Tuesday's Forgotten Movies: DEAD RECKONING Starring Humphrey Bogart

This fine 1947 film noir stars Humphrey Bogart as a grizzled World War Two paratrooper veteran and Lizabeth Scott as the blonde bombshell femme fatale. The last scene is fabulous, which is all I'll say about it. The plot left me scratching my head in a few places, but I thought the movie was well-acted, and it satisfies all of the things you expect from a film noir. There is lots of cigarette smoking, and a safecracker pal even smokes a pipe. Scott sings a torch song at a club that captures Bogie's heart, well, sort of, anyway. The setting is a small Southern city called Gulf City where it's hot. New Orleans is mentioned once, and I saw lots of Spanish moss on the trees. I read where Rita Hayworth was supposed to play the femme, but she was in the top brass's doghouse. Bogie is always watchable, and he has some great lines (pulp author Steve Fisher wrote the screenplay). All in all, Dead Reckoning is a worthwhile crime drama.

Current Movie Review: SELMA

We got up early and caught the matinee show of the new American historical drama film, SELMA. It recounts the actual events surrounding Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s civil rights protest march to the Edmund Pettus Bridge, in 1965, and, later, his march to the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery to end the third march from Selma. There's been controversy raised about the film's historical accuracy, which I haven't been really following. I wanted to watch a good movie, and that's what I got for my ticket money. I haven't seen American Sniper playing in the next theater, so I don't have a basis of comparison, but I have to wonder about David Oyelowo getting passed over for the Academy Award nominations. Though SELMA carries a PG-13 rating, some of the protest scenes are a little brutal and bloody. I remember the events taking place, though I was a kid, at the time. The movie grabbed my attention from the start, and I was never unengaged during its 2 hours, 7 minutes runtime.

Book One Release To My New Cozy Mystery Series: THE CORPSE WORE GINGHAM

As I mentioned on my blog, this year I worked on developing and establishing a second and new cozy mystery series. This one is set in the Northern Virginia suburbs outside of Washington, D.C., where a retired couple decide to take up amateur sleuthing. They help a neighbor friend to solve a murder. I've had a lot of fun writing the first book, and the early sales and reader comments have been encouraging. 

NOTE: If you'd like to get a copy of my books newsletter for my next release late this spring, send me your email, and I'll gladly add you to my mailing list. I offer subscribers discounts before my general book release.          

The Corpse Wore Gingham. Piper and Bill Robins, a retired married couple, are enjoying their leisure years spent in the tranquil, leafy Washington, D.C. suburb of Beverly Park, Virginia. One sunny June afternoon, Emily Davenport, who lives in California, telephones Bill and asks if he’ll check on her elderly mother Anna living next door to the Robinses. She hasn’t answered Emily’s repeated attempts to call. After Bill and Piper go over, they discover Anna is murdered. The only found clue is her bloodstained gingham bathrobe. Appalled and even more outraged, Piper persuades Bill to become wife-and-husband amateur sleuths, and they set out to identify Anna’s killer. Meantime, Bill’s younger sister Noreen, a retired CPA, joins the Robinses. She taps her retired cop boyfriend Rick Novak and her mysterious, very opinionated tuxedo tomcat Snoozy Q for help. Besides a clean read and fair play modern “whodunit” mystery, The Corpse Wore Gingham offers readers likeable protagonists, good-natured humor, and a lively pace. Fans of my Isabel and Alma Trumbo Cozy Mystery Series should also like reading about Piper & Bill's adventures. 

Kindle: http://bookShow.me/B00S1QRSKU

Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-corpse-wore-gingham-ed-lynskey/1121021684?ean=2940150178540  

American Soldiers And Their War Brides

 Recently, I watched the 1951 war romance film titled "Teresa" directed by Fred Zinnemann (High Noon) and starring Pier Angeli and John Ericson. Ralph Meeker, Rod Steiger (debut), and James Coburn (uncredited) also starred in it. The premise was straightforward enough. Ericson played an American G.I. stationed in World War Two-Italy where he falls in love with the village young lady Angeli. Of course, they want to get married, and that's where I was surprised. The village priest marries them, and Ericson marches off to fight the war with his unit while Angeli waits for him. At the war's end, he ships home with the other American G.I.s, and she arrives later, after the official paperwork clears, with a bunch of other war brides. They are reunited. I knew the America G.I.s married the foreign women they met while in uniform and fighting, but I didn't realize it happened while the war still went going on. I'll have to do a little more reading on the point when I get a chance. Anyway, the movie "Teresa" was entertaining enough. Review to follow.

Who Gets An Exercise Bike For Christmas?

Apparently, several of my neighbors did this year from what I've observed. During my daily walks over the past couple of weeks, I've noticed the different packing boxes left with the other recycled material out at the curbstones. One of the things I've seen at least three times has been exercise bikes or other such workout equipment. I guess it has taken this long since Christmas for the folks to figure out how to build the equipment from the parts that come in the boxes. That by itself was probably a good workout for them. It would be for me since I'm not mechanically inclined. At any rate, I'm imagining the folks making their New Year's Resolutions probably included keeping some type of an exercise regimen. Good intentions and all that are good stuff. I'm not a big fan of using exercise bikes or treadmills or whatever. I like getting out of the house, even on the cold, snowy days. On the other hand, I also do a lot of silent cursing and doubting my sanity on the worst days I walk outdoors. I only hope I don't see all the exercise bikes and such given as gifts this Christmas put out at the curbstone next year for junk pickup.

Tuesday's Overlooked Films: They Made Me A Killer

This 1946 film noir/crime drama is one of the B-movies produced by Paramount Studios at their Pine-Thomas unit. The best thing going for the movie is Daniel Mainwaring (Build My Gallows High/Out of the Past) was one of the script writers. Robert Lowery plays a tough-talking mechanic who blows Chicago after his brother dies and head for California to find his fortunes. He drives a big car with a powerful engine which he wants to sell to raise some money. He manages to get himself involved in a bank robbery and is forced at gunpoint to be the wheelman. After the cops grab him up, he escapes and goes on the run to prove his innocence and clear his good name. The attractive Barbara Britton plays the love interest who assists Lowery. Things step right along over the hour-long movie. One of the interesting minor characters is the Ma Barker-type older lady who hides out the bank robbers in the cellar of her restaurant. The copy I watched streamed to my laptop was bad quality. Not a terrific crime noir but enjoyable enough.

Tuesday's Forgotten Films: Foxcatcher (Current Movie)

This 2014 sports thriller movie is a long (134 minutes) and rather flat film, at least to this disappointed viewer. Super rich John du Pont (Steve Carell) invites Olympic wrestler Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum) to live on his big country manor estate and form a wrestling team to compete in the 1988 Olympics. Mark's older brother Dave (Mark Ruffalo), despite some misgivings, supports his kid brother's move. Dave, also an Olympic wrestler, is also Mark's coach and mentor. The problem is John wants to take over that role in Mark's life and career. Carell does a good job with the du Pont character (based on a true story), but du Pont is too wooden, humorless, and restrained. (Plus, Carell has a ridiculously huge nose as part of his makeup.) He interacts with his mother Jean played by Vanessa Redgrave, but maybe their distant and loveless relationship should've been further explored. We see that she likes the thoroughbred horses, and he doesn't. But something else sure needed to happen to generate tension and suspense. Anyway, the talented Ruffalo was fine as he always is in any picture I've watched him act in. Foxcatcher isn't a terrible movie, by any stretch, but maybe I'll enjoy the next movie I see more. I hope so.