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Monthly Archives: December 2013

New Year’s Trouble – Johnston McCulley

31 Tuesday Dec 2013

Posted by Randy Johnson in Crime, Johnston McCulley, Uncategorized, Western

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A couple of stories by the creator of Zorro set on New Year’s Eve. One crime tale and one western.

NEW YEAR’S PITFALL appeared in the January 1949 issue of Popular Detective: Lt. Keith Powry is investigating a jewelry theft ring when he gets a call from a nigh club manager informing him that a mistake had been made by a new employee and indeed a table for two was reserved for him.

Except Powry hadn’t called the club. 

It seemed a set-up, but Powry and his partner wanted to smoke the gamg out.

NEW YEAR’S AT COYOTE CREEK appeared in the February, 1947 issue of Texas Rangers magazine” Miner Rusty Rawlins has been away, but returns in time for the New Year’s celebration with a prize more precious than gold. 

The rest of the ebook is filled out with a mailbag for Texas Rangers magazine as well as a gallery of images, covers and interior illustrations from the issues concerned.

Available HERE.


December 2013 Movie Round-Up

31 Tuesday Dec 2013

Posted by Randy Johnson in movies

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Fast and Furious(1939)

A Woman’s Face(1941)

Crossfire(1947)

My Name is Pecos(1967)

I’ll Sell My Skin Dearly(1968)

Fasthand(1973)

The Silent Stranger(1974)

The Wolverine(2013)

December 2013 Book Round-Up

31 Tuesday Dec 2013

Posted by Randy Johnson in Books

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325: HR: The Carvings Collection(ebook) – Drake Vaughn

326: WE: Ride The Wild Country(ebook) – Chap O’Keefe

327: TH: Blood Tattoo – Jude Hardin

328: CR: Mean Christmas Night(ebook) – Wayne D. Dundee

329: FA: Ink Mage, Episode Four(ebook) – Victor Gischler

330: MY: Bloody Murdock – Robert Ray

331: TH: Common Ground(ebook) – Richard David Bach

332: CR: The Case of The Green Carnation(ebook) – David Gerrold

333: CH: The Grey Witch and Other Stories – Diana Mitchell with illustrations by Susan Whiting

334: MY: The Burglar Who Counted The Spoons(ebook) – Lawrence Block

335: MY: The Big Kiss-Off of 1944 – Andrew Bergman

336: MY: Sinker(ebook) – Rex Kusler

337: CR: The Wrong Quarry – Max Allan Collins

338: CR: Dead, Mr Mozart – Bernard Bastable

339: SF: Star Guild: Book One, Episode One(ebook) – Brandon Ellis

340: SF: Time Fall(ebook) – Timothy Ashby

341: WE: Sixgun Santa(ebook) – Johnston McCulley

342: TC: White Christmas * Bloody Christmas – M. Bruce Jones with Trudy J. Smith

343: CR: Racked(ebook) – Jude Hardin & J. A. Konrath

344: HR: Innocent Blood – James Rollins & Rebecca Cantrell

345: WE: This Old Star(ebook) – Wayne D. Dundee

346: HS: The Christening(ebook( Gary Dennis

347: FA: Ink Mage, episode five(ebook) – Victor Gischler

348: CR: New Year’s Trouble(ebook) -Johnston McCulley

349: MY: Granny Smith: The Welsh Connection(ebook) – G. M. Dobbs

350: SF: Alien Honor – Vaughn Heppner

It’s been a pretty good year numbers wise anyway. A lot of the ebooks are short stories, novelettes, and novellas. But a lot are long books as well.

A Woman’s Face(1941)

31 Tuesday Dec 2013

Posted by Randy Johnson in Drama.Overlooked Movies, Joan Crawford, Melvyn Douglas

≈ 1 Comment

Joan Crawford plays Anna Holm in this remake of the 1938 Swedish film starring Ingrid Bergman. Both were based of the play Il Etait Une Fois by Francis deCroisset. She was warned by Louis B, Mayer that taking the role would ruin her career. This was in the days when Movie stars were supposed to look like movie stars, never less than perfect, and few actresses(Bette Davis was an exception) wanted to “dress” down for a movie role. But it was the role of Anna Holm that made people realize Crawford could act and she credits it with her eventual Oscar for Mildred Pierce.

Anna Holm is a woman who’s life was shaped by an accident, a fire started by her drunken father when she was five. that left the right side of her face disfigured. She grew up embittered at everyone, but especially beautiful women. She wears hats with floppy brims that keep most of that side of her face covered or has her hair doing the same. She forges a life of crime, mostly as the head of a blackmail ring.

Anna is on trial for first degree murder and the story is told in flashback as each witness relates their part of the story.

The murder victim is Torsten Barring(Conrad Veight, the dilettante nephew of a wealthy mining

executive in Sweden. The pair get close and he involves her in a plot to murder his uncle’s four year old grandson who stands to inherit everything and Barring wants that fortune.

Melvyn Douglas is Dr. Gustaf Segert, the husband of one of Anna’s blackmail victims. She liked to play around with younger men and was injudicious enough to write love letters to one that Anna has gotten. She’s at the home  to collect when Segert arrives unexpectedly and mistakes her for a thief. But he then becomes interested in her disfigurement.

You see, he’s a plastic surgeon and has had some success in that line, convincing her to go through with more than a dozen surgeries. It works, but Segert is worried that he’s created his own frankenstein, a beautiful woman with no heart.

As the trial progresses, we get no indication of who the victim was as the story progresses with each witness adding to the tale.

Marjorie Main. “Ma Kettle,” has a role as a housekeeper and a witness and character actor Donald Meek is a confederate of Anna’s that testifies against her for a deal.

The script was by Donald Ogden Stewart and directed by George Kukor.

For more overlooked folms and related matters, as always, drop in at SWEET FREEDOM on Tuesdays.

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2013 in review

31 Tuesday Dec 2013

Posted by Randy Johnson in Uncategorized

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The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 45,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 17 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

New In The House

29 Sunday Dec 2013

Posted by Randy Johnson in Books

≈ 2 Comments

The third and final title in Bergman’s Jack LeVine P.I. series.
A tale set in the depression era where two boys get into trouble after “borrowing” a car.
A pair of new Year’s themed pulp short stories from the creator of Zorro.
A short story teaming Lt. “Jack” Daniels and former southern rocker turned P.I. as they break up a bar hold-up.

The Christening – Gary Dennis

29 Sunday Dec 2013

Posted by Randy Johnson in Gary Dennis, Historical

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I’m glad I made the decision to read THE CHRISTENING, It’s not normally the type of

story I usually indulge. But I had a fine time with it, finishing the last two thirds in one session.

Set in Ireland during WWII, it’s the story of a boy and a girl, a baby, sibling rivalry, a hard-nosed father who’s NEVER wrong, and strong willed people.

Most of all, it’s a love story and how people sometimes let pride get between them and what they really want,

A well told story that author Gary Dennis keeps moving along nicely as he jumps into the action early and lets us pick up the backstory as we go along.

Quite enjoyed this one.

Worth a look and available HERE.

My Name Is Pecos(Due once di piombi)1967

28 Saturday Dec 2013

Posted by Randy Johnson in movies

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Tags

spaghetti western

Robert Woods, billed occasionally as Robert Wood was born in 1936 in Colorado. He starred in fifty spaghetti westerns, forty-two with top billing, but more familiar films he appeared in were The Battle of The Bulge and an uncredited bit as a guitar player in Where The Boys Are.

In the pre-credit scene, we see a man trudging across the desert, saddle slung over one shoulder, approaching a farm house. A gunman out front confronts him, offers him a drink of water, then mentions that he doesn’t seem to be armed, asking then if he has any money. A twenty appears and the fellow draws a gun, unloading it, saying, “I’ll give you a pistol, you give me the twenty.” Surprisingly meekly, the man complies, only to slip a bullet from his hat band as the man asks his name.

One dead gunman later, he says, “My name is Pecos,” and the credits roll..

The town of Houston is in trouble. An outlaw leader has been terrorizing the village, his gang having hung

eight Marshals in five months, the telegraph wires have been cut, and the citizens keep hoping the Rangers will ride into town.

It’s this scenario in which our hero rides.

First stop is the cemetery where he visits a grave with a crude cross with names of four people scratched onto a plaque attached. All Martinez.

Joe Kline and his gang had chased a wagon into town, with Eddie the bar owner, claiming one barrel before the gang can get arrive, and hide it as a shootout erupts. The wagon driver had been a trusted member of the gang that he double-crossed them after a bank job, making off with the money entrusted to him He’s killed before he reveals where he hid the money.

Kline and Pecos have a past we don’t learn about until near the end of the

film, concerning the Martinez family and the curious scar around Kline’s neck that goes back several years.

Some of the characters in the film are Morton(Umberto Raho), an undertaker/preacher fond of quoting the Bible literally or made up words that sound good. He has a love of money and tries to get some to talk. “I’ll do anything for money, even good!”

The town doctor, Berton(Giuliano Raffaelli) who can’t  do much because years ago Kline smashed all his fingers for not being able to save one of his dying men. Berton has a blond daughter, Mary(Lucia Modugno), who receives too much attention from the outlaws.

Eddie is the slightly crooked bar owner. He has an idealistic young brother, Ned, who loves the Mexican bar maid, Ester(Cristina Josani).

Another spaghetti veteran, George Eastman(billed as Gigi Montefiori), early in his career, has a small role as Kline’s lieutenant and the only gang member with more than a line or two.

One thing that set this film apart from most other westerns, whether spaghetti or American, is the hero is an out-and-out Mexican seeking revenge for the death of the family. The gang members are all white and a nasty bunch. Written by Adriano Bolzoni and directed by Maurizi Lucidi, MY NAME IS PECOS  was an entertaining film, the first of two featuring the Mexican hero.

Because I Like It: Motorhead

26 Thursday Dec 2013

Posted by Randy Johnson in Blues, Motorhead, music

≈ 2 Comments

http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/d5F7uhCIBco&source=uds

Today’s Humor: Grumpy Cat In Normal Mode

26 Thursday Dec 2013

Posted by Randy Johnson in grumpy cat, Humor, Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

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