Ed Gorman's Blog, page 202

Forgotten Books: Bad Ronald by Jack Vance

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Jack Vance is such a revered sf/fantasy writer his career as a mystery-suspense writer has largely been overlooked. One of his early mysteries won the Edgar, in fact, and at least one of his suspense novels was made into a TV movie, this being BAD RONALD which is a whole lot better than the 1973 Ballantine packaging would lead you to believe.

The era was still in the throes of Psycho. Numerous writers tried to run riffs on the basic Crazy Mama theme. Vance took the simple but suspenseful story of a seventeen year old kid named Ronald and paired him with an over-protective mother who had to hide him after Ronald committed an unthinkable crime, an event which Vance wisely leaves out the details.. The only thing Mom can do is hide him in a hollowed out space in the house (a familiar trope in those days; in fact a more more celebrated novel was called CRAWLSPACE).

As grisly as the set-up is Vance deals with the rest of the novel (the police staking out the house; the nasty neighbors taunting her; and her near-breakdown) with, believe it or not, a healthy dose of black humor. All too soon Mom begins to understand Ronald is not only murderous but maybe even worse, he's a loser. He's pretty much happy to be hidden in the house. She feeds him three times a day (but makes him go on a diet); she gives him magazines hoping this'll keep him in contact with the real world--but he prefers working on his imaginary fantasy novel world; and he whimpers like a child when he can't get exactly the kind of "treat" he wants.

The dark humor only makes Ronald's psychopathology all the grimmer. We really are dealing with a freak here, one who should be chained to a dungeon wall for life. And the wily plot with many twists and turns shows just how many riffs you can run on freaky.

Unlike many of the PSYCHO riffs, there's a great deal of perceptive and nimble writing here. A very solid novel. The TV movie was straightforward and wasn't hip enough to include the humor.

Forgotten Films: Odds Against Tomorrow

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Ed here: William McGivern was one of the dominant voices of hardboiled crime fiction in the Fifties. He was reviewed widely and well.Dorothy B. Hughes no less compared him to Graham Greene. Several of his novels (including The Big Heat) became major movies. Today his books are nowhere to be found except on used book lists. A humber of them are well worth reading, including the basis for this movie, Odds Against Tomorrow.

As as Robert Ryan fan I have to say that the opening shot of Ryan walking down a city street toward us is one of the saddest and most disturbing moments in his film history. No male actor could look as psychotic or (as here) as physically and spiritually lost.

It took me a few viewings to appreciate how good Harry Belafonte is in the film; Ed Begley is straight from a Richard Stark novel.

If you're interested, here's an extraordinary interview with Harry Belafonte at Eddie Muller's celebration of Robert Wise. Belafonte talks about the movie, Robert Ryan, Marlon Brando, Martin Luther King and many other subjects. He also gets off some friendly jokes about Sydney Potier's squeaky clean image. I really enjoyed it and I think you will too. Belafonte's definitely a cool guy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h0xyW...



As always, Noir of The Week not only reviews the film but puts it in context of its era.


Noir of The Week:

Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)

Released by United Artist in 1959, Odds Against Tomorrow is the compelling story of three diverse men and a "One roll of the dice and we're through forever" heist that brings these unlikely bedfellows together.

This is the third film in Robert Ryan's bigotry trilogy, the others being Crossfire and Bad Day at Blackrock. Odds Against Tomorrow, with screenplay by Abraham Polonsky pits Earl (Ryan), Dave (Ed Begley) and Johnny (Harry Belafonte) in a plan to regain the lives they all knew in better times. Each of them is burning in a private hell. This is brought on by them selves and, of course, the road to salvation is paved in money, lots of money by means of a "can't miss" bank job orchestrated by Dave.

for the rest go here:
http://www.noiroftheweek.com/

Forgotten Books: What Makes Sammy Run by Budd Schulberg

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Ed here: I was fourteen when I read What Makes Sammy Run. I bought it off the same wire rack where I bought some of my science fiction and mysteries. The back cover copy interested me enough to open the book. I liked the smooth realistic style of the book so much I finished it by the time I went to bed that night.

Budd Schulberg's take on American Success stories is more relevant than ever.

Wikipedia:

"Told in first person narrative by Al Manheim, drama critic of The New York Record, this is the tale of Sammy Glick, a young uneducated boy who rises from copy boy to the top of the screenwriting profession in 1930s Hollywood by backstabbing others.

Manheim recalls how he first met the 16-year-old Sammy Glick when Sammy was working as a copy boy at Manheim's newspaper. Both awed and disturbed by Sammy's aggressive personality, Manheim becomes Sammy's primary observer, mentor and, as Sammy asserts numerous times, his best friend.

Tasked with taking Manheim's column down to the printing room, one day Glick rewrites Manheim's column, impressing the managing editor and gaining a column of his own. Later he steals a piece by an aspiring young writer, Julian Blumberg, sending it under his own name to the famous Hollywood talent agent Myron Selznick. Glick sells the piece, "Girl Steals Boy", for $10,000 and leaves the paper to go to work in Hollywood, leaving behind his girlfriend, Rosalie Goldbaum. When the film of Girl Steals Boy opens, Sammy is credited for "original screenplay" and Blumberg is not acknowledged.

Glick rises to the top in Hollywood over the succeeding years, paying Blumberg a small salary under the table to be his ghost writer. "

Ed here: Glick reminds me of so many CEOs on Wall Street. They ride a rigged system that allows them to preen and pose and steal. They produce nothing. And what Glick does to poor Julian Bloomberg is exactly what Wall Street has done to us.

Budd Schulberg is above all a great reporter as well as a great storyteller. Mannheim shows us the Hollywood of that era from the from offices that are run like war rooms to the constant attempts by the studio magnates to break writers every way they can to the ridiculously glitzy parties. The people we like in Sammy--and there are a lot of them; generally the people who do the actual work--are rarely invited to the splashy parties of course.

Just as Billy Wilder was attacked by studio heads for writing producing Sunset Boulevard, so was Schulberg attacked for Sammy.

From American Legends:

"When published in 1941, What Makes Sammy Run? was a best seller and was praised by Scott Fitzgerald, John O'Hara, and Dorothy Parker who said the book captured the "shittiness" of the film business.

Sammy hit Hollywood like a firestorm. Louis B. Mayer attacked the novel publically and privately and vowed to run Schulberg out of town. He almost succeeded. Budd was fired from the Samuel Goldwyn Studios where he was then working, and it was several years before he landed another screenwriting job.

Some critics feared that the book would contribute to the anti-Semitic stereotype of the Hollywood mogul or provide ammo to those who were persecuting the Jews of Europe.

Schulberg strongly objected to this criticism. To him, Sammy represented the dark side of the Horatio Alger legend: someone who was an "all- American heel," regardless of religion.

Indeed, Sammy himself was areligious, as well as apolitical and amoral. When a company informed him that it was not hiring "Hebes," without missing a beat, Sammy passed himself off as an Italian- American."

Ed here: Schulberg is especially good writing about women and the book boasts at least three fascinating females who offer interesting takes on all the would-be macho business games the men play.

To me this is one of the most vital novels of its era. It certainly spawned hundreds of imitators; none ever as good. And it shows how eloquent the American tongue was when used skillfully. As Mark Twain said write the way you talk and Schulberg certainly does that here.

Prison for life I say-just for being so fricking stupid

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Barbara Lee, 45, and Marco Ibanez, 19, were arrested after the stabbing.

Group of deaf, mute friends stabbed at bar after thug mistakes sign language for gang signs

BY PHILIP CAULFIELD
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Sunday, May 1st 2011, 3:54 PM


Alfred Stewart, 31, who is deaf, and some friends were partying at a bar when a gang-banger mistook their sign language for gang signs.
A group of deaf friends were stabbed at a bar in Florida after a woman mistook their sign language for gang signs.

Alfred Stewart, 31, was partying at the Ocean's Eleven Lounge in Hallendale Beach, Fla., with some friends who were also deaf on Saturday night when the group's signing caught the eye of gang-banger Barbara Lee.

The 45-year-old Lee though the group was throwing gang signs at her, and responded by flashing gang signs back at them, cops said.

The group motioned for her to leave them alone.

Eventually, Lee left the bar but returned with two members of her crew, 19-year-old Marco Ibanez and a 17-year-old who was not identified, cops said.

Ibanez allegedly pulled a knife and began stabbing Stewart and his friends.

Stewart and three of his friends were taken to a hospital and treated for stab wounds.

A bouncer at the bar who had a bottle smashed over his head in the melee was also taken to the hospital. None of the injuries were life-threatening, officials said.

Lee, Ibanez and the 17-year-old were arrested and charged with aggravated battery.

Stewart's mother, Brenda, said there was no way her son was making gang signs.

"Only sign language," she told WSVN television. "That's the only way all of them, they do sign language."

Winchester .73

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Ed here: The Anthony Mann-James Stewart westerns are among my favorites. I'd recently run Winchester .73 then again watched about half of it on TCM this afternoon. I'm sure Vince Keenan can correct me if I'm wrong but I think it was Billy Wilder who said that people think of a good-great movie when it has three powerhouse scenes. By that measure Winchester .73 is a true masterpiece. It contains at least a dozen perfectly and uniquely written scenes.

From DVD BEAVER

"A 187, 44-40 caliber Winchester rifle is the star of the this motion picture. Every so often a rifle comes along that is just perfect - "1 in 1000" they call it. 'Winchester 73' was a revolutionary film in the development of Hollywood westerns. It almost single-handedly rescued the western genre and its box-office success acknowledged Anthony Mann for his key role in attaining its allure and stature. This was one of many westerns collaborating with Jimmy Stewart, helping to revive his post war acting image.

"Frontiersman Lin McAdam (Stewart) is out on the road with his buddy. What he needs is the-of-a-kind rifle that we won in competition - conveniently (eventually) stolen by his 'black sheep' brother. On the rifle's his journey we see many desperado individuals: a sociopathic highwayman bandit (Dan Duryea), an moral-less gun trader (John McIntire), a brutal jaded Indian (Rock Hudson) and a comely maiden (Shelly Winters).

"It remains a classic of the genre and Mann fans will love the development of 'mood'. Great cinematography shines through as well. Also note Tony Curtis in one of his first roles and Will Geer (Grandpa on 'The Waltons') as Wyatt Earp!"

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDRevi...

I've come to prefer Stewart's work with Mann to most of Stewart's light comedy and his somewhat mawkish melodramas. Mann found an almost psychotic side of The Good Man and Stewart gave himself up to it.

Here's a bit from Wikipedia about the circumstances surrounding the funding of the film:

"Stewart had wished to make Harvey for Universal-International but when the studio wouldn't pay the $200,000 salary Stewart wanted, studio head William Goetz made an offer that Stewart could make both Harvey and Winchester '73 for a percentage of the profits that would be spread out over a period of time and qualify for a lower tax rate due to Stewart being taxed as a company rather than an individual.[6] Stewart's agent who was then Lew Wasserman was able to get his client 50% of the profits that eventually gave him $600,000 from the film's unexpected success.[7] The money from a percentage deal was taxed as a capital gain attracting a much lower rate of tax than a normal salary would incur.[8] Stewart's deal also gave him control of director and co-stars."

Ed here: Looking at the cast credits, you see how much this was a studio picture. Many notable young names here: Shelly Winters, Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis, Charles Drake and James Best. They'd be seen in many many Universal films. The strangest casting to me was Will Geer (a very good actor) as Wyatt Earp. I'm not sure what writer Borden Chase and Mann had in mind going so much against the legendary (and false) image of Earp.

One of my top ten character actors has a major role here, Millard Mitchell. The picture he did immediately after this gritty western was as the studio head in "Singin' In The Rain" and he was every bit as snappy and good as the stars. I'm always checking TCM schedules for character actors so I've seen him in many films. He never missed.

Steven McNally had a run in the Fifties, mostly Bs. Apparently it was said somewhere by somebody that he was slated to be Universal's next Big Star. But (I think) it was Lew Wasserman (then the most powerful man in Hwood) who said--and this was widely quoted--"Steven McNally will never be a star." He was right; there was something small and nervous about McNally that ruled out stardom. Still having to work with that quote out there couldn't have been easy.

Jon Tuska would know this for sure but as I recollect writer Borden Chase (straight from the pulps to huge success in Hwood) was the guy who figured out how to write for Gary Cooper. Cooper was not a wizard with dialogue and when he had too much to say he couldn't cut it. The story goes that Chase and the director of a Cooper picture were having a hard time with Cooper and dialogue so Chase came up with the idea of putting the burden on the person in the scene with Cooper. Thus you had the sidekick saying "There's injuns on the hill and they're comin for us. I don't to tell you about injuns, do I?" And all Cooper had to say was "Nope."

David Letterman vs. Donald Trump

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Ed Gorman: I've said many times that Mark Evanier's "News From Me" is one of my five favorite blog spots. His knowledge, wit and wisdom make just about every blog post memorable. Yesterday he opined on the Donald Trump-David Letterman connection and it's a showbiz story that is relevant to the sorry state of our politics today. Log on and scroll down a ways. This is definitely a must-read if you're interested in confirming (again and again) what a giant true 100% asshole Trump is.

Mark Evanier:

"In the meantime, I have a sorta-first-person anecdote about Trump and Letterman. I was backstage at a taping of Dave's NBC show back in May of 1992 when Donald Trump was a guest and I'm going to tell what I remember with the following caveat: I have a real good memory but I'm not sure I recall this exactly. I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to the details at the time and some of the backstory I heard was second-hand. So I don't guarantee I have this exact but the essence of the story is true...

Mike Tyson had been sentenced to prison for raping a beauty pageant contestant. Trump had made headlines with a suggestion that struck some as outrageous. It was that Tyson not serve time behind bars but instead atone for his crimes with a couple of boxing matches — perhaps promoted by Mr. Trump or at a Trump resort? — with the proceeds going to charity. The proposal was big news for a few days there and Trump was appearing on Dave's show to discuss it."

for the rest go here:
http://www.newsfromme.com/

Donald Westlake interview

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Ed here: The Mystery Scene website is packed with various kinds of goodies. Here's an excerpt of an interview I did with Donald Westlake not long before his death. There's a link to it and while you;re there check out everything else on the website.

Westlake: Story defines the books for two reasons, both because story is what fiction is about and because, since I don't outline or prepare in any other way, the story is forced to emerge or die. "Narrative push," as I know you know. Once we have the fuel on board—and then, and then, and then—it's nice to be able to try different things. Not to get digressive, but to give the story little extras. For instance, in one book I saw I had an opportunity, if I wanted, to tell one section in first person from Parker's point of view. Since he isn't someone who tends to want to tell other people anything, particularly anything unnecessary, I wondered if I could do it, what he would sound like, and would it turn out to be one of those false notes. In the event, it was fine. (And no, I can't right now remember which book.) More recently, in Ask the Parrot, I suddenly realized I could do one chapter from the parrot's point of view, and that made me very, very happy.

Gorman: You've written that you didn't know how editors let alone readers would react to a hero like Parker. Were you surprised when your editor asked for more?

Westlake: When I wrote The Hunter it was supposed to be a one-off. A difficult unpleasant guy without redeeming qualities bent on revenge. Then Bucklyn Moon, an editor at Pocket Books, said he liked the book and wondered if Parker could escape at the end and me write "three more books a year about him." (I actually did, the first two years.) I really had to concentrate on that, because Parker was everything a main character in a novel was supposed to not be. The big question was, could I go back to him, knowing he was going to be a series character, meeting the readers again and again, and not soften him. No sidekick or girlfriend to have conversations with, no quirks or hobbies. That was the goal. Somebody who, in a western, would be a lone traveler in the dimness on the other side of the campfire from the hero. Now that menacing but unimportant minor character would be asking for everybody's attention. No, not asking, assuming.

for the rest go here:
http://www.mysteryscenemag.com/index....

Is The Office's Weepy Good-bye for Michael Scott or Steve Carell?

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Ed here: As a big fan of The Office (I've come to enjoy it more than the original UK version even if it's nowhere near as daring), I've been fearing for weeks that the goodbye episode would resort to treacle on high. The trailer with Jim all gushy and mushy certainly makes you cringe but today on the New York magazine blog there's a very nice tribute to what Steve Carrell has done with the character over the eight years he's been there. (I'll watch tonight but I won't be surprised if this turns out to be as bad as the Seinfeld sign-off.)

New York Magazine:

Is The Office's Weepy Good-bye for Michael Scott or Steve Carell? by Willa Paskin

Photo: Chris Haston/NBC

Here is a truncated list of inappropriate things that Michael Scott has done to his staff this season on The Office:

• egged Toby's house; publicly given him an award for being despicable; yelled at him "You bitch! You can't help people. You couldn't help your marriage"; other daily tortures
• been so overcome by jealousy that he interrupted Andy's performance in Sweeney Todd with boos, and other petulant behaviors
• lied to Dwight about recommending him for a job
• crashed Jim and Pam's child's baptism; called their child a "b-i-t-c-h"
• humiliatingly force-fed Kevin broccoli
• had a temper tantrum at Gabe's apartment because he felt his authority was being threatened; his poor behavior included being rude to Gabe, throwing pizza dough, destroying everyone else's ability to watch Glee
• regularly disparaged Phyllis about her age, even though they went to high school together
• tried to keep Darryl from getting his due credit for an idea

So why are all of these people serenading him on the occasion of his departure?

for the rest go here:
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/...

New Books: The Girl Who Wanted to be Sherlock Holmes by Bill Crider

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When Ed Gorman graciously invited me to write a little piece about The Girl Who Wanted to be Sherlock Holmes, my direct-to-Kindle YA novel, I was forced to think about why I published it in the first place. It wasn't because I expected fame and fortune to follow immediately, even though I must admit that reading about Amanda Hocking's millions of sales might have been a motivating factor. Somehow, though, I don't think my sales will approach hers. Or anybody else's for that matter. What it comes down to is that I did it for fun.

Here's the story. I wrote the book some years ago and sent it to my agent, who supposedly loved it. Little did I know that my agent had pretty much quit agenting, at least for me, and that he wasn't even sending the book out. I found out he'd really retired when eventually a manuscript was returned to me because someone had found it lying outside the door of his deserted office. Imagine my surprise. At any rate, I pretty much gave up on any projects at all for a year or two. I had to fulfill a contract for a Sheriff Dan Rhodes novel, and I wasn't sure what I'd do after that. Everything else got shelved.

Eventually I decided to look for another agent, and I got a good one, but she doesn't handle YA material. I never sent her a copy of Shirley Holmes. It just gathered figurative dust (and some literal dust, too). Then, not long ago, I got it out and read over it and found I liked it as much as ever. I'd always wanted to write something along the lines of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books I'd loved as a kid, and this was it. But nobody was ever going to see it unless I did something about it. It occurred to me that the easiest thing to do would be to put it on Kindle. And I did.

So far I've gotten several e-mails about the book, mostly to let me know that the cover bites the moose. Obviously I'm no graphic designer, and my Photoshop skills are about the same as those of one of my cats. (The other cat is much better at it than I am, but she doesn't work cheap.) I'm looking into the possibility of a different cover. Maybe if I get one, the sales will climb, but Amanda Hocking isn't looking over her shoulder, believe me.

At any rate, the book is out there if anybody wants to read it, and if I become rich and famous as a result of this post, I'm going to cut Ed in for 10%.

New Mystery Website

From Publishers Weekly:

Macmillan has launched CriminalElement.com, an online community for fans of crime and mystery fiction, focused on celebrating the genre and offering a combination of new material and pre-release excerpts as well as fan and writer commentary and more.
Like its sister community sites, Tor.com, focused on science-fiction and fantasy, and HeroesandHeartbreakers.com, for romance, CriminalElement is a "publisher neutral" community, reaching beyond Macmillan authors to include crime and mystery authors and creators from all publishers. The site is beginning with original fiction and articles by such noted crime writers as Rosemary Harris, Luis Alberto Urrea, Joseph Finder and Steve Hamilton.

Liz Edelstein, senior manager and editor of CriminalElement and a published author herself, said the site was not simply to promote Macmillan authors. "We think of CriminalElement.com as a community for fans, by fans, and the focus is on editorial content rather than on marketing." Edelstein said the site will highlight the vast range of crime and mystery writing—from Noir and procedurals to mystery graphic novels—and reach out to fans of the genre to make the site a destination for creators and fans.

The site is looking for short story submissions and excerpts and any interested parties should contact Edelstein (submissions@criminalelement.com).