Ed Gorman's Blog, page 234

George Orwell's opinion of "No Orchards for Miss Blandish"

In a fine review of 40s and 50s British thrillers now appearing on DVD Dave Kehr discusses George Orwell's opinion of James Hadley Chase's "No Orchards for Miss Blandish" and it sure ain't pretty. Read the entire article in the NY Times;' movie section today. Go here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/mov...

No Orchids for Miss Blandish

James Hadley Chase's novel "No Orchids for Miss Blandish" was published in 1939, but as George Orwell wrote in a censorious ess...

And you thought The Producers was a comedy

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from the guardian uk.com

Why Bollywood's film about Hitler is profoundly misguided
Indian directors have as much right to make movies about Hitler as anyone else, but a forthcoming film about the Nazi dictator's 'love' for the country displays a shocking ignorance of history


A first-time Indian director, Rakesh Ranjan Kumar, has announced that he will make a movie about Adolf Hitler. Dear Friend Hitler stars Indian actors Anupam Kher and Neha Dhupia as Hitler and Eva Braun, and will focus on wha...

Ed Lacy coulda been a contender

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Ed here: Ed Lacy was an excellent writer. Money pressure forced him to write some books that weren't his best but when you put Room To Swing and The Men From The Boys and Harlem Underground and five or six others together you're looking at a significant career. was going to write about Ed Lacy (thank you in advance, Ed) but then I remembered that my buddy Ed Lynskey had already done a much better job than I would have anyway--so here from a fine long article that is really worth your time is...

Forgotten Books: The So-Blue Marble

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I'm not sure exactly when Freud became an influence on popular culture but certainly in the Thirties and Forties his beliefs could be found in crime fiction and crime movies. Hitchcock sanctified him in Spellbound and many lesser directors followed suit.

One of the most prominent of Freudian tropes was phantasmagoria, the sense that the protagonist is lost in a chaos that may or may not be real. A nightmare or is he really about to die?

Dorothy B. Hughes certainly plays with this trope in her ...

The Onion claims Publishers `Desperate" for Vampires

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Ed here: Only The Onion, the best humor site going, could reveal the startling truth about NYCs crazed search for new vampires.


THE ONION:

'Minotaurs The New Vampires' Says Publishing Executive Desperate To Find New Vampires
JUNE 14, 2010 | ISSUE 46•24


NEW YORK—In a desperate effort to find a trendy new fantasy subgenre to succeed the ebbing vampire craze, Razorbill Books executive Graham Childress decided this week to throw all his professional weight behind a new series of novels featuring mino...

R.I.P Al Williamson

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Al Williamson is being mourned today by comic book fans around the world. He was one of the first illustrators whose name and style I looked for because he was so cool. Same for Wally Wood. For years I kept the EC comics they worked on together. God alone knows what happened to them. At least Al lived a good and long life. Those ECs are still my all-time favorite comics. So long, Al.

A Nice Tribute to Steven Spielberg

James Wolcott talks about Steven Spielberg and then reprints a piece of Tom Shone's book How Hollywood Learned To Stop Worrying and Loved The Summer.

Tom Shone:

What was so different about Jaws? In one sense, nothing at all. "This is Universal's extraordinary motion picture version of Peter Benchley's bestselling novel...." intoned the trailers, with the sort of silver-platter flourish that now seems as quaint as three-colour disco lights: they thought Benchley was the attraction? The book? Ben...

In honor of Bill Crider's site-Filrtatious Cows

Balinese Teen Forced to Marry Flirtatious Cow
An 18-year-old Balinese man, Ngurah Alit, was caught in a rice paddy sexing up a cow doggie style after it had flirted with him. To cleanse his village he was forced into marrying the cow—but he passed out.

Yesterday was to be the big day for Alit, a young unemployed man from a coastal village on the Indonesian island of Bali. But, according to The Jakarta Globe, the cow had to pay for his sins and was drowned in the ocean as part of the ceremony. A...

Clu Gulager as "Vic"

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I always liked Clu Gulager. No matter how straightforward the role Gulager would take you to some mysterious place in his bemused contemplative mind. There was so much intelligence in his performances that you didn't mind him creating his own little story within the larger story.

Sarge Stallone, a young filmmaker of growing prestige, uses Gulagher to great effect in a short film called "Vic." Ever wonder what happens to actors--as opposed to stars--when time and taste requires them to retire...

More on blurbs. "A great stupendous article % Stars!"

FROM THE BOOKSELLER:

Publishers 'missing a trick' with blurbs
11.06.10 | Victoria Gallagher

Publishers are "missing a trick" by not perfecting blurbs on jackets despite the fact they are "commercially valuable", delegates were told at The Bookseller Cover Design Conference yesterday. The importance of blurb and other copy on book jackets was highlighted at the conference held yesterday (10th June) at The British Library Conference Center, and attended by 200 delegates.

James Spackman, sales and t...