And may all of your Christmases be bronze!
Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child are, perhaps, best known for their long-running series of adventures involving FBI agent Aloysius Pendergast. Individually, they have also authored a number of imaginative thrillers that poise them as the successors to Michael Crichton. Now, they introduce a new character, Gideon Crew, in Gideon’s Sword ($26.99; Grand Central Publishing; 2011; hardback; 342 pp.).
Gideon Crew is a young man, the son of a dead scientist framed for the death of 26 spies who died due to the failure of a secret code. Crew’s mother makes a death bed plea that he find the man responsible and bring him to justice. Crew’s success — which took several years and all of his finances –brings him to the attention of Eli Glinn, head of Engineering Solutions, EES, a private contractor who executes delicate operations for the government and certain private clients.
Crew’s mission, should he accept it, is to intercept Wu Longwei, a Chinese scientist arriving in the U.S., and obtain from him what the CIA believes is a new kind of weapon, a Chinese Manhattan Project.
In 1957 and 1958 Hammer Film Productions out of Britain reinvigorated the horror genre with their films The Curse of Frankenstein and Horror of Dracula. For the first time, classic horror monsters were presented in handsomely mounted color period pieces. Additionally, they featured blood and seductive women. The enormous world wide success of these movies kept the studio busy turning out one horror movie after another for the next couple of decades.
Hammer was never entirely about horror. They produced three science fiction films based on Nigel Kneale’s Quatermass series, released period adventures, and shot quite a few comedies, too. Another area they ventured into was the psychological thriller. Movies like Paranoia, Nightmare, Die! Die! My Darling, and Crescendo, among others, were released over the years.
Yep, that’s right. Oscar. That little guy who represents the highest honor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Sunday, February 27 was his night as The 83rd Annual Academy Awards were presented for outstanding artistic achievements.
The Oscars have become a somewhat declasse event, at least to hear people talk. Lots of, in fact, it seems most, folks like to declare that they don’t watch television and the biggest show they don’t watch, besides American Idol, is the Academy Awards.
Generally these people talk about what an overblown, self congratulatory, interminable bore the show is as it usually clocks in at near four hours. They don’t like the way the songs are handled, the presenters, or any number of aspects that represent the Oscars. In short, AMPAS can’t get anything right. And, they’re pretty passionate about their disgust.
I’m on the other side of the issue. I like the Oscars. I watch every year. Wouldn’t miss ‘em. And, I record them. Yeah, have since 1985. So, if you don’t like the awards, read no further.
January brings the beginning of the Awards Season, the Golden Globes an appetizer for the upcoming Academy Awards ceremony. The recent GG award show put me in mind of last year’s fete.
Many filmmakers, including Quentin Tarantino and members of his film Inglourious Basterds, were nominated for awards and, hence, were present at the broadcast.
At one point Martin Scorcese was given the Cecil B. DeMille award. This, like the Oscar’s Irving G. Thalberg award, is one given for a consistency of excellence in production. Actually, the Thalberg award is one named after a studio head who actually wanted to make good movies, not just financially successful movies. DeMille, the director, was more of a showman, wanting to give audiences spectacular if sometimes corny and over-the-top entertainments, which they lapped up for decades.
Scorcese took the dais to accept his award though the seriousness of his films makes the Thalberg, rather than the DeMille, award more appropriate. Graciously, the director, who is deeply steeped in the history and lore of Old Hollywood and motion picture history — one would not be wrong in calling him a film scholar — spent some of his time backgrounding this Cecil B. DeMille.
by Curt Hardaway
“Wasting my precious time so you don’t have to.”
Held at Kezilla’s Carrollton Manor, the 2-19-11 Monster Kid meeting was attended by Kez, Oldmanster, FXRH, Count Gamula and me.
Kez’s wife, Carrie, was sadly out of town, so we were forced to forage for food ourselves. As usual, Oldmanster brought potato chips and sour cream dip, a cherry pie (that man loves cherry pie) and beer (always a welcome addition). For the main course and extras, Kez stopped at two different fast food places: for chicken nuggets and barbecue dipping sauce, it was Chik-fil-A; for biscuits & honey and a chocolate chip cake, it was Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Believe it or not, I’ve never had anything from Chik-fil-A, and that’s not because it’s a “Christian values” operation. I didn’t know anything about that until one time I decided to try it out and was shocked to find all the outlets closed on Sunday, per the Christian thing. So I try these chicken nuggets and get some pieces stuck in my throat, choking for about 20 minutes. Kez was getting pretty concerned (everyone else said, “Let ‘im die!”), but I finally dislodged the offending orts (that’s your crossword puzzle word-of-the-day). Was this some kind of a warning from the Chik-fil-A god? I don’t know.
What I do know is that those chicken nuggets are pretty damn good.
by Curt Hardaway
“Wasting my precious time so you don’t have to.”
At FXRH’s place on 2-12-11, it was him, Kezilla, Count Gamula and me. Wondering where all the other Monster Kids were? Don’t worry about it!
I picked up two rotisserie chickens from Kroger, along with regular and BBQ potato chips, good ol’ green beans (except to Count Gamula) and vanilla ice cream. Hey, it was a change from the usual Chicken Express, so don’t worry about it!
First up was BEYOND THE BLUE HORIZON (1942) starring Dorothy Lamour, Richard Denning and Jack Haley. The last time I saw this film was about 30 years ago, and it’s been a really difficult one to track down. But Kezilla is a veritable whiz on these matters and found it shortly after I mentioned it. Maybe I should ask him to track down LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT (1927).
Click the cover to visit the Doc Savage Fantasy Cover Gallery.
I had just started getting my Spider Pulp Replicas, published by Girasol Collectibles and was thumbing through the premier issue (October 1933) THE SPIDER STRIKES, penned by R. T. M. Scott, when I noticed that the cover had been illustrated by Doc Savage pulp cover artist William M. Baumhofer. It features multiple characters getting caught up in the Spider’s web. For the first few issues the Spider was represented by a hand wearing a ring emblazoned with with a scarlet spider. The masked and cloaked cover version of the character wouldn’t be featured until the March 1934 issue.
The first issue of THE SPIDER, October 1933, illustrated by Walter M. Baumhofer.
The premier issue of Doc Savage Magazine, March 1933. Cover illustration by Walter M. Baumhofer.
Click the cover to visit the Doc Savage Fantasy Cover Gallery.
A CRIMSON SEAL OF DEATH!
Evil men were dying, pierced by a single 45 caliber bullet, their cold foreheads stamped with a blood red arachnid, trademark of their killer . Doc Savage had turned a blind eye to this vigilante as the victims invariably were well deserving of their violent ends. But when skyscrapers begin to fall, endangering the lives of thousands of New Yorkers, and Doc’s only clue is that taunting scarlet symbol, the Man of Bronze knows he must finally come face to face with the Spider.
When Bantam books began reprinting the adventures of Doc Savage in 1964, it’s success spawned the reprinting of many different pulp series, but none would have the success of the Doc Savage books. In 1969, Berkley Books threw their hat into the pulp reprint ring with G-8 AND HIS BATTLE ACES and THE SPIDER.
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by Curt Hardaway
“Wasting my precious time so you don’t have to.”
I’m always up for a slasher film, just like I’m always up for a Japanese giant monster movie. But the problem with both of those genres is that there just aren’t very many that can truthfully be considered good, solid cinema-going experiences.
HALLOWEEN (1978) still stands as the best slasher film ever made, even though there’s very little blood to be found and no gore. I also think several of the original NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET films are a cut above the norm. And I really like TERROR TRAIN (1980), too.
Dear to my heart, though, is the original MY BLOODY VALENTINE, celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Not only does it spin a decent yarn, it also delivers the goods in evocative horror and grisly gore.
