Celebrating the work of R.C. Sherriff.

R.C. Sherriff. NYPL

Marking 50 years since the death of playwright-author-screenwriter R. C. Sherriff (1896–1975), the R.C. Sherriff Trust is celebrating his work this year and is publicizing various events (such as film festivals). Sherriff might be best known for his World War I play Journey's End (1928), but his oeuvre includes the screenplay for The Invisible Man (dir. James Whale, 1933), the screenplay for the film noir Odd Man Out (dir. Carol Reed, 1947), and the murder mystery plays Home at Seven (aka Murder on Monday, 1950; film, dir. Ralph Richardson, 1952) and A Shred of Evidence (1960).

On the set of Odd Man Out, w/James Mason, left;
cameraman Russell Thompson (looking through
viewfinder); director of photography Robert Krasker
(seated); and director Carol Reed (at right).

Film Music Friday: The Maltese Falcon

The latest episode of Kansas Public Radio's Film Music Friday on Warner Brothers films includes selections from The Maltese Falcon (1941).

Edgar nomination for Sallis companion.

James Sallis: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction by Nathan Ashman (University of East Anglia) has been nominated for an Edgar Award in the best Critical/Biographical category. This is no. 13 in the McFarland Companions to Mystery Fiction series that I edit. Sallis may be best known for the novel Drive (filmed with Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan), although he is the author of numerous mysteries and a well-regarded book on Chester Himes, is a poet, and has been active in the science fiction community. 

Other companion volumes that have previously been nominated for an Edgar are James Ellroy (by Jim Mancall) and Ian Rankin (by Erin E. MacDonald, also a Macavity Award nominee).

J. S. Fletcher on his ouput.

As reported in the February 1933 issue of American Mercury, mystery author J. S. Fletcher (1863–1935) wrote to his publisher, Alfred Knopf, on 7 November 1932 about his output: 

Some controversy having arisen in a literary journal as to whether I have written as many books as Edgar Wallace, I asked the British Museum people to tell me how many books I have published. I have just had their reply—233. 

Awful!

Film Music Friday: "Sherlock Holmes in the Movies."

 

Nicol Williamson as Sherlock Holmes in
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976)

A recent episode of Kansas Public Radio's Film Music Friday is on "Sherlock Holmes in the Movies," with selections ranging from The Hound of the Baskervilles and Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror to The Seven-Per-Cent Solution and Young Sherlock Holmes.

Still more on Simenon, Maigret, etc.

As I noted in blog posts in 2019 and 2022, Christopher Osterberg of the Budapest Times has been reading his way through the Georges Simenon oeuvre. Here are links to his reviews since July 2022:

• The New Investigations of Inspector Maigret

• The Widow Couderc

• The World of Bond and Maigret (a 1964 dialogue between Ian Fleming and Simenon; link to booklet)