The return of Michael Arlen.

Valancourt Books has reissued Michael Arlen's supernatural Hell! Said the Duchess: A Bedtime Story about a duchess suspected of killing several young men in London. It's the first time back in print since 1934. Arlen is best known for The Green Hat (1924) and for the creation of the Falcon, who was featured in films with George Sanders and his brother, Tom Conway, and a later TV series.

The singing Supreme Court justice.

Learned Hand.
LOC Prints & Photos Div

The ever-entertaining Green Bag journal offers a selection of Supreme Court Justice Learned Hand's greatest folk hits (liner notes here). It's probably just as well that he kept his day job.

MacDonald x 2: "The Fatal Impulse" (1960).

In this November 1960 episode of Boris Karloff's Thriller TV series, someone bent on political assassination places a bomb in a woman's purse, but the police are hot on the trail. Featuring Robert Lansing, Elisha Cook Jr., and Mary Tyler Moore, it is adapted by author-screenwriter Philip MacDonald (The List of Adrian Messenger, etc.) from the novella "The Impulse" by John D. MacDonald (Cape Fear, etc.) that appeared in the June 1955 issue of Cosmopolitan.

Seldes on censorship of The Blackboard Jungle (1955).

Gilbert Seldes, by Carl Van
Vechten. Library of Congress,
Prints & Photos Div.

In this October 3, 1955, episode from the radio program The Lively Arts, critic Gilbert Seldes speaks about the censorship of the film The Blackboard Jungle (adapted from the novel by Evan Hunter). It was withdrawn from the Venice Film Festival at the time, said to be due to pressure from Ambassador Clare Boothe Luce.

Happy 84th bday, George Clayton Johnson.

Born in Cheyenne, Wyoming, 84 years ago today, George Clayton Johnson has compiled some impressive credits (among them: author, Logan's Run; screenwriter for Honey West, Kung Fu, Mr. Novak, Ocean's Eleven, Route 66, Star Trek, and The Twilight Zone). He appears below in a Jan. 2013 talk at the Karl Hess Club in Los Angeles, discussing his career and stating, "I wanted to be Ray Bradbury."

Cozzens's "Clerical Error" (1983).

In this April 1983 episode of Tales of the Unexpected, some shady booksellers attempt to extort a dead man's family—with unexpected results. Poirot's Hugh Fraser appears in this adaptation of James Gould Cozzens's "Foot in It" (Redbook Aug. 1935; repr. as "Clerical Error" in venues such as the June 1950 EQMM, Ellery Queen's The Literature of Crime, and Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini's Chapter and Hearse). Cozzens (1903–78), author of the Haycraft-Queen Cornerstone novel The Just and the Unjust and the Pulitzer Prize winner Guard of Honor (admired by Raymond Chandler), was dubbed "the Garbo of U.S. letters" by Time magazine in 1957.

Rex Stout on the FBI and his career.

In the WNYC Radio archive is this 15-minute talk by Rex Stout (then-president of the Authors League of America, now known as the Authors Guild) from the Feb. 1966 program Books and Authors Luncheon. His remarks occurred a few months after the publication of his Nero Wolfe novel The Doorbell Rang that deals with the FBI and attracted quite a bit of attention because, says Stout, "I had the nerve to poke J. Edgar Hoover in the nose."

On his career, Stout says:

I realized that if I went on trying to make serious comments about human character and human problems, I would never turn out to be a Dostoevsky or a Balzac. So to hell with it, I quit. And I decided just to write stories and to try to make them as good stories as I could.

He also reports receiving a fan letter from Bertrand Russell and asserts that he is the only mystery author to have been translated into Ceylonese (the language of Ceylon, now known as Sri Lanka), besting Agatha Christie and Erle Stanley Gardner in this regard.

Stout is introduced by New York Herald Tribune book editor Maurice Dolbier. The program also features Helen Hayes and Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas. For Wolfe Pack commentary on The Doorbell Rang, go here.

Christopher Fowler on Hammer Chillers.

Scheduled for release today as part of the Hammer Chillers audio series is "The Devil in Darkness" by Christopher Fowler (author of the Bryant and Mays mysteries), in which a stuck elevator has sinister results.

Anthony's The Tamarind Seed (1974).

Saluting tomorrow's 85th birthday of British spy author Evelyn Anthony (aka Evelyn Ward-Thomas), this week's film selection is The Tamarind Seed--adapted by Blake Edwards from Anthony's book about a Russian agent romancing a British woman for possibly ulterior motives. Edwards also directed the film, which stars his wife, Julie Andrews. The rest of the cast includes Omar Sharif, Anthony Quayle, and Oskar Homolka.

Trent's Last Case on Why I Really Like This Bk.

E. C. Bentley, from
The Bookman (1913)

The latest episode of Kate Macdonald's podcast Why I Really Like This Book is on E.C. Bentley's Trent's Last Case (1913), which Macdonald calls "a cracking good mystery." Macdonald is the author of the John Buchan companion in the series I edit for McFarland.

Alexander McCall Smith on serial publication.

Charles Dickens, NYPL

In this essay on BBC Radio 3, Alexander McCall Smith, creator of Botswana sleuth Precious Ramotswe, muses on the challenges of writing serial fiction (with examples from Charles Dickens) and states: "I fail to meet the standards he sets."

Boucher et al.'s Macabre (1958).

A doctor races against time to find his daughter, who has been kidnapped and buried alive. The film, which stars Jim Backus and is directed by horror meister William Castle, is based on the book The Marble Forest by Theo Durrant (aka author-critic Anthony Boucher and other members of the Northern California chapter of MWA. Thanks to Jerry House and Jeffrey Marks's Anthony Boucher: A Bio-Bibliography for additional details on The Marble Forest).

Presidential assassination by arsenic?

James Buchanan. 
Library of Congress,
Prints & Photos Div

The House of Representatives highlights the "Mysterious National Hotel Disease" that claimed the life of Pennsylvania representative David F. Robison on this date in 1859. Robison was one of several victims of what was rumored to be a plot to assassinate President James Buchanan by arsenic.

British and US skullduggery, Revolutionary War.

Book by Jessica Warner
on John the Painter

GWU's National Security Archive provides highlights from the CIA's in-house journal Studies in Intelligence (obtained through the Freedom of Information Act), including this interesting article on the British attempts to infiltrate the US mission in Paris during the Revolutionary War. The article also features some US clandestine activities against the British such as an operation to burn the Portsmouth (UK) dockyard by a Scot dubbed "John the Painter."

The Notorious Landlady (1962).

In The Notorious Landlady, US diplomat Jack Lemmon suspects that his landlady (Kim Novak) has murdered her husband. Fred Astaire costars. The screenplay is by M*A*S*H's Larry Gelbart and director-screenwriter Blake Edwards, based on the 1956 Collier's story "The Notorious Tenant" by British author Margery Sharp (best known for The Rescuers).

The religions of comic book characters.

Jimmy Olsen, Lutheran.

Wondering about the religious affiliations of Commissioner Gordon, Dick Tracy, Fu Manchu, The Space Turnip, and other comic book characters? You now can consult this handy database. (thanks to AHA blog)

Update, Bly's The Mystery of Central Park (1889).

Cover of The Mystery of Central Park
by Nellie Bly (1889)

My earlier post on Nellie Bly's only mystery novel, The Mystery of Central Park, may have had some results. The Library of Congress informed me that it has digitized its copy of the novel, which is now available through the Internet Archive. This is excellent news, as there are only three copies in US libraries.

Doctoral scholarship avbl for EU residents, work on Conan Doyle.

There is an exciting opportunity for UK and EU residents interested in doing doctoral work on Arthur Conan Doyle. From Christopher Pittard, a member of the Clues editorial board:

Conan Doyle, NYPL

The Centre for Studies in Literature at the University of Portsmouth (UK) invites applications for one student to undertake a fully funded AHRC Collaborative Doctoral studentship on the topic of "Possession and Obsession: The Case of Arthur Conan Doyle," supervised by Dr. Christopher Pittard and Dr. Patricia Pulham (University of Portsmouth), and Dr. Jane Mee (Portsmouth City Council). As part of this collaborative project, the successful candidate will also work closely with Portsmouth City Council in developing the use of the Arthur Conan Doyle collection (Lancelyn Green bequest), an extensive archive of Doyle memorabilia, and organising public outreach events related to the collection, gaining transferable skills and experience for use in the cultural services and related sectors. The AHRC will pay for fees and an annual maintenance grant of £14,276.

The broad aims of the project are:
• To examine Doyle’s relation to late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century literary and cultural contexts, with reference to questions of reading communities, modes of textual production, and the historical origins of fan identity.

• To consider the cultural relationship between late Victorian fandom and twentieth- and twenty-first century constructions and appropriations of Doyle, addressing issues of authorship, intellectual property, and theoretical models of fandom.

Applications and details of proposed research projects should be made through the University of Portsmouth Web site (under the "Research Degrees" section). Proposals need to indicate that the applicant is applying for the "Possession and Obsession" studentship. Application deadline is July 5. Questions should be directed to Pittard.

The St. Louis Bank Robbery (w/Steve McQueen, 1959).

In the gritty The St. Louis Bank Robbery, Steve McQueen is drawn into a plot for a heist (based on a real case from 1953). The film's directors are John Stix and Oscar winner Charles Guggenheim, father of documentary filmmaker Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth).

What's next? A graphic-novel Perry Mason?

Nathaniel Burney provides a lively look at criminal law via a comics format in The Illustrated Guide to Criminal Law; he talks about the book here. Sneak a peek at the upcoming follow-up, The Illustrated Guide to Criminal Procedure. These are probably destined as presents for the budding law school student, alongside of Scott Turow's One L. (thanks, Law & Humanities blog)

Through the lens with George Bernard Shaw.

George Bernard Shaw.
Library of Congress,
Prints and Photographs Div.

An interesting online exhibition by the London School of Economics archives looks at playwright George Bernard Shaw as a skilled photographer. Photo subjects include sci-fi and mystery author Grant Allen (I introduced the Valancourt Books edition of Allen's Miss Cayley's Adventures), writer Rebecca West, and artists Augustus John (father of Ian Fleming's half-sister Amaryllis) and Neville Stephen Bulwer Lytton (grandson of novelist Edward). Also featured are some photos by Shaw's friends such as T. E. Lawrence (aka Lawrence of Arabia) and Shaw productions such as Major Barbara with Wendy Hiller.

Bulwer Lytton's The Ghost of Rashmon Hall (1947).

Anne Howard and Valentine Dyall in 
The Ghost of Roshmon Hall (1947)

In The Ghost of Rashmon Hall, a psychic investigator (The Man in Black's Valentine Dyall) grapples with the presence of three poltergeists in a London house. The film is adapted from "The Haunted and the Haunters" (1859) by Edward Bulwer Lytton, who wrote proto-mysteries such as Eugene Aram (1832) and is best known these days for this writing contest.

In this article for Nineteenth-Century Contexts, Mark Knight discusses Bulwer Lytton's interest in the occult and his revision of "The Haunted and the Haunters" that reflected his attempt to reconcile leading philosophical theories of his day. It is possible that he based his fictional house on the one at London's 50 Berkeley Square, long reputed as a hotbed of paranormal activity. The story also is notable for Bulwer Lytton's choice to set it in a urban environment rather than the then-customary remote locale of such stories.

Stills from the film may be viewed at this site devoted to the work of director Harold Baim.  

It came from the archives: Fitzgerald's ledger.

The Irvin Dept of Rare Books and Special Collections at the University of South Carolina has digitized F. Scott Fitzgerald's ledger in which he recorded his earnings from writing, as well as income by his wife, Zelda. Entries range from the listing of his first published short story ("Babes in the Woods," Smart Set, Sept. 1918) and notations on the income from his novels to the record of his appreciation of journalist and author Ring Lardner (New Republic, Oct. 1933) and the radio piece "Let's Go Out and Play" (1935).

F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Library of Congress,
Prints and Photographs Div. 

The ledger also includes an autobiographical timeline. Although many may not be interested in the fact that Fitzgerald had colic when he was a baby and find his references to being drunk or "tight" repetitive, he notes in the 1909 entries, "Wrote the Mystery of the Raymond Mortgage." (This flawed mystery tale, later reprinted in EQMM, is found in The Apprentice Fiction of F. Scott Fitzgerald, ed. John Kuehl; I discuss it in my 1999 piece for Mystery Scene, "F. Scott Fitzgerald: Mystery Writer?") There is a tantalizing notation on one of the "ten years old" pages, "He began a history of the U.S. and also a detective story about a necklace that was hidden in [sic] a trapdoor under the carpet," but the latter does not seem to have come to fruition (a trap door concealed by a carpet does appear in Fitzgerald's Pat Hobby story "No Harm Trying").

There are lively bits such as the reaction of his grade school classmates to him ("Will someone poison Scotty or find some means to shut his mouth") and sadder details such as "Zelda transferred to Sheppard [psychiatric facility in Maryland] in katatonic [sic] state."

Update. Princeton has digitized the corrected galleys to The Great Gatsby. (thanks, PhiloBiblos)

25 years of Malice.

There's a new 25-year history of the Malice Domestic convention, Not Everyone's Cup of Tea, available from Wildside Press. I was a cofounder of the convention and wrote a piece on the Malice anthologies. There are photos and plenty of other goodies included, written by distinguished authors such as Rhys Bowen, Charlaine Harris, Carolyn Hart, Peter Lovesey, and Peter Robinson.

Chesterton, Sayers articles of interest.

Illustration of Chesterton from
Hearst's International (Nov 1921)

Appropriate for today (the birthday of G. K. Chesterton), VII: An Anglo-American Literary Review has posted the following articles online:

• "Two Essays on George MacDonald by G. K. Chesterton" introd. Daniel Gabelman (Scottish novelist MacDonald, best known for At the Back of the North Wind [1871], was the grandfather of mystery author-screenwriter Philip MacDonald). In one essay, Chesterton calls George MacDonald "one of the most remarkable men of our time."

 • "Dorothy L. Sayers's Writings about Work, the Economy and Social Conditions: An Annotated Bibliography" by Christine M. Fletcher

Caroline Barta's "'That Precarious Balance': Harmonizing Temperance in Dorothy L. Sayers's Gaudy Night" is not yet posted from the 2012 issue.

"Dark Stranger" (1955).

In "Dark Stranger" (the first episode of the TV anthology series The Star and the Story), writer Edmond O'Brien finds that the murder plot in his novel has come to life. Costarring are Joanne Woodward, Evelyn Ankers, and Dan Tobin.

It came from the archives: G. K. Chesterton.

G. K. Chesterton, NYPL

Displaying distinctive penmanship, G. K. Chesterton wrote this gracious letter to the Barcelona club Ateneu Barcelones in May 1926 (found in the Manuscrits de la Bibloteca de l'Ateneu Barcelones). Ian Ker's biography of Chesterton indicates that PEN's Catalan branch had invited Chesterton to Barcelona; his engagements included a speech on "England Seen from the Outside" at Barcelona University.

The Long Arm (aka The Third Key, 1956).

In The Long Arm, Jack Hawkins stars as Scotland Yard superintendent Tom Halliday, who is on the trail of a safecracker and murderer. The film is directed by The Cruel Sea's Charles Frend, with story and screenplay by journalist-producer Robert Barr.

Product of the Day: Clues T-shirt.

Show your support for the study of mystery/detective fiction with this stylish Clues T-shirt. A portion of the proceeds goes to Bowling Green State University's Ray and Pat Browne Popular Culture Library to assist the library in buying mystery materials and maintaining its collections (Pat was the founding editor of Clues). The T-shirt and other Clues items are available at Zazzle's Clues store.

Return of Revelations of a Lady Detective (1864).

Just out in paperback from University of Chicago Press is the British Library's reissue of Revelations of a Lady Detective (1864, attrib. William Stephens Hayward). This is an important early work featuring a female detective. This edition is only for sale in North and South America; UK residents can buy it from the British Library here.

Triple Cross (1966).

In Triple Cross, Christopher Plummer stars as roguish ex-safecracker Eddie Chapman (the subject of Ben Macintyre's Agent Zigzag), who agrees to spy for the Germans—and the British—during World War II.

Today in 1965: The Defenders' final episode.

E. G. Marshall in
The Defenders

The Paley Center for Media remembers that today in 1965, the legal drama The Defenders (with E. G. Marshall) broadcast its final episode (which featured Robert Duvall).

Product of the Day: "Guilty/Not Guilty" cufflinks.

The "Guilty/Not Guilty" cufflinks and the police helmet cufflinks. From the UK's Police Specials shop.

US alternatives from Just Cuff Links:
• Guilty/Not Guilty cufflinks
• The San Francisco police inspector cufflinks

Take a (virtual) bite of vampire fiction study.

Jeremy Brett in Dracula (1978)
NYPL

Edge Hill University in the United Kingdom will conduct a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) on "Vampire Fictions" that will trace the genre from its 19th-century beginnings to the present. It will start September 3, 2013, and run for 12 weeks. MOOCs, a fairly recent method of online learning, are free to those who do not wish to earn course credit—those who do are required to complete assignments and pay a fee. (Hat tip to Minna Vuohelainen)

Great Lives: Conan Doyle.

Arthur Conan Doyle.
NYPL

The latest subject in the BBC Radio 4 series Great Lives is Arthur Conan Doyle, selected by author Gyles Brandreth, who calls the creator of Sherlock Holmes "the champion of the good." Also commenting is Conan Doyle biographer Andrew Lycett.

Mike Hammer, anticommunist.

Ralph Meeker as Mike Hammer
in Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

Over on the International Spy Museum's blog, historian Mark Stout and author Michael Barson discuss books published since the 1950s that have dealt with the Soviet threat to the United States, including Mickey Spillane's One Lonely Night (1951).

Walk East on Beacon (1952).

Poster for Walk East on Beacon (1952)

Before he became a Republican senator from California, George Murphy hunted communist spies in Boston in Walk East on Beacon (dir. Alfred L. Werker, based on an article by J. Edgar Hoover).

McGerr's Selena Mead: An almost-series.

Illustration by Coby Whitmore
of Selena Mead from
"Campaign Fever," 1964.

Television Obscurities discusses the abortive effort to feature Patricia McGerr's spy Selena Mead in a TV series, including interest by Polly Bergen and Shirley MacLaine's then-husband Steve Parker.
Readers can become acquainted with Mead in the Nov. 1964 story "Campaign Fever."

More work of McGerr (1917–85) is on display in the May 1983 episode "Where's Your Sense of Humour?" from Tales of the Unexpected (based on a McGerr story).

Reddy receives 2013 Dove Award.

Maureen Reddy (Rhode Island College) is this year's recipient of the George N. Dove Award from the Detective/Mystery Caucus of the Popular Culture Association for contributions to the serious study of mystery/crime fiction. Reddy is the author of Traces, Codes, and Clues: Reading Race in Crime Fiction and Sisters in Crime: Feminism and the Crime Novel, among other works. Past recipients of the Dove Award include Frankie Y. Bailey, Douglas G. Greene, the late H. R. F. Keating, P. D. James, Catherine Ross Nickerson, and yours truly.

Evelyn Waugh: Perry Mason fan.

A few interesting tidbits posted on the Web site of the Royal Society of Literature:

Erle Stanley Gardner

• A piece by Linda Kelly on detective fiction that discusses Evelyn Waugh's fondness for Perry Mason, his letter to Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner, and Gardner's reply. (See also Alfred Borrello's article "Evelyn Waugh and Erle Stanley Gardner" from the winter 1970 Evelyn Waugh Newsletter.) In the web of relationships, Waugh was a cousin of mystery novelist Sarah Caudwell.

• P. D. James and Ruth Rendell on mystery writing after Agatha Christie. Among other topics, James discusses the road to publication for Cover Her Face, indicating that it started with meeting actor-writer Miles Malleson (a cousin of Lucy Beatrice Malleson, aka mystery author Anthony Gilbert).

•  A discussion (on audio) with Daphne Park (MI6 operative and principal of Somerville College, Oxford), including readings from Ian Fleming's work by Lucy Fleming (his niece).

MacInnes's Venetian Affair (1967).

Robert Vaughn (still playing Napoleon Solo on Man from U.N.C.L.E. at the time) tries to figure out why a US diplomat detonated a bomb at a peace conference in this adaptation of Helen MacInnes's spy novel (Kirkus review here). The film costars Boris Karloff, Elke Sommer, and Felicia Farr.

Artist Charles Dana Gibson on female jurors.

Detail from "When Women Are Jurors"
by Charles Dana Gibson (1902). LOC.

Included in the Library of Congress exhibition "The Gibson Girl's America: Drawings by Charles Dana Gibson" (on view until August 17, 2013, but some images are online) are Gibson's illustrations for Life, "When Women Are Jurors" (1902) and "Called for Jury Duty" (1927). One of the most popular posts on The Bunburyist is the one on female juries, which perhaps indicates keen interest in this topic.

Celebrating 50 years of The Birds.

On March 30, the History Show of RTE (Ireland) marked the 50th anniversary of the premiere of Alfred Hitchcock's film The Birds. Below, The Birds' screenwriter, Evan Hunter, talks about the original ending of the film.

de la Torre's "The Older Sister" (1956).

A female reporter pursues an interview with the reluctant sister of Lizzie Borden in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "The Older Sister." Carmen Mathews plays Lizzie, and Patricia Hitchcock (daughter of Alfred) plays the servant Margaret. The episode is adapted from the play Goodbye, Miss Lizzie Borden (Suspense radio version, 1955) by Haycraft-Queen author and Edgar nominee Lillian de la Torre McCue (1902–93), who was known for her portrayal of Dr. Samuel Johnson as a master sleuth.

Clues 31.1: Hitchcock and adaptation.

"Hitchcock and Adaptation" is the theme of Clues 31.1 (2013), guest edited by Loyola Univ Maryland's Mark Osteen (author of Nightmare Alley: Film Noir and the American Dream). The following is a summary of the contents (with links on the article titles). To order the issue or subscribe to Clues, visit this Web page or download the subscription flyer.

Introduction. MARK OSTEEN

Melancholy Elephants: Hitchcock and Ingenious Adaptation. KEN MOGG Alfred Hitchcock films such as Marnie and Young and Innocent represent a world that is equivocal. Highly ingenious and imaginative, they enable the spectator, much like the character Roger Thornhill in North by Northwest, to re-engage with that world and come “alive.”

"Inspiring Public Uneasiness": Hitchcock's Adaptation of Conrad's "Simple Tale." MATTHEW PAUL CARLSON (High Point Univ, NC) In Alfred Hitchcock’s Sabotage (1936; adapted from Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent, 1907), the director goes beyond mere use of the novel as a point of departure; he deeply engages its underlying anxieties about the artist’s relationship to his audience.

Reading Hitchcock/Reading Queer: Adaptation, Narrativity, and a Queer Mode of Address in Rope, Strangers on a Train, and Psycho. HEATH A. DIEHL (Bowling Green State Univ) Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope (1948) and Strangers on a Train (1951) reveal an interest in the odd; the peculiar; the “queer.” The author examines the narrative choices made in adaptation.

"Dear Miss Lonelyhearts": Voyeurism and the Spectacle of Human Suffering in Rear Window. NICHOLAS ANDREW MILLER (Loyola Univ Maryland) Rear Window offers a powerful meditation on the ethical implications of private voyeurism in the public sphere. The film draws thematic inspiration from Nathanael West’s Miss Lonelyhearts.

"The Proper Geography": Hitchcock's Adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's "The Birds." JOHN BRUNS (College of Charleston) Alfred Hitchcock’s adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s “The Birds” illuminates the technical aspects of his process of adaptation, much-ignored similarities between du Maurier’s text and Hitchcock’s film, and the anxiogenics of spatial dislocation.

Hitchcock's Diegetic Imagination: Thornton Wilder, Shadow of a Doubt, and Hitchcock's Mise-en-Scene. DONNA KORNHABER (UT-Austin) The author considers the collaboration between Thornton Wilder and Alfred Hitchcock on Shadow of a Doubt (1943) and examines the influence of Wilder’s theories of theatrical abstraction and cinematic realism on Hitchcock’s developing sense of mise-en-scène.

The Second Look, the Second Death: W. G. Sebald's Orphic Adaptation of Hitchcock's Vertigo. R. J. A. KILBOURN (Wilfred Laurier Univ, Canada) This essay compares W. G. Sebald’s novel Vertigo (1991) and Hitchcock’s 1958 film Vertigo. The book extends key themes and formal strategies in the film, most notably Hitchcock’s famous “vertigo shot.”

Adapting Poe, Adapting Hitchcock: Robert Bloch in the Shadow of Hitchcock's Television Empire. DENNIS R. PERRY and CARL H. SEDERHOLM (both Brigham Young Univ) Alfred Hitchcock’s television programs challenged adaptors to transfer his style and persona to the small screen. Robert Bloch invoked his own and Hitchcock’s deep interest in Poe to create episodes that tended to be more dark, ironic, and psychologically edgy than others.

Extraordinary Renditions: DeLillo's Point Omega and Hitchcock's Psycho. MARK OSTEEN Tracing how Don DeLillo’s novella rings changes on the word rendition, the author unravels a skein of intertextual and metacinematic relations that stretches from Psycho to Douglas Gordon’s 24 Hour Psycho video installation, Robert Bloch’s original novel, and the many Psycho remakes.

REVIEWS
Susan M. Griffin and Alan Nadel, eds. The Men Who Knew Too Much: Henry James and Alfred Hitchcock. PAMELA BEDORE

R. Barton Palmer and David Boyd, eds. Hitchcock at the Source: The Auteur as Adaptor. JOHN TEEL

BackStory: Deception in America.

The episode "Bridge for Sale: Deception in America" (mostly on confidence men) of the history radio program BackStory featured a few mystery elements during the discussion of the lie detector. In addition to covering Wonder Woman's golden lasso, the program included an excerpt from the mystery novel The Yellow Circle (1909) that posited the creation of a lie detector device; the author is Charles Edmonds Walk (1875–1943), who also wrote The Paternoster Ruby (1910). "Bridge for Sale" also mentioned the film Call Northside 777 (1948, dir. Henry Hathaway), in which reporter Jimmy Stewart attempts to exonerate an accused cop killer; a real-life developer of the polygraph, Leonarde Keeler, appears in the film as, appropriately enough, a polygraph examiner.

The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950).

Jane Wyatt and Lee J. Cobb in The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950)

In The Man Who Cheated Himself, a veteran homicide detective (Lee J. Cobb) faces the prospect of helping a wealthy woman (Jane Wyatt) cover up the murder of her husband as his brother (John Dall) takes charge of the case. The film was directed by Felix E. Feist (Tomorrow Is Another Day, Donovan's Brain, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea), and the screenplay was cowritten by Haycraft-Queen author Philip MacDonald (The List of Adrian Messenger, Warrant for X, etc.)

British comics exhibition (incl Holmes spoof).

Cover of Jack Yeats
by Bruce Arnold

Among the fascinating images in the University of Oldenburg library's online exhibition "Wonderfully Vulgar: British Comics 1873–1939" are two pages from Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter" in the Strand (illus. Sidney Paget) and the 1897 spoof The Funny Wonder featuring "Chubblock Homes" drawn by Jack Butler Yeats (the artist brother of W. B. Yeats; see also Chubblock's appearance in drag). There's also an excerpt from a 1936 sea serial starring James Cagney.

British Lib podcast: The Female Detective.

The British Library has just posted the podcast from the panel that discussed the female detective from the debut of "Miss G" in Andrew Forrester's The Female Detective in 1864. Held in conjunction with the exhibition "Murder in the Library," the event featured Lindsey Davis, Natasha Cooper, The Killing producer Piv Bernth, and former Clues executive editor Margaret Kinsman.

Christie's Love from a Stranger (1937).

Agatha Christie's "Philomel Cottage," in which a wife suspects her new husband of sinister intentions, has been adapted several times. These include a 1937 film (also known as A Night of Terror; see below) with Ann Harding and Basil Rathbone and a 1947 film with stars John Hodiak, Sylvia Sidney, and John Howard, and a screenplay by Philip MacDonald (The List of Adrian Messenger, etc.). Other versions include a play by Frank Vosper and the October 1943 Suspense episode with Orson Welles and Geraldine Fitzgerald.

Today in 1967: Raymond Burr as Ironside.

The Paley Center for Media recalls that today in 1967 Raymond Burr debuted as San Francisco detective Robert Ironside, left a paraplegic after a murder attempt. Writers for the series included Stephen J. Cannell, Davis Dresser (aka Brett Halliday), and Christopher Trumbo (son of blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo).

Heyer's The Reluctant Widow (1950).

A former governess encounters spies employed by Napoleon in this adaptation of Georgette Heyer's novel (alternate film title: The Inheritance). Kathleen Byron (best known for Black Narcissus) is featured.

The life of the creator of Goodnight Moon.

With Good Reason radio program discusses the short life of Margaret Wise Brown, who wrote the children's classic Goodnight Moon (1947) and died at age 42 after an appendectomy.

Jacques Barzun, editor.

Those who miss Jacques Barzun (of the Barzun-Taylor Classic Crime Novels list) since his death at age 104 in October 2012 can now read Helen Hazen's delightful reminiscence in the American Scholar regarding his (sometimes painful) editing of her book during his time with Scribner. According to Hazen, Barzun once wrote, "I go through your pages like an angry bull."

More on Patrick Hamilton: Hangover Square.

Coinciding with Patrick Hamilton's birthday on March 17, BBC Radio 4's A Good Read program discusses Hamilton's Hangover Square (1941). Although noting that it often is not the most comfortable book to read, the commentators admire Hamilton's insights into psychology and obsession. (Below: The trailer to Hangover Square [1945], with Laird Cregar, Linda Darnell, and George Sanders).

Conan Doyle to editor.

Arthur Conan Doyle, NYPL

The online slideshow of materials from Toronto Public Library's special collections includes some items from its noted Arthur Conan Doyle collection and sheds light on the author's relationship with Strand editor Herbert Greenhough Smith. One letter from Conan Doyle states, "I must say that I cannot agree with your estimate of the 'Norwood Builder.' I read it to a roomful of people and I was never more conscious of holding an audience absolutely spellbound." Another letter indicates that he wants a higher limit than 50,000 words for The Hound of the Baskervilles. Other items include covers from the Strand and a figurine of Professor Moriarty.

Happy birthday, Patrick Hamilton.

Playwright and author Patrick Hamilton was born today in Hassocks, Sussex, United Kingdom, in 1904. He died in 1962. In mysterydom, he is best known for his plays Rope, with certain parallels to the Leopold and Loeb case (1929; filmed by Alfred Hitchcock, 1948) and Gaslight (1939, aka Angel Street; films 1940, 1944, 1947, and several TV adaptations). He also wrote the novel Hangover Square (1941; filmed by John Brahm, 1945). The TV series The Charmer, with Nigel Havers as con artist Ralph Gorse, was based on Hamilton's Mr. Stimpson and Mr. Gorse (1953). Faber Finds has reissued his Twopence Coloured (1928) and Impromptu in Moribundia (1939).

Want to back a Veronica Mars film?

Annoy, tiny blonde. Annoy like the wind.

—Logan Echolls to Veronica Mars

Veronica Mars TV series creator Rob Thomas is attempting to finance a film featuring the savvy investigator via Kickstarter. There seems to be quite a bit of enthusiasm for the venture, for the level of funding has already exceeded its $2 million goal. Donations will be accepted until April 12. The Clues 2008 theme issue on the girl sleuth had Kristen Bell on the cover and featured Alaine Martaus's article, "'You Get Tough. You Get Even': Rape, Anger, Cynicism, and the Vigilante Girl Detective in Veronica Mars." (Hat tip to Maryelizabeth Hart, Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore)

Conference on weird fiction scheduled.

Algernon Blackwood, NYPL

The conference "The Weird: Fugitive Fictions/Hybrid Genres" will be held at the University of London on November 8, 2013. A keynote speaker is S. T. Joshi (who has done much work on H. P. Lovecraft). The conference call for papers mentions interest in papers on Lovecraft and similar writers (probably including Algernon Blackwood, Lord Dunsany, M. R. James, Arthur Machen, and Robert Louis Stevenson), but also indicates the intent to cover topics such as "modernism and the weird."

Fletcher's Night Watch (1973).

Elizabeth Taylor and Laurence Harvey reunite after Butterfield 8 in this tale of a woman who has experienced a nervous breakdown and believes a murder has occurred next door. Directed by actor-director Brian G. Hutton (Where Eagles Dare, Kelly's Heroes, High Road to China), Night Watch is based on the play of the same name by Lucille Fletcher (Sorry, Wrong Number; The Hitchhiker).

Book cover design: Tiny men, women's backs.

Jack Higgins cover illustrating
the "tiny man" scenario

The Times Literary Supplement blog builds on J. Kingston Pierce's earlier blog posts (such as here and here) on book cover designs that contain similar elements. I had not noticed the "women with their backs to the reader" and "tiny men walking into the distance" trends, but the evidence seems clear. Also noted: Web sites with bad book cover designs (one of which poses the immortal question, "Whose head is she wearing?").

The return of John Blackburn.

British mystery-horror writer John Blackburn (1923–93) returns with Valancourt Books' reissue of Broken Boy (1959), in which a dead body in a river connects to ancient evil. Valancourt's reprints of Blackburn's Bury Him Darkly (1969) and Nothing But the Night (1968; film with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, 1973) are scheduled for release this month, and more Blackburn reissues are planned by the publisher.

Blackburn may be best known for A Scent of New-Mown Hay (1958). The nonfiction author Julia Blackburn is his niece (she's the daughter of poet Thomas Blackburn, who wrote the vampire novel The Feast of the Wolf, 1971).

Lizzie (1957).

Five months before the appearance of The Three Faces of Eve was the release of Lizzie (1957), in which a bewildered Elizabeth Richmond (played by Eleanor Parker) receives threatening letters from a stranger named Lizzie. The film (also starring Richard Boone and Joan Blondell, as well as Johnny Mathis singing "It's Not for Me to Say") was based on The Bird's Nest (1954) by Shirley Jackson (The Haunting of Hill House, "The Lottery," etc.).

Coming Soon: Crime and Detective Fiction

Crime and Detective Fiction, part of the Salem Press series Critical Insights, is scheduled for release in April. I wrote an essay for this volume—"'Your Sin Will Find You Out': Critical Perceptions of Mystery Fiction"—which examines the response to Anna Katharine Green's The Leavenworth Case, James M. Cain's Double Indemnity, Margery Allingham's The Tiger in the Smoke, and Nicholas Meyer's The Seven Per-Cent Solution. Another essay, written by Kerstin Bergman (Lund University), is on Stieg Larsson's work. The editor of the volume is Rebecca Martin (Pace University).

Today in 1971: Columbo pilot debuts.

The Paley Center for Media recalls today's debut in 1971 of "Ransom for a Dead Man," the pilot for Columbo starring Peter Falk and Lee Grant.

Today in 1977: The death of John Dickson Carr.

Shelly Dickson Carr provides insight on her blog about the life of her grandfather, locked room mystery master John Dickson Carr, on today's anniversary of his death (see below for the trailer to Dangerous Crossing [1953], based on Carr's radio play "Cabin B-13").

BBC Radio 4 Extra: The life of Mata Hari.

Mata Hari, NYPL

This week on BBC Radio 4 Extra, Juliet Stevenson reads Femme Fatale, which explores the life of Mata Hari, the notorious female spy executed in France during World War I. Episodes usually may be heard online for up to a week after broadcast.

Charlaine Harris on writing.

At the Mercantile Library's Center for Fiction, Charlaine Harris talked about her approach to writing fiction, particularly regarding True Blood's Sookie Stackhouse and the initial resistance to selling the first book in the series, Dead until Dark. On keeping a series fresh, Harris noted, "There should be a constant stream of . . . exposing layers of the character."