Comics - Audio - Film!

Another catch up day here at the Pulp Reader.  There's some interesting things going on in various media that should be of interest to the pulp and noir aficionados.  Enough has built up that I felt I should pass some of this on here at the blog.  If you are a Pulp Reader facebook fan you already know about these events, plus even more news and trivia not covered in the blog. If you aren't yet, then go try it, you might like it!

Jaques Tardi's Adele Blanc-Sec comics

I've been eagerly awaiting several books to be published by Fantagraphics. I just found out that two of them (both by Jacques Tardi) are now out. One is two stories of Adele Blanc-Sec adventures (Pterror over Paris and Eiffel Tower Demon) the other is The Arctic Marauder. Here's a glimps at the latter at COMICSBEAT.   Fantagraphics was originally putting Adele Blanc-Sec out in conjunction with Luc Besson's new movie. Since the movie doesn't seem to be getting a roadshow in the US, the publisher has decided to start releasing the newly translated books now.

Audio Adventures of Doc Savage, The Spider & Secret Agent X!

Radio Archives will start producing audiobooks based on pulp historian Will Murray's 7 Doc Savage novels, and from there record The Spider and Secret Agent X.  From Radio Archives' press release:

"Radio Archives today announced a new series of audiobooks, based on favorite pulp novels of the 1930s and 1940s. The audiobooks will begin Radio Archives' new line of original audio productions based on classic pulp fiction.

The first series of audiobooks will be the seven Doc Savage novels penned by pulp author and Doc Savage authority Will Murray, featuring cover art by Joe DeVito. Future series will include the exploits of pulp heroes The Spider and Secret Agent "X", as well as other pulp fiction properties. The new audio productions will utilize the talents of some of the top voice actors and recording talents in the United States. The first audiobook release is scheduled for June 2011.

"We're thrilled to have Will Murray's excellent Doc Savage novels as the lead-off offerings in this exciting new series," said Harlan Zinck, president of Radio Archives. "The audiobooks and other new audio productions will nicely complement our classic radio and pulp reprint offerings."

Murray's Doc Savage stories were published in the 1990's and were the first new Doc Savage stories in more than 40 years. "Creating audiobooks of these extensions of the Doc Savage canon brings a new dimension to this classic pulp character," Murray said.

The new audiobook line, which will be recorded and released in digital stereo, will be produced and directed by audio producer Roger Rittner, who created The Adventures of Doc Savage full-cast radio series, available in a deluxe CD set from Radio Archives. "I'm delighted to be able to bring the superb quality of Radio Archives productions to these exciting stories," said Rittner, who has a 30-year history of both recorded and live classic radio and audio productions."

More info and listening samples at RA.

NPR covers the new rise of old pulps
NPR takes a look at several selections of pulps that are currently being reprinted. From their article:

After the dawn of the 20th century, popular fiction could be found at the corner newsstand by a nation eager for the tales. Each issue was printed on cheap, pulpy paper that was soon synonymous with the lurid style typical of the contents. The pulps have a well-earned reputation for purple prose, but there was gold among the dross.

Fine adventure stories from other genres were printed in pulps like Adventure, Weird Tales and Planet Stories, but unfortunately, many of these authors remain neglected or marginalized. Today's readers might expect to find nothing but legions of square-jawed heroes, wilting damsels and tentacled monsters in the old magazines, but there were also skilled, inventive writers plying their trade, evoking thrills and chills without formulaic plotting.

Check out their rundown here.

THE HUSH Screening and Event

Freddy 'the Hush' Burnett is a hitman with his own code of justice. In one night, a simple job gets out of control as he takes an innocent life. Now, as mysterious forces threaten his life, his only chance for survival and redemption rests in the ghosts of a troubled young woman and a sadistic psychopath.

"The Hush" is the the first feature film of Oakland CA born-and-based Writer/Director Vincent Cortez. The film is a spiritual journey featuring supernatural and action elements, done in film noir style, that deals with fear, violence and change.

If you are in the SF Bay Area and are into supernatural detective fiction and film noir, you might want to try and check out this new indie feature. From the writer, director and editors' blog we get this info:

"The Hush", will be showing at the Historic Bal Theatre in San Leandro CA on Saturday night, June 11th 2011, followed by an exclusive in depth retrospective about indie filmmaking and tackling high concepts on a low budget. The cast and crew will be in attendance.

Time and Location:
7PM @ The Historic Bal Theatre
14808 East 14th Street
San Leandro CA 94578
Box Office: 510.614.1224
info@baltheatre.com

Tickets: $12
NOTE: Check Facebook Deals for discounted tickets.

*The retrospective will include a 10 minute behind the scenes video exclusive, as well as a Q&A and discussion with the cast/crew.

Today: FANTOMAS!

Just a reminder that the 100 Years of FANTOMAS event is this week in San Francisco.

Details can be found here and here.  I'll be there!

At City Lights it was Standing Room Only.
So packed I could not make it to the absinth bar.

Fantomas makes an appearance to spread fear and paranoia!

Jill Tracy and Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket)

as musical duet

Studies in Cornell Woolrich

Cornell Woolrich

I've been on a Cornell Woolrich bender lately, mainly fueled by many episodes of the radio series SUSPENSE.

Today's average pulp reader or watcher of mystery/noir/horror films might not have heard of Woolrich, it seems a lot of people haven't. According to Harlan Ellison's intro to the Woolrich short story collection ANGELS OF DARKNESS, it seems he was becoming obscure even by the early 1970s.

Certainly he's not as well-known today as Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler. But ironically even though you may not know him or his works intimately, you've probably bumped into an episode of a TV show that uses one of his stories as its basis, or seen a movie adapted from his books. In fact he's probably the most directly-adapted pulp mystery writer out there.

Some examples are (most famously) Alfred Hitchcock's REAR WINDOW and (most recently) Antonio Banderas and Angelina Jolie's ORIGINAL SIN. IMDB lists 93 adaptations in various forms, not including radio plays.

Jimmy Stewart in Hitchcock's REAR WINDOW

We get a very concise and terse overview of his life from the description of the biography written by Francis M. Nevins, FIRST YOU DREAM, THEN YOU DIE:

Cornell Woolrich was called the Poe of the 20th century and the poet of its shadows. He lived a life of such deep despair and terror that he could do nothing with its experiences but put them between the covers of some of the century's finest novels of suspense.

Born the child of a broken marriage in 1903, Woolrich spent his childhood in revolutionary Mexico, coming to New York in his teens. While still a student at Columbia, he sold the first of several mainstream novels, which led critics to compare him with F. Scott Fitzgerald.

During the 1930s and '40s, when he was acclaimed as the preeminent author of American suspense fiction, Woolrich lived with his mother in an apartment-hotel near Harlem. After her death in 1957, Woolrich became a self-imposed prisoner in a series of lonely hotel rooms until his death in 1968. Few attended his funeral, and his million-dollar fortune was left to Columbia University to establish a scholarship fund.

Though he perceived himself as a failure, Woolrich's work was a critical and financial success. His novels, such as 'The Bride Wore black,' 'Phantom Lady' and 'Deadline at Dawn,' inspired the French roman noir and film noir. His novella 'Rear Window' became one of Alfred Hitchcock's most acclaimed films.

 Sounds like someone living out his own stories, which is quite sad but very fascinating.

Adapted as The Leopard Man 1943

Since he is fascinating and his writing so amazing, what I have for you today is a load of information from various sources to pull you further into his work. These links all contain some type of synopsis or overview for many of theWoolrich adaptations.

Escape-Suspense

First up is the Woolrich page at escape-suspense.com.  Here we find a comprehensive cache of Woolrich adapted to radio. Mainly in episodes of Suspense but also in other programs.  Webmeister Christine gives a good overview of each episode and when possible other background or behind the scenes info which is presented along with downloadable MP3s.

Jonathan Rosenbaum

Reviewer for The Chicago Reader, Jonathan has a richly illustrated essay on Woolrich film adaptations originally printed in Film Comment, Sept 1984.

Black Gate

Recently reprinted by Hard Case Crime

Black Gate online magazine has an article on the Weird Fiction bent of some Woolrich tales and focusing on the Frankensteinian tale "Jane Brown's Body".  Writer Ryan Harvey puts succinctly what I also feel about Woolrich's prose:

His specialty was the “emotional thriller,” harrowing trips into fear and paranoia with suspense set pieces that no author has equaled. Often called by admirers and critics “the literary Hitchcock” and “the twentieth-century Edgar Allan Poe,” Woolrich could wring more palpitating dread out of everyday life than any writer I’ve encountered. His style is defining of noir, the existential crime tale.

Noir of the Week

This blog does an in-depth review of a Film Noir every week. Writer Steve-O has submitted a review every week since 2005.  He has a selection of Woolrich to read about. Keep in mind these are not glib summaries, but well researched articles with plenty of background info on the films and writings.

CornellWoolrich.com

This site has a ton of pics of book covers, movie posters and lists of currently available books and films. Also presented are scans and reprints of Woolrich articles from a plethora of sources such as TWILIGHT ZONE Magazine, Francis Nevins column from Mystery File, and scans of some of Woolrich's actual letters and notes.

The Mysteries of London

Sometimes the most innocent turn in your travels lead down darker paths.  

This might sum up the Penny Dreadful The Mysteries of London and also my experience in finding such a story.

I had my curiosity piqued when following a link from a newspaper comic strip archive to John Adcock's Yesterday's Papers. The post displayed covers painted by Robert Prowse Jr for a Spring-Heeled Jack series. I found this to be very interesting. When looking into the print history of this well known boogieman I started reading up on some of the Victorian English Penny Dreadfuls which made Jack a household name.  

The history of Spring-Heeled Jack in print starts in the 1830s with accounts of  his accosting lone travelers. In the early publications readers had to wonder if he was man, beast or demon? Whatever he was, he wasn't a nice guy. But by the 1860s, in the Penny Dreadfuls this started to turn around and Jack was reinterpreted as a hero. 

Spring-Heeled Jack became possibly the very first prototype for Batman;  A rich young man loses his parents to a tragedy at sea. When trying to claim his ancestral home he finds the estate and even his family name stolen from him by his villainous cousin. When fleeing for his life after a murder attempt Jack decides to create a costume and his Springed Heel apparatus in order to start a new life as a vigilante. 

You can read this account here.

As someone so into hero and horror pulps I found a natural affinity for this style of writing.  It has lead to further reading. And in the case of The Mysteries of London, further listening. Though The Mysteries of London can be read online, right now my reading stand is full. 

This is exactly how The Pulp Reader first came into existence; too many books and too little time. I was going to make a digital TTS edition of Mysteries but first thought I'd see if anyone had already made an audiobook of it.  And yes, there is one... in progress. 

Cori Samuel is an etext / digital book maven. She has proofread and assembled a large amount of material for Project Gutenberg and has also gotten into the audiobook realm at Librivox.  I have to tell you honestly that I'm not always a fan of Librivox. While there is the rare reader who is a delight to listen to, some of which I've mentioned in the past,  mostly I find the quality to be painful.  Cori falls into the first category and is an excellent and riveting storyteller with great delivery and cadence. 

Here's the thing though, Cori has been stuck for a while and has possibly not felt inspired to get past whatever hurdles are preventing her from continuing the reading.  What about you head over to her page and give a listen to the first chapter, then if you like what you hear, drop her a line in the comments section and let her know you would love to see her finish this epic story. I know I would!

In the meantime, you can find a few other Penny Dreadful audiobooks at Librivox and Archive.org. Here is a quick list:

The String of Pearls (the first appearance of Sweeny Todd)

The Old Man in the Corner (Sherlock Holmes-ish)

Varney the Vampire

G. K. Chesterton's Defense of Penny Dreadfuls

McLevy Season 7

The Ides of March also bring new episodes of McLevy.

Who's McLevy?  Head to the Pulp Reader subsite to learn all about him!

Unfortunately I was caught off guard and we are already mid-way through the four episode season.  But as of right now you can listen to the current episode Prince of Darkness on the BBC Radio 4 iplayer!

100 Years of FANTOMAS Event

A three day celebration of 100 years of Fantomas is coming to San Francisco in April. But before getting to this big event, I'd like to point you to Tim Lucas at Video WatchBlog who has reprinted his essay from HORROR: ANOTHER 100 BEST BOOKS at his site. It gives a great recounting of the history of Fantomas. Tim starts by saying:

One hundred years ago today, the criminal genius known as Fantômas was first released into the world in the form of a fat paperback novel printed on uncut pulp paper. Written by Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allain, it sent shock waves throughout popular culture which resonated in literature (with numerous knock-offs), silent films (the Feuillade serial adaptations, but also notably F.W. Murnau's FAUST, which quoted Gino Starace's striking cover painting), and which still resonate today. One of these still-rumbling shock waves we now know as the Anti-Hero.

Head over to Video Watchblog to check it out!

Fantomas By The Bay

April 6, 7, 8, and 9, 2011
This news is reprinted from the City Lights Bookstore website:

City Lights Bookstore, Mechanics' Institute Library, and an Undisclosed Secret Location

 

City Lights Booksellers & Publishers in conjunction with the Cultural Services of the Consulate General of France & the Mechanics' Institute Library present:

A Centenary Celebration of the Literary Creation of Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allain.

WHO IS FANTOMAS?? Arch-villain? Mad genius? Master of disguises? Agent of chaos? 

In 1911 the pulp fiction writers Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allain introduced a fictional character to the French reading public that was to capture their imagination and keep them yearning for more. The ultimate anti-hero, as enigmatic as he was treacherous, Fantomas executed the most appalling crimes with ruthlessness and precision. He spread terror and chaos amidst the lives of a bourgeois society that he took pleasure in ridiculing. Souvestre and Allain were in tune with the pulse of the public's fascination with shadow-side of modernity. Fantomas was to become one of the most popular serials in the history of French crime fiction anticipating the future arrival of Fritz Lang's Dr. Mabuse and the master villains of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels. On the occasion of the one hundred year anniversary of the creation of the FANTOMAS series, City Lights Booksellers and Publishers joins centenary celebrations in Paris to commemorate this extraordinary literary event.

FANTOMAS BY-THE-BAY shall feature: readings, lectures, film screenings, art exhibitions, and performance art, featuring Robin Walz, Dominique Kalifa, Daniel Handler, Mel Gordon, Marc Ellis, Howard Rodman, Jonathan P. Eburne, Janaki Ranpura, Jill Tracy, and more.

Schedule:

EVENT 1.) FANTOMAS STRIKES THE BAY!

Date & Time: Wednesday, April 6, 2011, 7:00 P.M.

Location: City Lights Booksellers & Publishers, 261 Columbus Avenue, S.F., CA 94133 (admission free)

Reception and Absinthe tasting followed by an evening of readings, diatribes, and manifestos – accompanied by a display of FANTOMAS book covers & artwork

Opening Statements by Peter Maravelis & Robin Walz

Readings and performances by Jonathan P. Eburne, Marc Ellis, Andrew Joron, Daniel Handler in a musical duet with chantuese Jill Tracy, Dominique Kalifa, Brian Lucas,  Joseph Noble, Howard Rodman, and Robin Walz, and more tba.

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EVENT 2.) FANTOMAS! AGENT OF CHAOS!
An exploration of the origins of Pulp Surrealism

Date & Time: Thursday, April 7, 2011, 6:00 P.M.

Location: Mechanics' Institute Library, 57 Post Street, San Francisco, CA 94104 (admission charge $12.00, members free)

Join four erudite cultural explorers as they delve into the history and lore of one of the most notorious literary creations ever. Fantomas was the ultimate anti-hero who was adopted by the surrealists as a cultural mascot. On the occasion of the centenary celebration of Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allain's pulp serial, the roots of pulp literary history will be exhumed in evening of lively discussion.

-Opening Statement: Peter Maravelis/ City Lights

-Session 1: The Genealogy of Fantômas - From Lacenaire to Ravachol via Rocambole (Robin Walz)

-Session 2: From the Hills of Montmartre to the Bay of San Francisco : One Century of Fantômas's Friends (Dominique Kalifa)

-Session 3: The Shudder of History (Jonathan P. Eburne)

-Session 4: The Origin of Fantomas: Why there isn't one (Howard Rodman)

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EVENT 3.) AN ELEGANT THREAT

A performance piece and soiree by Janaki Ranpura

with a special musical appearance by The Slow Poisoner

Location: Undisclosed & Secret (admission free)

Date & Time: Friday, April 8, 2011, 8:00 P.M.

Engage in crimes of love, where visiting crime scenes is the dating game. Interactive environments and puppets take you on a noir journey to the human heart, which is made of candy. The spector of Fantomas looms in the shadows.

(This event is by invitation only. Admission is free, but on a first come first serve basis. Invitations become available at the front counter of City Lights on 4/6/2011)

-

EVENT 4.) THE SCREEN BLEEDS: FANTOMAS on Film

Location: Mechanics' Institiute Library, 57 Post Street, San Francisco, CA 94104 Date & Time: Saturday, April 9, 2011, 7:00 P.M. (admission $10.00, members free)

A screening of selected excerpts from the Fantômas films over the course of the last century. We shall visit the work of such directors as Louis Feuillade, Paul Fejos, Andre Hunebelle, Jean Sacha, and Robert Vernay. Also included in the program will be a special focus on the Fantômas inspired films (i.e. Judex, Les Vampires, and more.)

-Opening Statement: Peter Maravelis/City Lights

-Commentary by Howard Rodman & Robin Walz

-Special presentation by Mel Gordon (Fantomas in French Musical & Brothel Culture)

(Films for this evening were curated by David King and Peter Maravelis)

The Nameless Detective and Pulp Audios

Free AudioBook!

Wow, busy busy! I have just way too much going on right now and it is keeping me from dedicating the time that I should to The Pulp Reader.  But until things simmer down, I have some interesting stuff for you to check out.

First up, Jesse over at SFF Audio has alerted us to a free ebook in Bill Pronzini's series of "Nameless Detective" stories.  The story is Booktaker and takes place in a bookstore. Besides being a fun mystery, there's lots of talk about pulps and the pulp aficionado will probably get a kick out it. Being a Bay Area native, Bill luxuriates in describing San Francisco scenery in just enough detail to where other San Franciscans can really visualize the surroundings of the story, which is also a lot of fun.  Head over and check it out.

In Other News:

There's two fairly new groups who are adapting some classic pulps to audio.

One is called Pulp Radio and they are adapting a broad spectrum of pulps, from Detective to SciFi to Western.

From Pulp Radio's info page:

At the Pulp Radio Network, we've combined two of our favorite entertainment forms – "pulp" fiction and audio drama – to create an exciting new dimension in listening.

We take favorite pulp stories – in all genres – from the popular fiction magazines of the 1930s, '40s, and '50s ... adapt them to the audio format ... then record the stories in stereo with professional casts, live sound effects, and complete music scores.

We're a bunch of pulp fiction fans who also love audio drama. So we decided to combine the two.

Our group is led by Roger Rittner, an award-winning communicator and producer of audio programming for National Public Radio, local Los Angeles radio stations, and commercial clients.

Among Roger's radio projects are the now classic Adventures of Doc Savage, the mystery series Darkness, the suspense series Midnight, and the musical comedy Charlie Sent Me!, all heard on National Public Radio stations. Roger also created the Variety Arts Radio Theatre, which recreated old-time radio shows as live stage productions for more than 10 years at Los Angeles' Variety Arts Center.

The cast and crew of Pulp Radio are accomplished voice and sound effects artists, and audio production professionals. You've heard their work in hundreds of films and television shows, radio commercials, and video games.

The other is AudioComics which is concentrating on Hero Pulps. Press release:

AudioComics Brings Pulp and Classic Comic Heroes to radio drama in the “Audiothology” MEN OF MYSTERY
Official press release:

Contact: Lance Roger Axt and William Dufris, Co-Producers (audiocomicsinfo@gmail.com)

Captain Zero. The Woman in Red. The Domino Lady. Secret Agent X. The Black Terror. Airboy and Valkyrie. The Flame. Ms. Masque. Beginning in 2011, these classic pulp heroes and comic book characters from the 1930’s and 1940’s will come to audio drama for the first time in brand new stories from today’s leading pulp authors as The AudioComics Company presents its follow-up project to their critically-acclaimed adaptation of Elaine Lee and Michael Kaluta’s Starstruck: the Men of Mystery series.

AudioComics Company founders William Dufris and Lance Roger Axt: “For these stories, we’re keeping these characters rooted in their origins and time periods: Hammett’s San Francisco and Chandler’s Los Angeles. California in the dirty thirties and forties was the new wild west: immoral, violent, and wearing the white hat and a badge didn’t mean you didn’t have suspect motives. With the lines so badly blurred, the only way to meter justice was behind a mask.

“Furthermore, characters such as The Black Terror and The Flame will be written with a ‘pulp sensibility,’ as if they were originally written as pulp heroes. Men of Mystery adventures will feature all of the suspense, all of the hard-boiled action, and the breakneck cliffhanger energy of classic movie serials. Suffice to say, we’re very excited to commence work on this!”

Writers and CD/Mp3 artists will be announced in the new year, with recordings commencing in late 2011 in San Francisco, beginning with several new Green Lama and Domino Lady stories. MoM plays will be released first as pay-per-download Mp3 serial recordings and then to community radio stations, with collected compact disc “audiothologies” available starting in 2012. In addition, The AudioComics Company will release several free short MoM pieces as digital content for mobile phones.

The AudioComics Company provides superior audio entertainment with its professional full-cast audio theatre adaptations of licensed and original properties from the worlds of comic books and graphic novels, and related genres. Our productions of classic, contemporary and world premiere properties will reach new audiences far beyond readers and comic book fans through the universally popular entertainment medium of multi-track recorded sound and music on CD and in downloadable form, accessible in today’s market with today’s sound. For more information, visit us www.audiocomicscompany.com.

The Green Hornet's Great Uncle

Though George Trendle and Fran Striker were the creators of both The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet, due to rights for the properties being with different companies the two characters could not explicitly exist in the same universe.  But the intent was there.  The Green Hornet AKA Britt Reid was the son of The Lone Ranger's nephew Dan Reid.  Young Dan Reid who's father was one of the original seven Texas Rangers ambushed and killed by the Cavendish Gang, rode with the Lone Ranger on many adventures during his time on radio and TV.  

The November 11, 1947, radio episode of  THE GREEN HORNET "Too Hot to Handle" insinuates this relationship as Dan Reid tells his son, Britt, about his history with the Lone Ranger. 

I had read plenty of times about this fateful episode, but for some reason never got around to listening to it.  Finally I did this morning and I do have to say it sent a tingle down my spine as Dan Reid recounts the story and the William Tell Overture fades into the background.  Here is the pertinent part of the radio script. The episode itself can be found here.

             BRIT: I saw political grafters and confidence men bend the law nearly double without actually breaking it.  I had inside information on political bribes.  I knew of crooks in our government and there wasn’t a thing that could be done about them.  We couldn’t even publish their activities because the law couldn’t get proof that would hold up in court.  A lot of criminals went free because of tricky laws and red tape.

              DAN: But the Green Hornet – everyone thinks the Hornet is a criminal.

              BRIT: Dad – I could see only one way to get those rats.  Someone had to meet them and play the game their way, with no holds barred.  Putting them in jail was the most important thing in the world to me.  It came ahead of the newspaper.  Ahead of my reputation.  Ahead of everything.  (beat)  If you’ll look at the records, you’ll see that I was successful.  Maybe I was wrong…

              LINDA: No.  No, you were not wrong!

              DAN: Who knows about this?

              BRIT: Kato.  Linda Travis.  And now you.

              DAN: And now that the secret is out – what’re you gonna do?

              BRIT: The secret is not out unless you let it out.  Kato has shared the secret with me.  Linda will share it.  It could be shared with you.

              DAN: (dismissively) Ahhh!

              LINDA: Mr. Reid – regardless of what the public thinks, there isn’t a single charge against the Green Hornet.  The police haven’t a thing on him.

              DAN: There were charges!  The Sentinel has been offering a reward…

              LINDA: Yes, but the record is clean now.  The last murder charge was wiped off the books a few days ago.

              DAN: And Linda – you’d forego the reward to keep this secret?

              LINDA: Oh, I… I don’t want that kind of money.

              DAN: (softening) Well… you can’t buy loyalty like that.

              LINDA: Oh, there’s such a need for someone like the Green Hornet.

              BRIT: It’s up to you, Dad.  Are you… with me?

MUSIC:               STING; SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC

              ANNOUNCER: After announcing his identity, Brit Reid hadn’t taken his eyes off his father.  He had seen various emotions.  Shock.  Disbelief.  Controlled anger in the strong, rugged face.  This had given way to a hurt expression.

MUSIC:               FADES OUT

              ANNOUNCER: But as he explained his position, Brit saw his father’s chin come up.  Then, during a momentary silence, the eyes of father and son met.  Between the two, there flashed a spark of mutual understanding.  A look of confidence came into Brit Reid’s clean-cut features and the older man looked proud.

              DAN: (begins chuckling under Announcer’s speech.)

              ANNOUNCER: Then there was a faint grin that expanded to a chuckle.

              BRIT: (beat) Dad.  You’re not angry.

              DAN: Angry?  Why, how can I be angry with you?  I know exactly how you feel.  Because… I went through the same thing.

              BRIT: You?

              DAN: Look at that picture on the wall.  The man on that horse is one of your ancestors.  And those hills are in Texas.  When I was a boy, I rode with that man.

MUSIC:               WILLIAM TELL OVERTURE FADES IN VERY QUIETLY

              DAN: I saw him six-gun his way through red tape and ride roughshod over crooks who thought they were too smart for the law.  He rode for justice.

MUSIC:               WILLIAM TELL OVERTURE BUILDS, THEN FADES OUT

              DAN: Brit.  I gave you the Daily Sentinel because I knew you’d learn a lot about smart crooks that the law couldn’t get.  I’d hoped you’d do something about those crooks, just as your pioneer ancestor did.  I wanted to see you use the paper as a crusading weapon.  I wanted to see sparks fly.  But… nothing came! 

              BRIT: But Dad…

              DAN: I was disappointed, son.  I wondered what was the matter with you.  Wondered why the American heritage didn’t assert itself.  That’s why I sent Linda here.  I sent her to find out what was wrong with you.  And… now I learn.  (deeply moved)  Why, confound it, Brit… you’re more like the man in the picture than I dreamed you could be. (This man is definitely using every ounce of willpower to hold back tears.)  This is the biggest thing that’s… that’s ever happened to me.  This is…!

              BRIT: (beat) Dad…

              DAN: (sighs; regains control; chuckles a bit at his “weakness”) You and Linda will have to forgive an old man his emotions.

              BRIT: (beat)

DEVIL DOG and the SHADOW KNIGHTS

Here are a couple of new articles on the Pulp History series. "Pulp History brings to life extraordinary feats of bravery, violence, and redemption that history has forgotten. These stories are so dramatic and thrilling they have to be true" And they are true!

DEVIL DOG

This TRUE story is about the man who saved America:

DAVID TALBOT: One day after Roosevelt is elected, two men come out, and they begin to lay out a plot to overthrow President Franklin Roosevelt.

But, you may never have heard of Smedley Butler. His history in many ways parallels the birth of the American empire and modern American history.

This is not your dry stuff of texbooks. Local author David Talbot and his crew have created “pulp history” series, telling the exciting tales of forgotten history.

TALBOT: You can’t make this stuff up.

Pulp history author David Talbot brings us the story of Smedley Butler, the man he claims “saved America.” In his new book Devil Dog, Talbot brings to life the adventures and heroism of the most-decorated Marine in history as he runs down rebels in Nicaragua, throws gangsters out of Philadelphia and blows the lid off a plot against FDR. Let’s drop in on one of Butler’s many tales of heroism, when he was a young marine occupying Nicaragua.

Listen to and/or read the rest of this story at CROSSCURRENTS.

SHADOW KNIGHTS

In “Shadow Knights: The Secret War Against Hitler,” one of two books in the series that Simon & Schuster released last month, a British spy named Harry Rée wrestles with a Gestapo agent: “He gouged at one of the man’s eyes, but it wouldn’t come out. He tried to bite off his nose, but it was too tough. Then Ree shoved his forefinger into the German’s mouth, between his teeth and cheeks, and pulled up hard. The man squealed in pain and sent Ree flying over his head.”

Mr. Talbot explained: “We definitely did not want to make history like spinach, good for you but boring. We wanted to do the stuff that wasn’t good for you, with good guys, bad guys, blood, guts and sex.” 

Read the rest of the story at NYTIMES.

For extensive previews of both books head to Simon an Schuster page.

The Lone Ranger's Cave of Terror

I was never really a huge fan of the Lone Ranger. I watched the Clayton Moore TV show as a kid, and the Filmation cartoon that came on in the late 70s or 80s. The idea of a masked avenger is a cool one, and one that is tried and true in the pages of the pulps. The list of masked vigilantes in comics, film, TV and books is too long to go into here.

I should admit I'm not a big fan of Westerns in general as well. But in some cases I do find them fun, especially if they are on the weird side. Cowboys fighting zombies, werewolves, vampires and wendigos can be good entertainment.

Lately I've been watching some pretty crumby but very fun Mexican horror/western/masked vigilante movies such as El Charro de las Cavaleras and El Latigo contra Satanis. That sort of got me looking back at the Lone Ranger and I did find some interesting stuff. For one thing there was a Lone Ranger cartoon in the 1960s which seemed to be mirroring or even cashing in on the popularity of The Wild Wild West as it pitted Kemosabe and Tonto against an array of steampunk machinery and vampires and ghosts. That sounds pretty cool! But too bad it isn't available on DVD anywhere.

An episode of the weird west Lone Ranger cartoon from 1966
Another interesting cartoon is this silent short subject.

So as things always seem to go it seemed like looking into Fran Striker's own written word on the Lone Ranger might be a good idea, just in case there were any cool creepies in there.  Well the one title I've found so far that sound creepy is The Cave of Terror and this is our digital experiment for Thanksgiving.  Seems at least kinda fitting.  I don't know if Tonto agrees, but we'll hope so.

find it at archive.org

La Pantera Negra (2009)

Though completed in 2009, La Pantera Negra is only now slowly making its way through the festival circuit.  To paraphrase the production notes:  Nico Beamonte is a private detective, alcoholic and decadent. One day he receives a call from God, who asks Nico to find "The Black Panther". What or who is the Black Panther? God doesn't say but Nico takes the job. While looking for The Black Panther he meets Mrs. M., who also asks for help. She says Pedro Infante, the idol of Mexico (a true life music and movie legend comparable to Elvis) who died years ago is more alive now than ever. So she wants Nico to find Pedro as well. What Nico does not know is that this is a plan conspired between God and Mrs. M. to face his destiny. Nico will gradually  notice that the search for The Black Panther is really a search for his own existence, hidden in his past and his dreams.

Mrs. M... aka Death

This is a skirmish into an existential dreamland, full of wild tangents and seemingly side stories.  It is a rare film which while watching it, the thread of the story gets washed away. As we are presented with one stylish set-piece after another forming a string of disjointed, barely discerned narrative it seems to not make any sense.  Usually it's pretty easy to see where a story is taking you by the end of the first act. But with this I was left wondering until the last few minutes of the film what exactly this journey had been.  But at the end of the movie I realized what I was seeing, which was a fresh adaptation of a classic story from an 19th Century American writer.  I won't say more than that about which writer or story, as if you've read it or seen other adaptations, it will be a complete spoiler.

Nico has a talk with God.

La Pantera Negra is shot in black and white, oozing with Noir style and hard-boiled pulp attitude.  There are elements of fantasy and science fiction mixed with some entertaining musical numbers. The music incidentally was written by Director Iyari Wertta.  I am hoping that not only a DVD will eventually be available for this film but also the soundtrack, as the music really was enjoyable and impressive, fusing a 50's Noir vibe with modern rock underpinnings. 

Hoping for a soundtrack CD

During Nico's quest to find the Black Panther we meet a wide array of characters.  His ex-girlfriend and ex-partner who has also been contacted to find the Black Panther and spends her time dressed up as a ninja-like crime-fighting superhero.  There is El Gringo, a rich white guy who sees a flying saucer and tracks it and the alien pilot down.  The alien winds up switching bodies with El Gringo's daughter's lesbian partner.  El Gringo sends Nico on his third mission, to track down the lesbian girlfriend alien.

In the end, all of these disparate threads suddenly collide together in a classic "Gotcha" moment made famous in the story I hinted at above.  La Pantera Negra is a really interesting film mixing mystery, sci-fi, horror, music and comedy but not revealing any of its secrets until the very end.  It made for an interesting thought process while watching the movie, where I wasn't sure if I liked it or not. But when it was over and as the days have gone by and allowed it to percolate in my mind, I found myself really happy with the experience, and find it to be a must have on DVD. Thus hoping for a domestic release eventually.

Tracking the Alien

La Pantera Negra is not even in the art-house circuit but is making the film festival rounds. I just saw it at the Redwood City International Latino Film Festival.  The only way I know of to find upcoming dates is to become a fan on the production's Facebook page and Twitter feed.  I highly suggest trying to track it down. As a lover of odd ball and outre pulp and Noir, I recommend it!

Director: Iyari Wertta
Producer: Issa Guerra
Exec Producers: Henner Hoffman, Liliana Pardo
Scriptwriter: Iyari Wertta
Editors: Luciana Jauffred, Francisco Rivera, Yoame Escamilla
DoP: Christian Rivera
Production Designer: Alejandro García
Sound Production: Marco A Hernández, Iyari Wertta, Izabel Acvedo
Music: Iyari Wertta

Cast: Enrique Arreola, Laura de Ita, Dolores Heredia, Ely Guerra, Mario Almanda, Fernando Cianguerotti, Mariana Gajá, Daniela Schmidt, Mariús Biengai, Arnulfo Reyes