Tuesday's Overlooked Movies: The Seven-Ups

This 1973 gritty cop movie ran at the theater, but I never got around to watching it for one reason or the other. Flash forward to now, and I finally did see it. I have to go with a big thumbs-up. In his first starring role, Roy Scheider (he played the police chief in the blockbuster hit Jaws) is a maverick NYPD cop who leads an elite undercover detective team called the Seven-Ups because they bust the felons who serve seven and up years of prison time. The director Philip D'Antoni also worked on cop thrillers like Bullitt and The French Connection. There's an exciting car chase that is filmed like the chase scene from The French Connection. The car chase ends with the pursuing car ramming into the rear end of a parked tractor-trailer and peeling off the roof a la Jayne Mansfield. Most of the movie was shot on location in New York City, so the landmarks are probably familiar to a native. The plot is fairly straightforward, and Schneider does a good job as a tough cop who gets the job done, and his bosses like that about him. The Seven-Ups reminds me of Serpico which I did get to see at the cinema when it ran. I liked The Seven-Ups, and Scheider was a solid actor who died in 2008.

My Second Cozy Mystery Series

I've spent a great deal of my summer developing a second cozy mystery series as a complement my Isabel and Alma Trumbo Mystery Series. I've set the new cozy series in the D.C. suburbs, and the protagonists are a retired married couple. Of course, Isabel and Alma are senior sisters who like to do their sleuthing in the small town of Quiet Anchorage, Virginia. The contrast of the suburban and small town settings are quite different in some respects while alike in others. The suburban neighborhood is like a small town with its own stores and businesses. The residents in the neighborhoods shop in the places they are familiar with and prefer like just as the townspeople do. At least that's been my thinking while I wrote the first book. Isabel and Alma aren't going away and will be back with a new book next year. Anyway, I like my new protagonists, and I hope my readers will, as well. I'll blog more about my progress and plans as the autumn unfolds.

Tuesday's Overlooked Films: The Mob Starring Broderick Crawford

This 1951 crime drama stars Broderick Crawford is a precursor to better known On the Waterfront which hit the theaters three years later. This promotional still from the movie shows Crawford and Neville Brand who looks just like a thug in the movies I've watched with him in the cast. Crawford and Brand later get into a good fight scene. The movie takes place in a port city somewhere north of New Orleans. St. Louis, maybe. I didn't catch where if it's given in the movie. Crawford is a burly actor who makes for a good, tough cop (he won his Academy Award for playing Willie Stark in All the Kings Men). I liked him in this role where he goes undercover to investigate the mob involvement along the wharf. Charles Bronson has an uncredited bit part as a longshoreman. Richard Kiley and Ernest Borgnine also play meaty roles. Be sure to check out how the cops run a tail job in the days before the electronic transmitters were used. Even though the dialogue is corny in spots, The Mob is a good, solid film I found entertaining to watch.

Tuesday's Overlooked Films: Two O'clock Courage Starring Jane Greer

This 1945 film noir from RKO has a lot more comedy than it does noir. I went ahead and watched it anyway. It's an early film directed by Anthony Mann (The Naked Spur, Western I like very much), plus Bettejane Greer stars in it. She'd later be Jane Greer with Robert Mitchum in Out of the Past which ranks in my Top Ten Films Noir. So, those two reasons alone were enough to intrigue me. Tom Conway stars as an amnesia victim who wisecracking cabbie Ann Rutherford picks up and then helps to unravel why he is caught in a murder. Cabbies, then and now, are so helpful at least in the movies, I suppose. Jane Greer plays a boozy chippie and looks like she's having a lot of fun making the picture. Rutherford and Conway play amateur sleuths tracking down the clues and finally exposing the real killer in a rather conventional whodunit. Still, Two O'clock Courage is a C+ 68-minute movie I enjoyed watching.

Tuesday's Overlooked Films: The Turning Point (1952)

This 1952 crime drama, base on a short story by Horace McCoy ( They Shoot Horses, Don't They?) is what you'd expect from a crime movie about the special prosecutor trying to break a midwestern city's crime syndicate. By now, the film noir theme feels like a familiar one to me. So, the film has to have something else going for it, and, fortunately, this film does. What makes it stand out is the sharp acting of a young William Holden as a dogged investigative reporter and Edmond O'Brien as the crusading special prosecutor. As I have said before, O'Brien leaves me hot or cold. This time I like his acting. Alexis Smith in a minor role plays the love interest. Ed Begley plays the ruthless crime kingpin that Holden and O'Brien are struggling to take down. Enjoyable fare.

My Science Fiction Novel: THE QUETZAL MOTEL

I've been getting the rights back on my back list titles and re-releasing them as e-books over the past few months. One such novel is my only science fiction title, The Quetzal Motel. Here is the new front cover art I used. I enjoyed writing the science fiction novel, which also has a mystery/crime subplot to it. When I was writing a lot of short stories, I did quite a few stories in the speculative fiction vein. Most of my fiction output now falls in the mystery/crime genre. Anyway, I might try my hand again at writing another science fiction book, but I don't have any immediate plans to do so. Check out The Quetzal Motel if you like the pulpy sort of science fiction.  

Round Two: Revising My Next Cozy Mystery Series Title

Labor Day marks the end of summer and the start of autumn, although I'm sweating today like it's mid-July. But I have no complaints about the weather. I always feel like I write better fiction when it's summer than during the winter cold blahs.

The kids here started back to school this week, and I pass them grouped on the street corners waiting for their busses during my daily walk. I always enjoyed the beginning of the school year, especially in the lower grades. I had no idea back then I would be writing novels a few decades later. At any rate, it was fun to see old friends and make new ones. Plus, the subjects always interested me with the exception of math which I detested. I still do. Words come easier to me than numbers ever did.

This week I began the second round of revisions to my next cozy mystery series title. I'm calling it SWEET BETSY as the working title that is subject to change at any time. The series protagonists Isabel and Alma Trumbo entertain me with their stories. They're sisters living and sleuthing together in a small town called Quiet Anchorage. It's not found on Google Maps. Right now, it's a little rough going while I'm getting their narrative and plotline straightened out. But once the kinks are worked out, I believe the revising will turn a bit easier and smoother.

I'll be checking in here at my blog more often as the autumn progresses. I've been running my film reviews every Tuesday with the Tuesday's Overlooked Movies gang. It's relaxing to watch a movie than it is to read a book these days while I'm writing my own novels. Thanks for reading my blog postings.

Current Movie Review: Woody Allen's MAGIC IN THE MOONLIGHT

I liked Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris and wasn't so crazy about Blue Jasmine. Magic in the Moonlight probably falls somewhere in the middle. The main stars are Emma Stone and Colin Firth, both who try to lift up the so-so script to offer an entertaining performance. Emma is a mystic and clairvoyant in 1928 France, and Colin, a renowned British magician, sets out to expose her as a charlatan. However, when she gives him choice tidbits about his personal life, he begins to believe maybe she is the real deal. A shifty romance springs up between them, although he seems as clueless about love as Doc Martin is on the TV series I enjoy watching. Magic in the Moonlight has a gorgeous setting, lots of spritely jazz tunes from the time period, and the bright parties never seem to stop. Gatsby and Nick would fit right in here. There is a pacing problem as the large patches of dialogue slow down the action. I have to remind myself of the same thing when I'm revising my novels. When I start checking the luminous dial on my wrist watch as I did while I was seeing Magic in the Moonlight, I know things aren't moving along enough to engage my full interest. Still, it was cute and charming. I found myself rooting for the two protagonists, and I laughed out loud a time or two. Fun stuff, Magic in the Moonlight satisfied my Labor Day cinema fix.