Tuesday's Overlooked Films: The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)

I usually post my Tuesday's Overlooked Films on Monday, but this one is going to be a busy one, so I'm posting today. I've had a yen for some time to watch a Sherlock Holmes film if just to break up my steady diet of films noir. I've enjoyed reading the Sherlock Holmes stories since I was a kid. So, I decided on the best story I remember reading. The 1939 film adaptation with Basil Rathbone as the famous British sleuth is regarded as one of the better ones. I like the lean and dark-featured Rathbone. He seems to have a droll sense of humor, too. Nigel Bruce as the bumbling Dr. Watson I'd like to see as a little more on the ball. Rathbone and Bruce would go on to make 13 more Sherlock Holmes movies. The mean dog used in the scenes gave me a bit of a fright. I would NOT want to meet up with this Fido on a foggy, dark street or moor. It was good to see John Carradine playing the Baskervilles' butler and possible murder suspect. I enjoyed reliving the tale all these years later with this realistic film set in the right Victorian period. IMDb.com gives it a 7.7 score which is really high. But I don't quibble with it. Great stuff and superior entertainment.

My Newest Crime Novel: TOPAZ MOON

My latest crime novel Topaz Moon was first released this week as an ebook. The paperback version hit the streets a short while back. The publisher is Crossroad Press who also brought out my crime noirs Ask The Dice and Blood Diamonds, both original releases. The best way I know how to describe Topaz Moon is to call it a suburban crime noir with romance. It is similar in that way to Ask The Dice and Blood Diamonds.

Here's the book description for Topaz Moon. Criminal attorney Hondo Gunn is practicing law in the Virginia town of Emerald Shire where he falls for a younger woman, Aggie Essex, who works for an IT firm. Hondo once served as the consigliore for an organized crime outfit headed by its ruthless chieftain, Drake Hardcastle, and his equally ruthless and gorgeous daughter Maeve. They strike a deal so Hondo can leave Chicago on the condition he has to return if Maeve ever needs his legal expertise. Years later, after Drake dies under suspicious circumstances, Maeve orders Hondo back to help her run the outfit she now leads. Her message reaches Hondo in Emerald Shire, but smitten with Aggie, he balks since he understandably wishes to remain close to her. When Maeve learns of his refusal, she grows angry and decides she must personally teach her maverick lawyer to honor his commitments. Topaz Moon is a stylish, fast-paced crime novel about obsession, greed, and passion with the strong-willed Maeve and Aggie raging at the center of Hondo’s maelstrom.

I hope you'll consider putting Topaz Moon on your reading list.

Tuesday's Overlooked Films: Crime Wave Starring Sterling Hayden

This 1954 police procedural crime movie directed by André De Toth stars Sterling Hayden, Gene Nelson, Phyllis Kirk, and a young Charles Bronson (credited as Charles Buchinsky). Nelson plays an ex-con married to Kirk and gone straight when his old prison buddies, including the hood Bronson, show up on the dodge after making a prison break. The fugitives have a large bank heist plan in mind and pressure Nelson into playing the wheelman (pilot). Hayden is a wide-shouldered, square-jawed cop determined to stop the bank robbery and catch the fugitives. He gnaws on toothpicks in place of smoking cigarettes when he isn't growling out orders. I'm not a big fan of Hayden in his other movie roles I've seen, but I liked in this movie just fine. The onsite black-and-white photography of L.A. and Glendale/Burbank provides us with a nice snapshot of a past time and place. Wikipedia says many of the buildings and landmarks have been since razed, sad perhaps but not surprising. I also enjoyed seeing Bronson who does a good job playing a swarthy thug. IMDb.com rates Crime Wave as a 7.4/10 which I quibble with as being a bit on the high side. I watched Crime Wave on the DVD box set bought from Warner Brothers.

My First Paying Job

The start of the warm months remind me of my first regularly paying job. It was a summer job, of course. I worked the grills at our local McDonald's restaurant. It was hot and tiring work, especially when a busload of hungry customers piled into the front lobby. The pay was low, but it was better than nothing, so I loved getting it. We got free food for our break. I consumed lots of fries and Big Macs. I worked the evening shift (4-12, or whatever times I finished up) which also included closing the store. If you have ever worked as a store closer, you know how much stuff that entails. Much of it involved taking inventory and cleaning the equipment. Scraping and cleaning the hot grill was done with pickle juice. I don't remember much else about the actual job. Since I watch my weight due to high cholesterol, I haven't eaten at a McDonald's in many years. I can't say I miss eating the food there, but I'll always very much appreciate the hard work the diligent folks behind the counter do for their customers.

You Can "Like" The Reading Samples From My Published Novels

Goodreads allows the authors to post samples of their writing to their Goodreads account. I have always appreciated the useful feature both as a writer and a reader. As I published my different crime novels (private eye, noir, and cozy) over the past few years, I included a reading sample from each novel, usually the first chapter. For my short story collection, Smoking on Mount Rushmore: 16 Selected & New Short Stories, I posted two of the shorter stories as reading samples. The reader feedback and comments I have received have been positive and supportive of the reading samples. The one-page list of all my reading samples found on Goodreads appears at the link below. If you have a free moment or fancy a quick read, please click over and take a look. If the reading sample appeals to you, please also feel free to hit the "LIKE" button. We authors really appreciate it!

Goodreads link to the reading samples from my published novels posted on Goodreads (click on the link). 

Tuesday's Overlooked Films: IN A LONELY PLACE starring Humphrey Bogart

This 1950 crime noir starring Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame with Frank Lovejoy in a minor role as a cop detective consistently places on the best-of lists for the film noir subgenre. Bogart is often credited for the best performance of his acting career in his playing the role of Dixon Steele, a washed up Hollywood screen writer. He is accused of murdering a hat check girl who he brings back to his apartment to give him the plot summary of a prosaic novel he's supposed to adapt into a film script. He then sends her off to the cabstand with twenty dollars. The next morning she is found murdered as a dump job. Of course, Steele is regarded as the lead suspect. His neighbor Gloria Grahame (perhaps also her best role) becomes his love interest who is unsure if he is the killer or not. Bogie looks a little worn around the edges, but it fits the rugged, proud, and lonely character he plays. There is lots of cigarette smoking. Unfiltered cigarettes, I believe. I'm used to seeing it in film noir, but this time I saw it more it seemed. At any rate, I immensely enjoyed watching IN A LONELY PLACE and can't really add anything to what has already been said. It is choice film noir, and I am curious enough to now want to read Dorothy B. Hughes' novel. I've already read a few of her works like The So Blue Marble and remember liking them.