This is the 109th in my series of Forgotten Obscure or Neglected Films

After last week’s rant, I thought it might be good to find a film I have enjoyed over the years and talk nicely about it. This last Thanksgiving I found a big DVD sale at Amazon [Read it all...]]]> Forgotten Films: Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

This is the 109th in my series of Forgotten Obscure or Neglected Films

After last week’s rant, I thought it might be good to find a film I have enjoyed over the years and talk nicely about it. This last Thanksgiving I found a big DVD sale at Amazon where there were a large number of films available at low prices. The musical version of Little Shop of Horrors was on the list for about $5 if I recall correctly so it went onto the order stack. It’s only been 6 ½ months since it arrived so I guess it was time to view.

I am a fan of the original LSoH which I first saw on TV one afternoon in the 60’s in glorious black and white. I enjoyed it and was surprised when it made the transfer to Broadway musical in the early 1980’s. I was pleased when it was filmed and I saw it opening weekend at the theater in Dallas. Has it really been 27 years since this came out?

The long suffering Sandi does not share my love of musical theater but she went with me to see the show. Afterwards, she indicated that seeing it once may have been too many. But, I still like it.

The story is one I am sure many of you know. Schlub Seymour Krelborn (Rick Moranis) works at Mushnik’s Flower Shop in Skid Row in the early 1960’s. He finds an unusual plant which he takes to the shop and shows to his boss Mr. Mushnik (Vincent Gardenia) and his secret love Audrey (the wonderful Ellen Greene). The plant, Audrey II, is not thriving but due to a fortuitous accident involving rose thorns, Seymour discovers that the plant does quite well with a diet of human blood. Suddenly people are thronging to the flower shop and Seymour is someone important.

But Seymour’s love Audrey is involved with a sadistic dentist (Steve Martin channeling Elvis and the Marquis de Sade) who is constantly abusing her. When the plant starts demanding food (fresh meat and blood – human of course), Seymour plots to kill the dentist. As Seymour waits to see the doctor, there is a wonderful scene with Bill Murray playing a masochist dreaming of dental pain (based on the Jack Nicholson role in the original film). Seymour does not kill the dentist, who dies in a laughing gas related accident but he does chop him up and feed him to the plant (who is voiced by the incredible Levi Stubbs from the Four Tops).

This is the first of several people to become plant food and Seymour wants to get out of this role as Audrey II’s gardener/feeder. He is offered many things including a TV show and a cover on LIFE magazine. All he wants to do is get away with Audrey. He confesses his love for her and they plan to run away but the plant is having none of that. Seymour walks in as Audrey II is eating Audrey and this sets off the final showdown with Audrey II singing “I’m a Mean Green Mother From Outer Space and I’m Bad”, revealing a plant invasion plot to conquer the world. Eventually Seymour wins and he and Audrey settle out in the suburbs “somewhere that’s green”.

The film has a happy ending unlike the source film or the Off Broadway play in which Audrey II succeeds and Seymour and Audrey are devoured. It seems test audiences really disliked that ending, which is a shame because the new ending seems somewhat contrived. But, this is what we got. To see the original ending, you need to see the play version, which just finished a run at the Sheldon Vexler Theater here in San Antonio. Bad timing on my part here.

There are several songs and segments which I really enjoyed. Steve Martin’s Dentist song is great. The Skid Row song was also good. And I enjoyed the Greek Chorus of Chiffon, Ronette, and Crystal (Tisha Campbell, Michelle Weeks, and Tichina Arnold, respectively). I was not crazy at the casting of Rick Moranis or Vincent Gardenia but that is just me. Rick was hot at the time and he does look like a schlub.

Anyway, unless you are Sandi, this is a fun movie with a good sound, some wonderful visuals, and a great plant. Check it out. Copies are readily available and not expensive. And, as always, your mileage may vary.

Series organizer Todd Mason hosts more Tuesday Forgotten Film reviews at his own blog and posts a complete list of participating blogs.

This is the 138th in my series of Forgotten Books.

When I moved to Texas in 1962 at the tender age of 10, I was already a reading fiend. I read almost anything people put in front of me. I particularly loved the series adventure [Read it all...]]]> FORGOTTEN BOOK: RICK BRANT: THE LOST CITY by John Blaine, 1947

This is the 138th in my series of Forgotten Books.

When I moved to Texas in 1962 at the tender age of 10, I was already a reading fiend. I read almost anything people put in front of me. I particularly loved the series adventure stories like the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and the Bobbsey Twins. Among my favorites were the Rick Brant Electronic Adventures. The Brants were a lot less popular than the other series and were harder to find but I did love them.

The other day while in Half Price Books, one of my homes away from home, I ran across a hardback copy of the second Rick Brant book, The Lost City, in a dust jacket. Not a great dust jacket but substantially complete and it was less than $5. So it came home with me. Looking for a Forgotten Book to read and review and remembering that this is one of James Reasoner’s favorite titles, it leapt into my waiting hands.

Rick Brant lives with his family on Spindrift Island. His father, Hartson Brant, leads a group of scientists who are trying to create things to better mankind. In this episode, they are trying to bounce Radio signals off the moon. To do this, they want to establish a radio transmitter received on a plateau in Tibet. This is pre-communication satellite days and Tibet had not yet been run over by the Chinese. So a group of scientists along with Rick and his best friend Scotty are off across the world with their delicate equipment.

Of course there is sabotage and kidnapping and other hijinks even before they arrive in Bombay. Then we get to throw in eastern behaviors and a street urchin named Chahde who seems to want to help them and knows much knowledge of the US through the World Almanac of 1923 which he has seemingly memorized and can call up useful or useless information from at any point.

But upon arrival their equipment is stolen even while Scotty is accompanying it, but the police do not believe when they cannot find it. Through the ingenuity of Chahde, the equipment is eventually located and the boys and scientists find themselves on the way to hidden, mysterious Tibet where stranger wonders await.

This was a really fun series, similar in tone to the Hardy Boys but with a higher scientific content than those mysteries. As a youthful reader, I loved them. According to Wikipedia, there were 23 published Rick Brant novels all written by Harold L. Goodwin with collaborative help on the first three (which includes this one) by Peter J. Harkins. A 24th adventure which had been previously rejected was published in 1990 in a limited edition of 500 copies. Looking online I could find four copies for sale but they all had commas in their prices and none began with the number 1. So I will pass on that one. The Wikipedia entry also notes that, while Rick Brant did not translate over to TV, radio or movies, another series bearing s a strong resemblance to it did – Jonny Quest. There are similarities but both are distinct entries worth searching out.

However, early numbers of the Rick Brant books are fairly common and available across the web. Later numbers got a little scarcer and can get pricier.

I had fun reliving some of these tales again and I hope you do to.

Series organizer Patti Abbott hosts more Friday Forgotten Book reviews at her own blog, and posts a complete list of participating blogs.

This is the 108th in my series of Forgotten Obscure or Neglected Films.

I will apologize in advance for the rant that is to follow. I love a good horror film and have watched many over the years. None has pissed me off nearly as much as this one did. I [Read it all...]]]> Forgotten Films: The Final (2010)

This is the 108th in my series of Forgotten Obscure or Neglected Films.

I will apologize in advance for the rant that is to follow. I love a good horror film and have watched many over the years. None has pissed me off nearly as much as this one did. I can generally gauge in advance whether I might like a film and am generally correct. When I saw the previews for the “8 Films to Die For” my initial reaction was “Not for me”.

But the other day I was at my regular trivia contest and one of the guys said he thought I might like this one and then he loaned me the DVD. The basic story line is bullied teens get back at their tormentors. OK, maybe.

Nope! I watched 99 minutes of torture porn, similar to Saw and other films of that type. Yes, there were bullied teens. We see several get slapped, beaten, and abused by stereotyped rich kid/jocks/pricks. I get it. Life is not fair and high school is worse. So, abused kids plan a party for their tormentors with the idea of some sort of revenge.

This revenge makes Columbine look nice. Kids are shot with a nail gun, smeared with acidic creams, poisoned, and mutilated. For close to an hour on screen. There are no redeeming qualities or cleverness to the plan for revenge. It is simple, we are becoming the tormentors and we are eventually going to kill you as well as ourselves. If the film had some cleverness such as Teaching Mrs. Tingle, it might have been OK. But as it was, this was a waste of my time and I hope to save you that horror.

Where are the clever horror films such as The Haunting or The Innocents or The Uninvited where torture and gore were never thought of and the mind was more inventive at devising things rather than just splashing it across the screens? Fans of this type of horror have lost the use of their minds and are just experiencing vicarious torturing of small animals and people, the first steps toward serial killers.

Probably no horror films in my near future reviews. Why would anyone want to see this?

Sorry for the rant but there it is. I guess like comedy, horror films are subjective and I am certainly not the target audience. Thank God.

Series organizer Todd Mason hosts more Tuesday Forgotten Film reviews at his own blog and posts a complete list of participating blogs.

This is the 107th in my series of Forgotten Obscure or Neglected Films.

Time to move into older films again since the last two films were obscure but they came from last year. Let’s go back an additional 20 years or so and take on a very odd but beautiful fantasy film [Read it all...]]]> Forgotten Films: Orlando (1992)

This is the 107th in my series of Forgotten Obscure or Neglected Films.

Time to move into older films again since the last two films were obscure but they came from last year. Let’s go back an additional 20 years or so and take on a very odd but beautiful fantasy film based on a novel. I recall Roger Ebert praising the film on his TV show so, on one of many travels; I saw the film in suburban Chicago. I went alone which was something I rarely did but I wanted to see the film.

ORLANDO (the film) begins in Elizabethan times when young Orlando (Tilda Swinton) is 16, a somewhat pretty, effeminate looking boy, which we are told in an aside, was the style of the day. He is entranced with poetry and life. A visit by Queen Elizabeth I (played by Quentin Crisp) results in him being sent to court as the Queen’s favorite. As the aged queen dies, she elicits a promise from the boy to never fade, to never wither, and to never grow old. Orlando is given a castle, land and an income for this. Orlando makes the promise and finds himself to be unique.

His promise is kept. He does not age, wither or grow old. He remains youthful and passes through various ages. Inspired by his love of poetry he makes the acquaintance of poet Nick Green (Heathcote Williams) who is, to be kind, a starving poet. Finding himself with a patron, Green agrees to see Orlando’s own fledgling compositions, which are awful. Green composes a poem making fun of the works and Orlando finds himself finished with poetry for a while.

Orlando enters into a political betrothal and finds himself at a reception for a Russian ambassador where he meets and, in the way only the young seem to be able to do, is immediately taken with Princess Sasha (Charlotte Valandrey) with whom he makes plans to escape England and go away. This escape does not happen and the young man is overtaken with grief.

Orlando volunteers his service to the King as a diplomat and finds himself sent to Constantinople where he is nearly killed in an uprising. He falls into a deep sleep and when he awakens his life is forever changed. Young Lord Orlando is now Lady Orlando. No explanation is given for the change and he accepts it, so as movie watchers we do too.

Returning to England, the young Lady now finds herself in different circumstances. She is on the other side of the societal divide and in a memorable scene with Swift, Addison, and Pope sees women denigrated and when they confess to loving their wives and mothers she indicates that their words do not reflect that. Also, as a woman, Orlando may lose her castle and estates.

Orlando has now lived over 200 years and seen many changes. The most important change is yet to come when she meets Shelmerdine (Billy Zane) in the 1850’s. The two begin a passionate love affair which ends when the winds change and Shelmerdine, a merchant, must sail away.

I loved this film when I saw it in 1992. I saw it twice in the theater and several times on cable after that. When I noticed on cable this week, I fired up the DVR again and watched it. I still love it. An amazing film with a great cast and settings. Tilda Swinton was perfect as male and female Orlando. And I loved the casting of venerable writer/actor (and British queen) Quentin Crisp as Queen Elizabeth. The dichotomy of the Swinton and Crisp each playing cross gender roles was sweet.

The film is based on the novel by Virginia Woolf which I have not read. It is now on my Kindle and I plan on reading it soon and it may eventually show up as one of my Forgotten Books. The novel was called “unfilmable”. I would have to disagree as screenwriter/director Sally Potter did a fine job with it.

The film is generally available across the web at reasonable prices so go and find it.

Series organizer Todd Mason hosts more Tuesday Forgotten Film reviews at his own blog and posts a complete list of participating blogs.

This is the 137th in my series of Forgotten Books.

Hoka! If you recognize that word you know what fun is. If not, I envy you. Great humorous science fiction is hard to come by. Particularly since humor is very subjective. I do not [Read it all...]]]> FORGOTTEN BOOK:  EARTHMAN’S BURDEN by Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson, 1957

This is the 137th in my series of Forgotten Books.

Hoka! If you recognize that word you know what fun is. If not, I envy you. Great humorous science fiction is hard to come by. Particularly since humor is very subjective. I do not like the films of a number of the new comedians, but most particularly, I do not like Adam Sandler. I know this is a personal fault, but I have no desire to fix it. Others I can tolerate to some degree like Will Ferrell, but Sandler, NO! Not gonna happen. Perhaps one day that will change. But then pigs may fly also.

Back to the Hoka. “The Sheriff of Canyon Gulch” (the first Hoka story) takes place on the planet Toka where two species of sentient being exist, the reptilian Slissii and the Hoka who appear to be small golden furred rotund teddy bears. Mankind generally found itself attracted to the Hoka and a plan was made to help bring them up to galactic standards to attain full membership in the Interbeing League. Young spaceman Alexander Jones finds himself stranded on the planet in the middle of a B movie western thriller. The Hoka, it seems, have trouble separating fact and fiction and someone has inadvertently left a pile of pulp fiction on the planet. Every other young Hoka is named Tex or the Kid and they have gunfights in the street at high noon each day. Of course, no one is killed because that is not in the Hoka’s makeup. They embrace every possible idea fully and believe it has always been that way, even if it changed only yesterday. Not so the Slissii! They can and will kill. And they would love to be rid of the teddy bears that share their planet. Jones, in a drunken mood from highly potent Hoka liquor, helps the cowboy Hokas defeat the Indians and finds himself as Plenipotentiary to Toka for the Interbeing League.

Other adventures follow as the Hokas embrace other facets of human history. In “Don Jones” they discover opera, more specifically, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and they cast Jones, much against his will, as the title character, referring to his amorous activities constantly and whenever it is most embarrassing, i.e. in front of his bosses. They later embrace space opera in “In Hoka Signo Vinces”, Sherlock Holmes in “The Adventure of the Misplaced Hound”, pirate adventures in “Yo Ho Hoka!” and the Foreign Legion in “The Tiddly Wink Warriors”.

Each story gets more absurd and a fun time can be had by all in reading there. There were two more Hoka books after this one HOKA! (four long novellas including the wonderful “Joy in Mudville” wherein the Hoka’s embrace baseball, “Casey at the Bat” and Interbeing League play) and STAR PRINCE CHARLIE, a novel. All the Hoka stories can be found in a Science Fiction Book Club entry entitled THE SOUND AND THE FURRY: THE COMPLETE HOKA STORIES which is quite worth the effort of finding a copy.

There are five or six copies on the web that I found for under $20 (with several under $10) as well as numerous copies of the individual titles. EARTHMAN’S BURDEN has had multiple paperback editions so there are copies around.

These are worth your time and energy unless you have a different since of humor from me. Your mileage may vary.

Series organizer Patti Abbott hosts more Friday Forgotten Book reviews at her own blog, and posts a complete list of participating blogs.

This is the 106th in my series of Forgotten Obscure or Neglected Films

As I mentioned with SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED, some local SF fans had a potential Hugo nominees viewing party so they could decide how to nominate, this was one of the films screened. It did not get the [Read it all...]]]> Forgotten Films: Iron Sky (2012)

This is the 106th in my series of Forgotten Obscure or Neglected Films

As I mentioned with SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED, some local SF fans had a potential Hugo nominees viewing party so they could decide how to nominate, this was one of the films screened. It did not get the same type of reaction as SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED. In fact, they stopped the film about 30 minutes into the screening and decided to cleanse their brains on another film.

Since I missed that showing but had seen the initial teaser preview on the web some years ago which I had thought was pretty durn good, I decided to check the film out and see how bad it really was. The answer is “mostly bad” but not unwatchable. You can either stop here or continue on.

The premise is wonderfully ludicrous. At the end of 1945, the Nazis made a secret moon launching, sending a colony of people to the dark side of the moon where they established a base to work on secret projects. For more than 60 years, this colony has been self sustaining and thriving, building their doomsday projects and awaiting a chance to return to the Earth and establish the Fourth Reich.

The film opens with a US moon landing featuring two astronauts, one of whom is an African American male model, James Washington (Christopher Kirby), sent for PR purposes. The other astronaut is killed immediately and Washington is taken by the Nazis into their fortress where he is Aryanized (turned white!). Here he meets the Nazis. Wolfgang Kortzfleisch (Udo Kier) is the new Fuhrer. Doktor Richter (Tilo Prückner) is the chief scientist and his daughter Renate (Julia Dietz) teaches the young Aryans their history and heritage, though this may differ in many ways from the way we remember it. Of course, history is written by the survivors and this may have influenced their versions of events. Fuhrer in waiting Klaus Adler (Götz Otto) has been chosen as Renate’s fiancé based on genetic capability.

Washington is grilled for information and the Nazis decide it is time to return to Earth so Renate and Klaus are sent as a reconnaissance team with Washington to see what is cooking in Washington. The US is in a tight presidential race and the President (Stephanie Paul), a Sarah Palin parody, is losing badly. Klaus manages to contact her main campaign publicist Vivian Wagner (Peta Sargeant) who finds his attitudes appealing to the conservative populace. Soon he is the face of the Presidential campaign and the tides are shifting for the President.

From here the plot which was already silly and mind numbing descends even further. Renate discovers that her lessons of the peace loving Nazis may not have been quite as factual as she thought. And she is falling for the Aryanized inferior James Washington.

Silly, yes. Watchable? I finished it. Will I own it? Not unless I find it dirt cheap and am in a weird mood. Comparable to SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED? Nope, not even close. It did not make my Hugo nominating ballot nor did it make the final ballot. Go figure.

As usual, your mileage may vary. It goes back to Netflix tomorrow from me and probably will not be returning this way.

Series organizer Todd Mason hosts more Tuesday Forgotten Film reviews at his own blog and posts a complete list of participating blogs.

This is the 136th in my series of Forgotten Books.

It has been a while since I did a review of San Antonio’s Stoker winning novelist Joe McKinney. I believe I reviewed QUARANTINED about two years ago. Joe is a writer many of you [Read it all...]]]> LOST GIRL OF THE LAKE by Joe McKinney and Michael McCarty, 2012

This is the 136th in my series of Forgotten Books.

It has been a while since I did a review of San Antonio’s Stoker winning novelist Joe McKinney. I believe I reviewed QUARANTINED about two years ago. Joe is a writer many of you may not know, but you should. He is very good and every book and story shows him improving. His co-author Michael McCarty was someone I had not read before but the combination is a winner.

It is 1961 and Mark Gaitlin lives in Houston with his family. His dad is a successful lawyer. Each year they have to go to east Texas for a big get together. This is on Lake Livingston and the town of Gaitlinville which was established by his great-grandparents and which is now a ghost town. Mark is 15, awkward and unsure and out of place at the gathering. No one he wants to meet is his age. The older girls (friends of his 17 year old sister) just roll their eyes if he comes near and he is bored and wishing he was anywhere else.

One night near the lake he encounters a young woman, near his age, swimming nude on the lake. She invites him in and he, being 15, decides to accept. The encounter is electric and he is intrigued about the possibilities of sex. But there are snakes about, copperheads which flourish in the region.
He discovers the woman’s name is Ermelinda and he likes what he sees and wants more. But when he touches her breast, she pushes him away and vanishes. The woman becomes his obsession. He wants to see her again. She shows him a bolus of snakes, a round ball of snakes copulating, and he is fascinated. There is something earthy and forbidden here. And teenage angst and lust are powerful forces.

The only one who seems to be aware is Ben, the black gardener who seems to know more than he is telling and who reluctantly provides some data on the abandoned town across the lake that bears his name.

The story is fairly short and reads fact. I got it for my Kindle. I like paper and hard books but sometimes a Kindle comes in very handy, like on planes or restaurants or waiting for a movie. I am a physical book guy but I will take an electronic one when nothing else is at hand.

McKinney and McCarty get into Joe Lansdale country here with inherent evils in East Texas as well as throwing in some Lovecraftian Wilbur Whately sorts of things. I like all those things so this was fine by me.

Overall I enjoyed the book quite a bit. I only had short periods in which to read it so the short length worked well for me. I liked the cover by Sandy DeLuca a lot also.

So if you are looking for a good short horror novel with Lansdale and Lovecraftian influences there is no need to go any further. And if you are not looking for those things, why not? Good stuff here, perfect for summer reading. And it is remarkably inexpensive in the electronic format.

On another Lansdale note, I am reading “The Ape Man’s Brother” by Mr. L on my Kindle right now and laughing myself sick with it. Told by The Big Guy’s (he hates that made up T name) brother, it is just spot on with the dialogue and action. Not going to tell much about it but say, if you like Lansdale, you will love this one (or at least as far into it as I have gotten), Check it out also. Print version due from Subterranean later this year, I believe.

Series organizer Patti Abbott hosts more Friday Forgotten Book reviews at her own blog, and posts a complete list of participating blogs.

This is the 105th in my series of Forgotten Obscure or Neglected Films.

It starts simply enough with an ad in a magazine:

WANTED: Someone to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You’ll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own [Read it all...]]]> Forgotten Films: Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)

This is the 105th in my series of Forgotten Obscure or Neglected Films.

It starts simply enough with an ad in a magazine:

WANTED: Someone to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You’ll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. I have only done this once before. SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED

I saw the previews for this several times in the artsy theater in town (as opposed to the googleplex). The ad was catchy, much like 2012’s other odd SF film FRANK AND ROBOT which I also saw. However, SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED came and went in about 48 hours and I missed it totally,

When some local SF fans were having a potential Hugo nominees viewing party so they could decide how to nominate, this was one of the films screened. It got a good reaction. Again, I missed seeing it. But the buzz was good enough that I put it on my ballot for Best Dramatic Presentation. However, my vote did not have enough siblings to get the film onto the ballot. Nonetheless, I decided to watch it from Netflix and my lovely wife decided it was probably enough of a chick flick that she would watch too,

The film starts with an editorial meeting at SEATTLE MAGAZINE as editors and writers try to come up with stories for the upcoming issues. Writer Jeff pulls out this ad which has been placed in the magazine and wants to follow up on it for laughs. The address given is a PO Box in Ocean View, Washington and Jeff wants to track down the person who placed it and get the story. To do the heavy lifting he brings along two interns and Arnau (Karan Soni) and Darius (Aubrey Plaza) or, as he put it the Indian and the lesbian.

Jeff has no real intention of doing any work. He convinces everyone to share one room instead of the two in their budget so they can use the extra money for drugs and booze. This does not go well with the two interns but they do all share the one room. Jeff is intent on tracking down an old high school girlfriend from 20 years ago. Arnau is stuck looking at his computer and Darius just wants to forget her dead mother.

They track the PO Box to Kenneth Calloway (Mark Duplass) a grocery store clerk who talks about email chats with world class physicists about the nature of time. Jeff approaches him head on and spooks the guy who is convinced “they” are following him and out to get him. With Jeff no longer a viable alternative, Darius approaches him with more subtlety. When Jeff is almost spotted, she breaks off the meeting claiming that “they” are definitely following Kenneth.

What follows is an interesting story of people and time. Jeff is trying to regain his past. Arnau wants to have a future. And Darius wants a life. Darius and Kenneth plan to go back to 2001 to save Kenneth’s girlfriend who was killed in a car accident and, if possible, save Darius’ mother at the same time.

But, you never quite know. Kenneth must be nuts, isn’t he? Or is he? Darius helps him steal lasers from a medical supply that, instead of being empty, is filled with people having a party who watch Kenneth steal the equipment. And then the men in black really do show up.

I enjoyed it as a clever low budget ($750,000 per IMDB) that was well acted with minimal special effects. Sandi kept asking me when it was going to be over. I guess date night was a bust.

I would own this and watch it again. I was pleased that I had put it on my Hugo ballot. You should watch it too and enjoy it or, if not enjoy, then you can say “What a maroon!” Your mileage may vary.

The film has won several awards including several nominations and wins for the screenplay by Derek Connolly. It is available on Netflix and from the various DVD and Blu-Ray suppliers. Check it out.

Series organizer Todd Mason hosts more Tuesday Forgotten Film reviews at his own blog and posts a complete list of participating blogs.

This is the 135th in my series of Forgotten Books.

OK, this is not really a forgotten book. It’s a new book and several of my friends have reviewed this book recently so many of you may have read their takes already. If so, bear with [Read it all...]]]> FORGOTTEN BOOK: DOC SAVAGE: SKULL ISLAND by Will Murray, 2013

This is the 135th in my series of Forgotten Books.

OK, this is not really a forgotten book. It’s a new book and several of my friends have reviewed this book recently so many of you may have read their takes already. If so, bear with me. But then again I think I reach a different audience so maybe you have not read the reviews yet.

hen I first heard the title and saw the cover, I was in Book Lust. Doc Savage meets King Kong. I fell in love with the 8th Wonder of the World when I was a pre-teen and I saw the world’s greatest motion picture on a fizzy black and white TV. I have seen it many times since then. The film is better than Casablanca or The Maltese Falcon even though they are great films. It had everything – romance, action, adventure, dinosaurs, and the boat leaves at dawn.

The love of Doc Savage and then The Shadow came a few years later. I loved Doc and his crew until I met the Shadow. I still love them both and read their adventures when I need a break. I have copies of all the Doc Savages from the pulps and most since then. The Shadow novels I have are all from the pulps as well as some of Denis Lynds’ Shadow spy novels from Belmont in the 1960’s. This is my wheelhouse here.

So when a copy of Doc Savage: Skull Island found its way into my hands I knew that nothing else would be read while I inhaled its essence. So let’s get to it.

The first thing anyone will notice is the cover. Joe DeVito does some great Kong work here just as he did with Kong: King of Skull Island a few years ago. There the art was spectacular, the story not quite so super. Cover rating A+.

Then you notice the heft of the volume – 385 pages to the end of the novel and these are trade paperback size pages. Sure there are some blanks and a couple of full page illustrations but this is the equivalent of 3 – 4 old Bantam Doc Savage novels. Some trepidation here, but Will Murray is a very talented writer for Doc Savage and this does not become a problem.

The story begins after the New York rampage by Kong when Doc Savage and his crew are asked by the state and mayor to help move the former King from the city. Doc remarks to Monk and Ham that he had previously met Kong and is saddened at his fate. They make arrangements to return Kong to his land.

Then Doc tells his story. At the end of World War I as Doc is returning home he receives a telegram from his father Clark Savage Sr. requesting him to meet in San Francisco. The two take a sailing trip with some Mayan crewmen, theoretically to try and find Stormalong Savage, father and grandfather to the two men.

It is a long voyage filled with discussions as the two men try to get to know one another. Senior as Captain in addressed as such and Doc goes by Doc. They discuss his training and play mind games with each other. Senior is trying to assess what sort of man he has created with his various schoolings around the world and to see what the war has done to him.

Sailing across the South Seas they encounter headhunters and the Coarser, Stormalong’s old boat but the masts have been sheared off in a manner neither man had ever seen. And, of course, there is a map of a strange island. And a word that can only be seen as Kong.

To tell more is to spoil so much of the fun. A great read and lots of fun. Kong does not appear in the flashback until the book is 2/3 gone, but he dominates activity long before then and after. But Doc holds his own too.

I really, really like this one, even being a long tale. It has depth in the characters, plenty of action, twists, thrills, and a severe lack of Dorothy Lamour lookalikes in tight fitting sarongs. So not perfect, but pretty durn close.

If you are a Doc Savage fan, this is for you. If you have never read one, it’s a good place to start. And if you are a fan of the King of Kings and Kong of Kongs, you know you want this too. A good book for every library, unless, maybe, you are looking for My Little Pony or something like that.

Series organizer Patti Abbott hosts more Friday Forgotten Book reviews at her own blog, and posts a complete list of participating blogs.

This is the 134th in my series of Forgotten Books.

Last time, I commented on a Conan novel I read more than 40 years earlier. As I was looking for a book to do for this week, I came across a British paperback of an [Read it all...]]]> FORGOTTEN BOOK: HAVE SPACESUIT, WILL TRAVEL by Robert A. Heinlein, 1958

This is the 134th in my series of Forgotten Books.

Last time, I commented on a Conan novel I read more than 40 years earlier. As I was looking for a book to do for this week, I came across a British paperback of an early Heinlein novel that I read at about the same time. It was probably about 1972 when I read it and it might as well have been a hundred years earlier for all I remembered. The old brain is sharp in some ways as my trivia team can vouch for, but other things, well, not so much. There have been thousands of books in the interim and sometimes I have trouble remembering what I read last week.

But I thought “It has been a while so why not?” which made me smile as I remembered the joke from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress when our hero meets his girl whose name is Wyoming Knott. But she said to call her “Wy. Or, Wy Knott.”

This is one of the so called “juveniles” of Heinlein, though it could only be called that since the main characters are children.

Clifford “Kip“ Russell is a very bright kid in a small town. His school is a joke, more a socializing spot than a learning institution. But his father will have none of it. He pushes Kip to learn and teach himself the things he needs to achieve his goals in life. His main goal is to go to the Moon. His father says “Fine” but Kip soon realizes that to do it he has to get into a good school and work hard. So, in addition to his extra schooling, he works at the local drug store/soda fountain.

One day a small soap company has a contest for a jingle. First prize is a trip to the Moon. The entry has to be accompanied by a soap wrapper. He acquires a couple of thousand wrappers and jingles. When the winning jingle is read, he is ecstatic, because it is one of his submissions. Unfortunately, several other people had the same jingle and based on the tiebreakers he is not the winner. He does, however, win a used space suit. He can sell it back to the company or keep it.

Kip decides to keep it and refurbish it since already possessing a spacesuit could be a favorable factor in getting a spacing job. He tests all the seals and fittings, refurbishes the water, pill, and food dispensers, and works up the radio.

One night as he is wearing Oscar (the anthropomorphic name he has assigned to the suit when he talks to it and “hears” its responses), he sends out a radio signal “Junebug calling Peewee!” He is astonished when he receives a reply from someone named Peewee and finds a spaceship landing on top of him. Inside is a pint sized female in a spacesuit who is trying to escape space pirates and “him”.

Kip soon finds himself and Peewee kidnapped and taken to the moon by two pirates and an alien that can only be described as “Wormface”. But that is not the only alien around. Peewee has an alien she refers to as “Mother Thing” who helps her out.

The two end up trying to forestall nasty alien invasions but not without real dangers to themselves and even after saving the Earth and maybe the galaxy they find themselves in even deeper trouble, with much of Heinlein’s personal philosophies on display as they have to wrangle with legal issues and concepts of freedom and individuality.

It’s a fun book. Not quite on the scale of Starship Troopers or The Moon is a Harsh Mistress but still quite fun. It is not my favorite of his juveniles but that speaks to the quality of the novels he wrote in the 70’s and 60’s.

I enjoyed reliving it for the first time again as I remembered absolutely nothing from the earlier reading. I will try others in the future. There are many good and great Heinlein works out there and some not quite so good but I know which is which.

This novel has had many editions so it is not hard to find a reasonably priced copy. Check it out and enjoy.

Series organizer Patti Abbott hosts more Friday Forgotten Book reviews at her own blog, and posts a complete list of participating blogs.