• About

Not The Baseball Pitcher

~ Just another WordPress.com weblog

Not The Baseball Pitcher

Monthly Archives: September 2012

New In The House

30 Sunday Sep 2012

Posted by Randy Johnson in Books

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

New In The House





1 Return of The Thin Man(ARC) – Dashiell Hammett: two never before published novellas Hammett wrote for the second and third in the Thin Man film series.

2: Snuff Tag 9(ARC) – Jude Hardin: the third Nicholas Colt thriller.

I also have twelve hardcover westerns picked up at a literacy yard sale. The woman that teaches adult education has one every year to rasie money to help. My seventy year old brother-in-law has been taking classes for years nw and my sister and he help out on the sale. I always donate the last year’s William Johnstone books(hate to lose them, but it’s for a good cause) and these were picked up for me by my sister.

I couldn’t always find a good cover image on the ‘net. A few don’t match the books I have and two I couldn’t find at all. My printer/scanner, already in a slow decline, picked this past week to go belly up. May go and look for one this week at Walmart.

3: A Man Called Banker – Terrell L. Bowers

4: Blood of The Breed T. V. Olsen

5: Riders In The Storm – Lee Floren

6: Gold Strike In Hell – Darwin Lambert

7: Riders of The Long Road – Stephen Bransford

8: The Ghost of Windy Ridge – Hal C. Morgan

9: Sing A Song of Six Guns – Burt Arthur

10: Peacemaker Rawhide – Clifford Blair

11: Thunder Gorge – Ben Bridges

12 Vengeance Rides West – A. A. Baker

13: Texas Feud – Roy Wayne no cover image

14:The Raton Rustlers – Roy Wayne no cover image

September 2012 Book Round-Up

30 Sunday Sep 2012

Posted by Randy Johnson in Books

≈ Leave a comment

196: CR: Death Match(ebook) – Jason Ridler

197: CR: The Green Hornet: Still At Large – edited by Joe Gentile, Win Scot Eckert, & Matthew Baugh

198: CR: Big Maria – Johnny Shaw

199: HR: The Dead Walked: Dead Days(ebook) – Vincent Stark

200: SF: This Honest Man – Robert J. Sullivan

201: WE: The Loner: Bullets Don’t Die – J.A. Johnstone

202: WE: Day of The Wolf – Charles G. West

203: HR: Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde(ebook) – Robert Louis Stevenson

204: SF: Nevermore – James Patterson

205: SH: Beat To A Pulp: Superhero(ebook) – edited by David Cranmer & Scott D. Parker

206: HR: Seal Team 666 – Weston Ochse

207: HR: The Dead Man: The Midnight Special(ebook) – Phoef Sutton

208: TH: The Survivor – Gregg Hurwitz

209: HR: The Dead Man: The Death Match(ebook) – Christa Faust

210: WE: Roy Rogers and The Ghost of Mystery Rancho – Walker A. Tomkins

211: TH: Burying The Truth(ebook) – Ethan Jones

212: WE: Of Stampedes, Runaway Trains & Riverboat Scoundrels – James C. O’Donnell

213: WE: Luke Jensen, Bounty Hunter – William W. Johnstone with J. A. Johnstone

214: WE: Gunman’s Chance – Luke Short

215: WE: The Guns of Vedauwoo(ebook) – Wayne D. Dundee

216: TH: Tripoli’s Target(ebook) – Ethan Jones

217: CR: Return of The Thin Man – Dashiell Hammett

218: CR: Snuff Tag 9 – Jude Hardin

219: TH: Play Him Again(ebook) – Jeffrey Stone

220: WE: Sixkiller, U. S. Marshal – William W. Johnstone with J. A. Johnstone

September 2012 Movie Round-Up

30 Sunday Sep 2012

Posted by Randy Johnson in movies

≈ Leave a comment

The Waiters” Ball(1916)

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde(1941)

Blood On The Moon(1948)

The Thing From Another World(1951)

Them!(1954)

It! The Terror From Beyond Space(1958)

The Gorgon(1964)

The Reptile(1966)

Thunderbirds Are Go(1966)

Play Him Again – Jeffrey Stone

29 Saturday Sep 2012

Posted by Randy Johnson in ebook

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Jeffrey Stone Matt "Hud" Hudson

Matt “Hud” Hudson is the rumrunner to the stars. He brings it in from the ships outside legal limits and distributes it himself with his own trucking company. He is also one who deals only in the good stuff and doesn’t water it down like other rumrunners. He knows Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks and other movie stars.

He even has aspirations of his own in that line. It’s in the early days of sound on film and most of the studios think talking pictures are a fad that will fade. What they’re really worried about is the costs of converting to one of the new sound systems. Most own their own string of theaters and the cost to wire them all would cut into their profits. Not to mention the backlog of silents already in the can that might prove useless. And no longer profitable.

But Hud knew talkies were the next big thing. Just convincing some studio to make one, let him make one, is the tough sell.

That’s the backdrop of this new novel, first in a series, by Jeffrey Stone.

The main story starts when Hud’s best and oldest friend, Danny Kincaid, dies in an accidental drowning when he drives his car off the pier. That’s the police’s conclusion.

But Hud knows that BS. It’s easy for him to see. A bottle of rye whiskey lay on the seat beside him. Danny couldn’t stand rye for a reason that went back to the pair’s childhood. They’d stolen a bottle of Hud’s dad’s rye and got sick. Worse, when dad found out, he made them drink shot after shot until they were completely sick.

The second reason Hud knew Danny’s death wasn’t accidental was even easier. Every finger had been broken, one shoulder was dislocated, and both kneecaps had been shattered.

His oldest friend, Hud knew what had killed Danny. His friend was a grifter, something Hud had gotten away from early in his life. he had too much of a conscious. It had to be one of Danny’s cons that got him killed.

All Hud had to do was find out what, who the mark was, and then it was just a matter of retribution.

I liked this look at prohibition from Hud’s point of view, the early days of sound in films. I had no idea the studios were so reluctant to embrace something new. I should have because, even today, the movie world is driven strictly by the profit motive.

Jeffrey Stone has a delicious style of writing, believable characters, and a unique story line. I look forward to more from the author. It can be ordered HERE or HERE.

Return of The Thin Man – Dashiell Hammett

28 Friday Sep 2012

Posted by Randy Johnson in Books

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Dashiell Hammett, Thee Thin Man

It was with great delight that I sat down to read this Mysterious Press edition. A long time Hammett fan, the idea of two new, never before published, Thin Man novellas was just to good a deal to pass up.

What we have here is Hammett’s stories developed for the second and third films in the series, AFTER THE THIN MAN and ANOTHER THIN MAN. Not exactly as one would read them in a magazine, but the crisp dialogue, the by-play between Nick and Nora Charles is all there in a nicely done pair of novellas. The introduction says they were the last pieces of fiction he wrote.

Before and after each story are essays that discuss the process of development for each story and the differences between Hammett’s tale and the filmed product.

There’s also an undeveloped story that was to be the first sequel, but was dropped.

All quite satisfying and available HERE. Release date is November 6th.

FFB: Gunman’s Chance – Luke Short

27 Thursday Sep 2012

Posted by Randy Johnson in Books

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Forgotten Books, Luke Short

Luke Short was the pen name for Frederick Dilley Glidden(1908-1975). Following graduation from college, he worked for a number of newspapers, was a trapper, and an archeologist’s assistant for a time. His first western stories was published in 1935. His pen name was, of course, that of a famous gunfighter in old west days. Seems to much of a coincidence to me, but his Wikipedia [age says no one is sure he knew that at the time he started using it.

His apprenticeship in the pulps was fairly short. He sold a short story to Colliers in 1938 and the novel, GUNMAN’S CHANCE was serialized in the Saturday Evening Post in 1941. Another western was serialized in Colliers and the Saturday Evening Post. Colliers ceased publication after the first two parts.

This novel was made into the film BLOOD ON THE MOON which I covered for Todd Mason's Overlooked Movies this past Tuesday.

The movie followed the book pretty close, down to many lines of dialogue, but for an entirely different ending. No surprise because Short was working in Hollywood and worked on the script.

I think I liked the novel best with it’s more movie like ending. Strange that, eh? The ending was right out of Hollywood’s idea of a western showdown.

For more Forgotten Books, Todd Mason collects them this week.

Gary Wright: The Dream Weaver

27 Thursday Sep 2012

Posted by Randy Johnson in music

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Forgotten Music, Gary Wright

I first became aware of Gary Wright’s music when he released the album THE DREAM WEAVER, his third solo effort, in 1875. He was also part of the band Spooky Tooth before that and I love their 1974 album for just the title alone, You Broke My Heart, So… I Busted Your Jaw. It was a bit different from the type of music I generally listened to, what with the lush keyboards and production values. I liked it for some reason though.

Saw him live once in Greensboro where he strutted the stage with a portable keyboard type instrument hanging from around his neck. He was a bit younger then.

These are his two best known songs from that album. He did more albums, but nothing that hit like this release.

What’s Going On?*

26 Wednesday Sep 2012

Posted by Randy Johnson in Personal

≈ 3 Comments

* Not A Marvin Gaye reference

I seem to get a run on a post every so often. Not sure why. The first was one on a Paul Newman marathon of films on Turner Classic films. That one was no good a few days later. But I suddenly starting getting hits on it, anywhere from a couple of hundred a day to one memorable day where it got 1200 hits. It stands at 20,102 hits to date. That faded away then, though it still gets hits evey now and again.

Next it was a several years old post on a true crime book, BITTER BLOOD, by Jerry Bledsoe. It was a story that happened in my county and played out one afternoon that ended with a bloody end. That post has risen twice with large amounts of hits daily for a while. It now stands at 1,727.

The post piling up hits more recently, is my review of the film JOHN CARTER. For the last couple of weeks, it’s been getting a hundred + hits a day. As of this writing, it has piled up 1,447 hits.

What’s going on?

Overlooked Movies: Blood On The Moon(1948)

24 Monday Sep 2012

Posted by Randy Johnson in movies

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Barbara Bel Geddes, Overlooked Movies, Robert Mitchum, Robert Preston, Robert Wise, Walter Brennan

Robert Wise directed thid western three years before his seminal THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL and many years before his pedestrian STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE. The script was by Lilly Hayward from an adaptation by Luke Short of his novel Gunman’s Chance. Shot in black and white, cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca, it had much the fell of noir films of the same period. Robert Mitchum, a mere stripling of thirty-one, is Jim Garry, a man come in response for help from an old friend, Tate Riling(Robert Preston).

Wet from the storm he’s riding through, he camps under a tree and just barely shinnies up a tree when a herd of cattle stampede through. Most of his outfit is ruined, he salvaging only one boot and his rifle. He’s accosted and taken back to a camp where he meets John Lufton(Tom Tully), a man suspicious, but nice enough, even willing to replace his outfit. They’d caught his horse mixed with the herd. Offered a job, he claims to be passing through. He’s advised to keep passing through. He likes Lufton in spite of that and agrees to deliver a note to his daughters.

There, as he’s about to cross the river, someone takes a shot at him from cover. A warning shot with several more delivered every time he tries to cross the river. Words seem to have no effect, so he turns and rides off, swiftly circling to find another crossing, sneaks up to learn a young woman was the one firing off at him. Her name is Amy Lufton(Barbara Bel Geddes of much later Dallas fame), though he doesn’t learn her name at the time. He amuses himself by returning the favor, spraying bullets to each side, driving her back until she falls in the river.

It’s at the house he learns the young woman’s identity when he delivers the message to the other daughter, Carol Lufton(Phyllis Thaxton, who later played Martha Kent in the first Superman movie). She wants to kill, but is stopped by a ranch hand, Frank Reardon(Tom Tyler, who’s last film role was in Plan 9 From Outer Space).

In town, he finds his friend, Tate, after being accosted by a group of men in the saloon. He learns why he’s been brought to town. Tate has a scheme, hatched with the new Indian agent, the new, crooked Indian agent, Jake Pindalest(Frank Faylen, father of Dobie Gillis, “and a good conduct medal!”). Lufton had been supplying beef to the army for the reservation. His 2500 head had been denied by Pindalest and he had a week to get them off the reservation. The plan was for Riling’s gunmen to harass him and keep him from getting them across the river. The army would seize them and Jim Garry was to be a stranger with money that comes along to help Lufton to cut his losses. Four dollars a head, then they would sell them to the army at regular contract price. Garry’s cut was to be twenty thousand.

Tate is goading homesteaders to help him, claiming Lufton will force them off their land for grazing land for his herd. Kris Barden(Walter Brennan) and his son, Fred(George Cooper) are two of them. Kris had once worked for Lufton before striking out on his own.

It takes only one stampede in which young Fred is shot by someone, with Garry right beside him, for him to get disgusted with his friend. He has a conscious and quits after telling Kris his son was killed.

You know how it goes from here. Garry ends up switching sides, after hard headed Amy persists in nagging him as he tries to ride away, following him for miles up until he camps for the night. She refuses to leave unless he returns with her.

And a bloody showdown follows.

For more overlooked movies, drop in on Todd Mason every Tuesday at his blog SWEET FREEDOM.

The Guns of Vedauwoo – Wayne D. Dundee

24 Monday Sep 2012

Posted by Randy Johnson in ebook

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Beat To A pulp, David cranmer(Edward A. Grainger), Wayne D. Dundee

At my advanced age, I’ll always prefer paper books to ebooks. But I have embraced this new method of delivery because there is just so much good stuff available in no other format. THE GUNS OF VEDAUWOO is such an example. A short, exciting western, one that I can indulge in the early morning hours, when I rise, reading over coffee.

Edward A. Grainger, otherwise known as David Cranmer, created the Outlaw Marshall, Cash Laramie and his partner Gideon Miles, in a series of short stories that he continues to write. But he also allows other writers into his playground. THE GUNS OF VEDAUWOO is author Wayne D. Dundee’s second trip into the world of Cash Laramie.

Cash is sent into the Vedauwoo region of south-eastern Wyoming in search of a cache of rifles. He’s looking for a half breed named Vilo Creed, a man part of a prison break with the man first reputed to have stolen the rifles, but never having proved so. The man was found dying by the posse, sliced to ribbons by Creed. It was he who gave the clue with his last breath where he’d hidden the guns.

Cash’s boss was afraid, rightly so, that Creed would use the current Ghost Dance among the tribes on reservation to create an uprising. One faction had taken to wearing the Ghost Shirts, reputed to repel the white man’s bullet.

Cash was there in Vedauwoo hoping to catch Creed unawares when he showed up. Unfortunately he was not alone in the mass of rocky outcrops. An outlaw gang, a group of innocents, even someone from Cash’s youth.

Another winner from author Dundee and Beat To A Pulp and available HERE.

← Older posts
September 2012
S M T W T F S
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
30  
« Aug   Oct »

Recent Posts

  • July 2015 Movie Round-Up
  • July 2015 Book Round-Up
  • It’s Been Fun
  • For Your Amusement
  • Drummer of Vengeance (Il giorno del giudizio)1971

Blogroll

  • Alan Dean Foster
  • Anthony Neil Smith
  • Astronomy Picture of The Day
  • Barry Eisler
  • Beat To A Pulp
  • Bill Crider
  • Bookgasm
  • Broken Trails
  • Cap'n's Blog
  • Carl V. Anderson
  • CBS Radio Mystery Theater
  • Charles Gramlich
  • Chris La Tray
  • Cullen Gallagher
  • David Cranmer
  • Dayton Ward
  • Ed Gorman
  • Evan Lewis
  • Fear On Demand
  • Frederik Pohl
  • Gary Dobbs
  • George Kelley
  • Harlan Ellison
  • Hollywood Memorabilia
  • Hour 25
  • J F Norris
  • J. D. Rhoades
  • James Reasoner
  • Jeff Mariotte
  • Jerry House
  • Jim Winter
  • Joachim Boaz
  • Joe Lansdale
  • John Scalzi
  • Kevin Tipple
  • Larry D. Sweazy
  • Laurie Powers
  • Lee Goldberg
  • Martin Edwards
  • Meridian Bridge
  • Nik Morton
  • Old Time Radio
  • Old Time Radio Show Catalog
  • Open Range
  • Patti Abbott
  • Paul Bishop
  • Paul D. Brazill
  • Radio Tales of The Strange & Fantastic
  • REH: Two Gun Raconteur
  • Richard Robinson
  • Scott Cupp
  • Scott D. Parker
  • Secret Dead Blog
  • Spur & Lock
  • The Rap Sheet
  • Tipping My Fedora
  • Todd Mason
  • Victor Gischler
  • Western Fiction Review
  • WordPress.com

Archives

  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008

Categories

  • Alan Steel
  • Andrew Bergman
  • Animation
  • Ann Sothern
  • Art
  • authors
  • Blues
  • Books
  • Busby Berkeley
  • Chap O'Keefe
  • Christmas
  • Comics
  • Crime
  • Drama.Overlooked Movies
  • ebboks
  • ebook
  • Ebooks
  • Edward G. Robinson
  • family
  • fiction
  • Forgotten Books
  • Franchot Tone
  • Gary Dennis
  • Geraldine Fitzgerald
  • Graphic Novels
  • grumpy cat
  • Historical
  • History
  • Humor
  • Humphrey Bogart
  • idiots
  • Joan Crawford
  • John Blumenthal
  • Johnston McCulley
  • Kasey Riley
  • Lee Van Cleef
  • Max Allan Collins
  • Melvyn Douglas
  • Michele Giradon
  • Mike Bond
  • Mike Marshal
  • Motorhead
  • movies
  • music
  • Mystery
  • Overlooked Movies
  • Paul Draker
  • Personal
  • Peter Lorre
  • Poetry
  • politics
  • Quarry
  • Radio
  • religion
  • Rex Kusler
  • Robert Barnard
  • Robert L. Fish
  • Robert Mitchum
  • Robert Ray
  • Robert Ryan
  • Robert Woods
  • Robert Young
  • Romantic Suspense
  • Science Fiction
  • Science?
  • spaghetti westen
  • spaghetti western
  • Sports
  • Sydney Greenstreet
  • Television
  • The Lawson Family
  • The Wild Wild West
  • Thriller
  • Timothy Ashby
  • Tony Anthony
  • True crime
  • Uncategorized
  • Western
  • William Berger
  • Youtube

Blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Not The Baseball Pitcher
    • Join 460 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Not The Baseball Pitcher
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...