Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Clues Detective Stories, November 1938

Well, that's certainly an eye-catching cover. I don't know who painted it, but it would have made me curious about the story, that's for sure. Since Donald Wandrei wrote that cover story, it's probably pretty good. The other authors in this issue are top-notch, as well: Frank Gruber, Cornell Woolrich, Edward S. Aarons (as Edward Ronns), and J.J. des Ormeaux, who was really Forrest Rosaire. I've never read any of Wandrei's Cyrus North stories and don't know anything about the series, but I've always found Wandrei to be a dependable author. I don't own this issue, or any other issues of CLUES DETECTIVE STORIES, for that matter. The Internet Archive has some of them posted (not this one). I ought to give them a try, one of these days.

Movies I've Missed Until Now: The Cariboo Trail (1950)

You remember in BLAZING SADDLES when Bart says to the townspeople of Rock Ridge, “You’d do it for Randolph Scott,” and the townspeople take off their hats, put their hands over their hearts, and respond in hushed reverence, “Randolph Scott!” Well, I’m just like those settlers. I love Randolph Scott movies.

Which is why I was surprised when I came across one that I don’t recall ever hearing of, let alone watching. THE CARIBOO TRAIL was released in 1950 and finds Scott playing Montana rancher Jim Redfern, who drives a trail herd into Canada with his partner Mike Evans (played by Bill Williams, who, a few years later, would star in the TV show THE ADVENTURES OF KIT CARSON, one of my early favorites). Redfern wants to establish a ranch and open up Canada to the beef industry, but Evans is more interested in hunting for gold. They run into an old prospector known as Grizzly (the immortal George “Gabby” Hayes) but also encounter some hardcases (Jim Davis and Douglas Kennedy among them) working for a villainous town boss played by Victor Jory. The only one in town who doesn’t seem to be under Jory’s thumb is a beautiful saloon owner played by Karin Booth.

You’ve all see enough Westerns to know how this set-up is going to play out. There’s nothing in the workmanlike script by Frank Gruber (another old favorite of mine) that’s going to surprise you, but it’s well-constructed and provides plenty of opportunities for action as well as a little romance and pathos, the latter provided by a fine performance from Bill Williams, whose character loses an arm due to injuries suffered in a stampede and become embittered. Scott is as stalwart and likable as ever, and I’ll watch and enjoy Gabby Hayes in anything. He’s my all-time favorite Western sidekick, and this was his final movie. Victor Jory is suitably smarmy and evil, and a very young Dale Robertson shows up as a cowboy.

Many of the reviews of this movie on IMDB complain about the cheap Cinecolor process and the photography, and the quality is pretty inconsistent. However, the movie doesn’t look bad, and parts of it actually look pretty good. There’s some spectacular scenery. Its biggest flaw, as far as I’m concerned, is a terribly staged fight scene between Scott and Kennedy in which none of the so-called punches are even remotely convincing. I’m actually surprised they let the scene go through like that. But that’s an aberration and the rest of the action is fine.

Overall, THE CARIBOO TRAIL is a pretty minor film, I suppose, but it has its moments that worked really well for me and reminded me of why I love Westerns so much. If you’re a Randolph Scott and/or Gabby Hayes fan, it’s certainly worth watching.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Black Mask, May 1938

This cover is by an artist I'm not familiar with, Raymond S. Pease. According to the Fictionmags Index, he did only a handful of pulp covers, all for BLACK MASK during the late Thirties. I like the tropical look of this one, plus the little details like the wine spilling from both glasses. There are some fine writers in this issue, as well: Carroll John Daly with a Satan Hall story, Frank Gruber with an Oliver Quade story, and yarns by Roger Torrey, Steve Fisher, William R. Cox, and Donald Wandrei. That's a nice group of hardboiled pulpsters.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Popular Detective, March 1937

Look behind you, lady! (That's actually the title of a mystery novel by A.S. Fleischman that has absolutely nothing to do with this post, but it's an exclamation that's appropriate here, too, I think.) At any rate, I like the bright colors on this cover. POPULAR DETECTIVE was no BLACK MASK or DIME DETECTIVE, but there are some very good authors in this issue, including Frank Gruber, G.T. Fleming-Roberts, Lawrence Blochman, Frederick C. Painton, and Ray Cummings.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Adventure, March 1939

An abundance of work and some real-life issues have caused me to neglect the blog in recent days, but I hope to get that squared away soon. In the meantime, here's a great cover by Raphael DeSoto. The diving suit, the treasure chest, and the revolver all promise us adventure, and I'm sure this issue of, what else, ADVENTURE delivers on that promise. Inside are stories by Erle Stanley Gardner, Frank Gruber, William E. Barrett, Anthony Rud, Gordon MacCreagh, and Robert E. Pinkerton, top pulpsters, every one. The Gruber story is an installment of the serial "Peace Marshal", and I remember reading one of the paperback reprints of that novel when I was in junior high. Little did I dream I'd be writing about its pulp incarnation more than fifty years later. There's a certain appealing continuity that good fiction provides in a person's life . . .

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Western Trails, May 1936

This looks like a pretty good mid-Thirties issue of WESTERN TRAILS, with a cover by William F. Soare and entries in two long-running series, Duke Buckland by Frederick C. Davis and Bert Little by Clyde B. Warden. The other authors on hand are all top-notch pulpsters, as well: Philip Ketchum writing as Carl McK. Saunders, Frank Gruber, James P. Olsen, Peter Germano (as Peter Germane), and Bruce Douglas.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Crime Busters, June 1938

The cover's not bad on this issue of CRIME BUSTERS (I don't know the artist), but man, look at the authors and series inside: Lester Dent with a Click Rush story, Walter B. Gibson (as Maxwell Grant) with a Norgil the Magician story, Norvell Page with a story featuring Angus Saint Cloud, the Death Angel (don't know this series, but what a great name!), Theodore Tinsley with a Carrie Cashin story, plus yarns by Frank Gruber, Wyatt Blassingame, and Arthur J. Burks. This looks like an absolutely great issue.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Crime Busters, February 1938

I'm not too fond of the photo covers on CRIME BUSTERS, but man, look at that line-up of authors! The Lester Dent story is part of his Click Rush, the Gadget Man, series, while Walter B. Gibson, writing as Maxwell Grant, contributes a Norgil the Magician yarn. Ted Tinsley's story features his female private eye, Carrie Cashin. The others are all series stories, too, although, while I certainly know the authors, I'm not familiar with the characters: Steve Fisher (Big Red Brennan), Norvell Page (Dick Barrett), Frank Gruber (Jim Strong), and Norman A. Daniels (Boxcar Reilly). Photo cover or not, I'd sure read this one if I had a copy of it.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Adventure, March 1939

Clearly, deep sea diving was considered adventurous during the pulp era, because such scenes show up fairly often on pulp covers, such as this one by Rafael DeSoto from the March 1939 issue of ADVENTURE. The scene depicted may not actually be underwater, but you can tell the guy just came from there because of the chest of doubloons he's holding. I don't know if this cover illustrates one of the stories inside or is just a generic adventure image; the latter, I suspect. But I'm sure the stories in this issue are good, considering that they were written by Erle Stanley Gardner, Frank Gruber, Gordon MacCreagh, William E. Barrett, Anthony Rud, and Robert E. Pinkerton. Looks like a solid issue all the way around.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Spicy Mystery Stories, November 1936

With Halloween coming up this week, we have a Weird Menace cover today, of course. This one is by H.J. Ward, on an issue of SPICY MYSTERY STORIES that features the work of the usual suspects in a Spicy pulp: Robert Leslie Bellem, under his own name and one as by Jerome Severs Perry; Victor Rousseau with three stories, one each as by Lew Merrill, Hugh Speer, and Clive Trent; E. Hoffmann Price; Edwin Truett Long writing as Carl Moore; and something of an oddity, a story by William B. Rainey, normally a Wyatt Blassingame pseudonym but in this case ghosted by Frank Gruber.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Crime Busters, July 1938

Another great cover by Norman Saunders on this issue of CRIME BUSTERS, and look at the line-up of authors: Walter B. Gibson (writing as Maxwell Grant) with a Norgil the Magician story; Lester Dent (a Click Rush, Gadget Man story); Theodore Tinsley (a Carrie Cashin story); Steve Fisher (a Big Red Brennan story); Frank Gruber (a Jim Strong story); Alan Hathway (a Colby Lyman story); and George Allan Moffatt (a Duncan Dean story). Now, I'm not familiar with all those series characters, but I know the authors and know they could be counted on to produce entertaining yarns. And any pulp with Dent, Gibson, Gruber, Tinsley, and Fisher has got to be good reading!

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Weird Tales, November 1941

This cover by Hannes Bok seems appropriate for a few days before Halloween. I like the 1940s issues of WEIRD TALES. Great lineup of authors in this one: Edmond Hamilton, Manly Wade Wellman, Henry Kuttner, August Derleth, Frank Gruber, Clifford Ball, Robert H. Leitfred . . . These guys wrote some fine weird fiction.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Weird Tales, July 1940

I used to own this issue of WEIRD TALES and read it many years ago, but I'm afraid I don't remember much about it except the H. Bedford-Jones story. But elsewhere in the issue are stories by Frank Gruber, Robert Bloch, Seabury Quinn, Manly Wade Wellman (writing as Gans T. Field), and Frank Owen, so I'm sure there's plenty of good reading there.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Adventure, March 1940

That's an intriguing cover on this issue of ADVENTURE, and inside are stories by H. Bedford-Jones, W.C. Tuttle, Georges Surdez, Luke Short, Frank Gruber, and J.J. des Ormeaux. Looks like a mighty fine issue to me.