same. As annoying as the whole Tony—Happy—Pepper thing has been most of the time, Stan Lee manages to pull a really cool moment out of it.
Anyway, the issue ends with the battle between the two armored man still unresolved while Happy lays unconscious and possibly dead nearby.
Back in World War II, Cap flies the captured Nazi bomber to the castle where Bucky is held prisoner. He’s warned by the mad scientist’s innocent sister that it’s a trap. This allows him to put up a good fight against Nazis wearing medieval armor and a bunch of stormtroopers laying a barrage of submachine gun fire down on him. But he’s finally taken down with some knockout gas.
The mad scientist then finds out that working for Nazis is never a good idea. As punishment for her helping Cap, the sister will be shoved inside a V-2 rocket before its fired at 10 Downing Street to blow up Churchill.
We also get a reminder that Steve Rogers’ Ranger platoon, still on its raid into France, is surrounded by a German armored column. It’s all done very well, with the exposition never getting in the way of the action (or visa versa). Stan Lee continues to demonstrate his skill at pacing a multi-chapter serial.
We’ll leave Thor, Cap and Iron Man all in big trouble for the moment. Next week, we’ll visit with Hulk, Namor, the Avengers and Daredevil.
Monday, October 25, 2010
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