New Movie Review: Frances Ha

This coming of age film concerns a spirited 27-year-old lady named Frances from NYC who is a dance apprentice with aspirations to join the main company and tour with them. In other words, she wants to get paid for what she loves doing. Hey, don't we all? It's more of a drama than a comedy although there are a number of funny lines. Frances Ha isn't my usual cup of tea, but I found it engaging and entertaining enough to stick with the main character. The plot rambles a bit, but then I guess that's the point as Frances tries to get her feet on the ground. Her closest friend and one-time roommate is Sophie who has her own set of dilemmas to grapple with. They seem to be peas in a pod they're so much alike. One of the themes most striking true for me was Frances' always being broke. I imagine the cost of living in NYC isn't real cheap. The actress playing Frances reminded me of a young Ellen DeGeneres. IMDb.com gives Frances Ha a 7.6/10.0 rating, and I believe that's a fair mark for the type of movie it is.

One of the 16 short stories in Smoking on Mount Rushmore: 16 Selected & New Short Stories is titled "Emily Thrice Stoned." I submitted it to the Shots Crime & Thriller Ezine published in the UK. The fiction editor Sarah Weinman, who later became a noted crime fiction critic and anthologist, accepted my short story. Shots ran my short story in 2005. It's one of my favorites in my collection, and one of these days I hope to expand it into a full-blown novel. The protagonist Payne is a recurring figure in my short stories, and I believe he deserves his own book where he can have a larger say about things. Sort of a the world according to Payne (with apologies to Garp). Anyway, you can read "Emily Thrice Stoned" in an earlier version at this link. Click on through and enjoy your read of a story noirish in tone. http://is.gd/WQDAYI

My Next Isabel & Alma Trumbo Cozy Mystery

 The first novel in the Isabel and Alma Trumbo cozy mystery series was QUIET ANCHORAGE. They are a pair of sisters who play senior sleuths in Quiet Anchorage, a small Virginia town. Think of the popular TV/fiction character Jessica Fletcher of Cabot Cove times two does Virginia. This week I've been proofreading the formatted pages of their second title, THE CASHMERE SHROUD. Isabel and Alma are again called upon to solve a murder mystery. I had a lot of fun writing THE CASHMERE SHROUD, and I'll keep you updated as we proceed along with it. Look for a release later this summer just in time for your beach/poolside reading pleasure. Meantime back to my proofreading.

Tuesday's Overlooked Films: Act of Violence

This 1948 film noir is often cited in the top echelon of the film noirs ever made, and rightfully so. I'd seen parts of it shown on TCM, but this time I saw the entire movie on its DVD release. The film features roles played by Van Heflin, Robert Ryan, Mary Astor, and a very young looking Janet Leigh later famous for her murder-in-the-shower scene from Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece Psycho. I'm not a big Van Heflin fan, but he turns in a tense, conflicted performance as a World War II American officer who ratted out his fellow POWs to the Nazis at a prison camp. The war is finished, and Heflin is married to Janet Leigh. He also enjoys a good job and is a solid citizen. Robert Ryan plays one of the surviving American POWs who vows to kill Heflin to get revenge. I like Robert Ryan and wonder if he'd be better suited for the lead role played by Heflin. At any rate, Heflin undergoes a guilt crisis and wanders through the sleazy streets of L.A. Mary Astor plays the harlot-with-a-golden-heart who tries to help him out. Quite enjoyable fare for the genre.

Movie Review: "Mud"

I've been meaning to catch this nifty coming-of-age film for some time, and I wasn't disappointed. MUD is right in my wheelhouse for prime movie watching. My only quibble is the film takes a while to get cranking. But that's okay because the acting in first rate, drawing me into the different characters. Tye Sheridan and Jacob Lofland playing the two teenage boys are good buddies who somehow manage to find a large fishing boat lodged up in a tree. Not only that but the boat is on island. They live on houseboats, a disappearing subculture in the South we find out during the movie. Matthew McConaughey is living on the boat as a fugitive named Mud who is wanted for killing a man who abused his girlfriend played by Reese Witherspoon. He aims to reunite with Reese and escape on his boat. That's all I'll say about the plot. Don't read the Wikipedia entry which gives away the entire plot. Sam Shepard, one of my favorite actors, has a key role, and the always solid Joe Don Baker also makes a couple of appearances. All in all, I had a great time checking out MUD.

Film Review Stories We Tell

 We watched this pretty good 2012 documentary film made by Sarah Polley and produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). Polley looks at her fractured family life and reveals she is the product of her mother Diane's extramarital affair. This is kept as an open secret by Diane and her friends. She goes to painful lengths to hide it from her husband Paul. After Diane dies at an early age from cancer, Sarah takes on the task of telling her story with the help of the memories from her family members who she interviews on camera. Paul discovers he raised another man's child, but helps out Sarah by using his writing talents to his memoir which is part of Sarah's story. I found the film to be touching, funny, and intelligent. The film runs 108 minutes.

Friday's Forgotten Books: The Bloody Spur by Charles Einstein

I like to consult Geoffrey O'Brien's excellent Hardboiled America: Lurid Paperbacks And The Masters Of Noir as a guide whenever I'm selecting hardboiled/noir titles to read from the classic era (1929-1960). I generally find his picks to be reliable and solid ones. If I had the free time, I'd read all the titles he includes on his checklist. As it is, I've read a good many from there. One of the 1953 hardboiled titles O'Brien selects is The Bloody Spur by Charles Einstein. Munsey's has it available is an e-book, and that's the version I read. The fine writer (I've also enjoyed reading his books) and newspaper editor Wallace Stroby has an eloquent, insightful tribute he wrote about Mr. Einstein: http://is.gd/ydkzsL. From it, I see that Mr. Einstein was an old newspaper man. His The Bloody Spur might be a newspaper noir, if there is such a subgenre. It served as the basis for Fritz Lang's film While the City Sleeps which I should watch pronto. The basic plot is the old man of a big news media conglomerate dies, and there's a four-way scramble by the rivals to get the top dog's position. There are double crosses and laugh-out-loud bawdy jokes. I also got a fascinating in-depth look at the newspaper business of the time. The novel's pace is fast, the prose lucid. Some of the anecdotes are memorable ones. One character has the odd habit of chewing strips of paper! This is first-rate vintage stuff. I just wonder why it took me this long to read The Bloody Spur, but I'm glad I finally did.

Film Noir Review: Black Angel Starring Dan Duryea

I watched this 1946 film noir for two reasons: one, I like Cornell Woolrich's noirs (the movie is based on his novel also titled The Black Angel), and two, I'm becoming a big Dan Duryea fan. I wasn't disappointed either. The storyline uses Woolrich's famous plot twists and rich irony. Peter Lorre turns in a convincing performance as the sleazy night club owner. Duryea is an alcoholic pianist/songwriter who is rescued by the wife of a man who is on death row for the murder of Duryea's wife. How is all this and more pulled off? Watch the film and find out is the best I can tell you. I don't think I've read the Woolrich novel, so I don't know closely the movie adaptation follows it. June Vincent playing the wife does a good job of standing by her man going to the gas chamber even when Duryea tries to romance her. I see on Wikipedia that Woolrich didn't care much for the movie. IMDb.com rates Black Angel as a 7.0/10.0, but I believe it deserves a higher consideration.

I saw this crisp, clear version of Black Angel on YouTube at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs4QLHLC--s
    

What Novel I'm Working On Right Now

I haven't been blogging as much as I was earlier this year. I've been working to complete the final draft of my next cozy mystery series title. It's been going smoothly enough, and I'm generally happy with the results. My editing cycle just takes up large blocks of my time, and once I get up a head of steam, I like to go with it. I hope to finish up the project in the next couple of weeks. For those who don't know, I've been writing a small town cozy mystery series featuring a pair of sisters as senior amateur sleuths. For the most part, I enjoy the protagonists as well as the setting. I hope that fun comes through in my writing and makes for entertaining reading. I've been going back and forth between the genres (hard-boiled and soft-boiled) for most of my fiction writing career. I'll post more updates in my future blog posts. Thanks for hanging with me.

Film Noir Review: The Killer Is Loose

I've seen this short 1956 crime noir film run on TCM a couple of times. Budd Boetticher was the director and the stars included Joseph Cotten, Rhonda Fleming and Wendell Corey. It's a fairly typical film noir fare of the mid-1950s. Corey does a convincing job of playing the well-mannered psycho killer who is bent on revenge by killing the policeman Cotten's pregnant wife who is Fleming. Cotten isn't one of my favorite actors although I did like him in The Third Man. The ending felt a little flat to me, but that's all I'll say about it. Corey is definitely the main attraction with his sometimes sad and sometimes violent side coming to the fore. Not a bad way to spending 75 minutes or so.

The Company We Keep Starring Robert Redford

We recently watched Robert Redford in the 2012 political thriller The Company We Keep. Redford also directed and used an accomplished veteran cast of characters including a gruff-speaking Nick Nolte, Julie Christie, Susan Sarandon, Sam Elliott, Stanley Tucci, Chris Cooper, and Richard Jenkins. The result is a fairly entertaining film. I'm a big Redford fan, so if he's in the movie, I'm already hooked. There are no opening credits, so I spent part of the movie trying to figure out who the actors/actresses were. I know their faces, but I can't put names to all of them. The pace is pretty snappy, there's some suspense, and the plot is solid enough. Redford is a former member of the Weather Underground, a radical activist group. He's wanted for allegedly having killed a bank guard during the group's heist gone south some thirty years before. I found myself thinking of the recent Boston Marathon bombing which detracted a bit from my enjoyment of watching the film. But there's little on-screen violence or sex, and I got caught up in the story making it worthwhile to have paid money to see The Company We Keep.

THE DIRT-BROWN DERBY: My Second P.I. Frank Johnson Novel Now An E-book

My second title in the P.I. Frank Johnson series title The Dirt-Brown Derby is now available on Amazon as a Kindle book.

"Stylistically ambitious w/nice narrative touches & observations."
Jon L. Breen, Ellery Queen Mystery Mag.

"A lovely & gritty, contemporary noir story."
Mark Rose, Bookgasm

"A worthy heir to some of the pulp's best 'eyes'."
Jack Quick, Bookbitch

Film Noir Review: The Tattered Dress Starring Jeff Chandler

This 1957 film noir actually qualifies more of a courtroom drama where Jeffrey Chandler plays a sharpie New York City criminal attorney. He's hired by a wealthy couple in Nevada to defend the wife against a homicide charge. When he arrives in town, he finds a frosty reception, including from the shady sheriff played by Jack Carson. After Chandler gets the wife off free, he's slapped with a juror bribery charge and winds up on trial himself. Most of the action occurs inside the courtroom, and Chandler makes a fairly dramatic lawyer with a deep baritone voice. His newspaper friend/sidekick is Edward Platt, also later to be seen as Don Adams' boss in the TV spy spoof sitcom Get Smart. The director Jack Arnold is better known for his 1950s science fiction films like Creature from the Black Lagoon. The Tattered Dress didn't thrill me maybe because I was expecting something different. Still, it's competently acted with an entertaining plot. I watched it on YouTube at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XYyIvEpabY

Film Noir Review: The Hoodlum

This is a competent, low budget B film noir starring tough guy Lawrence Tiereny made in 1951. I liked it. Tierney later appeared in one of my Seinfeld episodes titled "The Jacket" as Alton Benes, Elaine's tough, gruff father. (Jerry wore the candy-striped jacket that Alton took exception to seeing.) Anyway, Hoodlum is about as gritty as the early films noir ever get, especially the very grim opening scene. Tierney plays an ex-con whose mama helps to win his parole. He goes to work at his brother's (Tierney's real life brother Edward) filling station which happens to be across the street from the local bank. Of course, this gives the crooked Tierney certain ideas, and he's soon recruiting his old gang to make the bank heist. Meantime the cad Tierney moves in on his brother's girlfriend. The bank heist is interesting with a funeral playing a big part in it. The run time is a little over an hour, and the film is a public domain one that can be viewed as streamed online in several places. Worthwhile to check it out if you're a noir fan.

Friday's Forgotten Books: Eleven Days by Donald Harstad

Eleven Days by former deputy sheriff Donald Harstad was published in 1999, fourteen years ago which is a good while, and I guess qualifies as a forgotten book. It's a cop novel of very exceptional merit and gets my recommendation. Deputy Carl Houseman works is Maitland, Iowa, which qualifies as the truest American heartland. He encounters a multiple homicide which is traced to the handiwork of a local Satanic cult. Ghoulish, yes. Carl plainly sees he's overmatched here, but he plugs away in his investigation. I believe he surprises himself with his dogged tenacity and country boy smarts to solve what happened at the farmhouse of death. It takes him eleven days before he's finished. As with most police procedurals, I want to find the protagonist a likeable and sympathetic character. Carl is both. He's married to Sue, and they have their differences over his long work hours and his cop job's dangers. Still, they love each other, and that makes for a satisfying read. There is also a strong sense of authenticity to the narrative as Carl relates it to us. This makes sense because of the author's extensive law enforcement background in rural Iowa. The voice is Carl's frank, straightforward speaking style. He has a cop's often earthy sense of humor, and generally he gets along with his fellow cops, even the hot shot psychological profiler sent out from the New York City PD. The cult leader's identity was a surprise to me. The tension mounts at a nice pace, and Carl collects his share of hard knocks. All in all, I enjoyed my reading week riding alongside Deputy Carl on the job that turns bloody over eleven days before it ends.

Movie Review: "42"

I've been wanting to see 42 for a good while, and it was everything I could ever hope for, and plenty more. The film tells the story of Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman) and his 1947 rookie year playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers and breaking the racial color barrier in MLB. Dodgers owner Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford) offers Jackie a $600 contract with $3,500 signing bonus, and he accepts it. The film's baseball scenes are well done depicting Jackie's scrappy hustle and tremendous baseball talent. Of course, he went on to do other great things. Chadwick Boseman is sensitive while tough as Jackie. I have a new respect for Harrison Ford who does a convincing crusty and wise Branch Rickey. I was glad to see Max Gail from the Barney Miller TV cop sitcom (loved that show) play the Dodgers manager. The 2+ hour movie flew by for me, so it gets my high recommendation.

Film Noir Review: Behind Locked Doors

There is a subgenre of film noir that might be called "insane asylum noir," for the lack of a better term. You know the films where our hero enters a private mental hospital, and all sorts of nasty things befall him. So, I decided to check out this lurid 1948 B-film which runs a scant 63 minutes. Budd Boetticher directed it, and he went on to direct the better known Randolph Scott Westerns. Lucille Bremer playing a newspaper reporter, and Richard Carlson as the slick-talking private eye she hires to go into the nuthouse are the two stars. I must confess I'd never heard of either of them before. The only actor I recognized was the uncredited Tor Johnson who starred in a few Ed Wood movies. Tor plays a violent boxer who is beyond any treatment and is kept in the locked ward. Anyway, Carlson is searching for a corrupt judge who's laying low in the nuthouse. The $10,000 reward money for the judge's capture is what motivates our two protagonists to carry out their crazy caper. The acting is competent, and the story is entertaining enough. I read it was an inspiration for Sam Fuller's Shock Corridor which I haven't watched. IMDb.com rates Behind Locked Doors as 6.5/10.0, and I'd agree with that score. I saw the version on YouTube at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUoapa2lAZ4

Guest Blog: P.I. Frank Johnson

My name is Frank Johnson, and I worked as a licensed private investigator in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Ed Lynskey asked me if I might contribute a guest post on his Cracked Rearview Mirror Blog. My dislike to talk about myself gave me some pause, but Ed is a good guy, so I agreed to do it. Things have been slow for me of late although Ed tells me that will soon change. I understand he's going to re-release his backlist novels as Kindle ebooks which is pretty cool. Many of them are about the  hairiest cases I've taken yet.

I broke into the private eye racket as it's chronicled in Pelham Fell Here. Pelham, Virginia, is my native town where I live in case you're wondering. My next outing is The Dirt-Brown Derby where I tangled with an out-of-town murder case. That one almost did me in. Luckily, I have a sharp and rich criminal lawyer, Robert Gatlin, in my corner. Not long after that, I decided to move from Pelham to Scarab, West Virginia, where I bought a remote cabin in the seemingly tranquil Blue Ridge Mountains. Little did I know that trouble had followed me, all of it recounted in The Blue Cheer. Gerald Peyton, the brawny bounty hunter and my best friend, gave me a big assist there. Finally, I took on a case that sent me to Turkey where I was once stationed as an Army MP. Troglodytesis the name of that nasty, little adventure.

So, give my private investigator tales a read, and keep your eyes alert for the next ones in Ed's books coming down the road. Later, all.

The Final Resting Places of Two Great Crime Writers

A few years ago, there was discussion thread on the rara-avis message board about the grave of Raymond Chandler. A fan had gone in search of it and recounted his experiences while doing it. I remember many years ago of my seeing the grave of Billy the Kid which was enclosed behind steel bars to keep the souvenir hunters from taking away pieces of his tombstone. Or that's what the tour guide told us. Of course, avid rock fans make their pilgrimages to the graves of Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix. I was curious about the final resting spots of hardboiled/noir crime fiction's Big Three. The internet makes it fairly easy to track down such answers. All of their tombstones are simple but elegant markers.  

Raymond Chandler is buried at Mount Hope Cemetery, San Diego, California.
This is the new stone placed at his plot after he was united with his wife Cissy's ashes brought there in 2010.
   

 

This is the old stone placed at the foot of their grave, according to Wikipedia.

 

 

Dashiell Hammett "is buried in Section 12 of Arlington National Cemetery (VA). At one point, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover attempted to block the burial but was overruled in that attempt." (Source: Arlington National Cemetery Website).

 

 

 

 

Film Noir Review: They Live By Night

T
hieves Like Us a few years ago which serves as the basis for this bittersweet film noir released in 1948 and was Director Nicholas Ray's debut feature film. You can't help but think while watching it of the Bonnie and Clyde movie with Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. Here we find a young married couple on the dodge after robbing a bank. Farley Granger stars as "Bowie" Bowers and Cathy O'Donnell is "Keechie" Mobley. They're both very innocent and vulnerable looking, but they're on the wrong side of the law. Farley has murdered a cop, so he's a killer. Since this is noir, we know they're headed for a doomed end. The sound quality of the DVD I watched included lots of static that was distracting, especially trying to hear the spoken dialogue, but I liked the movie just the same. The gritty Depression-era atmosphere is nicely done. The camera work shot from a helicopter of the fleeing car was the first time ever done in a movie. If you can find a better copy than the one I watched, then I'd recommend this film noir.

Picking Names For My Novels' Characters

I've named a few more characters in my various novels, and I decided it was a good time to revisit this seemingly easy but very difficult (for me) writing task. I've listed my latest thoughts to share with you.

1. Colorful or odd nicknames, first names, and surnames give me pause. Just visualize how the other kids would've teased your poor character, sort of like the picked on dude named Sue in the old Johnny Cash song.

2. I know localities are discontinuing to print the white phone pages. Pity. It's a mine of name possibilities. The online phone directories haven't been a suitable replacement for me.

3. I like to use Google and find surveys of which first names were the most popular when my character was born. I may or may not go with the trend.

4. Picking names off gravestones is an intriguing idea. Of course you can't be trespassing on cemetery property. Maybe when attending a graveside service is a good time to do a little, discrete snooping.

5. Be careful when using real people's names. We heard Reynolds Price say he asked his lawyer approach the real Blue Calhoun for permission to use his name for a novel's protagonist/title.

6. Consulting obituaries from where your character hails from is fair game. George Pelecanos said he does that. The trick is to MIX the names to avoid the problem in No. 5.

7. Saying your character's name out loud should help you to avoid picking a tongue-twister or hard to pronounce name.

8. I'm finding that less is more in my characters' name selections. Multi-syllable names just don't ring as true in my crime fiction.

9. Something else I've been doing is to give myself permission to change the character names while I'm writing the first draft.

10. Constant tinkering is also okay even during the subsequent editing rounds, especially for the protagonist(s). Sleep on a name choice before you run the global search, delete, and insert.

11. Sometimes the names will pop into your mind, but I've yet to wake up in the middle of the night with a burning choice. I know a novel title (The Dirt-Brown Derby) occurred to me while chowing down on a blooming onion at Outback.

12. I prefer to name any character that has a speaking role in my novels, even if it's just by their first name.

13. None of the rules above have to apply, at all. Just go with your gut feeling.

PELHAM FELL HERE: First E-book Release of My Private Eye Series Debut Title

It's taken long enough, but it's finally happened. The first e-book version of PELHAM FELL HERE, my debut title in the P.I. Frank Johnson Mystery Series, has just been released as a Kindle. PELHAM FELL HERE was also my first published novel made extra special by the James Crumley cover blurb it earned. I've included excerpts from some of the reviews written for PELHAM FELL HERE.

"Wow. If you are a Lee Childs fan, then plan on grabbing this one to keep you going between Jack Reacher adventures...we want to see more of this guy." --Jack Quick, bookbitch.com and 4 Mystery Addicts (4MA) Yahoo Group

"Gritty." --Faye Dasen, Southern Pines (NC) Pilot

"Fast-paced...strong characterization...Lynskey has created a gritty, violence-packed tale of murder and mayhem...quite entertaining." --Ray Walsh, Lansing State Journal

"He has woven a mystery that has layers of intrigue, unanswered questions, characters that make you cringe and some that are endeared to your heart, and a plot as thick as molasses." --Shirley Johnson, Top 1,000 Amazon Reviewer

As always, Frank and I thank you for your interest!

Jobs Going Extinct: My Morning Newspaper Deliveryman

"I sell the morning paper, sir, my name is Jimmy Brown.
Everybody knows that I'm the newsboy of the town."
Written by Bill Monroe, "Jimmy Brown the Newsboy," 1959, performed by Flatt & Scruggs: You can listen to them by clicking on this link.

I thought of this old timey bluegrass music song while sitting at my laptop working this morning. I'm up way before the roosters, and I can hear the guy driving around the streets in my still and quiet neighborhood. The distinctive "plops" I hear come from his pitching out the bundled newspapers into my and my fellow subscribers' driveways as he passes by us. He must have a bazooka of a throwing arm by now. He's not exactly like Jimmy Brown the newsboy in the Bill Monroe song because my delivery guy drives a car and covers a much longer route.

Fewer and fewer of us troglodytes are getting the dead trees version of the newspaper. I strongly suspect our newspaper will eventually discontinue offering their product in the paper version. It's cheaper going digital, and saving money is the name of the profitable game nowadays. The guy who does the pre-dawn deliveries will be out of a job. I'll probably miss reading the Sports section on old-fashion paper even if I sell my novels and short story collections as e-books.

I'm thinking I might do a series of blog posts on the different jobs out there that seem to be going the way of the passenger pigeon and dinosaur. Maybe newer technologies emerge and displace such workers as the newspaper deliveryman I hear every morning driving around distributing his wares. Perhaps you can think of the jobs you've noticed slipping away from the scene. Drop me a comment, if you will.

Film Noir Review: David Goodis' The Burglar Starring Dan Duryea

This film noir very much interested me. Noir icon David Goodis wrote the book and the film script for the movie shot in 1953 and not released until 1957. The always reliable Dan Duryea stars as the leader of a robbery ring who pulls a jewelry heist in Philly. Jayne Maynesfield in a subdued role is part of the gang and his female ward. Martha Vickers plays his girlfriend with other things on her mind. Since this is noir, there are double-crosses and infighting over the hot emerald necklace. The low budget film also takes place in Atlantic City where the ending is much like Orson Welles' The Lady From Shanghai. IMDb.com rates The Burglar 6.7/10.0, but I like Duryea plus Goodis' heavy involvement in the film also appeals to me. He kept the movie script faithful to his novel by the same name. I viewed it on YouTube at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnfpwM..

Major League Baseball Opens Today in Washington, D.C.

I'm working at home this afternoon with the baseball game on between the Nats and Marlins. Opening day is always fun to watch, or even better to be there at the ballpark. We fans in Washington, D.C. had a long, dry period before a professional club came here. We inherited the Montreal Expos, a fabulous club. The first several years were lean ones, but I still enjoyed the game as a fan. I don't know if the Nats will do the great things predicted and expected of them, but I do know it's a lot of thrills to have baseball to watch. I have four book reviews to finish this week along with my own work, so I probably won't make it downtown to see the game in person. But there will be 164 other games to watch and some of those games will be at home.