Friday's Favorite OTR

Suspense: "The Card Game" 4/19/54

Richard Widmark is a compulsive gambler who keeps looking for that one big score in a poker game. Widmark is typically excellent and the story is--for the most part--really good, but I think the ending is weak.

Click HERE to listen or download.

The Twilight Zone Goes West--Part 1

During its five year run, The Twilight Zone did a total of 8 episodes partially or completely set in the Old West. There were several Civil War episodes (at least 3 that I can think of), but for our purposes today, we are going to stick to gunfighters, settlers and outlaws.  I'm going to do an intermittent series looking at those episodes one at a time.

I'm doing this series because.. well, because its my blog and I want to. Also, its an excuse for me to watch some Twilight Zone episodes again, which is never a bad thing.

"Mr. Denton on Doomsday" aired on October 15, 1959--it was the third episode of the series' premiere season. Written by Rod Serling, it isn't often listed among the best episodes, but it really is quite excellent.

Dan Duryea is Al Denton, the town drunk--a former gunfighter who had long ago drank away both his skill and his dignity. A local bully (Martin Landau) forces Denton to literally sing for a drink.

But then Denton finds a pistol lying in the street. It goes off by seeming accident, with the shots disarming the bully. Suddenly, Denton has the respect of the town. It's not just Al or "rummy" when they speak to him. It's "Mr. Denton."

It was here that the story could have gone in two different, equally legitimate directions. Denton could have regained his confidence and, in fact, become arrogantly over-confident. The story would have then probably played out as a tragedy.

But instead, Denton does regain his dignity, but also realizes that he doesn't stand a chance in a real gunfight. And now that he's regained his reputation, it's only a matter of time before someone looking to make a name for himself calls him out. He knows he's doomed.

Duryea was a great character actor and its his performance that really makes this episode great. Though the half-hour format does force the plot and character moments to unfold a little too quickly, Duryea brings a pathos and later a sincere sense of dignity to Denton. It's one of the things that made The Twilight Zone such a classic series: in the best episodes, we are shown characters we can easily think of as real no matter how overt the supernatural or fantasy elements are.

Because this IS The Twilight Zone and so of course there's a supernatural element to the story. A peddler named Henry J. Fate is somehow responsible for Denton's lucky shots after Denton finds the gun. And later, when Denton is about to face off against a younger gunman (played by Doug McClure), Fate gives him a potion that will make him the fastest gun alive for ten seconds.

But Denton's opponent turns out to have the same potion.

The story uses this plot twist to pull a satisfying and legitimately uplifting climax out of this situation, with the combination of Sterling's solid script and Duryea's fine performance endowing it with honest emotion.

So The Twilight Zone's first trip to the Wild West is a successful one. There's one more journey back to that time period in the show's first season. Well, sort of. We'll take a look at an episode that is set mostly in the 20th Century, but still draws its main character from the 19th Century.

Never Bring a Puma to a Gunfight!

"The Plunderers," from Rawhide Kid #55 (December 1966) was written and drawn by Larry Lieber.  I'll admit upfront that I like Lieber's art, but I'm not usually knocked dead by it. His work is servicable and enjoyable, but doesn't particularly stand out.

But in this story, Lieber really had his game on. His script is a perfectly good one, but it's his art, with a very effective use of shifting camera angles and some well-choreographed fight scenes, that make everythying click.

The Kid meets a family of poor farmers, who assume there's a reward and arrest him. Not wanting to fight innocent people, the Kid allows himself to be taken into town.

He's not wanted in this particular county, though. But while he's in jail waiting for the sheriff to check up on him, he sees the patriarch of the farming family getting roughed up by some thugs.

When he's released, he runs to help the farmer. But the farmer assumes the Kid is working with the thugs and some of the townspeople jump him as well after also automatically assuming he must have busted out of jail.

That leads to the first of several action sequences as the Kid fist-fights his way out of town. Determined to help the farmer regardless, he rides out to their homestead. Here he discovers a rich rancher is trying to run them off the land so that he can grab it for himself.

The farmer and his two kids don't trust the Kid at first, but when the bad guys attack, they are forunate to have him around.

This leads to yet another effective action scene, in which the Kid takes out most of the rancher's gang, despite the use of a haywagon to smash into the farmer's house.

This flows into the climatic scene. Using the farmer's daughter as a hostage, the rancher flees back to his own place. The Kid pursues, so the villain releases his pet puma. This tactic quite literally comes back to bite the rancher.

The story is structured to give us one nifty fight scene after another and, because Lieber's art stands out, it works really well in this regard. It can be said that the Rawhide Kid stories were stuck in the same rut--he's always distrusted by the people he meets and this always forces him to move on in the end even if he has made a few friends. But within that framework, some very entertaining stories were told.

We've visited with Turok and Andar recently, but I've acquired an unusual multi-part story arc from that series, so we'll return to Lost Valley next week.

Cover Cavalcade

A Richard Loehle cover from 1949.

The Purpose of Pulps

Coming Attraction

Friday's Favorite OTR

Duffy's Tavern: "A Baby is Left at the Tavern" 12/7/51

A baby is left on the tavern's door step. Could the little one awaken paternal instincts in the child-hating Archie?

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There are Times When Life is Good

There are moments when life is unequivocally good. A Friday night with nothing important to do and no immediate responsibilities; a playlist of Western movie soundtracks playing on my computer; a couch to lie on; iced tea to sip and a good Western to read. Who needs friends or useful tasks to perform? THIS is what makes life good.

The particular Western I was reading on that recent Friday night was Trumpets of Company K, by William Chamberlain. I had read an anthology of Chamberlain's World War II-themed stories when I was a kid and several years ago completed a life-long quest in identifying the author and reading those stories yet again. A few months ago, I reviewed his excellent WWII novel Combat General. 

Chamberlain was an army officer himself, serving with distinction during World War II and retiring in 1946 at a brigadier general. He knew his stuff and his main characters are usually officers and represent the qualities that a good combat officer needs to have.

His first book-length work is not a World War II story, but a Western. The main character, though, is still representative of the qualities of a good leader who takes men into combat. Some things never change.

Frank Garland is a captain and company commander in the cavalry, serving at a remote fort in the Dakotas a few years after Little Big Horn. And though the post might be remote, there is no shortage of trouble.

There are rumors of a land grab, to be led by a powerful senator, which would mean land being taken away from the Sioux despite previous treaties. Because of this, a band of Sioux has left the reservation and already killed a number of people.

A lieutenant leading a patrol made poor decisions, getting two of his men killed and getting himself captured, That the lieutenant is the son of the senator arranging the land grab complicates that particular situation even more.

A former officer, cashiered for being drunk on duty during an Indian raid that left Garland's wife dead, has arrived in the area and is rumored to be providing the Indians with guns and whiskey. He also claims to be an agent of that senator.

So Garland and the fort's commander, Major Kingman, have all this to deal with. Also, Janet Davenport, who is engaged to the captured lieutenant, has arrived at the fort and blames Garland for sending him out on patrol.

The story that flows out of these interrelated plot points is suspenseful and thoughtful. Chamberlain centers most of the story around Garland, but also cuts away to the enlisted men from time to time to give us their points of view as well. The end result is a very suspenseful tale peppered with an intelligent and sharply-presented discussion of why men choose to be soldiers, of the Band of Brothers mentality that is so important to small units in combat, and of the responsibilities a combat leader must recognize and fulfill.

Art by Frederic Remington. It's not from the novel, of course, but it's pretty awesome in its own right.

There's not a lot of pure action, but its a story that doesn't require it, as Chamberlain keeps the events of the novel moving along briskly and various character moments stand out. I especially like the character arc of Major Kingman, the fort's C.O. He is determined to confront the senator and stop the land grab, thus preventing the war that the senator wants to use as an excuse for that land grab. Kingman knows he can't win--the senator has too much political pull and will without question bring Kingman's career to an end. But the officer knows right from wrong. He knows his duty both to his country and his men. He may go down in flames, but he will stand up and fight.  He is awesome.

Trumpets of Company K isn't a perfect novel. Garland and Janet end up in love with each other, which is predictable and happens far too quickly--before the two even have a chance to have a real conversation, they are pretty much up to their eyes in mutual mushy feelings. But this is the only false notes among the strong characters in this excellent Westerns.

Space Travelling Pterodactyls!

Everyone claims dinosaurs are extinct! But not only do they exist in Pal-ul-don, Caspak, Pellucidar, Skull Island, Challenger's Plateau and the Valley of Gwangi--it also turns out that they are living on Saturn's largest moon as well!

I KNEW IT!

We learn this from the story "The Eagle of Space," from Wonder Woman #105 (April 1959). Written by Robert Kanigher and with art by Ross Andru, it shows us that there are definitely dinosaurs on Titan.

By the way, I'll get a minor annoyance out of the way upfront. When the story takes Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor to Saturn's biggest moon, it is simply referred to as "Saturn's biggest moon," never as Titan. Gee whiz, Mr. Kanigher, I realize you couldn't just google something in 1959, but couldn't you have taken a moment to crack open an encyclopedia and find moon's name?

On to the story. Unmanned rockets sent to explore Mars keep vanishing. A picture transmitted back by one rocket show a picture of a pterodactyl attacking the ship.

Steve Trevor doesn't believe this could be true, so takes a manned rocket up into space to check out the situation. Somtimes Steve isn't the brightest marble in the bag, is he? First, he thinks going up alone is a good idea. Second, his girlfriend is an immortal Amazon with super strength and an invisible plane, but he thinks a space-pterodactyl is impossible. Not just unlikely, mind you, but impossible.

Wonder Woman tails Steve in her plane, so is on hand to rescue him when the pterodactyl attacks.

Shenanigans ensue, which result in Steve joining Diana inside her plane, which in turn ends up in the jaws of the pterodactyl. Flying in a "cosmic jet stream," the creature quickly returns to Titan. This turns out to be a jungle world on which dinosaurs still live. No explanation for how at least one of them became able to survive in an airless void is ever given.

A T-Rex and the pterodactyl starts playing keep-away with the invisible plane. This results in Diana and Steve getting separated.

 Diana finds a tribe of cave people, primitive humans who are kept in perpetual fear by the dinosaurs. Diana later finds Steve, then builds a cage with giant trees to keep the tribe safe from the dinosaurs.

Wonder Woman then caps all this off by telepathically passing on all knowledge of civilization to a young caveman. She and Steve then head home.

This is a fun, delightful story. It would be easy to pick holes in it--by golly, how DID the pterodactyl become capable of breathing in space? But, though I normally prefer strong plots that follow their own internal logic, I just can't get bothered over this. The idea of dinosaurs living on Titan, combined with Ross Andru's always-fun artwork, sells the story to me hook, line and sinker.

Besides, I knew there were dinosaurs still living on Titan. I just KNEW it!

Next week, we'll return to the Wild West to visit with the Rawhide Kid.

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast-Episode #4

Jess Terrell, Scott Stewart and myself talk about ERB's second Tarzan novel: The Return of Tarzan.  This is one of Burroughs' best novel and a personal favorite of all of us. The plot stretches from Paris to North Africa to the jungle to the lost city of Opar as Tarzan struggles to discover if there is a place for him in civilization--or if he even wants to be a part of civilization. 

You can listen or download HERE. 

Or watch the video version: