Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Mini Podcast #32--Tarzan of the Apes--Chapter 24--...

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Mini Podcast #32--Tarzan of the Apes--Chapter 24--...:   A look at the 24th Chapter of Tarzan of the Apes, in which Professor Porter, Jane and the other castaways leave Africa, but only after los...

She/He MADE Me!: ANGELA MADE TIM READ: "Daddy-Long-Legs," by Jean W...

She/He MADE Me!: ANGELA MADE TIM READ: "Daddy-Long-Legs," by Jean W...:   TIM SAYS: Since Angela and I became a couple (not counting the approximately one year period in which we were apparently dating without my...

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Suspense: "The Ten Grand" 6/22/44

Lucille Ball plays a chorus girl who has literally a nickle to her name--until ten thousand dollars mysteriously appears in her purse.

Click HERE to listen or download.

Command

 

James Warner Bellah wrote a number of short stories dealing with the Indian Wars in the Old West, with many of them centered on troopers stationed at the fictional Fort Starke. Bellah created a Fort Starke universe, with the same cast of reoccuring characters. These stories were originally published in The Saturday Evening Post in the late 1940s. 

I had never gotten around to reading any of them, since Bellah's stuff is out-of-print and has yet to appear electronically. Buying used paperbacks isn't necessarily an option. The 1962 anthology Reveille reprinted many of the Fort Starke stories, costs over a hundred bucks on the used book market.

But at least a few of his stories can be found online. For instance, I found his 1946 story "Command" HERE.

I loved the radio adaptation done on Escape in 1949 (listen to that HERE), but was driven to finally find and read the original when it was mentioned prominently on the excellent Six-Gun Justice Podcast. It's a great story. Captain Nathan Brittles is leading a troop of cavalry in search of another missing troop. Also along is a relatively inexperienced officer named Cohill.

The missing troopers are found--all are dead, having run into hostile Indians and come out on the losing end of the ensuing fight. Brittles orders a return to Fort Starke--his orders are simply to find the missing patrol and report back. In fact, standing orders dictate that the troopers can only fight if attacked.

Cohill wants to pursue and attack the Indians regardless. In fact, he's pretty disgusted with Brittles. He doesn't confront the captain directly, but by golly, he thinks about it. He even more than half-convinces himself that if a fight does occur, he might have to take over.

But there is a lot more to Brittles than Cohill believes. Heck, when the movie She Wore a Yellow Ribbon was produced in 1949 (based on two Bellah stories, with a few elements drawn from "Command" as well), Brittles is played by John Wayne. You don't get more on the ball than that.

Both the action and the character development plays out in a satisfying manner, bringing "Command" to a strong conclusion. In fact, it's amazing how much in terms of both plot and characterization Bellah manages to put into the short story.

It's definitely worth reading. I just wish more of his Fort Starke stories were available. I'm tempted to pay $15.00 for a years' subscription to the Saturday Evening Post so I can also gain access to electronic copies of their back issues. I could use that to make my own PDF anthology of the stories.

By the way, I found a nifty chronology of Bellah's Fort Starke stories HERE.

Go Jump Off a Cliff!

 

cover artist unknown

One of the many cool things about Ben Bowie and His Mountain Men was that it did maintain a degree of historical continuity with its stories. For instance, by the time we get to the last few issues of this superb comic book, the French and Indian War had broken out.

"Thundering Waters," drawn by Albert Micale (writer unknown) was published in the 15th issue (May-July 1958) and involves Ben and his crew--along with some redcoats--escorting some supplies to a beleaguered fort. They are ambushed by Ottawas (who allied with their French trading partners during the war) and the brightly-clad British troops are soon picked off.

Ben and his three friends are backed up against a cliff. With no other options, they opt to actually jump off the cliff, landing in the trees below. They play dead until the Ottawas give up on them.

So they survive, but the Ottawas have captured the badly needed supplies. Ben tracks them to their camp, where the Mountain Men set fire to a few tents to cause a distraction and steal back the supplies. But there are too few of them to transport the stuff to the fort, so they hide them and make a break for it. 

This leads to a chase down a river, in which they barely avoid being swept over a waterfall. They then lower their canoes down the cliff beside the waterfall, finally managing to get away from the Ottawas.

The artwork throughout this story has been superb and the script is excellent, showing Ben using intelligent tactics and taking necessary risks in order to get himself and his friends out of danger.

And Ben's intelligence continues to play a part in the story's conclusion, where he uses reinforcements from the fort to lure the Ottawas onto the river and drive them off that waterfall.

As was typical with the Ben Bowie series, "Thundering Waters" includes historical accuracy, great art, sound plot construction and a hero who uses his brains as well as his musket to give us a strong frontier-era adventure.

Next week, we'll visit again with Napoleon Solo.

Cover Cavalcade

 

Yet another dynamic and eye-catching Ace Double cover. 

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Mini Podcast #31--Tarzan of the Apes--Chapter 23--...

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Mini Podcast #31--Tarzan of the Apes--Chapter 23--...:   A look at Chapter 23 of the 1912 novel Tarzan of the Apes, in which Tarzan learns to speak French and English. Click HERE for the audio v...

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Philip Marlowe: "The Fifth Mask"  9/8/50

Marlowe turns down a job to act as bodyguard to a mysterious client, but then ends up hunting for a killer after the would-be client is murdered.

Click HERE to listen or download.

Mysterious Intruder

 

Read/Watch 'em In Order #120

The fifth movie based on the Whistler radio show is the only one that doesn't include the world "Whistler" somewhere in the title. 

This time around, Richard Dix plays a private detective who is a bit ethically-challenged. An elderly shop owner hires him to find a girl who moved out of the neighborhood seven years earlier. He won't say exactly why he needs to find her, only stating that he has something that belongs to the girl that is worth a fortune.

I mentioned  that Don Gale--Dix's character--isn't the most ethical person in the world. The girl would now be grown-up, so Gale hires a woman to impersonate her and find out what the valuable item actually is.

But while she is in the midst of pulling off this con, a thug arrives to murder the shop owner and kidnap her. The movie gets huge points right out of the gate by casting Mike Mazurki--my all-time favorite movie thug--as the killer.

This kick-starts one of the best movies in the series. Don Gale doesn't know what's going on, but he knows there's a very valuable prize out there somewhere. Soon, the cops know that as well. And the woman who Gale hired to impersonate the missing girl (who was soon released by the thug) knows it as well. Everyone has their own agenda and no one can completely trust anyone else.

One of the strengths of the film is that both Gale and the cops investigate the case in an intelligent manner, following up logical clues to their logical end. As a detective movie, it is very well-written.

In addition to a Mike Mazurki appearance, the rest of the movie is well-cast as well. Dix gives a typically strong performance as a smart-mouthed P.I., making us like him even as we recognize that he tends to slide down on the wrong side of the law from time to time.

The head cop is played by Barton Maclane, another of my favorite always-fun-to-watch character actors. His partner is played by Charles Lane, who usually portraits officious or greedy businessmen. Seeing him play a competent detective in a straightfoward manner was another treat the film offers.

As the plot unfolds, there are a couple more murders and Gale ends up in the role of chief suspect. Now he needs to not only find the MacGuffin, but also find the real killer. Both the unusual nature (and eventual fate) of the MacGuffin and the real killer's identity are effective twists. 

There are, in fact, a number of plot twists, but the overall story remains solid and well-constructed, smoothly incorporating the twists into the film. It's the sort of movie that I don't want to write about in too much detail. If you haven't seen it, it's too much fun to watch it unfold to give you too many spoilers.

 Mysterious Intruder is definitely in the running as my favorite Whistler film. 

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Mini Podcast #30--Tarzan of the Apes--Chapter 22--...

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Mini Podcast #30--Tarzan of the Apes--Chapter 22--...:   A look at Chapter 22 of the 1912 novel Tarzan of the Apes, in which the French fight a battle and Cecil Clayton puts his foot in his mouth...