Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Sure-Fire Western, March 1937

Here are our old friends the Stalwart Cowboy, the Wounded Old Geezer, and the Angry Redhead (not totin' a gun this time) on an issue of SURE-FIRE WESTERN, a Western pulp from Ace that lasted only a dozen issues in the mid-to-late Thirties. The cover, which I like, is by an artist I'm not familiar with, William Luberoff. Most of the issue is taken up by the novel "Canyon of Golden Skulls" by Harry Sinclair Drago. This novel got an abridged digest reprint in the Western Novel Classic line, under Drago's most common pseudonym, Bliss Lomax. There's also one short story in this issue by little-known author R. Craig Christiansen. Every time I see one of these covers, I think I'm going to write that trio, and that scene, into a book, but so far I haven't gotten around to it.

Forgotten Books: Stool Pigeon - Louis Malley

STOOL PIGEON by Louis Malley is one of those compressed time books that I enjoy. It takes place in a single 24-hour period, from six o’clock in the morning on Christmas Eve to dawn on Christmas Day, although there are a few flashbacks along the way to fill in the history of the protagonist, New York City police detective Vincent Milazzo.

Milazzo catches the case when mobster Tony Statella is murdered, shot in the head while sitting in a car in the same Italian neighborhood where Milazzo grew up. One of Milazzo’s old enemies from childhood may be involved, and Milazzo is determined to pin the killing on him, even if he has to frame him. But new angles rapidly open up in the case and Milazzo realizes that he’s on the trail of something much bigger, a conspiracy that is spreading an evil web all across the country. The problem is that he knows almost everyone mixed up in it—some friends, some enemies, even some relatives—and one of them is the girl he’s loved ever since he was a kid. Complicating things even more is the fact that his boss has given him only 24 hours to crack the case.

This novel, one of only four by Malley, was published by Avon in 1954 and then reprinted by the same publisher in 1960 under the title SHAKEDOWN STRIP. Somehow, I’d never come across either edition and hadn’t heard of the book until it was reprinted recently by Stark House as part of the Black Gat Books line. STOOL PIGEON is a very good hardboiled crime/police procedural novel. Vincent Milazzo isn’t a particularly likable protagonist, but the reader can’t help but root for him, the way the odds are stacked against him. Malley does a great job with the setting and characters, really bringing the neighborhood and its colorful inhabitants to life, and the pace never lets up. I enjoyed STOOL PIGEON a great deal, and I think I may have to try to find some of Malley’s other novels.

Overlooked TV Movies: Goodnight for Justice (2011)

We never watched BEVERLY HILLS 90210 (or the remake, for that matter), but I’ve seen Luke Perry in some other things and enjoyed his work. He seems to have liked making Westerns, and in 2011 and 2012 he did three movies for the Hallmark Channel in which he played John William Goodnight, a federal circuit judge in Wyoming Territory. Evidently Perry himself created the character, although he didn’t have a hand in writing any of the movies.

We recently got a DVD set of all three movies and just watched the first one, GOODNIGHT FOR JUSTICE (directed by Perry’s 90210 buddy Jason Priestley). It does a good job of establishing the character: Goodnight is a successful but somewhat disreputable lawyer in Illinois when he’s appointed by the President to take over the Wyoming circuit. Some flashbacks tell us that he’s actually from that part of the country, the son of settlers who were murdered by outlaws, so he’s grown up with a thirst for justice as well as a desire to track down the boss owlhoot responsible for his parents’ death. Becoming a judge in Wyoming will give him the opportunity to do that.

From that point, the story is a little episodic and the script rather heavy-handed and stereotypical as the main plotline involves Goodnight taking on an evil cattle baron who’s trying to run the peaceful Cheyenne Indians off their land. To get my other complaints out of the way, the movie was made on a pretty small budget and shot in Canada, in the same Canadian movie set where so many other made-for-TV Westerns in this century have been shot. The place just never looks authentic to me. It always comes across as a cheap tourist attraction.

On the plus side, though, the action scenes are fairly well done. Perry looks good in the part and seems to be having fun, and that makes up for a lot. There’s even one nice twist in the plot that I wasn’t expecting. Overall, while far from a great Western, GOODNIGHT FOR JUSTICE is reasonably entertaining, and I won’t hesitate to watch the other two movies in the series.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Strange Stories, June 1940

From very late in the Weird Menace boom, this issue from the Thrilling Group's entry in that genre has an eye-catching cover and some good authors mixed with several I've never heard of. On hand are Henry Kuttner (twice, once as himself and once as Keith Hammond), August Derleth (also twice, once as himself and once as Tally Mason), Robert Bloch, Hamilton Craigie (who I think of as more of a Western writer, even though he turned out stories in just about every genre for the pulps), and Don Alviso (likewise). The ones I'm not familiar with include Jack B. Creamer, Earle Dow, John Clemons, O.M. Cabral, and Maria Moravsky. It looks like a pretty entertaining issue, even if the Weird Menace pulps were running out of steam by then.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Star Western, November 1948

Another action-packed STAR WESTERN cover with a really villainous-looking bad guy. He reminds me a little of Glenn Strange. Even this late in STAR WESTERN's run, there are some excellent authors inside: Clifton Adams, Tom W. Blackburn, Van Cort (Wyatt Blassingame), Rolland Lynch, Bob Obets, John M. Cunningham, Ray Townsend, and Rod Patterson. Looks like a solid issue.

Forgotten Books: Love Addict - Don Elliott (Robert Silverberg)

A lot of the Nightstand books by Lawrence Block, Donald Westlake, and others are really crime novels masquerading as soft-core, early Sixties porn. Although there are some drug pushers in it, LOVE ADDICT, Robert Silverberg's first novel under the Don Elliott pseudonym, doesn't really qualify as a crime novel. It's more of a noir-tinged romance, as nice guy hero Jim Holman, who is being divorced by his shrew of a wife, falls for nightclub singer Helene Raymond. Helene was hooked on heroin by her musician ex-boyfriend, but Jim thinks he can save her from her addiction. Not much actually happens in this book, but it races by anyway thanks to Silverberg's clean, polished prose and his evocative portrayal of New York City as both glittering metropolis and squalid hellhole. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and intend to dig out more of the Nightstand books that I own.

(This post originally appeared in different form on March 15, 2005. I have indeed read more Nightstand books in the years since then, but not as many as I would have liked to. I need more hours in the day . . .)

43 Years Ago Today

I know I've posted this picture before . . . but, dang, isn't Livia beautiful? We keep inching toward 50 years together.

Overlooked Movies: Forbidden Trails (1941)

FORBIDDEN TRAILS is the third (of eight) B-Westerns in the Rough Riders series, starring Buck Jones, Tim McCoy, and Raymond Hatton as U.S. Marshals who often operate undercover. In this one, which also happens to be the final film directed by the prolific Robert N. Bradbury (father of B-Western star Bob Steele), Buck is targeted for revenge by two outlaws he sent to the pen (played by the ubiquitous and always entertaining Charles King and Bud Osborne). The bad guys' scheme nearly works, and as a result Buck is laid up for a while, but the other two Rough Riders pitch in to save the day and keep villainous Tristam Coffin from taking over the freight line run by stalwart young Dave O'Brien.

The script is kind of muddled, but the real appeal of these movies is watching all the old pros at work, playing off each other and appearing to have a genuinely good time. Buck's heroism, Tim's gravitas, and Sandy's comedy relief mesh well most of the time. And all three of the Rough Riders have great hats. I'm slowly working my way through this series and eventually will watch all of them. They may not be the Three Mesquiteers, but they'll do.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Detective Novels, August 1940

This issue of DETECTIVE NOVELS has some historical significance because it marks the first appearance of The Crimson Mask, another masked crimefighter whose adventures were chronicled by the amazingly prolific Norman A. Daniels, this time under the pseudonym Frank Johnson. The Crimson Mask is actually pharmacist Bob Clarke (that's right, a two-fisted, crime-busting pharmacist) and the stories I've read starring him are pretty good. Daniels was also the author of the other lead story in this issue, a Candid Camera Kid yarn under the name John L. Benton. The Candid Camera Kid was crime photographer Jerry Wade. I've read several of these and really like them. I think this series is some of Daniels' best work and hope that it's reprinted in its entirety someday. Daniels didn't write the entire issue. Also on hand are veteran pulpster Robert Sidney Bowen and a couple of authors I hadn't heard of, Kenneth Kerriton and Arthur W. Phillips. It's mostly Daniels' show this time around, though.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Frontier Stories, Summer 1950

I'm not really sure what's happening on this cover, but I like it quite a bit anyway. As with many other Fiction House covers, it makes me want to write a story based on it. Les Savage Jr. is the only well-known author in this issue, although there's no telling who's behind the house-names John Starr and Wilton Hazzard. Others contributing stories are Norman B. Wiltsey, Alexander Wallace, Charles Dickson, and Theodore Cutting. I think I've seen Wiltsey's name before on other pulp TOCs, but the rest are new to me. Even so, I probably would have bought this issue for the cover alone.