Canavan’s Comments (group member since May 15, 2018)

Canavan’s comments from the Spells, Space & Screams: Collections & Anthologies in Fantasy, Science Fiction, & Horror group.

Randy wrote: Wagner? Hudson? In the early '60s both were more into posing than acting. Hudson got better over time.

Hudson reportedly campaigned pretty hard for the role. You can find a publicity still of him goofing around with Mary Badham, who, I guess, had already been cast as Scout. I always thought of Hudson as a capable, if not particularly magnetic screen presence. His best roles, I think, are the ones from his romantic comedies, e.g., Pillow Talk.

Randy said: Besides Tracy, the other name that came to mind was Henry Fonda. I'm surprised he wasn't mentioned.

Yeah, good point. For whatever reason I don’t think he was a ever a serious candidate, but I can totally see him as Atticus.

Randy said: Actually, I kind of like Crosby as an actor when he was out of his comfort zone, though I can't really see him as Atticus.

I agree. I particularly liked him in Going My Way, which netted him a best actor Oscar.

Randy said: One of the more perfect pairings of actor and role. I can think of one or two actors who could have played Atticus well, but no one who would have been better, and no one else I think who could have made the role so much his own.

During the casting phase, Harper Lee supposedly championed Spencer Tracy for the role of Atticus. I can kinda envision that, although Tracy might have been a bit long in the tooth for the part. In any case, he demurred, pointing out that Mockingbird’s filming schedule conflicted with another of his projects. Other names bandied about included Gary Cooper (who was ill at the time), Robert Wagner, Bing Crosby, and Rock Hudson. Jimmy Stewart was offered the part, but he thought the script was too controversial. It was the film’s producer, Alan Pakula, who reportedly suggested Peck for the role. After being offered the part, Peck read the novel overnight and called back the following morning to accept.

Randy said: If you've ever seen the movie, it follows the book closely.

It’s hard for me to disentangle my memories of the book from those I have of the movie. When I think of Atticus Finch, I see Gregory Peck.

Lena said: I have no intention of watching HBO betray and slay powerful women so I was cheered when I saw The Serpent Queen on Stars

I’m no doubt guilty of criticizing a series for being something it’s not designed to be, but the teaser gives the impression of an effort to distort, over-simplify, and semi-lionize a complicated and often ruthless historical figure. I’ll probably give this one a pass.

Some stuff I’ve watched recently.

A Connecticut Yankee, David Butler (1931) ✭✭✭
Summer Stock, Charles Walters (1950) ✭✭✭½
Heavy Metal, Gerald Potterton, John Bruno, John Halas, et al. (1981) ✭✭
Heavy Metal 2000, Michael Coldewey & Michel Lemire (2000) ✭½
How to Be Alone, Kate Trefry (2019) ✭✭✭½
The Day the Music Died, Mark Moormann (2022) ✭✭½
The Gray Man, Anthony Russo & Joe Russo (2022) ✭✭✭½
The Old Man, Season 1 (2022) ✭✭✭✭

Lena said: No, it’s because there was an offer last month for two months for 99¢.

A related theory is that the new release date is designed so that Andor doesn’t overlap with another Disney offering, She-Hulk, which premiers 17 August; i.e., subscribers could watch both of these show over roughly the same time period and cancel earlier.

Lena said: Andor looks amazing: Not surprising, as Rogue One was the only “new” Star Wars I liked.

I’ve actually found Disney’s more recent Star Wars-related series to be pretty decent, if uneven (i.e., Obi-Wan, The Book of Bobba Fett, etc.), but I admit that, based on the trailers, I’ve been looking forward to Andor. I’m a bit concerned about the degree to which the writing is going to be constrained — we already know after all how this story is going to end.

I was also a little disappointed to learn that they’ve pushed back the release date nearly a month to September 21. One source I was reading speculated that Disney might be doing so in order to avoid a premier date that clashed with the release of some other heavy hitters at the end of August, e.g., HBO's House of the Dragon and Amazon’s The Rings of Power.

“The Street That Time Forgot”, Deborah Chester

This is another mediocre entry. (view spoiler)[“Street” is a paranoid fantasy that in roughly equal measures cautions the reader against the insular effects of a sterile suburbia and an over-infatuation with electronics. There’s nothing wrong with the themes expressed, but the approach feels unsubtle and overused. (hide spoiler)]

✭✭

“A Chance of a Ghost”, Lucia St. Clair Robson

(view spoiler)[In this story by Lucia Robson an elderly spinster falls in love with the ghostly owner of a cane. It’s possible some readers might find this sort of thing charming, but speaking for myself this effort just fell flat. The writing and plot seem to target a middle-school audience and several of the scenes struck me as (unintentionally) funny. (hide spoiler)]

✭½

Some stuff I’ve watched recently.

Babes in Arms, Busby Berkeley (1939) ✭✭
Persuasion, Roger Michell (1995) ✭✭✭½
American Gangster, Ridley Scott (2007) ✭✭✭½
F9, Justin Lin (2021) ✭✭
Ms. Marvel, Season 1 (2022) ✭✭✭½
Persuasion, Carrie Cracknell (2022) ✭½
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Season 1 (2022) ✭✭✭½

“Vampin’ Down the Avenue”, Timothy Zahn

(view spoiler)[In Zahn’s contribution a rather shallow Hollywood actor seeks to elude the paparazzi who hound him. The method he employs, as is typical in these cautionary tales, has unforeseen and unfortunate side effects. The author provides the reader with a bit of a twist at the end, but by that point I had pretty much stopped caring. (hide spoiler)]

✭✭

It’s perhaps not all that important, but it finally clicked in my tiny brain that something rather odd may have happened during the making this anthology. My edition of this anthology has a variant cover that, in its listing of the authors, includes three well-known writers (Harlan Ellison, Peter S. Beagle, and Loren Estleman) that don’t actually have stories in the anthology. Clearly at some earlier point in the development of the book either submissions by these three were expected and were not forthcoming or their submissions were pulled after having been received.

“Torn Away”, Joe R. Lansdale

(view spoiler)[In “Torn Away” a man attempts to evade death (in this case represented by his sundered shadow). (hide spoiler)] Lansdale demonstrates here his talent for taking even the most ridiculous premise and fashioning from it a shivery tale. This story was deemed good enough be included in Paula Guran’s best-of annual for 2010.

✭✭✭✭

“Puowaina”, Alan Brennert

(view spoiler)[In this story, an elderly woman recounts how she first grappled with the gift of second sight as a child. Finona correctly notes that, while the plot beats are pretty familiar, the writing is quite good. (hide spoiler)]

✭✭✭✭½

Welcome, Madison!

“Truth or Consequences”, Carole Nelson Douglas

(view spoiler)[Douglas’ story is a re-telling of Somerset Maugham’s 1933 tale, “The Appointment in Samarra”, itself a re-telling of an Arabic fable. Quite honestly, my reaction to “Truth” is rather “meh”. The very brief Maugham piece is much pithier and far more impactful.

This may be a good time to bring up one of my gripes about all of these stories — the intros and outros. They are clearly meant to mimic Rod Serling’s narration in the classic Twilight Zone episodes, but they are unbearably clumsy (I suspect that all are written by the editor, Carol Serling), and the intro for the present story commits the unpardonable sin of spoiling the ending. (hide spoiler)]

✭✭✭

“Benchwarmer”, Mike Resnick & Lezli Robyn

Because I’m an overly sentimental softie, this story gets a rather grudging thumbs up. (view spoiler)[It’s not, however, a tale that breaks new ground. It owes a huge artistic debt to older stories like Gahan Wilson’s “…and then we’ll get him!” (1978) and films such as Pixar’s Toy Story franchise. (hide spoiler)]

✭✭✭½

“The Art of the Minature”, Earl Hamner Jr.

Hamner’s tale of vengeance, while competently written, is so brief and cartoonish I found it only marginally appealing.

✭✭½

“On the Road”, William F. Wu

Wu is one of the authors in Carol Serling’s anthology with a past connection to The Twilight Zone television series, albeit not to the original 1959-64 run. One of Wu’s stories, “Wong’s Lost and Found Emporium” (1983), was adapted as a Season 1 episode of the first Twilight Zone reboot (1985-89). (As an aside, I have always thought this version of the show highly underrated — especially the first season.)

(view spoiler)[“On the Road” shares a lot of the same ideas that are found in “Wong’s Lost and Found Emporium”. Both focus on the possibility of reclaiming lost hopes and dreams. I liked “On the Road” quite a bit. I liked, for example, the way in which Wu, during the flashback moments, allowed his protagonists to come across as inexperienced and perhaps naïve, but yet earnest and honest about their beliefs. Nice use of songs and geometry as motifs. (hide spoiler)]

✭✭✭✭½

“A Haunted House of Her Own”, Kelley Armstrong

(view spoiler)[Armstrong’s story is sort of a mashup of The Amityville Horror and Gaslight. Competently written, but I’m not sure I see it as a Twilght Zone story. (hide spoiler)]

✭✭✭½