Ed Gorman's Blog, page 67

Mary Astor in ACT OF VIOLENCE.

Mary Astor in ACT OF VIOLENCE.


I usually eat lunch around twelve thirty, catch the news and then go back upstairs to my office to write again.

Yesterday I happened to be channel surfing when I saw the billboard for a Turner movie called ACT OF VIOLENCE. I’d never seen it but as soon as I saw Robert Ryan (my favorite noir actor) l knew I’d watch the whole thing.

I’m going to be lazy and let a reviewer from the Internet Movie Database do the heavy lifting for me but I do want to remark on Mary Astor’s performance. Astor is famous for two things, being in THE MALTESE FALCON with Bogart and having her diaries admitted as evidence in a divorce case. She certainly got around.

ACT OF VIOLENCE is hijacked in the middle of act two. Previously the picture belonged to Van Heflin and Ryan. But Astor, who figures prominently in the action far into act three, just walks off with the picture. TCM ran several movies of hers a while back and she was usually a giddy spoiled heiress or somesuch in a glitzy comedies. She was always approriately irritating (the movies encourage us to hate giddy spoiled heiresses).

But in VIOLENCE we see a side of Astor that is, to me at least, astonishing. As a middle-aged hooker, she manages to be a decent person and a con job at the same time. Her faded looks are spellbinding. She’s got those great facial bones and the still-slender body but she plays against them with a weariness that makes her the most interesting character in the movie. I couldn’t stop looking at her. She’s every bar floozie you ever met and yet she transcends the stereotype by having a kind of hardboiled street intelligence. And at least a modicum of honesty. And, to my taste anyway, she’s sexy as hell.

This is one of those movies you enjoy because you soon realize that you have no idea where it’s going. It’s the standard three-act structure but the writers and director Fred Zinnemann aren’t afraid to introduce new plot elements right up to mid-way in the third act. That rarely works but it sure works here.

The only melancholy part for me was knowing how bitter Ryan was about playing psychos. He needed the work but considered it his jinx. He was among the finest film actors of his time but never really got his due. It’s his savaged face (he was dying of cancer at the time) that haunts the final moments of THE WILD BUNCH. Grim Sam Peckinpah knew what he was doing.
POSTED BY ED GORMAN AT 2:46 PM 1 COMME

headlines that shouldn't be true but are (a fe from last week)

English professor suspended 9 months for unfriendly body language,
sighing, and using irony

Caught on video: Philly cop threatens to ‘beat the sh*t’ out of teen
for looking him in the ‘f*cking eye’

St. Louis mayor dismisses open carry rally as 'a scene out of a bad
Western'

Florida man shoots pregnant wife in back of the head, claims it was
self-defense

Gay-hating Westboro Baptist Church files legal brief to save Kansas
from God’s wrath

Pat Robertson: Oil investments are biblical because they don't send
'condoms through pipelines'

GOP candidate repeatedly refuses to explain her vote for Arizona
‘birther bill’

Defendant in KC prayer-group murder says his confession was tainted by
‘exorcism’

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post

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State conference

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is running for mayor

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The science of flirting

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about lynching

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conspiracy theories

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drunken brawl

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arrested on child porn charges

Florida’s attorney general moves to stop lesbian couple from divorcing

Vandals destroy Okla. 10 Commandments monument by ramming it with a car

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himself in the leg

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Some people think CrossFit is nutty -- and that makes CrossFit really
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Rep. Steve King: ‘I don’t expect to meet’ any gays in heaven

Atheists plan to hand out ‘X-Rated’ Bible pamphlet at schools targeted
by Satanists

Misogynist group tries to divert anti-domestic violence donations to
its own hateful cause

Colorado reporter fact-checks Megyn Kelly: No, you can’t print ballots
from home

'Dead' hearts successfully transplanted in breakthrough by Australian
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NYC cops attacked by hatchet-wielding man, stoking terrorism fears

Ancient human bone reveals when we bred with Neanderthals

Since we're on the subject of screwball comedy...Trouble In Paradise

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2008
Kay FrancisDelightful & Sophisticated!, 1 August 2002
10/10
Author: sabrina1396 from Harlem, NY (USA)

First of all, let me say that this film is as close to perfection as one can get---look at the "throw away gags", the play with words, the wardrobe (Miriam Hopkins stole the show; especially in the Opera scene when she comes out of the "Parlour des femmes" & asks her "Sugar Daddy" for some "francs" to give to the ladies room attendant---that black dress was haute couture at its best!), the gait of the actors, the snappy dialogue. They all look so-o sophisticated & worldly.

SHEER PERFECTION!

It took me 5 years to get this film & it was worth every minute! This is MY FAVORITE film!


Ed here: Turner Classic ran several Kay Francis pictures yesterday. The only one I caught was Trouble in Paradise and I'm glad I did. It is flat out a masterpiece. Ernst Lubitch who directed this and several classics including Ninotchka said that this was his favorite film.

The picture wasn't much seen once the Breen office held sway in Hwood. Several of the people in it are merry adulterers and two of the three principals are thieves.

One surprise, for me if nobody else, was learning that Herbert Marshall wasn't a corpse after all. I'd never seen a performance of his that didn't need to be re-animated. Here he's light, deft, engaging. I think Sabrina, author of the review above is right that Miriam Hopkins probably steals the show. Damn was she cute and damn she wore clothes well and (as with Elaine in Seinfeld) her steely nerves dominate the men in the film. And did I mention she was cute? There are a couple of scenes where she dons these large eyeglasses and you get fixated on her face. You want to freeze frame it. And with that mop of blonde hair she's very sexy.

But Kay Francis fascinated me. There is something in her languid self-conscious style that gently mocks the melodrama of the love scenes and gives the humorous scenes a subtle sexuality. She was very much of the theater but used those particular skills to provide a center for all the festivities. Even when she's off camera her presence is felt. I wouldn't say that she was beautiful exactly but she was so elegant beauty became beside the point. You wait for her to come back.

As for the story, Marshall and Miriam Hopkins are thieves trying to defraud Kay Franics. I'm not kidding when I say the plot has as many twists as a comic caper by Don Westlake. The pacing is extraordinary. Lubitch gives us a long somewhat serious scene and then tops it with a jab of screwball comedy. I'd bet that Billy Wilder considered this one of his essential films. Any number of Wilder films can be felt in the picture.
POSTED BY ED GORMAN AT 

From our great friend Lev Levinson-one of my favorites movies too

Ed here: I've written many times about screwball comedies being my favorite genre of film (hardboiled/noir being a close second). This one is in the top five. A masterpiece. You will be in awe of Barrymore and Lomard. I promise.


From Lev-


“The sorrows of life are the joys of art.”  What a great line.  It was spoken by the great John Barrymore in a movie I just finished watching on DVD, Twentieth Century, in which he stars opposite the great Carole Lombard.

This line and this movie have revived my faith in art.  Because I’ve been a little depressed lately, if the truth be told.  My so-called literary career, 83 published novels under 22 pseudonyms, has been a disaster.  Here I am living in genteel poverty and squalor in HUD housing in a little town that no one ever heard of, and I never heard of either until I found it on a map one gloomy day in my so-called life.
This movie just woke me up.  One could say it was the call of destiny.  My flat screen TV, given me by a friend, is still warm.  I’m still in the thrall of this movie.  Because it’s more than a movie.  It’s a true work of art whose subject is art, and how people can become obsessed by it, and devote their lives to it, despite setbacks, scorn, neglect, and countless humiliations which all artists experience at some point in their careers, even if they become very successful later on.  And some artists endure these experiences throughout most of their entire artistic careers, not mentioning any names.
But it’s not one of those preachy movies full of the nobility of suffering, yearning for meaning, and tears in the night, although there’s plenty of that.  Twentieth Century primarily is a comedy about a theatrical couple who love and hate each other, who need and have contempt for each other, like both my marriages and several of my so-called love affairs.
I laughed out loud many times in this movie because it is genuinely funny, unlike some comedies that are supposed to be funny but aren’t, such as Woody Allen qvetching on camera, or Adam Sandler mouthing idiotic lines, or Jerry Seinfeld impersonating a stand-up comic, or people throwing pies at each other, or night club comics insulting people, which is considered quite amusing nowadays.
The art of comedy has sunk way down low compared to this movie.  The quips and wit came at me like machine gun fire, one after another.  I haven’t laughed so hard at years.  If art can accomplish this miracle, then surely a life in art is worth the effort.
John Barrymore was the great tragedian of his day, but it appears his true metier was comedy.  What a brilliant actor.  There’s never been anyone like him before or since.  His gestures and facial expressions seem new and original, even when he’s purposely hamming it up.  The raising of a Barrymore eyebrow is more eloquent than ten pages of words from that hack Len Levinson.
Carole Lombard was a great Hollywood beauty, but it appears her true metier also was comedy.  One might be tempted to think there’s nothing funny about a beautiful woman, because beauty and desire seem so serious, but Carole was riotously outrageously scintillatingly funny.  It seemed impossible for a great beauty to carry on in this disgraceful manner, but she brought it off marvelously, and of course I’ve fallen madly and hopelessly in love with her although she died long ago.
Barrymore and Lombard get into countless vicious arguments, insulting each other most cruelly, and it’s all hilarious.  Then even engage in domestic violence!  Both would both be put in prison nowadays for some of their shenanigans.  But love can be very complicated, as those of us who’ve been in love know all too well.
So art is worth the effort because it’s entertaining and inspiring and teaches us about life far better than most psychology books and most sermons.  And if an artist is a failed artist, well, it might be better to aim high and fail, than not aim high at all.
At least that’s what I keep telling myself whenever I think of taking the gaspipe, although there’s no gas in this apartment, or jumping out the window, although I’m only on the third floor and only would break a leg or arm.
Anyway, I highly recommend this movie.  If you’ve never seen it, you’re in for a revelation.  You’ll realize how commonplace and pedestrian most movies actually are in comparison.

Gravetapping by Ben Boulden: "Dying in the Post-War World" by Max Allan Collins

Gravetapping by Ben Boulden



“Dying in the Post-War World” is set in Chicago. July, 1947. Heller’s wife, Peg, is pregnant, and while business at his A-1 Detective Agency is slow—no one is getting divorced in the post war euphoria—life isn’t bad. That is until Bob Keenan, a high level administrator at the Office of Price Administration (OPA), calls with an emergency, and Peg tells Nate she wants a divorce. In that order, and just that quickly.
The emergency. Bob Keenan’s six year old daughter JoAnn was kidnapped from her room. The window open. A broken down ladder outside, and a note on the floor of the girl’s room:
“Get $20,000 Ready & Waite for Word. Do Not Notify the FBI or Police. Bills in 5’s and 10’s. Burn this for her safety!”
“Dying in the Post-War World” is an intriguing retelling of Chicago’s Lipstick Killer. The names have changed—William Heirens (the real world convicted Lipstick Killer) is now Jerome Lapps, and Suzanne Degnan (the kidnapped girl) is now JoAnn Keegan. Mr Collins also plays with the timeline, and adds an appealing mob connection in form of one Sam Flood (aka Sam Giancana). The details are interesting, but the magic is in the telling. The smooth integration of fact and fiction. The old world Chicago. A Chicago where it was both possible to buy, and people actually wanted, a brand new Plymouth. The humor—“crooked even by Chicago standards.”
The story is written in first person. It is something of a nostalgic memoir. It is hardboiled, lean, and tough as the Windy City. It also has a bunch of post war angst. The sort of angst we all feel; a little hope and a lot of fear for the future. Not necessarily our own future, but the future we leave our children—
“For that one night, settled into a hard hospital chair, in the glow of my brand-new little family, I allowed myself to believe that that hope was not a vain one. That anything was possible in this glorious post-war world.”
But the most powerful effect of the story? Doubt. Doubt about the killer. The future, and ourselves. And even a touch of shame; at what we do, how we do it, and worse, how we rationalize it.

Forgotten Books: Fright by Cornell Woolrich

FrightCornell Woolrich's first novel emulated the novels of his literary hero, F. Scott Fitzgerald. Judging from the first act of the new Woolrich novel Fright from Hardcase Crime, the Fitzgerald influence lasted well into Woolrich's later career as a suspense writer.

The young, handsome, successful Prescott Marshall could be any of Fitzgerald's early protagonists. New York, Wall Street, a striver eager to marry a beauiful young socialite and acquire the sheen only she can give him...even the prose early on here reminds us of Fitzgerald's "Winter Dreams" and "The Rich Boy." Strivers dashed by fate.

Bu since Woolrich was by this time writing for the pulps and not Smart Set or Scribners Magazine, young Prescott Marshall's fate is not simply to lose face or be banished from some Edenic yacht cruise...but to face execution at the hands of the State for killing a young woman he slept with once and who turned into a blackmailer. This is in the Teens of the last century, by the way; a historical novel if you will.

From here on we leave the verities of Fitzgerald behind and step into the noose provided by another excellent writer and strong influence on Woolrich...Guy de Maupassant. In the Frenchman's world it's not enough to merely die, you must die in a tortured inch-by-inch way that makes the final darkness almost something to be desired. And dying for some ironic turn of events is best of all.

I read this in a single sitting. It's one those melodramas that carry you along on sheer narrative brute force. I woudn't say it's major Woolrich but I woud say that it's awfully good Woolrich with all the master's cruel tricks at work and a particularly claustrophobic sense of doom. Readers will appreciate its dark twists. Collectors will want to buy a few extra copies.
POSTED BY ED GORMAN AT 2:27 PM NO COMMENTS: LINKS TO THIS POST 

Headlines that shouldn't be true but are

‘F*ck your ginseng!’  San Francisco tour guide’s racist Chinatown rant

School board chief won’t resign over racist videos: ‘Nothing illegal
about having bad taste’

Fox host tells supermodel to shut up about gun control: You have a
‘lovely bottom… stick to that’

Gamergate’s anti-woman agenda made clear: Actor Felicia Day threatened
for speaking up

Top VA GOP adviser unhinged on Facebook: Gay sex leaves men in diapers,
‘pooping their pants’

Idaho voters favor Republican plagiarist who lied about education and
marital history

Pat Robertson finds ‘atheist’ who says God cancelled her abortion
appointments

'Highly troubling': Justice Dept. slams local officials over Michael
Brown autopsy leak

California cop stole DUI suspect’s racy photos from her cell phone:
prosecutors

Meth witch? Arrested Oklahoma ‘Wiccan’ claims religious right to use
drugs

North Carolina judge resigns in protest after Supreme Court shoots down
same-sex marriage ban


What happens if the GOP takes control of the Senate?

Why don’t Millennials vote? Cartoonist Matt Bors has the answer

Millennials have the power to shape the Senate — if they would only vote

Relax, Democrats: We figured out how to get Millennials to vote

Election Night, hour by hour: A handy guide to Democratic disaster (or
miracle comeback!)


This scientist thinks cancer can be prevented— and even cured — through
diet

Why Oregon is about to be the poster child for how to legalize and
regulate marijuana

Bristol Palin claims family's drunken brawl never happened, even after
audio proof released

Cornel West shoots down Sean Hannity: Republicans play the ‘race card,’
too

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GOPer Don Young doubles down: Suicide is an ‘illness’ lazy people get
from government handouts

Colorado man admits to killing Montana teacher in cocaine frenzy

Washington soldier accused of gunning down wife because another man
bought her liquor

Border militia’s ‘commanding officer’ turns out to be a felon, arrested
on gun charge

From the great Ken Levine Movies You're Not Supposed To Hate

What movies do you hate that everyone else loves?
Doesn't it make you crazy when there’s a movie out that’s real popular and all your friends love it but you don’t? It’s like you're totally out of step with pop culture – and is there a worse fate than that? I’ve listed some movies that were boxoffice dandies and zeitgeist zeniths but just didn’t do it for me. You’re going to look at this list and be outraged over a couple. But that’s the whole idea. I KNOW you and most everyone in the world likes these movie but for whatever reason I hate 'em.   Sorry.  I do.   I’ve also left out films from genres I just don’t care for, so it’s unfair to dump on SAW III. And I won’t go to see a Katherine Heigl or Nancy Meyer romcom. Just loathe ‘em.  I know what I’m going to get. And I’m never not being disappointed in being disappointed.

So this is my partial list. I’d be curious. What’s yours? And I’ll make you a deal. If you don’t rip me for not liking LINCOLN I won’t attack you for not liking AMERICAN BEAUTY (although, seriously, what’s wrong with you?).

ENGLISH PATIENT
Last Batman movie
Last Superman movie
CRASH
MATCH POINT
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
NEIGHBORS
LORD OF THE RINGS
LINCOLN
THE NATURAL
NEBRASKA
THE DESCENDENTS
MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING
LES MISERABLES
YOU’VE GOT MAIL
MOULIN ROUGE
LUCY
IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE


By Ken Levine at 6:00 AM  87 comments

From Sandra Balzo Jerry Healy and dogs

By Sandra Balzo
[image error]    As many of you know, Jeremiah Healy died on August 14, 2014, at the age of 66 after a long battle with depression.
Jerry and I are both mystery writers and our fellow authors, Brendan DuBois, Andi Shechter, SJ Rozan and her sister Deborah have found a way of commemorating Jerry’s work and life that I think he would have absolutely loved.
As Brendan says in his announcement: “Besides his work as an attorney and an author, Jerry was a U.S. Army vet, and was also a lover of dogs. We have therefore reached out to a service dog organization in Maryland that trains dogs to assist wounded veterans, and they will be thrilled to receive donations in Jerry's name.”
This all started a few weeks back when Brendan asked me the deceptively simple question, “What cause would Jerry want?”  My first thoughts were things that were on my mind – causes like depression, suicide prevention or literacy. All worthy, but not . . . very Jerry.
So I asked myself Brendan’s question again: “What would  Jerry  want?” If you knew Jeremiah Healy for any length of time, you might have heard him talk about the military and refer to somebody as “the real thing.” “The Real Things” are men and women who served our country heroically and selflessly, often at the expense of life, limb or mental health. In fact, the only time I saw Jerry cry was as he recounted an air mission in which the pilots took off knowing that, once the mission was achieved, they didn’t have the fuel to return.
As for the canine component, I can’t tell you how many strolls were doubled in duration because Jerry had to stop every passing dog-walker with the question “Is he (or she) friendly?” and give ‘em a good scratch. Even depressed, it was the one thing that seemed to help him, so I can only imagine what it does for wounded vets.
So Hero Dogs, it is! Below is the scoop (no pun intended, though I kind of like it) from Brendan and company. We’d appreciate your sharing the word--Jerry always believed in paying it forward.
With thanks for the happiness you gave Jerry,Sandy Balzo [image error]  By Brendan DuBois:I'm so very pleased to announce that through the efforts, suggestions and recommendations of Sandra Balzo,  Andi Malala Shechter, SJ Rozan and her terrific sister, Deborah B. Rosan, that a means of commemorating Jeremiah Healy's works and life has been established. Besides his work as an attorney and an author, Jeremiah Healy was a U.S. Army vet, and was also a lover of dogs. We have therefore reached out to a service dog organization in Maryland that trains dogs to assist wounded veterans, and they will be thrilled to receive donations in Jerry's name.The group is called Hero Dogs, and is based in Maryland. Their website is listed below. They are an IRS approved 501(c)(3) organization and operate entirely on donations. You can donate via their website, or by sending a check to Hero Dogs, P.O. 64, Brookeville, MD 20833-0064. But  please  ensure either by writing on the memo section of your check, or using the form on their website, that you're making this donation in Jerry's name. That way, Hero Dogs can track how many donations come in, so that they can be used in some way to keep Jerry's memory alive in years to come. Please donate what you can, and please share this link. Thanks to all of you who were friends or fans of Jerry's. http://www.hero-dogs.org/

Libby Fischer Hellman: Backlist Spotlight: Nice Girl Does Noir

Backlist Spotlight: Nice Girl Does Noir
Dear Ed,
"Short stories are the poetry of prose. They are precise, cut to the bone, every word a necessity. Not many authors develop that control. Libby Fischer Hellmann has the hand of a master. Take it from a guy who knows her well: Libby is a nice girl. But she writes noir with a savvy edge honed on the hard, dark knowledge of the evil possible in us all." - William Kent KruegerWhile Kent's words are meant to be flattering, I do have to confess something: I love writing short stories. I often say that a novel is like a marriage, but a short story is an affair: passionate, all-consuming, wonderful, and brief. So I've written lots of short stories, and continue to. I've collected fifteen of them in Nice Girl Does Noir. Volume I includes five Ellie Foreman and Georgia Davis stories; Volume II has ten stand-alone stories that span different territories, characters, and times. You'll find them all here.And if you'd like to know why I think writing short stories are critically important for a writer's career, take a look at this article.Reviews"I don't usually like short stories, but these are terrific! I roared through them. Hellmann had a good mix of Chicago historicals and contemporaries. My highest recommendation here."- Molly Weston, Meritorious Mysteries"When Hellmann explores the less sunlit areas of Chicago, her canvas becomes not only more universal but has greater depth and emotional value. Aspiring short-story writers would do well to pay attention."- Naomi Johnson, The Drowning Machine
Best



LibbyPlease add my email address to your safe sender list so my emails don't get trapped in the netherworld of your spam box.




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