Weird Circle: "Murders in the Rue Morgue" 1/2/44
Weird Circle's adaptations of classic stories often take bizarre liberties with those stories. In comparison, this adaptation of Poe's murder mystery is relatively straightforward.
Click HERE to listen or download.
My wife got me an awesome Sherlock Holmes desk calender for Christmas. (I got her a Chicago Cubs desk calendar, thus proving myself to be a husband of impeccable taste matching Angela's impeccable taste. Gee whiz, we're made for each other.)
When I arrived at work on January 14, my calendar told me it was the 132nd anniversary of the publication of "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box." So I immediately felt obligated to read it, which I did during my lunch break.
This one has an interesting publication history. In England, it was originally published in the January 1893 issue of The Strand Magazine. In the U.S., it appeared in the January 14, 1992 issue of Harper's Weekly, which gives us the anniversary date.
This and 11 other stories published in 1892 and 1993 were collected as The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. (1894) Well, except that "Cardboard Box" was left out of the British edition. It was initially included in the American edition, but quickly dropped in later reprints. The beginning of the story, in which Holmes deduces what Watson is thinking, was moved to the beginning of "The Adventure of the Resident Patient."
An annotated version of the story I have on my Kindle tells me that Doyle once said he left it out because it was "rather more sensational than I care for." (quoted from Daniel Stashower's superb biography of Doyle Teller of Tales) Sherlockian scholar Leslie Klinger quotes Doyle as writing "There was a certain sex element in the Cardboard Box story and for this reason I discarded it." The story was eventually reprinted in The Last Bow in 1917.
So what was the big deal? Well, the case involves a harmless spinster who receives a package in the mail. This package is the titular cardboard box, which contained two severed human ears.
The police think its probably a joke perpetrated by some rowdy medical students that the spinster once had to evict from her home. But Lestrade calls in Holmes anyways. Holmes examines the box, the twine that had been tied around it, the handwriting on the address and--after asking the spinster a few seemingly innocuous questions--is well on his way to uncovering a double murder.
Eventually, a story emerges of adultery, alcoholism and senseless violence. These are probably the elements of the story that convinced Doyle to remove it from Memoirs. It is, though, a great story in which Holmes makes some solid and clever deductions to get to the truth. You can read it yourself HERE.
For years, depending on the edition, reprints of Memoirs would sometimes have "Cardboard Box" put back in it (where it belongs, by golly). Other editions still had it in Last Bow, with the beginning of "Box" still moved to the beginning of "Resident Patient" in Memoirs. So if you have an older collection of the stories on your bookshelf, check it to see. If "Cardboard Box" is in the wrong place, you must now live with the horrible knowledge that your Holmes collection is flawed. I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but there you go.
JLA Annual #1 (1983): Plot by Paul Levitz, script by Len Wein, art by Rick Hoberg
The last chapter ended with Zatanna summoning the entire League (or, at least the members working on the current case) to the Dream Dimension. Now they are assaulting Dr. Destiny's base.
Once inside, they battle some random nightmares and also discover that Destiny is holding the current Sandman a prisoner.
But before going down, Elongated Man presses a button ejecting Sandman from the tube in which he's trapped, sending him back to Earth. Dr. Destiny doesn't care, though. He has captured the Justice League and now plans to force them to sleep without dreaming until they deteriorate the way he has.
Because he wasn't conscious, Sandman has no idea how he got to Earth. But from observing dreams, he knows that Superman is nearby, taking a nap as Clark Kent.
Sandman enters the apartment and gets attacked by nightmares. This wakes up Superman, who disposes of the nightmares. Sandman then brings them both to the Dream Dimension.
They fight Destiny, who at first appears to be getting the best of them. But (as we learn in the Epilogue), Ralph come up with a plan that allows the League to break out of their tubes while Destiny is distracted by Sandman and Supes. Confronted by a dozen superheroes, he faints.
A brief epilogue explains how Ralph planned the escape and has Sandman turn down membership in the League. (Being able to visit Earth for just an hour at a time puts a limit on his usefulness.)
I do think the heroes getting captured one at a time does make them look bad, but other than that, Hoberg's art looks great and the bizarre fight scenes are fun to look at. Ralph regaining his confidence in the previous chapter is highlighted nicely here by his saving the day twice. And its nice to see a character falling into obscurity--the Sandman--get another day in the limelight before he disappears into Comic Book Limbo.
As for the book as a whole, it tells a strong story that follows Comic Book Logic and thus makes internal sense, it looks good and it uses a large cast of characters effectively. It come out near the end of the Bronze Age, demonstrating that this era of comics was still capable of telling fresh, fun stories.
Next week, we'll jump back to the Golden Age and visit with yet another obscure hero.
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.
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.
Gunsmoke: "Sutler" 9/5/53
Dillon goes up against a man selling rifles to the Indians.
Click HERE to listen or download.
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.
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.
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