Tuesday's Overlooked Films and/or Other A/V on Wednesday: the links to reviews, interviews and more--new THE BIG BROADCAST link

The selections (reviews, interviews and citations at the links below) of undeservedly (and a few deservedly) under-appreciated audio/visual experiences...we have two citations of One Way Passage, for completely different reasons, and of Love Affair...and for the Hallowe'en season, further celebration of the macabre even more than we might see otherwise. So, of course, a fine collection of audio files from Robert Bloch seemed only apropos...and he speaks about his early literary mentor H. P. Lovecraft, whose story "The Color Out of Space" is the basis for one of the films reviewed below...and so it goes...As always, thanks to all the contributors and you readers. ***Late bulletin...last week was highlighted by another featuring of One Way Passage, on Ed Walker's The Big Broadcast on WAMU-FM in DC, devoted to radio drama...Ed has decided to retire, after a Long career in DC radio, and so links to the Big Broadcast page and the Lux Radio Theater adaptation of the film have been (belatedly) added.

Allan Fish: Confidential Report (aka Mr. Arkadin; 1955 Welles film)

Anne Billson: Le bal de vampires

Anonymous: My Favorite Wife; Champion (1949 film); Make Way for Tomorrow; Shall We Dance? (1996 original film); Donnie Brasco

Bhob Stewart: Del Close and Bob Brent: How to Speak Hip; Jazz Profiles: "Paul Desmond" (NPR)

Bill Crider: Sahara (2005 film) [trailer]; Bouchercon

Sahara

Brian Arnold: Casper Saves Hallowe'en; The Beast with Five Fingers (1946 film)

B.V. Lawson: Media Murder

BNoir Detour: Katy Jurado and High Noon

Colin: Foreign Intrigue (1956 film)

Comedy Film Nerds: Frank Woodward and Jack Bennett

Cullen Gallagher: The Revengers

Cynthia Fuchs: Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine; 30 for 30: "Trojan War"

Dan Stumpf: The Maze (1953 film)

David Vineyard: The Eiger Sanction

Dean Treadway: Fanny and Alexander

Diana B: Latino Noir

Dorian Bartilucci: Kay Francis: One Way Passage; Raffles


Duane Porter: The Spirit of the Beehive

Ed Walker: The Big Broadcast

Elgin Bleecker: Three Stripes in the Sun

Elizabeth Foxwell: Murder by Invitation; Metro Connection: Elizabeth Foxwell & In Their Own Words: American Women in World War I

Evan Lewis: Dick Tracy: "The Plot to Kill NATO" (1967 Dozier/Fox TV pilot)

Fred Blosser: SuperCop

Gary Deane: The Madonna's Secret; Money and the Woman

George Kelley: Psycho, the Blu-Ray package; Bouchercon

Psycho...based on the novel by Robert Bloch

Gilligan Newton-John: Blood and Black Lace and five other films; Salt Lake City tv and TV Guide, April 1979

Iba Dawson: Steve Jobs

Ivan G. Shreve, Jr.: The Real McCoys; Suspense (1950s tv) dvd sets

J. Kingston Pierce: Henning Mankell. RIP

Jack Seabrook: Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "Place of Shadows"

Jackie Kashian: Fair Game (2011 film); Jay Mohr on The Real Housewives series

Jacqueline T. Lynch: Jane Wyatt

James Reasoner: Moon

Janet Varney: Jessica Merizan 

Jeff Flugel: Top 5 Agatha Christie Movies

Jerry House: "Pool Sharks" (W.C. Fields film debut)

John Grant: Mystery Junction; The List

Karen Hannsberry: Three on a Match

Kelly Robinson: Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1920 film); Hangman's House; The Lodger (1927 film); Maciste in Hell (1926 film); The Monster (1925 film); Segundo de Chomón; Danse Macabre (1922 short film)


Ken Levine: more on sitcoms and niche audiences

Kliph Nesteroff: The Tonight Show hosted by Jerry Lewis, 1962

Kristina Dijan: The Undying Monster; Ransom! (1956 film); Ransom (1996 film); White Zombie



Laura G: Time to Kill; Please Believe Me; Heart of Arizona; In Old California; Murder, My Sweet

Lindsey: Bridal Suite; Turn Back the Clock; the Blondie short films; Notting Hill; Stranger on the Third Floor

Lucy Brown: Love Affair

Marty McKee: The Monster of Piedras Blancas; American Ninja

Mystery Dave: Heavenly Sword

Patricia Nolan-Hall: One Way Passage and 'Til We Meet Again

Patrick Murtha: Art Ford, Art Ford's Greenwich Village Party (DuMont) and Art Ford's Jazz Party (NTA Film Network)


Patti Abbott: Mistress America; The Twilight Zone: "Walking Distance"

Pop My Culture: Dee Wallace

Raquel Stecher: Cesar Romero

Richard R. D.  Finch: Pather Panchali

Rick: Three of the Best Movies You Might Never Have Seen; Vera-Ellen

Robert Bloch: Hour 25 and more


Rod Lott: Mosquito; Valley of the Dolls; All Night Halloween Party

Ruth: An Affair to Remember; Love Affair

Sanford Allen: Go-To Hallowe'en Movies


Scott Cupp: The Color Out of Space

Sergio Angelini: The Hound of the Baskervilles (multiple adaptations)

Stacia Jones: Dracula Has Risen from the Grave

Stephen Bowie: Robert Markell, Hawk and NYPD (and "The Trap of Solid Gold")

Television Obscurities: 1970s US television series that qualify...

Tom Lisanti: 6 Essential Pamela Tiffin Movies

Victoria Loomes: Frida

Vienna: May Robson; Victor Jory

Yvette Banek: Above Suspicion

FFB: WORKERS WRITE! TALES FROM THE COURTROOM edited by David LaBounty (Blue Cubicle Press 2011); LOVECRAFT: A SYMPOSIUM by Robert Bloch, Fritz Leiber, August Derleth, Arthur Jean Cox, et al. (LASFS/Riverside Quarterly 1964)

Workers Write! has become officially a little magazine appearing annually, but started as a small press anthology in 2005, with Workers Write! Tales from the Cubicle, like all volumes/issues since devoted to fiction and poetry written by or at least from the point of view of workers in a certain field...each issue has had (a bit too adorably) a "Tales from the C---" subtitle, and the 2011 issue is perhaps one of the closest to the usual interests of FFB contributors and readers, the courtroom issue. As the only issue of the magazine I've read so far (they also produce single-story chapbooks somewhat more frequently than the annual issues), it's a solid and engaging selection of crime fiction that is neither completely devoted to procedural accounts nor (as some might stereotype little magazine fiction) nebulous exercises in looking within; I'm only slightly surprised it wasn't cited in the 2012 Best American Mystery Stories, given how much Otto Penzler loves to delve into the little magazines for content.

What led me to pick it up was a story by Liz Hufford, a good writer whose "This Offer Expires" (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, September 1976) had stuck with me, and who had published only three rather well-regarded stories in 1970s fantastic-fiction media (one in Damon Knight's anthology series Orbit, two in F&SF) after passing through the Clarion Writers Workshop...she had continued to publish in various little magazines and academic texts occasionally since, while also teaching at Glendale Community College in Arizona. "Gone Accourting" is unsurprisingly one of the better stories in the issue, a rumination on life and particularly the judicial system while also an account of someone not too unlike Hufford herself being called to serve on a jury; as someone who, while living in Philadelphia proper some years back, was called to jury duty something like eleven times while never being empaneled, I could sympathize. (This is one of a few stories in the issue that might put the reader particularly in mind of John D. MacDonald.) Jack Ewing, an old hand who hasn't ever made a huge splash in a long career, has a deft story in "Serves You Right" that easily could fit in any neo-noir context, about why a process server might not wish to pursue his white whale; Randall Patterson's "Old Soldiers" is similarly informed by a long career in both writing and the law, and might be the best story here. Tom Green's "Huntz's Law" might be a bit over-broad, in its account of a judge still rankled by envy of some of his law-school classmates, and seeking one big splashy case to preside over; judges similarly have not so great times of it in Juliet Hubble's "Amicus, Briefly" (a quick portrait of an unfulfilled if useful life) and Anthony Mohr's "Affirmed," where an accomplished jurist in her middle years is treating with the emotional fallout of her father, going into his final spiral, not being capable of recognizing anything but his own vision of how his children's lives should be (not altogether convincingly, I'd say about this story, but I can sympathize with the situation). Michael Del Muro gives us an account of a journalist's crisis of conscience; Tony Press of a trial lawyer's first case on her own, both effective stories. Among the poetry, I liked Kristin Roedell's narrative "Family Law" best among a good lot. As a whole, an interesting gathering of crime literature that doesn't feel so much alien as simply having a slightly different emphasis from the typical issue of a cf magazine or the usual anthology in the field.

Contents:
Bench Book by Charles Reynard 
Mother, With Child by Tony Press 
Family Law by Kristin Roedell 
Matt the Closer by Jeffrey A. Dickerson 
The Barrister by John Lambremont, Sr. 
Old Soldiers by Randall Patterson 
Pled by Cynthia Schwartzberg Edlow 
Serves You Right by Jack Ewing 
Leaving the Station by Michael Del Muro 
Gone Accourting by Liz Hufford 
retainers by Joseph A. Farina 
criminal courtroom by Joseph A. Farina 
principles of sentencing (juvenile court) by Joseph A. Farina 
transubstantiation by Joseph A. Farina 
Affirmed by Anthony J. Mohr 
May it Please the Court by Leslie B. Neustadt 
Amicus, Briefly by Juliet Hubbell 
Reading the PSI by Charles Reynard 
Huntz's Law by Tom Green 
Lord Coke Unbenched by Dan Gunter

Briefly, and in October it's almost mandatory, particularly for a lifelong horrorist such as myself, to deal with something eldritch, but I've finally read the August Derleth-annotated transcript of a symposium recorded on 24 October 1963 at the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society, a discussion of Lovecraft and his influence featuring a panel including Robert Bloch, Fritz Leiber, writer Arthur Jean Cox, Sam Russell, and Riverside Quarterly editor Leland Sapiro, along with some comments and questions from the audience. Given that Bloch and Leiber were both helped and influenced by Lovecraft early in their careers and were the two most important exemplars of how to take his model for approaching the matter of horror fiction and improving upon it, it's useful, if not as comprehensive here as one could hope, to see how they thought about that influence and their respective takes on Lovecraft's work and legacy. Bloch unsurprisingly seems most taken by the interior aspects of what Lovecraft was getting at in his best work, the questions of identity and madness and usurpation from within; Leiber, also not too surprisingly, is at least as engaged by the larger implications, philosophically and otherwise, of humanity's not terribly secure foothold in Lovecraft's universe. The notion that such non-fans of Lovecraft as Avram Davidson and Edmund Wilson had more in common with him than their experience of his work led them to believe is briefly if amusingly explored. Not as significant as some of Leiber and Bloch's other considerations of Lovecraft, but useful to read, and one's suspicions of what August Derleth made of what he was transcribing and annotating, particularly when it touches on his own involvement with Lovecraft's body of work, are mildly telling.

For more of today's books (and perhaps magazines), please see Patti Abbott's blog.

Some television theme music: Saturday Music Club on Thursday

Cover of "Mr. Broadway"



















The Blind Boys of Alabama "Way Down in the Hole" (The Wire)

The five versions used by The Wire

Tim McCauley: Da Vinci's Inquest

Closing theme

J. G. Thirlwell "No Vacancy" (The Venture Bros)


The Heavy "Short Change Hero" (Strike Back)


Loreena McKennitt "The Mummers' Dance" (Legacy)


Jerry Goldsmith/Lalo Schifrin The Man from U.N.C.L.E. four theme arrangements


Dave Brubeck Quartet plus one: Mr. Broadway

DBQ: "Theme from Mr. Broadway" original
DBQ: "Toki's Theme"
a portion of this episode

Ron Grainer Orchestra Man in a Suitcase


Ron Grainer Orchestra The Prisoner


Edwin Astley Orchestra Danger Man

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: the 2015 Bouchercon edition with some Hallowe'en flavor...new links

Cover by Ed Emshwiller

With Patti Abbott and many of the other regular contributors decamped to North Carolina for the Bouchercon (the annual world convention, at least as held usually in the US, of crime-fiction fans and professionals), this week I've assembled the links in my usual late morning/early afternoon fashion (apologies to those accustomed to the emergence at the crack of dawn), and we have two reviews of works by contributor and worthy subject Bill Crider and two of Gil Brewer's The Red Scarf (clearly the toast of the Continent this week) among the other largely impressive works discussed below...Patti will be hosting again next week.

Sergio Angelini: The Red Scarf by Gil Brewer

Yvette Banek: The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde

Joe Barone: Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

Les Blatt: The New Adventures of Ellery Queen by "Ellery Queen" (Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee)

Brian Busby: Murder without Regret by E. Louise Cushing

Bill Crider: The Crackpot and Other Twisted Tales of Greedy Fans and Collectors by John E. Stockman

Scott A. Cupp: Spicy Adventures by Robert E. Howard

William Deeck: There's Death in the Churchyard by William Gore

Martin Edwards: The Corpse with the Sunburnt Face by Christopher St. John Sprigg

Will Erickson: The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney

Curt Evans: The Furnival Mysteries by Annie Haynes (among her other work)

Fred Fitch (The Westlake Review): Jimmy the Kid by Donald Westlake; The Snatchers by Lionel White and other related work

Barry Gardner: Box Nine by Jack O'Connell

John Grant: Bad Intentions by Karin Fossum

Ed Gorman: Blood Marks by Bill Crider

Rich Horton: Bend Sinister and The Real Life of Sebastian Knight by Vladimir Nabokov

Jerry House: The Haunted Stars by Edmond Hamilton; 31 Days of October: stories from Weird Tales

Nick Jones: Hong Kong Kill by "Peter George" (Bryan Peters)

Stephen Jones: my 10 favorite horror stories

Tracy K: Die with Me by Elena Forbes

George Kelley: Wandl the Invader by Ray Cummings; I Speak for Earth by "Keith Woodcott" (John Brunner)

Margot Kinberg: Havana Red by Leonardo Padura

Rob Kitchen: The Girl in Berlin by Elizabeth Wilson

Kate Laity: Callimachus and Other Plays by Hrotsvita; "Sermo Lupi ad Anglos" by Wulfstan II

B.V. Lawson: Night and Fear by Cornell Woolwich

Evan Lewis: Murder at Midnight by Richard Sale

Jonathan Lewis: Island of Fear and Other Stories by William Sambrot

Steve Lewis: Marked for Murder by "Brett Halliday" (Davis Dresser); State's Evidence by Stephen Greenleaf; Secret of the Second Door by Robert Colby 

Todd Mason: Help! magazine (February 1962) edited by Harvey Kurtzman

Patrick Murtha: The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by Tobias Smollett

Neer: An English Mystery by Cyril Hare

Frances M. Nevins: The Honorary Consul by Graham Greene; The Case of the Screaming Woman by Erle Stanley Gardner; Maigret and the Toy Village by Georges Simenon

John F. Norris: The Giant Rat of Sumatra by Richard L. Boyer

Juri Nummelin: The Red Scarf by Gil Brewer

John O'Neill: the current small press and other fantasy-fiction magazines

Matthew Paust: Some Came Running by James Jones

James Reasoner: Spawn of the Desert by W. C. Tuttle

Karyn Reeves: The Island of Dr. Moreau by H. G. Wells

Richard Robinson: Twenty Blue Devils by Aaron Elkins

Gerard Saylor: Little Elvises by Timothy Hallinen

Bhob Stewart: The Book of Wit & Humor (Volume 1, 1953) edited by Louis Untermeyer

Dan Stumpf: The Maze by Maurice Sandoz; There is a Serpent in Eden (aka The Cunning) by Robert Bloch

Kevin Tipple: The Prairie Chicken Kill by Bill Crider

"TomCat": Cold Blood by "Leo Bruce" (Rupert Croft-Cooke)

HELP! magazine, February 1962: Harvey Kurtzman, Will Elder, Will Eisner, Algis Budrys, Stan Freberg, Don Edwing, Lydia Wilen et al...

Archive.org has the content up from several issues of Help!, the fourth and last of Harvey Kurtzman's humor magazines, and the one with the longest shadow after Mad, given the remarkable locus of talent that clustered around the magazine, even with its low budget and irregular publishing schedule (publisher James Warren, already doing well with Forrest Ackerman's Famous Monsters of Filmland and Spacemen but not yet also publishing Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella, famously never paid any more than he had to for anything). For starters, Kurtzman's primary editorial assistants, not quite overlapping, were Gloria Steinem and Terry Gilliam; Steinem notably was good at engaging famous and up-and-coming comedians to appear on the covers and in the photo-comics, in imitation of Italian and other traditions, dubbed in the magazine by the Italian term "fumetti"...Gilliam, before decamping to the UK in part to avoid being drafted after the magazine folded in 1965, was perhaps the great conduit for the budding "underground" cartoonists such as R. Crumb appearing in the magazine, before there was an underground scene...among the fumetti actors was a young British comedian performing in New York in an imported review, John Cleese, and he and Gilliam first met due to that gig.

This issue features the infamous "Goodman Goes Playboy" graphic story by Kurtzman and Will Elder, the segment of the adventures of Goodman Beaver that puts a Hallowe'en-appropriate twist on Archie Comics, as well as offering a few light jabs at Playboy (Hugh Hefner had been the publisher of the second Kurtzman magazine, Trump, which was closed down hurriedly due a cash crunch at Playboy Enterprises--and Kurtzman and Elder would later do a famous strip for Playboy magazine for decades).  The publishing troika at Archie Comics (see the 2024 comment below), always ready to take offense at any sort of parody (and who had done so at Mad's parody "Starchie" some years earlier), initiated court action. Also, a reprint of a Will Eisner "The Spirit" story, an Algis Budrys-scripted fumetti called "The Mariners" (featuring actress Lydia Wilen, who might also be the Wilen who with her sister has made a career of household hints books in more recent years), a transcript of part of one of Stan Freberg's albums, and cartoons by, among others, Don Edwing (who also has an acting role in the fumetti). Budrys placed several scripts with Help!, at least two with a nautical theme (boats being one of his interests).

Thanks to Dennis Lien for noting these Archive entries on Fiction-L. To see this issue legibly, go through this link, since the embed below doesn't seem to have a sufficient enlargement function.

Tuesday's Overlooked Films and/or Other A/V: the links to the reviews, interviews and more...

Meshes of the Afternoon

The selections (reviews, interviews and citations at the links below) of undeservedly (and a few deservedly) under-appreciated audio/visual experiences...for the first week of October, we are in Hallowe'en Country, and running up to Bouchercon...as well as having two citations of The Red Shoes and three of Night of the Eagle. As always, thanks to all the contributors and you readers...

Allan Fish: Hard to be a God

Anne Billson: Top Ten Plaster Cast Movies

Anonymous: Frances Ha; Once Upon a Time in the West; Nebraska; The Apartment

Bill Crider: The Mexican [trailer]; Annie Oakley on film, 1894; Bouchercon

Brian Arnold: The Crawling Hand; Halloween Safety; Halloween commercials

B. V. Lawson: Media Murder; Mystery Melange

BNoirDetour: Phone Call from a Stranger

Colin: Sands of the Kalahari

Comedy Film Nerds: Dave Foley, Suzy Nakamura, Tina Imahara, Doug Benson: LA PodFest

Cynthia Fuchs: Freeheld; Body of War

Dan Stumpf: Cat Girl

David Vineyard: The Canary Murder Case; Philo Vance: "La canarina assassinata" (Italian television)

Dorian Bartilucci: Gunga Din (1939 film)

Elgin Bleeker: The Killers (1946 film)

Elizabeth Foxwell: Pacific Blackout

Evan Lewis: Fallen Angels: "Red Wind"

Gary Deane: Retour de Manivelle (aka There's Always a Price Tag)

George Kelley: Newsies (2015 stage)

Gilligan Newton-John: Frankenstein General Hospital; The Horror of Frankenstein

Iba Dawson: Fright Fest

Ivan G. Shreve, Jr.: The Ghost Busters (CBS-TV 1975)

Jackie Kashian: Grease Sing-Along; Danielle Radford on good-bad movies and pro wrasslin'

Jacqueline T. Lynch: Jean Arthur

James Clark: Repulsion

James Reasoner: Son of Frankenstein

Janet Varney: Lisa Kate David

Jerry House: Big News (1929 film with Carole Lombard)

John Grant: A Kiss to Die For; Latin Quarter (1945; aka Frenzy)

John Greco: Au revoir les enfants

Judy Gester: Bicycle Thieves (aka The Bicycle Thief); Trapped by Television

Karen Hannsberry: Design for Living

Kate Laity: Night of the Eagle (aka Burn, Witch, Burn!)

Kelly Robinson: Wolf Blood; A Page of Madness; Haxan (aka Witchcraft Through the Ages); The Unknown (1927 film); Waxworks (1924 film); Un chien Andalou


Ken Levine: (re)writing sitcoms on the fly; Quantico

Kliph Nesteroff: The Tonight Show hosted by Jerry Lewis (1962)

Kristina Dijan: Secret of the incas; The Good Die Young; The Red Shoes (1948); September Film Diary 

Laura G.: Time to Kill; Naughty Marietta; Murder, My Sweet; Lucky Night; The Red Shoes (1948); Girls Under 21; TCM October    

Lindsey: Watch on the Rhine; Angel on My Shoulder; The Gazebo; September Films; Recent Films

Lucy Brown: Parade's End

Marty McKee: Toy Soldiers; Planet Earth (1974 telefilm/pilot)

Mystery Dave: Stardust

Patrica Nolan-Hall: Night of the Demon

Patrick Murtha: Closer to God

Patti Abbott: Listen to Me, Marlon

Pop My Culture: Dan Van Kirk

Raquel Stecher: Holiday Affair; Two on a Seesaw 

Rick: 25 Best Horror and Suspense Films

Rod Lott: We Are Still Here; Cop Car; Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film

Ruth: Romantic Comedies

Sam Juliano: The Last Picture Show; Hope and Glory

Sanchin Gandhi: The Red Balloon

Scott Cupp: The Leopard Man

Sergio Angelini: Mrs. Bradley Investigates (aka The Mrs. Bradley Mysteries): "Death at the Opera"

Stacia Jones: Prick Up Your Ears

Stephen Bowie: Cliff Robertson on 1950s television

Stephen Jones: 5 Best Horror Stories Adapted for TV and Film 

Steve Lewis: Die, Monster, Die!; Web of Deception

Television Obscurities: US TV, Fall 2000

Todd Mason: A night at the movies...revised for Hallowe'en...

Cartoon: "Jackie Kashian: Los Angeles Pet Owners" 

Cartoon: "April Richardson and Jimmy Pardo: Go Bayside!: The California Bandsaw Massacre"

Newsreel: The Onion Review for 12 May

Serial: The Maria Bamford Show

Short Western Film: "The Tonto Woman" (from a short story by Elmore Leonard)

Feature: Night of the Eagle (aka Burn, Witch, Burn!)

Alternate Feature: The City of the Dead (aka Horror Hotel)

Very alternate feature: Castaway (looking a bit soft in image, but difficult to pick up on the market otherwise of late...and not a perfect film, but an interesting one). Original choice here, Testament of Orpheus, didn't have any English subtitles option...alas...

Cartoon: "The Tell-Tale Heart"
(And a more recent, loosely-adapted variant)

Organ Music: Rhoda Scott and Barbara Dennerlein: "Yes or No"

Victoria Loomes: Fellini: the case against 

Vienna: Idiot's Delight 

Yvette Banek: Charlie Chan at the Opera