Paperback Confidential from the great Stark House

Summer Reading Sale!

How's that for an attention grabber? Not only did we complete the work on Brian Ritt's fabulous new Paperback Confidential: Crime Writers of the Paperback Era we moved up the release date in order to debut the book at the Pulpfest 2013 in Columbus on July 25th through 28th.

344 pages of classic crime reference, here you can read about groundbreaking writers of all stripes, from Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler to a one-woman fiction factory like Peggy Gaddis, pulp crossovers like Kendell Foster Crossen (creator of the Green Lama and the alter-ego of hardboiled crime writer M. E. Chaber), and legends still working today (Lawrence Block, Elmore Leonard).

PRE-ORDER FOR THE SAME TERMS OUR CRIME CLUB MEMBERS ENJOY FROM NOW UNTIL THE BOOK'S RELEASE IN JULY!

Simply reply to this newsletter with your order and we'll ship you Paperback Confidential as soon as it's in from the printer and cover the freight for FREE. Crime Club members need do nothing, they'll get the book shipped as per usual. Bill Crider calls the book an essential reference for anyone  interested in the writers who make reading the old paperbacks so much fun." Gary Lovisi says it's "a must for any fan or collector of crime fiction," and James Reasoner says not only is PC "an essential reference" but "highly entertaining reading in its own right."

By the way, books shipped from Stark House will now come in cardboard wrappers to ensure your books will arrive in the best possible condition. So that's a good thing.

One of my favorites noirs My Name is Julia Ross

Ed here: THis is the director  Joseph H. Lewis at one of his peaks. For the entire piece go here:
http://cinemastyles.blogspot.com/2013/01/my-name-is-julia-ross-different-approach.html


My Name is Julia Ross is a great noir from Columbia Pictures, the studio whose noirs always took a backseat to Warner Brothers', not because Columbia didn't do a good job, merely because Warner Brothers did such an exemplary job.  That said, at 64 minutes, there's not much to screw up and a lot of chances to get things right while making the screenplay taut and focused.  And they do, except...

Actually, there is no except, just an observation.

WARNING: MAJOR PLOT SPOILERS FOR REMAINDER OF POST
.
My Name is Julia Ross was made just one year after Gaslight found its greatest success from all its versions with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer playing the roles of the tormented/insane wife and the suffering husband beautifully.  And I can't help but think they changed their approach so as not to seem like a ripoff of the 1944 movie, not in plot but in tone.

In Julia Ross, the titular character, played by Nina Foch, interviews for a job as a live-in house manager/secretary for an old widow and her son, Mrs. Hughes and Ralph Hughes, played by Dame May Whitty and George Macready, respectively.  She is hired when they discover she has no family and no friends in the area that might miss her.  She arrives at their home that night, settles in and goes up to bed.  When she awakens, she's in another bed, in a mansion by the ocean and everyone calls her Marion Hughes.  They tell her she is Ralph's wife and everything she thought she knew, about the secretary job, her prior life and even name, Julia Ross, are the manifestations of a crazy mind.  She is here to recover and, hopefully, get her sanity back.

Sounds like an incredible twist, right?  What's real and what isn't?  Is she really Marion Hughes or Julia Ross?  Was her life before really just a hallucination?  Is it all a plot to drive her crazy?  Why?

Kill Now, Pay Later

SEPTEMBER 02, 2007

In this age of psycho self-promotion (which I'm guilty of myself) and big buck book promotion, it's no longer enough to be a good solid writer. I remember Anthony Boucher calling John D. MacDonald "One of the first-rate craftsmen of crime." And that was a valid assement. JDM wasn't an innovator, a poet, a master psychologist. He was a damned good storyteller who was, in his fiction, true to his time. You can learn a lot about post-war America by reading his early Gold Medals. Those are just a few of the reasons his best work bears rereading today.

I say this because Kill Now, Pay Later by Robert Terrall, the new one from Hard Case Crime, demonstrates how admirable and readable a really fine craftsman can be. Terrall worked under a variety of names and worked in a variety of forms. As John Gonzales he wrote a very good 1951 Woolrichian Gold Medal called Death for Mr. Big. As Brett Halliday he wrote a number of Mike Shaynes that not even Halliday could have pulled off. And as Robert Kyle he wrote three excellent serious crime novels about governmental and police corruption. He even, believe it or not, wrote some good books under his own name.

In Kill Now, Pay Later private investigator Ben Gates is hired to watch over the very pricey wedding gifts bestowed on the mucky-muck couple getting hitched in a mansion. But somebody doctors Gates' coffee and he passes out. A valuable diamond bracelet is stolen. Right off I liked the set-up because it was unusual. And that's what makes this book such a fine read. Just about everything in it is unusual. Terrall is like another Hard Case Crime author, David Dodge. You're in free fall with these guys. You don't know what the hell they're up and that's what makes reading them such a pleasure. Nary a single private eye cliche in the entire book.

Terrall was especially good with dialogue. His sex scenes are really sexy and they're good clean fun as well. His take on a recently graduated parochial school vamp is funny, sexy and, given her gold-digging ways, a little scarey. 

No it's not a masterpiece; no it contains no big thoughts; no it doesn't enrich humankind. It's just what it should be, a terrific read.

Ed here: I read all these as they first appeared in paperback. They're a lot of fun and foreshadow his gifts as a great op novelist.

---

May 30, 2013

Early Crichton Novels to Be Released as e-Books

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — Ten early novels that Michael Crichton wrote under pen names while he was in medical school are coming out as e-books.

Open Road Integrated Media announced Thursday that it was releasing the first e-editions of "A Case of Need," ''Odds On" and other suspense thrillers.

Crichton wrote the books while studying at Harvard Medical School in the 1960s under pen names including John Lange, Jeffery Hudson and Michael Douglas.

Open Road CEO Jane Friedman published many of Crichton's books while she was an executive at Alfred A. Knopf and HarperCollins.

Crichton's many best-sellers have included "Rising Sun," ''Jurassic Park" and "Disclosure." He died in 2008 at age 66.

Other novels being released as e-books by Open Road include "Easy Go" and "Zero Cool."

MORE IN ARTS (1 OF 26 ARTICLES)

Critic’s Notebook: On Broadway, More Chuckles Than Guffaws

Read More »

The 45th Aninversary of "Madigan" by Fred Blosser

MADIGAN: THE 45TH ANNIVERSARY
by Fred Blosser


If the late Don Siegel enjoyed the fame of Spielberg, Tarantino, Cameron, or Scorsese, someone would have scheduled a 45th Anniversary Edition of MADIGAN this year on Blu-Ray, with alt-track interviews and other special features.  Well -- interviews might have been a problem.  The list of those from the film who are still living is exceedingly short.  Siegel died more than 20 years ago, stars Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, and Inger Stevens are also deceased, so are most of the principal supporting players, and so are screenwriters Abraham Polonsky and Howard Rodman, for that matter.  Four decades is a long time.


When Siegel’s 1968 police drama debuted on Laser Disc in 1996, I wrote a review for MYSTERY SCENE to celebrate Dan Madigan’s return in a crisp, properly letterboxed home-video format.  If nobody else this year is going to mark MADIGAN’s anniversary, I’ll beg Ed’s indulgence to do so here, and revisit my 1996 review.


As I said then:


“One of Siegel’s best movies, MADIGAN foreshadows some of the same themes and characterizations that the director would revisit three years later in DIRTY HARRY.  New York Police Department Detective Dan Madigan (Richard Widmark) and his partner Rocco Bonaro (Harry Guardino) roust lowlife Barney Benesch (Steve Ihnat) for routine questioning in a Mob murder.  When they surprise him in bed with his girlfriend Rosita, the detectives don’t know that Benesch has cause for alarm -- he was the triggerman in the killing.  The sight of the naked Rosita distracts Madigan and Bonaro long enough for Benesch to get the drop on them, steal their guns, and escape.


“Through the rest of the movie, Madigan and Bonaro chase Benesch while Police Commissioner Anthony Russell (Henry Fonda) fumes over Madigan’s maverick style.  Russell has other troubles as well.  A politically powerful black minister (Raymond St. Jacques) is pressuring the commissioner to bring charges against cops for alleged brutality against the minister’s son.


“Chief Inspector Charlie Kane (James Whitmore) assures Russell that the allegations are groundless, but Russell has begun to mistrust his best friend . . . he’s discovered that Kane is on the take, and he’s torn between friendship and his uncompromising moral ideals in dealing with the situation. . . .


“When police sharpshooters trap Benesch in a tenement, Madigan impatiently rejects a bulletproof vest in his eagerness to charge in and redeem himself.  The resulting shootout in close quarters is an explosive masterpiece of direction and editing, a textbook example of cinematic style. . . .


“It’s a riveting scene, and it’s a joy to see it restored through letterboxing to its original Techniscope dimensions after years of being mutilated in the panned-and-scanned videocassette version of MADIGAN. . . . It’s also a revelation to see how Siegel used his widescreen compositions to draw subtle comparisons and contrasts between his two central characters, Madigan and Russell.


“Throughout the movie, each man is defined by his relationship with his closest friend.  By putting Madigan and Bonaro within the same frame in scene after scene, Siegel quietly emphasizes their teamwork and mutual loyalty.  When Russell and Kane share the frame in their scenes, it highlights the growing tension between the two as Kane’s human frailty gnaws at Russell’s rigid code of ethics.  This technique is vital for building visually to Russell’s ultimate decision on Kane’s fate, but it becomes lost in pan-and-scan editing, which isolates one character at a time in awkward close-up. . . .


“Widmark and Fonda are well matched as two men who have more in common, at a certain level, than either recognizes.  These days, when any Generation X icon can be cast as a tough cop . . . it’s nice to see actors who could bring some inherent believability to their roles.”


As I noted in 1996, the historical significance of MADIGAN can hardly be overstated. Widmark's character was one of two movie cops from 1968, the other being Steve McQueen’s Frank Bullitt, who ushered in the era of the maverick police detective, with Gene Hackman’s Popeye Doyle and Clint Eastwood’s Harry Callahan soon to follow, and all the hot-headed cops played by Bronson, Gibson, Stallone, Seagal, and dozens of other action stars not far behind.  Laser discs are obsolete, but fortunately, so are the crappy pan-and-scan prints that I complained about in 1996.  Absent an Anniversary Edition, a widescreen DVD edition of MADIGAN is readily available, and a similarly decent letterboxed print occasionally runs on Turner Classic Movie.


#     #     #     #

Matt Helm - The Removers

My three favorite espionage writers are Graham Greene and Eric Ambler
and Donald Hamilton. The work of Greene and Ambler is always in print
but not until the fine Titan Books began reissuing Hamilton was his Matt
Helm series readily available.

In many respects Hamilton is not only a superior spy writer he's also a
superior hardboiled writer. So much hard stuff is fake and obvious.
There's a scene in the latest reissue, THE REMOVERS, where Helm sees
his two young sons after the absence of a year--and on the ranch of the
man Helms wife married after their divorce. Most writers, even the hard
boiled ones, would imbue the moment with at least some warmth.

Not Hamilton. He's happy to see them but he's most happy to learn that
they have learned to ride horses and are becoming men even though
they're eight and ten. Anthony Boucher was correct when he said to
understand Hamilton you have to go back to Dashiell Hammett, that
same emotional distance that only heightens the horrors of the goings
on.

And what goings on in THE REMOVERS. As usual few of the characters are
who they claim to be. Not the former mob soldier; not the hit man; not
the dope dealer and killer and not even the dog of the beautiful young
redhead--he seems tame but later on we learn better.

Helm does double duty here. He responds to his ex-wife's plea to
come to the ranch because she believes her husband is in trouble--and
therefore his children being in possible danger--but not until after several violent
events does he realize that Russia may well be involved here.

Hamilton was not only a master storyteller he created a literary voice
like no other. The man was as good with words as Helm was with spies.

The ‘Writers Don’t Write to Make Money’ Myth

Ed  here: Bill Peschel writes one of the savviest and most enjoyable blogs around. Here's an excerpt from a recent column he did on Indy writing and making money. http://planetpeschel.com/wp/

The ‘Writers Don’t Write to Make Money’ Myth

Then there’s this quote from Wensink: “If you’re just doing it to make money, then you’re not going to make money, whether you’re self-publishing or not. . . .”

Again, let me call in an expert: John Scalzi.

Every once in a while someone in the comments here says, usually as an aside to something else, that no one becomes a writer to get rich. So as a point of clarification, and to give everyone else who is slightly exasperated by this sort of comment something to point at:

Hey, I became a writer to get rich. I’ve always been in the writing business not just to write, and not just to make money, but also to make a lot of money — basically, to get rich at it. Why? Because speaking from experience, being poor sucks, and in the world we live in, things are a whole lot easier if you have a lot of money.

How rich? How about, in 2008, $164,000.

If you can’t guess what this book is about, you may have been living under a rock for four decades.

Then there’s “Redshirts,”  his 2012 Star Trek parody novel (published from Tor) for which he gave the per unit sales from the hardback, ebook and audiobook sales. Now, he didn’t give us the dollars and cents, but he didn’t have to. A quick back-of-the-envelope calculation, based on commonly accepted royalty rates found online, and I came to the conclusion he made nearly $150,000.

From that one book.

Before it even went into a trade paperback edition.

Now, he worked hard for the money. I knew him when he was reviewing movies for the Fresno Bee back in the late ‘90s, and even then, he infused his reviews with tons of personality and humor. I reviewed his first book, “Old Man’s War,” and anyone could see that he was a boy who could Go Places. He earned his riches, damn him.

The point, however, is that it is possible to make money from writing. It’s not easy. It’s not guaranteed. It takes practice, drive, some ability to market and dumb luck. But it can be done.

Just ignore to the sneers.

The Prowler

Ed here: This is an excerpt from a TCM piece on this film, for me one of the the best noirs ever written and filmed.


The Prowler stars Van Heflin as an unhappy policeman, Webb Garwood, and Evelyn Keyes as a bored housewife, Susan Gilvray, who spends her nights alone as her husband hosts a radio show. Susan reports a prowler one night; Webb and his partner (John Maxwell) investigate. They find nothing, but there's something "off" about Webb right off the bat. He snoops around Susan's house more than he needs to, picking up photos, and he talks back to her in a smart-alecky way. It's disquieting to witness a uniformed cop -- a figure of trust -- behaving not just so unprofessionally, but even aggressively, in such a situation. And this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Webb sees in Susan's house and life a glimpse of upper-middle-class success that he has yearned for, and which he wants immediately. He hatches a long scheme to seduce Susan which must be seen spoiler-free, but suffice it to say that delicious, if not outlandish, plot turns eventually move the action from Susan's lonely, cold house on an otherwise pleasant street, to a lonely, depressing hotel on a Las Vegas highway, and finally to a lonely, desert ghost town in the middle of nowhere. Writer Trumbo and director Losey are smart enough to realize that while the narrative logic may be questionable, the emotional, thematic -- and above all, visual -- logic justifies the plot turns. Each landscape becomes progressively bleaker and more remote, which is a clear comment on the nature of the characters' relationship and the futility of Webb's scheme.

Running through The Prowler is a strong undercurrent of social class tension and a dark, subversive take on the American dream of wealth and success. The unstable Webb is motivated not by lust so much as by Susan's home, trappings, and lifestyle. The fragile and vulnerable Susan, for her part, clearly married her husband to tap into such a world herself, but her boredom indicates that getting to that world is no guarantee of happiness. These ironies are of great interest to Trumbo and Losey, and they lend a fascinating complexity to the characters. Heflin and Keyes give performances that are among their finest work on screen, expressing deep levels of subtext both physically and verbally.
for the rest go here: http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/87312/The-Prowler/home-video-reviews.html 

Ain't all them Snooty movies at Cannes

From The Wrap:

And from the (reportedly) sublime to the (unquestionably) ridiculous, for most of the past 10 days we’ve avoided rounding up much news from the Cannes Film Festival’s evil twin, the marche du film, where schlock is bought and sold in the shadows of the high art being celebrated at the festival. But the Guardian’s Friday roundup of the 12 worst posters of projects up for grabs in the marche is irresistible.

There’s “Copposites” (“A crook. A cop. A body swap.”), and “Sharknado” (yeah, it’s a tornado full of sharks), and “Bring Me the Head of the Machine Gun Woman,” and “FDR American Badass” and “Abner the Invisible Dog” and eight more. We’ve put a couple of choice posters here, but it’s worth the trip to check out the whole batch, and to imagine the hundreds that just missed making the cut.

Jack Warden

1. 

Ed here" I watched and really enjoyed "Used Cars' again last night so I thought I'd run this piece on the great Jack Warden again.

Monday, July 24, 2006

      JACK WARDEN

    Back in the days when I had my own blog, I noted the deaths of actors who’d given me hours of particular pleasure.  Ted Knight, Robert Mitchum, Teresa Wright were among my favorites.   We need all the momentary pleasures we can find in this vale of tears.  And even though I didn’t know any of the people I bade goodbye, I felt the loss on an almost personal level. 

    Tonight I’m saying my goodbye to Jack Warden, certainly one of the two or three best character actors of his generation.  While the movie sites are listing all the A+ movies he appeared in, I have my own list of his great performances – BYE BYE BRAVERMAN;USED CARS; SHAMPOO; THE SPORTING CLUB; THE APPRENTICESHIP OF DUDDY KRAVITZ, to name just a few. 

    And ... for true Jack Warden fans ... his CBS-TV Sunday night series Crazy Like A Fox.  I know – it wasn’t The Rockford Files.  It was TV-lite.  But he made it wonderful.  Carol and I would tape the shows so we could see them again the very next night.  Just to watch him act.  He was a wonderful comic actor as well as a powerful dramatic one.  He had a particularly great line when his frustrated son told him that his office was a mess as was his life.  Harry Fox: “Son, you gotta learn to rise above the details.”  That is the wisdom I live by.  I rise above the details every day.

    Hours and hours and hours of Jack Warden dating back to the the mid-1950s and live TV.  Never saw him phone one in or not know exactly how to inhabit the character.  So long, Jack and thanks for all pleasure your immeasurable talent gave me.

        — 

COMPLEX 90

I was thirteen or fourteen when I first read Mickey Spillane and his
influence is still with me. That's why I'm such a fan of the
Spillane-Max Allan Collins collaborations and COMPLEX 90 is the wildest
one yet.

Imagine Hammer having to accompany a United States Senator (as a
bodyguard) at the height of the Cold War. Imagine Hammer being
kidnapped by the Soviets and being forced to do the impossible--escape
while killing forty-five Russians. Imagine Hammer going in front of a
Senate Committee that is accusing him of causing an International
Incident that could destroy world peace. Some of the Senators want to
send him back to Russia to let them deal with him.

Now imagine Hammer having to elude both U.S. Authorities as well as the
Russians while he investigates the real reasons behind all these
dangerous and baffling events.

Even if you aren't a speed reader you will be by the time you finish
this one. One compelling scene piles on another with Collins having a
lot of fun with Hammer at his most violent and the era at its most
reactionary. (One of my favorite scenes is when Hammer gives a guy fifty
bucks to decoy the real Hammer can away--I thought If only this poor schlub
knew what he could be getting into :).

While Mickey Spillane is the source of the novel (this is
based  on an unfinished Spillane partial) the superior craftsmanship,
the sly humor and the relentless pacing that have made Max Collins an
increasingly important mystery writer are all here in plain sight.

I'm sure Collins had a great time writing it because people sure are
having a great time reading it.

Dennis Lehane to Write ‘Travis McGee’ for Fox

Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

Ed here:Last night Bill Crider headlined this story "Oh-Uh."I emailed him to see what he meant by that. His response is mine. (Though I'd add that DeCapiro would be among my last choices no matter who did the screenplay.)

  Bill here: "I don't think McGee translates well to the screen, and good as Lehane is, I'm not sure he can make me believe Leo as McGee." 

Dennis Lehane to Write ‘Travis McGee’ for Fox

MAY 21, 2013 | 02:14PM PT

Peter Chernin is on board to produc
e

Justin Kroll

@krolljvar

Fox has tapped “Shutter Island” author Dennis Lehane to pen the script for World War II drama “Travis McGee.”

Peter Chernin and Amy Robinson will produce. THR broke the news.

Leonardo DiCaprio was once attached and his involvement is still being worked out. Mark Boal and David James Kelly are some of the other writers to work on the script in recent years.

Based on the book “Deep Blue Good-by,” the novel was part of 21 book series focusing on Travis Magee who is the central character in a series of mysteries by John D. McDonald.  They are classic sleuth novels, set it Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

Though this is Lehane’s second time writing a script it is the first time he has penned one that isn’t based off his own material. He previously wrote the Fox Searchlight pic “Animal Rescue” which is based on a short story he wrote.

Lehane is repped Amy Schiffman at IPG
.