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

This week's selections of undeservedly (and a few deservedly) underappreciated audio/visual experiences...as always, thanks to all the contributors and you readers.  And apologies for the delay in the second half being posted...Life really is one damned thing after another. 

Allan Fish: The Plea

Anne Billson: The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (among other melancholy PI films); George Miller, 1985

Anthony Neil Smith: against author readings

Bill Crider: Soldier [trailer--the 1998 Kurt Russell film]

B.V. Lawson: Media Murder

Comedy Film Nerds: Chris Denson; The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness, The Secret of Kells, and others

Dan Stumpf: It Always Rains on Sundays

David Vineyard: Corto Maltese and the Gilded House of Samarkand

Dorian TB: His Kind of Woman

Ed Lynskey: The Killers (1946 film)

Eddie Deezen: The Party at Kitty and Stud's

Elizabeth Foxwell: London Belongs to Me (aka Dulcimer Street)

Evan Lewis: Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace

George Kelley: Dig

How Did This Get Made?: A View to a Kill

Iba Dawson: I am Michael

Ivan G. Shreve, Jr.: The Ed Sullivan Show

Jackie Kashian: Alexandra Klimavich on Harry Potter World (Orlando, FL)  and related matters

Jacqueline T. Lynch: Ann Blyth and railroad films

Jake Hinkson: Orson Welles' Centennial Festival; Welles and his films

James Reasoner: The World's End

Jeff Flugel: 1970s US tv: independent commercial stations and their rerun slates, Kojak and The Streets of San Francisco

Jerry House: The Baby Snooks Show

John Grant: Silent Dust; I Start Counting

John-Henri Holmberg: Raumpatrouille Orion (1960s German sf tv series)

Jonathan Lewis: Taza, Son of Cochise

Juri Nummelin: Finnish neo-noir films 

Kliph Nesteroff: Paul Krassner

Laura: South of St. Louis

Lucy Brown: Funny Lady

Mark Fertig: Out of the Storm

Martin Edwards: Murder Without Crime

Marty McKee: Hustler Squad

Patrick Murtha: Hell's Half Acre

Patti Abbott: Bouchercon 2006

Randy Johsson: Range Feud; Death on High Mountain (aka...)

Rick: High Society (both the Bowery Boys film and that other one)

Rod Lott: Popcorn

Sergio Angelini: Killjoy

Stacia Jones: The Velvet Touch

Stephen Bowie: Peyton Place and how episode guides are published now...

Walter Albert: The Motorla Television Hour: "Thirteen Clocks"

Saturday Music Club on Mother's Day: Jimi Hendrix covers, of course

The Lovell Sisters: "Bleeding Heart"; "Folsom Prison Blues"


Bandits (Jasmin Tabatabai): "All Along the Watchtower"


The Gil Evans Orchestra: "Crosstown Traffic"


Turtle Island Quartet: "Hey, Joe"


Kronos Quartet: "Purple Haze"


Kalei Gamiao, Aldrine Guerrero, Taimane Gardner, Ryo Kyas: "Little Wing"


Kevin Kmetz: "Purple Haze"

Juliette Valduriez: "Voodoo Child"

Jess Greenberg: "All Along the Watchtower"


Orianthi: "Voodoo Child"

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: new links

Welcome to this week's list of links to reviews of overlooked (infrequently deservedly) books and stories, by the reviewers detailed below. I'm filling in this week for Patti Abbott, who'll be back at it next week. Please let me know if I've missed your review...and thanks to all the contributors, and to Bill Crider and Richard Robinson for pointers to reviews, and to all you readers...please always feel free to comment here or at the blogs cited below! 

Sergio Angelini: Pattern Recognition by William Gibson

Paul Bishop and Milton Davis: on classic and emerging black speculative fiction

Les Blatt: Call Mr. Fortune by H. C. Bailey (John Norris's Bailey/Fortune novel last week)

David Cramner: The Philo Vance series by "S. S. Van Dine"

Bill Crider: Yearbook by Dan Marlow

Jose Cruz and Peter Enfantino: Harvey Comics 1950s horror titles

cover by Peff

Robert/R.T. Davis: Blood and Circumstance by Frank Turner Hollon

Martin Edwards: Detectives in Gum Boots by Roger East

Peter Enfantino and Jack Seabrook: DC Comics 1963 war/combat titles

Barry Ergang (hosted by Kevin Tipple): The Last Dance by "Ed McBain"

Will Errickson: Spectre by Stephen Laws

Cullen Gallagher (hosted by Ed Gorman): Blowback by Bill Pronzini 

Stephen Gallagher: "Peff" (Sam Peffer)

Charles Gramlich: Crashing Suns by Edmond Hamilton

John Grant: The Girl Who Had to Die by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding

John Hegenberger: The Master of Dragons by H. Bedford-Jones

Rich Horton: Remains by Mark W. Tiedemann

Jerry House: The Last Spin and Other Stories by Evan Hunter

Randy Johnson: Digger #1: Smoked Out by Warren Murphy

Tracy K: G is for Gumshoe by Sue Grafton

George Kelley: Gateway to Never by A. Bertram Chandler

Margot Kinberg: The Bat by Jo Nesbø

B.V. Lawson: Death of an Old Girl by Elizabeth Lemarchand; Death on Remand by "Michael Underwood"

Evan Lewis: "Body, Body--Who's Got the Body?" by Carroll John Daly; "Flash!" by Richard Sale

Steve Lewis: The Cancelled Czech by Lawrence Block

Walker Martin: Weird Tales and bound volumes of pulp issues and magazine excerpts

Patrick Murtha: The Amateur Cracksman by E. W. Hornung

Mark Nevins: A Ticket to the Boneyard by Lawrence Block

John F. Norris: Body Charge by Hunter Davis

John O'Neill: The Goblin Reservation by Clifford D. Simak

Lawrence Person: The H. P. Lovecraft Companion by Philip Shreffler

J. Kingston Pierce: The Gallows in My Garden by Richard Deming

Robert J. Randisi: Syndicate Girl and Liz by Frank Kane

James Reasoner: The Best-Loved Poems of the American People edited by Hazel Felleman

Karyn Reeves: Time Will Knit by Fred Urquhart

Richard Robinson: The Essential Hal Clement: V. 1: Trio for Slide Rule and Typewriter (Needle; Iceworld; Close to Critical)

Jim Rockhill: Feesters on the Lake and Other Stories by Bob Leman

Gerard Saylor: Sally of the Wasteland by Victor Gischler and Tazio Bettin; The Things They Cannot Say by Kevin Sites

Kerrie Smith: The Journeying Boy by "Michael Innes"

Prashant Trikannad: Havanas in Camelot by William Styron

Todd Mason: American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny: From Poe to the Pulps/From the 1940s to Now edited by Peter Straub (Library of America, 2009, a two-volume set also sold discretely)

Some years are tougher than others on those who are choosing among nominees for literary awards--here's the 2010 shortlist for the Howard, the World Fantasy Award, for best anthology:

• American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny: From Poe to the Pulps/From the 1940s to Now,  Peter Straub, ed.  (Library of America)
• Eclipse Three,  Jonathan Strahan, ed.  (Night Shade)
• Exotic Gothic 3: Strange Visitations,  Danel Olson, ed.  (Ash-Tree)
• Poe,  Ellen Datlow, ed.  (Solaris)
• Songs of The Dying Earth: Stories in Honor of Jack Vance,  George R. R. Martin & Gardner Dozois, eds.  (Subterranean; Voyager)
• The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction: Sixtieth Anniversary Anthology, Gordon Van Gelder, ed.  (Tachyon)

The variant coloring indicates the Straub anthology won the award...of course, it had two unfair advantages even in its impressive company: its scope and its mass, drawing, I'd suggest more successfully than any other survey anthology so far, on both the best and most representative sample of work in the horror field in the U.S. over the centuries (as one sees below, publication dates range from 1784 to 2007), with the American remit very much including immigrants such as Collier and Nabokov. Even with over 1400 pages, it would be impossible to touch on all the important short work and writers within these intertwined traditions, and where I might differ with Straub's choices, they clearly aren't made out of ignorance nor impulsiveness. For example, I probably would've taken another Robert Bloch story, though "The Cloak" is a good choice; even if I were of Straub's caliber as a fiction-writer, I probably would not include any of my own (non-annotative) work, even if my publisher's editor pleaded or politely demanded. Some favorites of mine might well have been included instead of a few here, or, even better, along with: Theodore Sturgeon, Manly Wade Wellman, Margaret St. Clair, Kate Wilhelm, Damon Knight, Avram Davidson, Donald Barthelme, Carol Emwiller, R. A, Lafferty, Joanna Russ, Barry Malzberg, Jane Yolen, Alice "James Tiptree, Jr." Sheldon, William Kotzwinkle, Lisa Tuttle, Janet Fox, Karl Edward Wagner, Joe Lansdale, Joseph Payne Brennan's "Levitation".. I would probably have opted for Ellison's "The Deathbird"...but the selection of Jerome Bixby's "Trace" is among the very sapient, despite other more obvious possible choices. And so, still the best of this kind of book I've seen.

Courtesy ISFDb, here are the contents of the two volumes:

• xi • Introduction (American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from Poe to the Pulps) • essay by Peter Straub
• 1 • Somnambulism: A Fragment • (1784) • shortfiction by Charles Brockden Brown
• 21 • The Adventure of the German Student • [Strange Stories by a Nervous Gentleman] • (1824) • shortstory by Washington Irving
• 27 • Berenice • (1835) • shortstory by Edgar Allan Poe (variant of Berenice—A Tale)
• 35 • Young Goodman Brown • (1835) • shortstory by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• 49 • The Tartarus of Maids • (1855) • shortstory by Herman Melville
• 63 • What Was It? A Mystery • (1859) • shortstory by Fitz-James O'Brien (variant of What Was It?)
• 77 • The Legend of Monte del Diablo • (1863) • shortstory by Bret Harte
• 90 • The Moonstone Mass • (1868) • shortstory by Harriet Prescott Spofford
• 102 • His Unconquerable Enemy • (1889) • shortstory by W. C. Morrow
• 112 • In Dark New England Days • (1890) • shortstory by Sarah Orne Jewett
• 131 • The Yellow Wall Paper • (1892) • shortstory by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (variant of The Yellow Wallpaper)
• 148 • The Black Dog • (1892) • shortstory by Stephen Crane
• 153 • Ma'ame Pélagie • (1893) • shortstory by Kate Chopin
• 162 • Thurlow's Christmas Story • (1894) • shortstory by John Kendrick Bangs
• 177 • The Repairer of Reputations • [The King In Yellow] • (1895) • novelette by Robert W. Chambers
• 210 • The Dead Valley • (1895) • shortstory by Ralph Adams Cram
• 219 • The Little Room • (1895) • shortstory by Madeline Yale Wynne
• 232 • The Striding Place • (1896) • shortstory by Gertrude Atherton
• 238 • An Itinerant House • (1897) • shortstory by Emma Frances Dawson [as by Emma Francis Dawson ]
• 255 • Luella Miller • (1902) • shortstory by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman [as by Mary Wilkins Freeman ]
• 269 • Grettir at Thorhall-stead • (1903) • shortstory by Frank Norris
• 282 • Yuki-Onna • (1904) • shortstory by Lafcadio Hearn
• 286 • For the Blood Is the Life • (1905) • shortstory by F. Marion Crawford
• 302 • The Moonlit Road • (1907) • shortstory by Ambrose Bierce
• 312 • Lukundoo • (1907) • shortstory by Edward Lucas White
• 326 • The Shell of Sense • (1908) • shortstory by Olivia Howard Dunbar
• 337 • The Jolly Corner • (1908) • novelette by Henry James
• 371 • Golden Baby • (1910) • shortstory by Alice Brown
• 386 • Afterward • (1910) • novelette by Edith Wharton
• 416 • Consequences • (1915) • shortstory by Willa Cather
• 436 • The Shadowy Third • (1916) • novelette by Ellen Glasgow
• 460 • Absolute Evil • (1918) • novelette by Julian Hawthorne
• 493 • Unseen—Unfeared • (1919) • shortstory by Francis Stevens
• 510 • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button • (1922) • novelette by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• 536 • The Curse of Everard Maundy • [Jules de Grandin] • (1927) • novelette by Seabury Quinn
• 568 • The King of the Cats • (1929) • shortstory by Stephen Vincent Benét
• 583 • The Jelly-Fish • (1929) • shortstory by David H. Keller, M.D. [as by David H. Keller ]
• 588 • Mr. Arcularis • (1931) • novelette by Conrad Aiken
• 607 • The Black Stone • [Cthulhu Mythos Tales] • (1931) • shortstory by Robert E. Howard
• 625 • Passing of a God • [Gerald Canevin] • (1931) • shortstory by Henry S. Whitehead
• 644 • The Panelled Room • (1933) • shortstory by August Derleth
• 654 • The Thing on the Doorstep • [Cthulhu Mythos] • (1937) • novelette by H. P. Lovecraft
• 681 • Genius Loci • (1933) • shortstory by Clark Ashton Smith
• 698 • The Cloak • (1939) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
• 717 • Biographical Notes (American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from Poe to the Pulps) • essay by uncredited
• 736 • Note on the Texts (American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from Poe to the Pulps) • essay by uncredited
• 740 • Notes (American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from Poe to the Pulps) • essay by uncredited

• xi • Introduction (American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from the 1940s to Now) • essay by Peter Straub
• 1 • Evening Primrose • (1940) • shortstory by John Collier
• 12 • Smoke Ghost • (1941) • shortstory by Fritz Leiber
• 29 • The Mysteries of the Joy Rio • (1941) • shortstory by Tennessee Williams
• 41 • The Refugee • (1943) • shortstory by Jane Rice
• 56 • Mr. Lupescu • (1945) • shortstory by Anthony Boucher
• 61 • Miriam • (1945) • shortstory by Truman Capote
• 73 • Midnight • (1946) • shortstory by Jack Snow
• 79 • Torch Song • (1947) • shortstory by John Cheever
• 96 • The Daemon Lover • (1949) • shortstory by Shirley Jackson
• 112 • The Circular Valley • (1950) • shortstory by Paul Bowles
• 121 • I'm Scared • (1951) • shortstory by Jack Finney
• 134 • The Vane Sisters • (1951) • shortstory by Vladimir Nabokov
• 148 • The April Witch • [The Elliott Family] • (1952) • shortstory by Ray Bradbury
• 158 • Black Country • (1954) • shortstory by Charles Beaumont
• 179 • Trace • (1961) • shortstory by Jerome Bixby
• 183 • Where the Woodbine Twineth • (1964) • shortstory by Davis Grubb (variant of You Never Believe Me)
• 192 • Nightmare • (1965) • shortstory by Donald Wandrei
• 197 • I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream • (1967) • shortstory by Harlan Ellison
• 213 • Prey • (1969) • shortstory by Richard Matheson
• 225 • The Events at Poroth Farm • (1972) • novella by T. E. D. Klein
• 272 • Hanka • (1974) • shortstory by Isaac Bashevis Singer
• 289 • Linnaeus Forgets • (1977) • shortstory by Fred Chappell
• 305 • Novelty • (1983) • shortstory by John Crowley
• 322 • Mr. Fiddlehead • (1989) • shortstory by Jonathan Carroll
• 335 • Family • (1989) • shortstory by Joyce Carol Oates
• 351 • The Last Feast of Harlequin • [Cthulhu Mythos] • (1990) • novelette by Thomas Ligotti
• 389 • A Short Guide to the City • (1990) • shortstory by Peter Straub
• 401 • The General Who Is Dead • [Ambergris] • (1996) • shortstory by Jeff VanderMeer
• 406 • That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French • (1998) • shortstory by Stephen King
• 423 • Sea Oak • (1998) • novelette by George Saunders
• 447 • The Long Hall on the Top Floor • (1999) • shortstory by Caitlín R. Kiernan
• 459 • Nocturne • (2000) • shortstory by Thomas Tessier
• 463 • The God of Dark Laughter • (2001) • shortstory by Michael Chabon
• 483 • Pop Art • (2001) • novelette by Joe Hill
• 504 • Pansu • (2001) • shortstory by Poppy Z. Brite
• 512 • Dangerous Laughter • (2003) • shortstory by Steven Millhauser
• 528 • The Chambered Fruit • (2003) • novelette by M. Rickert
• 563 • The Wavering Knife • (2004) • shortstory by Brian Evenson
• 579 • Stone Animals • (2004) • novelette by Kelly Link
• 623 • Pat Moore • (2004) • novelette by Tim Powers
• 655 • The Little Stranger • (2004) • novelette by Gene Wolfe
• 673 • Dial Tone • (2007) • shortstory by Benjamin Percy
• 687 • Biographical Notes (American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from the 1940s to Now) • essay by uncredited
• 703 • Note on the Texts (American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from the 1940s to Now) • essay by uncredited
• 708 • Notes (American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from the 1940s to Now) • essay by uncredited

A Library of America interview with Straub on the book.

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

Two O'Clock Courage

This week's selections of undeservedly (and a few deservedly) underappreciated audio/visual experiences...as always, thanks to all the contributors and you readers. 

Anne Billson: How Scarlett Johansson Got Interesting

Bill Crider: Runaway Train [trailer]

B.V. Lawson: Media Murder

Comedy Film Nerds: Chris Denson

Ghost World: before SJ got dull

Dan Stumpf: The Walking Hills

David Vineyard: The Golden Horde (Jacqueline Lynch on this one, last year)

Ed Gorman and Mark Fertig: Crime Wave

Ed Lynskey: The Lineup (the 1958 film version)

Elizabeth Foxwell: All Through the Night

Evan Lewis: Conan the Adventurer: "The Heart of the Elephant"

Francis M. Nevins: Cornell Woolrich and John Dickson Carr on early tv (and in some film)

George Kelley: The Ruth Rendell Mysteries (UK television adaptations)

How Did This Get Made?: Face/Off

Iba Dawson: The Emperor's New Clothes

Ivan G. Shreve, Jr.: CPO Sharkey; Sons of the Desert

Jack Seabrook: Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat" (by Roald Dahl)

Jackie Kashian: Ian Abramson on Buster Keaton and McDonald's psychedelic commercials

Jacqueline T. Lynch: Hallelujah, I'm a Bum

Jake Hinkson: The Stranger (1946 Orson Welles film)

The Stranger


Crow Hollow


James Reasoner: A Face in the Crowd  (Budd Schulberg on Face--click to enlarge)

Women in the cast of Schlatter's Laugh-In

Jeff Flugel: Man in a Suitcase

Jerry House: Bill Moyers' World of Ideas: "Isaac Asimov"; The Wrestling Women vs. the Aztec Mummy

John Grant: Crow Hollow; Crook's Tour

Juri Nummelin: A Most Violent Year

Kate Laity: The Government Inspector

Ken Levine: pilot season

Kliph Nesteroff: George Schlatter

Laura: Cyclone on Horseback; Flight for Freedom

Bomb Girls

Lucy Brown: Bomb Girls

Mark Fertig: Blackmail (1939 film)

Martin Edwards: Malice Domestic 2015; The Disappearance of Alice Creed

Marty McKee: Most  Wanted (tv series with Robert Stack)

Mike Tooney: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: "Field of Fire"

Mystery Dave: The Man with the Golden Arm

Patrick Murtha: A Public Ransom; Remembering Kent State, Jackson State, Orangeburg...

Patti Abbott: War Tapes

Prashant Trikannad: Fireball XL5

Randy Johnson: The Avenger (1931 film); 3 Bullets for Ringo (aka 3 colpi di Winchester per Ringo)

Rick: ABC Movie of the Week: "Honeymoon With a Stranger"; "Along Came a Spider"

Death on the Fourposter

Rod Lott: Death on the Fourposter (aka Delitto allo specchio)

Ron Scheer: Five Easy Pieces

Sam Juliano: An Evening with Jane Goodall and Tribeca Film Festival 2015

Sergio Angelini: Top 15 Caper Films

Stacia Jones: Private Number

Stephen Bowie: The Untouchables: "The Noise of Death"

Yvette Banek: Two O'Clock Courage

Saturday Music Club: some country music

for my parents, who have liked their country music sparingly:

Glenn Campbell: "I'm Not Gonna Miss You"


X: "Dancing with Tears in My Eyes"


June Carter and Johnny Cash: "You Are My Sunshine"


Ray Charles & the Raelettes: "I Can't Stop Loving You"


Carl Perkins: "Blue Suede Shoes"; Johnny Cash: "I Walk the Line"; Patsy Cline: "I've Loved and Lost Again" on Ranch Party (1957, hosted by Tex Ritter)


Loretta Lynn and Sissy Spacek: "You Ain't Woman Enough to Take My Man"


Glenn Campbell: "Wichita Lineman"


The Weavers: "Sixteen Tons"

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: the links for May Day, 2015

Welcome to this week's list of links to reviews of overlooked (infrequently deservedly) books and stories, by the reviewers detailed below. I'm filling in this week and next for Patti Abbott, who'll be back at in two weeks. Please let me know if I've missed your review...and thanks to all the contributors and all you readers...always feel free to comment on the blogs!

Sergio Angelini: Aylmer Vance: Ghost-Seer by Alice and Claude Askew

Frank Babics: Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, January 1969, edited by Ernest M. Hutter

Les Blatt: The Sussex Downs Murder by "John Bude" (Ernest C. Elmore)

Brian Busby: poetry: "Gay Page"; James Gay

Bil Crider: "War of the Giant Apes" by "Alexander Blade"

Robert (R. T.) Davis: The Gardens of the Dead by William Brodrick

William Deeck: Murder Loves Company by John Mersereau

Martin Edwards: Those Who Walk Away by Patricia Highsmith (Nick Jones last year.)

Barry Ergang (hosted by Kevin Tipple): The Burning Wire by Jeffery Deaver

Ed Gorman (and Gillian Reynolds): The Charles Paris novels by Simon Brett

Dashiell Hammett (hosted by Evan Lewis): The Door by Mary Roberts Rinehart

John Hegenberger: Nightmares by Robert Bloch

Rich Horton: Love Insurance by Earl Derr Biggers

Jerry House: Tender Murderers: Women Who Kill by Trina Robbins

Randy Johnson: The Blaster #1: The Girl with the Dynamite Bangs by Lou Cameron

Tracy K: Wall of Eyes by Margaret Millar (Brian Busby, 2012)

George Kelley: The Drover novels by Bill Granger

Margot Kinberg: Black Water Rising by Attica Locke

B.V. Lawson: Death on Remand by John Michael Evelyn

Steve Lewis: Fit to Kill by "Brett Halliday"

Patrick Murtha: Lean on Pete by Willy Vlautin

Neer: The Shudders by Anthony Abbot; Officially Dead by Quentin Reynolds; The Setting Sun by Bart Moore-Gibert

Mark Nevins: East of A by Russell Atwood

John F. Norris: A Clue for Mr. Fortune by H. C. Bailey

James Reasoner: Operator #5: The Invisible Empire by "Curtis Steele" (Frederick C. Davis)

Karyn Reeves: Remove the Bodies by Elizabeth Ferrars

Richard Robinson: Enter the Lion by Michael Hodel and Sean Wright

Petter Rozovsky: Uneasy Street by "Wade Miller"

Gerard Saylor: The Big Bang by Mickey Spillane and Max Allen Collins

Jack Seabrook: "Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat" by Roald Dahl

Kerrie Smith: Take My Breath Away by Martin Edwards

Prashant Trikannad: "The Fog Horn" by Ray Bradbury