Friday, August 8, 2014

Friday's "Forgotten" Book: Robert Arthur, editor: ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS: STORIES MY MOTHER NEVER TOLD ME (Random House, 1963)

From the handsomely-done Alfred Hitchcock Wiki (which in turn all but credits ISFDB and Zybahn's Casual Debris for information):
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories My Mother Never Told Me

Contents

  1. Introduction by Alfred Hitchcock (ghost written)
  2. The Child Who Believed by Grace Amundson
  3. Just a Dreamer by Robert Arthur
  4. The Wall-to-Wall Grave by Andrew Benedict
  5. The Wind by Ray Bradbury
  6. Congo by Stuart Cloete
  7. Witch's Money by John Collier
  8. Dip in the Pool by Roald Dahl
  9. The Secret of the Bottle novelette by Gerald Kersh
  10. I Do Not Hear You, Sir by Avram Davidson
  11. The Arbutus Collar by Jeremiah Digges
  12. A Short Trip Home novelette by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  13. An Invitation to the Hunt by George Hitchcock
  14. The Man Who Was Everywhere by Edward D. Hoch
  15. The Summer People by Shirley Jackson
  16. Adjustments by George Mandel
  17. The Children of Noah by Richard Matheson
  18. The Idol of the Flies by Jane Rice
  19. Courtesy of the Road by Mack Morriss
  20. Remains to Be Seen by Jack Ritchie (as Steve O'Connell)
  21. The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles by Margaret St. Clair (as Idris Seabright)
    One of Dell's half-the-hc-content reprints
  22. Lost Dog by Henry Slesar
  23. Hostage by Don Stanford
  24. Natural Selection by Gilbert Thomas
  25. Simone by Joan Vatsek
  26. Smart Sucker by Richard Wormser
  27. Some of Your Blood by Theodore Sturgeon

UK edition
It's a very close call (due to their consistent excellence), but this might be my favorite of the AHP: volumes that Robert Arthur edited (Harold Q. Masur took up the task after Arthur's death in 1969, till Hitchcock's death in 1980).  Quite a large number of these stories have stuck with me over the years since I first read them, at age nine, in one of the first of the adult "Hitchcock" anthologies I took up, and it is a pretty striking slice through a range of many of the best writers of the time (we'd lost Fitzgerald, but not too many of the others yet) who'd done some sort of work in suspense fiction and related fields...the Jackson, the St. Clair, the Bradbury and the Davidson are (unsurprisingly) memorable horror stories (St. Clair's is her most famous story by some distance, and almost deservedly so);  the Matheson is Just this side of Reality, and not less unsettling (at least to the young reader) for it, even as one key aspect of Theodore Sturgeon's novel about a non-supernatural vampire did inspire some investigation on my part as to what the novel's resolution involved (hint: it isn't altogether unrelated to the previous post on this blog). Even if I mostly remember "The Arbutus Collar" for how puzzled I was as to how pronounce "arbutus"(I recall that the dictionary was not helpful), the balance of the volume, from writers as splashy as Kersh and Collier and Rice and Dahl (to say nothing of the South African Cloete--I wouldn't learn how to pronounce "Clew-tee" for years)  or as simply as assiduous as Hoch and Ritchie (though I didn't know it was Ritchie story till today) or as interesting  though overlooked as Thomas, collectively sticks with me as simply so much enjoyment and revelation, about the nature and range of storytelling one could find in these eclectic volumes.  It's too easy for me to cite a given volume of the various Arthur/AH series for FFB purposes, perhaps, but these books really should be remembered clearly, as an achievement on their own ticket, and as an example of how the task can be done...

Please see Patti Abbott's blog for today's prompter citations.

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Wrapping up a conversation with a woman comedian of my acquaintance:

Me:
Well, men's plumbing and hair-sprouting is inherently fascinating in the minutest detail, while women should be keep The Mystery Alive, of course. You sure you have enough makeup on those heels?

As someone who has been living with women almost my entire life, between family, romantically and platonically with Alice, two of my most conservative women friends have been slightly surprised how little questions of women's biology faze me. I can only wonder about the men who've lived with them for years.  "Um, Lucy? Isn't it time for you to go out to the hut for a few days? I mean, we just bought a new gallon of milk."


Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Tuesday's Overlooked Films and/or Other A/V: the links

Härmä 
Below, the links to this week's reviews and citations As always, please let me know in comments when I've missed yours or someone else's...and, as always, thanks to all our contributors and to you readers...

Allan Mott: Adrienne Barbeau

Anne Billson: Russ Meyer  (a few slightly NSFW images in the post)

Bill Crider: $ [trailer]

Brian Arnold: Captain America: the serial (continued); The Hallmark Hall of Fame: "Aunt Mary"

$
BV Lawson: Media Murder

Dan Stumpf: Innocence and Art

Ed Gorman: Donald Westlake and Chris Lyons on James Garner and The Rockford Files

Ed Lynskey: Jigsaw (1949 film); A Most Wanted Man

Elizabeth Foxwell: Suspense: "House of Masks" (1949 tv; Dorothy Salisbury Davis, RIP); Selected Shorts: Catherine O'Hara reads "Lamb to the Slaughter" by Roald Dahl

Evan Lewis: The Kennel Murder Case

Francis M. Nevins: Frank Kane, Mike Hammer, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., James Garner, Roy Huggins, Raymond Chandler and related matters

George Kelley: Total Recall 2070

How Did This Get Made?: Sharknado 2

Iba Dawson: 2014 in Film So Far; When the Garden Was Eden 

Ivan G. Shreve, Jr.: Went the Day Well?

Jacqueline T. Lynch: Ann Blyth on stage

"The Sealed Room"
Jackie Kashian: Sean Patton at the Chicago Comedy Exposition

James Reasoner: Sweet Bird of Youth

Jayme Lynn Blaschke: Marvin Zindler

Jerry House: "The Sealed Room"

John Charles: The Dark Power; Alien Outlaw

John Grant: Desyat Negrityat (aka And Then There Were None, the Christie in Russian adaptation); Romantic film countdown
Phantom of Chinatown

Jonathan Lewis: Phantom of Chinatown; Law and Order (1953 film); Man Made Monster; Best of the Bad Men

Kate Laity: Härmä (aka Once Upon a Time in the North)

Kliph Nesteroff: Frank Fay, the Fascist Stand-Up Comic

Laura: Another Dawn; When Worlds Collide

When Worlds Collide
Lucy Brown: Letter from an Unknown Woman

Marty McKee: Tarzan the Magnificent; King Solomon's Mines (1985 film); Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold

Max Allan Collins: Phantom of the Paradise

Mystery Dave: High Society

Patti Abbott: Search for Tomorrow

Rick: Jubal

Desyat Negrityat
Prashant Trikkanad: The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case

Randy Johnson: Unknown World; Sonny and Jed

Sergio Angelini: Medium; The Alphabet Murders

Stacia Jones: Earth Girls Are Easy; A Measure of the Sin


Kenjû zankoku monogatari
Stephen Bowie: Late bloomers (tv series which improved as they went along)

Steve Lewis: Cruel Gun Story (akKenjû zankoku monogatari); Framed for Murder

Yvette Banek: Free Fall


A Measure of the Sin

Friday, August 1, 2014

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: the links

Filling in this week for Patti Abbott, who will be compiling the links again next week...if I've missed you book, or someone else's, please let me know in comments...thanks!  -Todd Mason

Sergio Angelini: The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie

Yvette Banek: The TBR Pile

Joe Barone: Rolling Thunder by Chris Grabenstein

Brian Busby: The Devil's Due by Grant Allen

David Cramner: Call for the Dead by John LeCarré.

Bill Crider: The Real Cool Killers by Chester Himes

William Deeck: The Affairs of O’Malley (aka Smart Guy) by William MacHarg; At One Fell Swoop by Osmington Mills

Martin Edwards: Sudden Death by B.C. Skottowe; 10 Best Golden Age Mystery Novels

Peter Enfantino and Jack Seabrook: DC horror comics, ca. 1973 

Barry Ergang: The Man Who Turned Into Himself by David Ambrose (hosted at Kevin Tipple's blog)

Curt Evans: The Case of the Perjured Parrot by Erle Stanley Gardner

Shonna Froebel: Ghost Girl by Helena McEwan

Ed Gorman: The Collected Stories of Stephen Crane

Josef Hoffmann: 20 Detective Novels by Writers Known for Other Sorts of Fiction

Rich Horton: Ladies and Gentlemen, by Irvin S. Cobb

Jerry House: The Other Passenger: 18 Strange Stories by John Keir Cross

Allen J. Hubin: Out of Nowhere by William Marshall

Randy Johnson: Apache Breakout by Louis Masterson

Nick Jones: The Tin Men by Michael Frayn

Tracy K: Faith by Len Deighton

George Kelley: Horror: Another 100 Best Books edited by Kim Newman and Stephen Jones

Rob Kitchin: Casual Rex by Eric Garcia

Marvin Lachman: A Night of Errors by Michael Innes

Kate Laity: Money in the Bank by P. G. Wodehouse

B.V. Lawson: Victorian Tales of Mystery & Detection edited by Michael Cox

Evan Lewis: The Double Take by Roy Huggins

Neer: Prison and Chocolate Cake by Nayantara Sahgal; Forty Years of Test Cricket: India-England 1932-1971 by Saradindu Sanyal

John F. Norris: Murder at the Women's City Club by Q. Patrick 

Juri Nummelin: Already Dead by Charlie Huston

James Reasoner: The Western by Phil Hardy

Karyn Reeves: Four Frightened People by E. Arnot Robertson

Richard Robinson: A Bicycle Built for Brew by Poul Anderson (The Collected Short Stories, V. 6)

Peter Rosovsky: Hopscotch by Brian Garfield

Ron Scheer: Frontier Stories by Bret Harte

Kerrie Smith: The Cartographer by Peter Twohig

Zadie Smith: Crash by J. G. Ballard

Dan Stumpf: Murder Plan Six by John Bingham

Prashant Trikannad: Famous Monsters of Filmland 1982 Film Fantasy Yearbook

David Vineyard: Witchwood by John Buchan

A. J. Wright: The American Child: A Journal of Constructive Democracy

Thursday, July 31, 2014

July's Underappreciated Music: the links

Reneé Fladen...apparently the inspiration for
The Left Banke's first two singles.
The monthly assembly of undervalued and often nearly "lost" music, or simply music the blogger in question wants to remind you reader/listeners of....or, in featured posts from both Bill Crider and Jerry House, to remind you why the past isn't solely a treasure-trove...

Patti Abbott: Summer Songs; Tuesday Night Music; Saturday Night Music; Theme Music

Brian Arnold: The Left Banke

Jayme Lynn Blaschke: Friday Night Videos

Sean Coleman: Ottawa Bluesfest; Skip Spence: Oar

Bill Crider: Song of the Day; Worst Pop Videos from the 1990s

Elizabeth Foxwell: soundtracks to The Naked Gun and its sequels

Jeff Gemmill: Juliana Hatfield: Bed; Emmylou Harris in Philadelphia, 1985; Natalie Merchant in concert, 2014

The Dave Brubeck/Joe Morello/Gene Wright Trio with Tony Bennett: 
"Lullaby Of Broadway," "Chicago," "That Old Black Magic," and "There Will Never Be Another You" in concert at DC's Sylvan Theater, 1962


Randy Johnson: John Mayall's Blues Breakers: With Eric Clapton

George Kelley: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: CSNY 1974

Kate Laity: Luke Haines, Scott King, et al.: Adventures in Dementia

Jacqueline T. Lynch: Ann Blyth: "Indian Love Call"

Lou Harrison (composer): String Trio (1946)

Linda Quan, violin
Lois Martin, viola
Madeleine Shapiro, cello


Todd Mason: some punk rock (a little folk music mixed in)

Lawrence Person: Shoegazer Sunday

Charlie Ricci: Graham Nash: Wild Tales

Richard Robinson: The Fred Hirsch Trio: Alive at the Vanguard

Kasey Lansdale & RAB4: "Sorry Ain't Enough" in rehearsal


Janina Gavankar: "Love Lockdown"
The actress also trained academically as a musician, and does a very creditable cover of a typically minor Kanye West song:


Leonard Bernstein: Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution (CBS-TV 1967)

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Tuesday's Overlooked Films and/or Other A/V on Wednesday: the links

The rumor of an upcoming Slightly ScarJo is unfounded.
Below, the links to this week's reviews and citations As always, please let me know in comments when I've missed yours or someone else's...and, as always, thanks to all our patient contributors and to you readers...

Margot Adler

This week:
Dedicated to the memory of Margot Adler.
New York Times; NPR.

Anne Billson: Finding Vivian Maier

Bill Crider: Slightly Scarlet [trailer]

Brian Arnold: The Beatles Forever
Finding Vivian Maier

BV Lawson: Media Murder

Cullen Gallager: The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion

Dan Stumpf: Fury at Gunsight Pass

Ed Gorman: Lee Goldberg's videos

Ed Lynskey: Cotton Comes to Harlem; Life Itself

Elizabeth Foxwell: Alias John Preston; The Irish Humanities Alliance: "The Success of International Crime Fiction"; Hour 25: Philip K. Dick

I Love Trouble
Evan Lewis: I Love Trouble; Spy vs. Spy (Season 4)

Jeff Flugel: the 10 best 1970s sf movies

George Kelley: Poirot: The Big Four; Begin Again

Iba Dawson: Boyhood

Ivan G. Shreve, Jr.: TCM August; Epix channels

Jackie Kashian: Doug Mellard on Magnum, PI

Jacqueline T. Lynch: Rose Marie

The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion
Jake Hinkson: Laura

James Reasoner: "Where's Waldo?"

Jayme Lynn Blaschke: ArmadilloCon

Jerry House: One Step Beyond: "Night of April 14th"

John Charles: Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of Gore

Rogue
John Grant: Cage of Evil; Carrefour; The Counselor

Jonathan Lewis: Kansas Pacific; Black Legion

Kate Laity: Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival; Adventures in Dementia

Kliph Nesteroff: Ed Asner

Laura: Duffy of San Quentin; Dude Cowboy; Painting the Clouds with Sunshine

Lucy Brown: Tender Comrade

The Lookalike
Martin Edwards: The Lookalike

Marty McKee: Exhumed Films' Forgotten Film Festival 2014

Max Allan Collins: San Diego ComicCon

Mystery Dave: Wholly Moses!

Philip Schweier: The Sea Hawk

Rick: Pitfall; Parker Stevenson
Night Must Fall

Prashant Trikannad: Valkyrie

R. Emmett Sweeney: The Whistler (film series)

Randy Johnson: Night Must Fall; Son of Zorro (aka Il figlio di Zorro)

Rod Lott: The Legend of the Lone Ranger

Sergio Angelini: Marlowe, Private Eye (aka Philip Marlowe, Private Eye); Shroud for a Nightingale

Stacia Jones: The Congress; Another Dawn
The Congress

Stephen Bowie: Noel Black

Steve Lewis: Rogue (tv series); Three Blondes in His Life; Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace

Todd Mason: some visual artists I went to high school with

Yvette Banek: Posters I Love for Films I Don't Want to See


The Shanghai Gesture
The Counselor