Clues 33.2: Patricia Highsmith, Per Wahlöö.

In honor of the 20th anniversary of Patricia Highsmith's death and the 40th anniversary of Per Wahlöö's death, Clues 33.2 (2015) has been published. It is a theme issue on the work of Highsmith, plus reveals Wahlöö's plans for another Martin Beck novel near the end of his life. Abstracts follow below. Contact McFarland to order the issue or to subscribe to the journal.

Update. Issue is now available on Nook, Kindle, and Google Play

Introduction: Re-Evaluating Patricia Highsmith
FIONA PETERS (Bath Spa Univ, UK)

Conformity and Singularity in Patricia Highsmith’s Early Novels
FIONA PETERS
This essay explores Highsmith’s critique of the American suburbs in the novels of the 1950s and early 1960s. It focuses on This Sweet Sickness, highlighting not only Highsmith’s critique of conformity but also her recognition of the threat of psychic breakdown for those who resisted cultural norms.

“Sooner or later most of us get hooked”:
The Question of Insanity in Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley
SAMANTHA WALTON (Bath Spa Univ, UK)
This article considers constructions of insanity in Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley in the context of historical understandings of psychopathy and sociopathic personality disturbance. It examines Patricia Highsmith’s psychological influences and assesses how her novels have been read in relation to changing notions of criminal insanity in psychiatry, law, and culture.

Under an Atomic Sky: Patricia Highsmith, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and the Apocalyptic Imagination
ILSE SCHRYNEMAKERS (Queensboro Community College, NY)
This essay contextualizes Patricia Highsmith’s crime fiction within the ethos of a world with the atomic bomb, examining how her characters fit the prototype of Americans striving for and achieving a comfortable life. It also explores the significance of characters in such a world committing seemingly irrational actions.

Living “As If”: Ripley’s Imaginary and the Problem of Other People in The Talented Mr. Ripley
BRUCE WYSE (Wilfrid Laurier Univ, Canada)
In Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley, Tom Ripley finds reading people a challenge but copes through a form of everyday detection. The author argues that Ripley is an “as-if” character who passes for “normal” until his fantasized rapport with Dickie collapses. Through Dickie’s murder, he recaptures this imaginary bond.

Foxwell on Femmes Fatales blog.

I'm the guest today on the Femmes Fatales blog, talking about my anthology In Their Own Words: American Women in World War I, which will be published September 25. The post includes a photo of the "fingerprint girls" of the war.

The Evil Mind (aka The Clairvoyant, 1934).

Claude Rains plays a con artist who finds that his mind-reading act is resulting in real predictions of the future. Fay Wray co-stars. Screenplay contributors include Charles Bennett (Blackmail, Foreign Correspondent) and Bryan Edgar Wallace (son of Edgar Wallace).

An early ghostly turn by Agatha Christie.

Agatha Christie, 1964.
Dutch National Archives

A child ghost is featured in Agatha Christie's "The Lamp" (1933) that is part of the BBC Radio 4 Extra series Haunted.

The Suspect (dir. Robert Siodmak, 1944).

Directed by Robert Siodmak (The Spiral Staircase), The Suspect is based on James Ronald's novel This Way Out (which fictionalized the Dr. Crippen case). It features Charles Laughton, Ella Raines, and Henry Daniell.

A Slight Case of Murder (1938).

Based on a play by Damon Runyon, A Slight Case of Murder features Edward G. Robinson as a former bootlegger trying to make a splash in high society but facing complications when four corpses show up in his house.

BBC's Great Lives: P. D. James.

I was late in finding this, but this BBC Radio 4 Great Lives program on P. D. James features author Val McDermid speaking eloquently about the work and sometimes tough life of the late mystery writer. As McDermid recalls, "She was quite mischievous . . . she notably said that she believed the day should start by saying four or five politically incorrect things before breakfast." McDermid also reads a chilling excerpt from A Shroud for a Nightingale.

Foxwell on American women in World War I.

Over on Ed Gorman's blog I discuss my new collection In Their Own Words: American Women in World War I, describing its background, mentioning some of the women featured in it, and discussing their varied roles in the war. As I explain, "I set out to collect first-person accounts of U.S. women that dated from the war period, wanting the immediacy and the 'I was there' point of view." Mystery fans will be pleased to find two pieces by Mary Roberts Rinehart included in the collection (publication date is September 25).

There is an additional resource: my new blog, American Women in World War I, where I cover women for whom I could not find a first-person account.

The Upturned Glass (1947).

Ad for The Upturned Glass

James Mason is the star and one of the producers in this tale of a British brain surgeon seeking vengeance after he discovers who is responsible for the death of the woman he loves.

The continuing contribution of Eric Ambler.

Ad for the 1943 film of
Eric Ambler's Background to Danger

John Gray pens an appreciation in the BBC Magazine of the spy novels of Eric Ambler (e.g., Journey into Fear, The Mask of Dimitrios):

The protagonists of Ambler's novels aren't the hearty public school patriots who stride through the pages of John Buchan.
. . . Ambler's novels are unsettling in a number of ways. 

(thanks to the Law & Humanities blog)

Meet the author: W. R. Burnett, Dark Hazard (1934).

W. R. Burnett, left, with
Edward G. Robinson and
dog, 1933.

This promotional trailer for Dark Hazard (a film about a gambler) not only features the film's star, Edward G. Robinson, but also the novel's author, W. R. Burnett (Little Caesar, High Sierra, The Asphalt Jungle), and Burnett's dog.

Early U.S. female lawyers.

Edna Rankin, from the 1919
University of Montana Sentinel

University of Montana law professor Bari Burke has initiated the blog "Montana's Early Women Lawyers" that seeks to highlight the contributions of pioneering lawyers such as Edna Rankin McKinnon, sister of Rep. Jeanette Rankin and a birth control activist who worked with Margaret Sanger. Burke also is posting historical newspaper tidbits from around the country pertaining to female attorneys, such as this knee-slapper from 1911:

"What’s the trouble?" inquired the judge.

"This lady lawyer wants to make a motion," explained the clerk, "but her gown is too tight.”

(thanks to the Law & Humanities blog)

Home at Seven (aka Murder on Monday, 1952).

In this film directed by Ralph Richardson and based on a play by playwright-screenwriter R. C. Sherriff (Journey's End, The White Carnation; screenplays for The Invisible Man; Goodbye, Mr. Chips; No Highway in the Sky; etc.), Richardson is a bank official with a missing day in his life, and signs seem to point to his involvement in theft and murder. Margaret Leighton and Jack Hawkins costar.

New scholarly edition of The Lodger (1911).

On September 1 Cambridge Scholars Publishing will issue a new scholarly edition of The Lodger by Marie Belloc Lowndes—a novel in which a landlady becomes suspicious of the activities of her tenant. It became a noteworthy early film by Alfred Hitchcock. The editor is Elyssa Warkentin (University of Manitoba), who has brought together The Lodger's original 1911 appearance in McClure's magazine and the 1913 novel version. It's an appropriate project for Warkentin, who had an article in Clues about early Jack-the-Ripper fictionalizations.

BFI infographic: What makes a film noir?

Jane Greer and Robert Mitchum
in Out of the Past (1947)

This whimsical infographic from BFI attempts to define the elements that compose a film noir such as "script based on American pulp fiction" and posts its finding for "the noirest film ever."

Judith Flanders's The Invention of Murder on BBC Radio 4.

BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week is offering readings of Judith Flanders's The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime. I reviewed the book here for the Washington Independent Review of Books.

Of related interest: Readings are starting of Kate Summerscale's The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher (on the Constance Kent case).

The legacy of Joseph Hansen.

The WOW Report pays tribute to Joseph Hansen (1923–2004), creator of groundbreaking gay investigator Dave Brandstetter. His work includes Fadeout (edited by legendary mystery editor Joan Kahn),  The Little Dog Laughed, Shamus nominee Gravedigger, and Lambda winner A Country of Old Men.

Sax Rohmer speaks.

Among the goodies just uploaded to YouTube by British Movietone is footage from 1932 of Fu Manchu creator Sax Rohmer (aka Arthur Henry Sarsfield Ward) talking about the levels of U.S. versus British crime.

The Unseen (1945).

Publicity photo for
The Unseen

Ethel Lina White's Her Heart in Her Throat (1942) was adapted as The Unseen, with July 23rd birthday boy Raymond Chandler as a  screenwriter. In The Unseen, governess Gail Russell suspects that nefarious activities are going on in the neighborhood and wonders about the role of her employer, shipbuilder Joel McCrea, in his wife's death. Herbert Marshall and Norman Lloyd costar. The film, an attempt by director Lewis Allen to follow up The Uninvited (1944, also with Russell), has some echoes of Henry James's "The Turn of the Screw."

Honey West cover art.

Anne Francis as Honey West

In their "Whodunit Wednesday" tumblr features, University of North Carolina Greensboro's Special Collections have been highlighting artists who designed Honey West covers that are part of their Robbie Emily Dunn Collection of American Detective Fiction. The latest is R.A. Maguire, who created three Honey West covers: Kiss for a Killer, Dig a Dead Doll, and Blood and Honey. There are previous posts on artist Harry Schaare and Honey West author G. G. Fickling (pseudonym of Gloria and Forest Fickling).

"Equal Partners" (1952).

This 12-minute episode of Playhouse 15 (aka Short Short Dramas) features familiar character actor Henry Jones as a realtor pressured by his wife to kill his business partner for the life insurance payout.

New light on codebreaking couple.

Maj. William F. Friedman explains
ciphering machine to Louise Newkirk
16 Aug 1930. Library of Congress
Prints & Photographs Div.

The NSA has declassified 7000 records of William F. Friedman (1891–1969), a U.S. cryptology pioneer inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, and his wife Elizebeth (1892–1980), also a noted codebreaker. This initiative coincides with exhibitions on the Friedmans by the Marshall Foundation and the National Cryptological Museum.

Listen to Friedman's lecture on the Shakespeare ciphers and his 1960 talk about historical efforts in codebreaking  (part 1, part 2, part 3).

This day in 1951: Hammett defies U.S. District Court.

Dashiell Hammett
Yank, 30 Nov 1945

Excerpt, Brooklyn
Daily Eagle acct,
10 Jul 1951, p. 1

Today in 1951, Dashiell Hammett, chair of the Civil Rights Congress' bail committee, refused in New York's US district court to provide the names of those who had posted $80,000 bail for four communists; the latter subsequently failed to appear in court. Convicted of contempt of court, Hammett went to prison in Kentucky and was released in December 1951.

O.S.S. (1946).

Ad for O.S.S. (1946)

In O.S.S., Alan Ladd and Geraldine Fitzgerald are two spies engaged in sabotage against the enemy in World War II France. The screenwriter-producer is Richard Maibaum, who wrote many of the screenplays for the James Bond films. The film's publicity materials ballyhoo the cooperation of the real Office of Strategic Services (precursor to the CIA) in the making of the film.

"The Criminal Neglect of Detective Fiction."

Marjorie Hope Nicolson.
From Smith College's
yearbook Class of 1930

In the 4 June 2015 Times Higher Education, University of Ulster English professor Richard Bradford wonders why academe treats crime fiction as "worthy of inspection but little respect." Some of the writers mentioned are W. H. Auden, Raymond Chandler, James Ellroy, Patricia Highsmith, Edgar Allan Poe, and Edmund Wilson. He states that Smith College English professor Marjorie Hope Nicolson was the first to explore the relationship of academics to detective fiction in "The Professor and the Detective" (Atlantic Monthly, Apr 1929, 483–93), but notes that she was fairly dismissive in her piece.

Lilly Library exhibition: "The Weird Side of Detective Fiction."

Edgar Wallace. 
Painting by Philip
Tennyson Cole, which
appears in Wallace's
My Hollywood Diary (1932)

Indiana University's Lilly Library has a new summer exhibition, "Death by Gimmick! The Weird Side of Detective Fiction," which features the work of Edgar Wallace, Harry Stephen Keeler, and paperback publishers.

The Clouded Yellow (1950).

Trevor Howard in
The Clouded Yellow

In The Clouded Yellow, former secret agent Trevor Howard and Jean Simmons go on the run when the latter is accused of murder. Costars include Kenneth More and Andre Morell. The film is based on a story and screenplay by Janet Green (see last week's Cast a Dark Shadow).

See H. Rider Haggard in his study and garden.

H. Rider Haggard, c. 1905.
Library of Congress,
Prints and Photographs Div.

For today's 159th birthday of author Sir Henry Rider Haggard (King Solomon's Mines, She, etc.), you can watch 1923 footage of him working in his elegant Norfolk study, walking in his garden, and patting his dog.

Cast a Dark Shadow (1955).

Dirk Bogarde in
Cast a Dark Shadow

In Cast a Dark Shadow, Dirk Bogarde has a penchant for seeking spouses who appear to be wealthy and then dispatching them. Margaret Lockwood and Kay Walsh co-star. The film was adapted from the play "Murder Mistaken" by Janet Green.

Tom Nolan on Ross Macdonald.

Meanwhile There Are Letters:
The Correspondence of Eudora Welty
and Ross Macdonald 
(ed. Marrs and Nolan, July 2015)

On the Library of America blog Reader's Almanac Tom Nolan posts part 2 of his series on the life and work of Lew Archer creator Ross Macdonald (aka Kenneth Millar). Part 2 discusses the Canadian-influenced Millar's view of California, the state where he elected to live and set his work. Part 1 deals with the relationship of Dashiell Hammett's and Raymond Chandler's work to Macdonald's.

A Gentleman after Dark (1942).

Richard Washburn Child, 1924.
Library of Congress,
Prints and Photographs Div.

In A Gentleman after Dark thief Brian Donlevy breaks out of prison to thwart the blackmail plans of his wife, Miriam Hopkins, and protect his daughter. The film is based on "A Whiff of Heliotrope" by Richard Washburn Child, whose occupations included magazine editor, presidential campaign writer for Warren G. Harding, chair of the National Crime Commission, U.S. ambassador to Italy, and ghostwriter for Benito Mussolini.

Drood exhibition, Dickens Museum.

Ad for The Mystery of
Edwin Drood (1935)

On view until November 22 at London's Charles Dickens Museum is the exhibition "A Dickens Whodunit: Solving The Mystery of Edwin Drood," which is curated by Clues contributor and Dickens specialist Pete Orford (University of Buckingham). It features clips from  adaptations and discussions of various theories about the perpetrator in Dickens's unfinished work. Visitors can also see the desk on which Dickens wrote Drood.

Orford is also involved in The Drood Inquiry, an interactive investigation into Dickens's mystery.

Another Man's Poison (1951).

Gary Merrill and Bette Davis
in Another Man's Poison

In Another Man's Poison, Bette Davis is a mystery writer juggling an inconvenient husband, a lover, a blackmailer (Davis's then-husband, Gary Merrill), and a nosy veterinarian (Emlyn Williams). The film, produced by Douglas Fairbanks Jr., is based on the play "Deadlock" by Leslie Sands, with a screenplay by Val Guest.

John Curran talks about Agatha Christie.

On RTE (Ireland)'s Arena program John Curran (author of Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks) talks about Christie's childhood, her short stories and plays, her 1926 disappearance, and the genesis of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.

Agatha Christie at Schiphol Airport, 17 Sept 1969
Dutch National Archives

Want to review dime novels?

The people behind the Johannsen and LeBlanc dime novel collections at Northern Illinois University invite reviews by scholars, students, and fans of the 19th- and 20th-century dime novels offered on its revamped Web site. They have scanned 335 issues of Nick Carter Weekly among the more than 1000 items in the collections; digitized materials include the following:

Metta Fuller Victor, NYPL

Image from the cover of
Dick, the Boy Lawyer (1909)

 • The Border Rivals, or, The Mill-Flume Mystery (1868) by Metta Fuller Victor (aka Seeley Regester), who wrote The Dead Letter, the first American detective novel

•  Chung Wing, the Chinese Bandit King, or An American Detective in China (1884) by Police Sergeant Mallory

• Dick, the Boy Lawyer, or Winning a Big Fee (1909) by
"A Self-Made Man"  

• Guilty or Not Guilty, or the Ordeal of Fire: A Tale of Thirty Years Ago (1866) by [Lydia] Ann Emerson Porter, a cousin of Ralph Waldo Emerson

Update, 6-23-15. NIU advises that it plans to add about 200 issues of Nick Carter Weekly to the site within the next month.

Espionage Target—You (1964).

Pete Duel in
Espionage Target—You

Wondering what to do if approached by communist agents? You can find out in this 1964 Defense Department film featuring Pete Duel (Alias Smith and Jones).

Conan Doyle speaks on Holmes and spiritualism.

Arthur Conan Doyle, from
Harper's Weekly, ca. 1893. NYPL

To mark Arthur Conan Doyle's 156th birthday today, listen to him talking about his inspirations for Sherlock Holmes (including Edgar Allan Poe and Dr. Joseph Bell) and his views on spiritualism. Sound files dated 14 May 1930 at the Centre for History and Analysis of Recorded Music, King's College London.

View the label from the original recording.

"The day a man's mind shuts is the day of his mental death."
• Conan Doyle, Part 1 (3.50 min)
• Conan Doyle, Part 2 (3.50 min)

Secret Mission (1942).

Michael Wilding
in Secret Mission

In Secret Mission, British and French agents seek information on German forces in France as they prepare for an Allied invasion. Hugh Williams, James Mason, Michael Wilding, and Herbert Lom star. The story is by Shaun Young, better known as director Terence Young (Dr No, Triple Cross, Wait Until Dark, The Valachi Papers).

Clues 33.1: Westlake, Leonard, Reichs, et al.

Clues 33.1 has been published; see below for abstracts. Contact McFarland for issue orders and subscriptions.

Update. The issue is now available on Nook and Kindle.

Introduction  JANICE M. ALLAN
Now You See Her—Now You Don’t: 
Household Spies in Aurora Floyd and Lady Audley’s Secret RACHEL SMILLIE (U Aberdeen) In Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s novels the female domestic servant enjoys a uniquely privileged position; she is granted admittance to the most intimate spaces of the home and given unfettered access to the family’s secrets. By focusing on the role of the female servant as household spy, this essay explores the control these women are able to exercise over their respective narratives.

“Something in a New Key”: Democratizing Poe’s Ratiocination in Psych and Elementary PATRICK KENT RUSSELL (U-Conn) Psych (2006–14) and Elementary (2013–) take steps to democratize Edgar Allan Poe’s ratiocination. Early seasons of Psych take a greater step by providing viewing audiences access to clues and lessons in what to observe. Seasons 1 and 2 of Elementary also show lessons, but as character development, rather than to redistribute necessary knowledge.

Far from Home and Near to Harm: Mazes, Rhizomes, and Illusory Domestic Spaces in Richard Stark’s Parker Novels GREGORY ALAN PHIPPS  This article considers the construction of Richard Stark’s Parker novels in relation to the symbolic models of the maze and the rhizome. These function in the Parker novels as frameworks that capture the structural forms of various spaces, social encounters, and modes of subjectivity.

Scarlet Fever: Communism, Crime, and Contagion in James Ellroy’s The Big Nowhere JOSHUA MEYER
 (U of Western Sydney) Throughout James Ellroy’s The Big Nowhere, the threat of communism and the institutional anxiety it engenders is played out through a series of symbolic associations among communism, crime, and contagion. Ellroy’s figuration of communism as a form of criminal contagion takes up underlying tensions involved with the discourse of typology that runs through the detective genre.

London Belongs to Me (aka Dulcimer Street, 1948).

Sketch by H. R. [Roy] Oxley for London Belongs to Me

Encountering gamblers and murder in London Belongs to Me are eccentric boarding house residents (such as car thief Richard Attenborough and dubious clairvoyant Alistair Sim). The film was adapted from the novel by Norman Collins (Dick Barton: Special Agent) and directed by Sidney Gilliat (well known for his screenplays for The Lady Vanishes and Green for Danger).

French exhibition on a forensic pioneer.

Class studying the Bertillon identification method, ca. 1910–15
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Div.

At the Musée de Vire in Normandy, France, until November is the exhibition "Alphonse Bertillon et L'Identification de Personnes 1880-1914" (Alphonse Bertillon and the Identification of Persons 1880-1914). The accomplishments of Bertillon (1853-1914) pertaining to the investigation of crime include devising a physical description system, inventing the mug shot, and developing an approach to crime scene photography, but his role in the Dreyfus case marred his career. Some items from the exhibition can be viewed on the museum's blog. (Thanks to the International Crime Fiction Group based at Queen's University Belfast)

"James Ellroy: VIsions of Noir" conference.

James Ellroy
Photo by Marion Ettlinger

Scheduled for early July at the University of Liverpool, the conference "James Ellroy: Visions of Noir" plans to focus on "Ellroy’s influence on the genre, his inspirations as a writer and his achievements in forging an idiosyncratic and unique style." One of the organizers is Steven Powell (ed., Conversations with James Ellroy). 

All through the Night (1941).

In All through the Night, gamblers take on Nazi saboteurs. The film stars Humphrey Bogart, Conrad Veidt, Judith Anderson, Peter Lorre, Jane Darwell, Jackie Gleason, and Phil Silvers. The film is not one of those selected for October's Humphrey Bogart Film Festival (to be held, appropriately enough, in Key Largo), although there are plenty of other goodies offered, such as In a Lonely Place.

Van Dover receives 2015 Dove Award.

The latest recipient of the George N. Dove Award for contributions to the serious study of mystery, detective, and crime fiction is J. K. Van Dover (Lincoln University, PA), author of books such as The Judge Dee Novels of R. H. van Gulik: The Case of the Chinese Detective and the American Reader; Making the Detective Story American: Biggers, Van Dine, and Hammett and the Turning Point of the Genre, 1925-1930; and Centurions, Knights, and Other Cops: The Police Novels of Joseph Wambaugh. He also has edited works such as The Critical Response to Raymond Chandler. The award is presented by the Detective/Mystery Caucus of the Popular Culture Association; the chair of the Dove Award Committee is Rachel Schaffer (Montana State University Billings). Past Dove recipients include Frankie Y. Bailey (University at Albany, SUNY), Douglas G. Greene, P. D. James, H. R. F. Keating, Maureen Reddy (Rhode Island College), and yours truly.

Coming soon: Foxwell anthology on American women in WWI.

Anna Perit Rochester (later Kennedy) feeds
Sergeant W. B. Hyer, Company M, 166th Infantry,
42nd Div, American Red Cross
Souilly Evac Hospital No. 6 and No. 7
Souilly, Meuse, France, Oct. 14, 1918
Cover design by Karen Jackson

I've posted some preliminary information on my anthology In Their Own Words: American Women in World War I, which is due out from Oconee Spirit Press in September. This collection of first-person accounts with biographical information and photos attempts to shine a light on the neglected service of American women in the war. I hope to establish a separate blog in connection with the book to talk about some women who require more research or did not provide their own record of their experiences.

The Hitch-Hiker (dir. Ida Lupino, 1953).

In this film cowritten and directed by the enormously talented Ida Lupino, two men discover that they may be in serious trouble because of the unstable hitchhiker riding with them. The film stars Edmond O'Brien, Frank Lovejoy, and Perry Mason's William Talman.

Two O'Clock Courage (1945).

In Two O'Clock Courage, the passenger in Ann Rutherford's cab claims to have no memory of his identity, but she soon finds that he may be involved in murder. Tom Conway and Jane Greer co-star. The film is based on the novel by Gelett Burgess, poet of "Purple Cow" fame and coiner of the term blurb.

Coming in Dec: "Agatha Christie and Archaeology" exhibition.

Agatha Christie's
archaeological memoir
Come, Tell Me How You Live
(Morrow)

Starting December 9, Pointe-à-Callière, the Montreal Museum of Archaeology and History, will host the exhibition "Agatha Christie and Archaeology." It will feature the role of Christie on the expeditions of her second husband, Max Mallowan; the place of archaeology in Christie works such as Murder in Mesopotamia and Appointment with Death; and artifacts from Mallowan's digs.

BBC Radio 4: "The Buchan Tradition."

In "The Buchan Tradition," BBC Radio 4 talks to two writer grandchildren of John Buchan--James and Ursula Buchan--as well as Buchan companion author Kate Macdonald to discuss works such as The Thirty-Nine Steps, Greenmantle, and Mr. Standfast; Buchan heroes Richard Hannay and Edward Leithen; and the style of storytelling established by Buchan that can be seen in works by later authors such as Geoffrey Household (Rogue Male). The program includes a clip of Buchan speaking.

Murder Is News (UK, 1937; US, 1939).

Reporter Jerry Tracy (John Gallaudet) does a story on a businessman's affairs and divorce, only to find himself in danger when the businessman is murdered. The story is by Theodore Tinsley, one of the writers who used the pseudonym Maxwell Grant in The Shadow pulp magazines. Fans of the 1950s TV series The Adventures of Superman will spot John Hamilton ("Perry White") in the cast.

 

Amelia B. Edwards, collector.

Amelia B. Edwards, NYPL

The Museum and Collections blog of University College London discusses the collecting habits of Amelia B. Edwards (1831–92)—author, explorer, cofounder of the Egypt Exploration Fund that supported the expeditions of William Flinders Petrie, and model for Elizabeth Peters's Amelia Peabody Emerson. The photos include one of her study (complete with chandelier). Also mentioned is that English Heritage has placed one of its blue plaques on Edwards's former residence in Clerkenwell.

Remembering Stan Freberg (1926-2015).

Best known for "St. George and the Dragonet," comic and advertising master Stan Freberg died on April 7 in Santa Monica at age 88. Listen to his "Sam Splayed, Detective."

The National Radio Hall of Fame offers more audio goodies:
• Freberg, "Abe Snake for President" (1952)
• Freberg, Induction Speech into the National Radio Hall of Fame

Update. Pacifica Radio Archives' From the Vault pays tribute to Freberg with excerpts from The Stan Freberg Show of 1957, "Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America: The Early Years," and a 1999 interview with Freberg.

Zangwill's The Big Bow Mystery (1891), the press, and Scotland Yard.

Israel Zangwill, NYPL

Published in the spring 2015 Victorian Periodicals Review is Clare Clarke's "Something for the 'Silly Season': Policing and the Press in Israel Zangwill's The Big Bow Mystery." In this article, Clarke (Trinity College Dublin) focuses on Zangwill's critique of crime reportage and Scotland Yard in the locked-room Big Bow Mystery, a novel that she believes has been neglected despite its wild popularity when it was first serialized and its place on the Haycraft-Queen Cornerstone List of essential mysteries. Zangwill (1864–1926) is best known as a poet and playwright, his works The Melting Pot and Children of the Ghetto, and his commentary on Zionist matters.

Clarke's article continues her interest in somewhat shady fictional detectives of the Victorian era, as she previously wrote for Clues on Arthur Morrison's criminal-detective Horace Dorrington. Her recent book is Late Victorian Crime Fiction in the Shadows of Sherlock.

Mystery in Swing (1940).

In this film with a somewhat stiff all-black cast and a lot of music, a philandering trumpet player is killed in Harlem, and a reporter finds a plethora of suspects. Thomas Cripps, a former professor of music at Morgan State University, is not fond of the film.