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John Carter: Idiots Need Not Apply

Tuesday, March 20th, 2012

I’d like to offer a few words about the movie JOHN CARTER – basically, that it’s terrific. The reviewers (whether print or blogosphere) who have savaged this film – particularly those who have gleefully pronounced it a fiasco of HEAVEN’S GATE proportions – are…what is the word I’m looking for? Idiots.

Nate and his girl friend Abby – both in their twenties, and Barb and I, neither in our twenties, none of us idiots – loved this film. For anyone who grew up on the Mars novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Pixar director Andrew Stanton has conjured almost literally a dream come true – the characters that previously lived only in the shared imagination of author and reader are alive on screen. We encounter strange, fully delineated creatures and cultures, sometimes humorous, other times horrific, in this heartfelt piece of filmmaking. Epic and intimate, JOHN CARTER is faithful to its influential source material, and despite what you’ve heard, not at all hard to follow…again, unless you’re an idiot.

The Western section alone, with Bryan Cranston as a Custer-style general, is as entertaining an action film as I’ve seen in ages – the introduction of Carter himself, through a series of quickly cut scenes of comically escalating violence, is masterful storytelling. It’s true that between action scenes the characters occasionally talk – an outrageous notion, I realize. Some have said that Carter’s heroic powers (driven by the variant gravity of Mars) are nothing special – after all, they are basically Superman’s…created by Burroughs decades before science-fiction fans Siegel and Shuster, bless ‘em, came up with the guy in the red cape.

Overall, JOHN CARTER possesses a haunting quality that combines the desert spectacle of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA with the fantasy romance of TIME AFTER TIME, even as it reminds us that its classic source inspired such pop culture touchstones as FLASH GORDON, STAR WARS and DUNE.

Some have found the unfortunately named Taylor Kitsch a stiff as John Carter. I found him charismatic and compelling, and would let the guy play Nate Heller any day of the week. Lynn Collins, as Princess Dejah Thoris, is a striking, full-bodied woman who is well up to her swashbuckling task; and she could play Ms. Tree any day of the week. Also, I am fine with any movie that has the sense to cast both Julius Caesar (Ciaran Hinds) and Mark Anthony (James Purefoy) from HBO’s Rome in the same epic picture.

I would imagine that most fans of Burroughs (and his Barsoom and Tarzan) will be in this film’s pocket the moment they realize that Burroughs himself is a major character. As an author, I am thrilled to see a one-hundred year-old novel becoming the source for a big budget 21st Century film. Do not miss this one. Unless, of course, you’re an idiot.

* * *

The first review of LADY GO, DIE! has appeared, and it’s a fine one, from that terrific crime writer, Tom Piccirilli.

Thanks to the Amazon reprints and e-books, TRUE DETECTIVE is getting attention all over again.

And Ennis Willie’s second Sand two-fer, SAND’S WAR, for which I wrote an introduction, got a swell write-up from the always interesting Bookgasm.

See you next week, probably with an inside look at the writing of the currently in progress ANTIQUES CHOP.

M.A.C.

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Sex And Violence

Tuesday, March 13th, 2012

When I set out to write hardboiled mystery novels, very much influenced by Mickey Spillane and the Gold Medal writers, I made sure my work was strong on sex and violence. I still do. Not only are these ingredients key to the noir sensibility, they represent (as I’ve said numerous times) the big topics: life and death.

And while my historical novels have an element of education/information in them, the primary purpose is to entertain, and usually in the fashion that I established early on – meaning there will be sex and violence.

Over the years this has been commented on occasionally by reviewers, but not really that often – the subject tends to come up in a more general way, i.e., why is there so much sex and violence in noir fiction?

But in the past several years, I have been getting criticized much more often about the sexual component of the books. I don’t mean to defend myself here or to complain about those reviews – I am just observing that there seems to be something afoot in the culture, something more staid, even more prudish. I graduated high school in 1966, so the sexual revolution was all around me, reflected in popular culture from underground comix to nudity-flung films.

So what’s up lately with this anti-sex scene sentiment? And almost always coming from men. Men who don’t want to read about sex. Which strikes me as bewildering. These comments often come from readers who otherwise like the books. Here’s an excerpt from an Amazon Review of CARNAL HOURS that is otherwise a rave:

“The author seems determined to inject some short, steamy sex episodes in each book. These are gratuitous and serve no purpose other than to establish the ‘ladies man’ reputation of Heller, which could be accomplished without the silly detail. I’m not prudish but each time these short episodes struck me as stupid and juvenile.”

I might wonder why any reader of book with the word “carnal” in the title would be surprised to find sex scenes in that book. But this Amazon reviewer is joined by a handful of professional reviewers who have lately made similar comments. George Easter, for example, in the fine magazine Deadly Pleasures, made that his sole carp in a very positive review of BYE BYE, BABY.

Again, I mention this because I find it odd, not to complain about it or defend myself. I will say this: anyone who considers the sex scenes in Nathan Heller novels to be mere gratuitous porn isn’t really paying attention. I don’t believe there is a single Heller sex scene involving my guy with some casual pick-up in a bar or whatever – there are references to such happenings, but they remain off-stage. The sexual encounters are there for characterization reasons, usually to build emotion and establish a closeness, even a love, between Heller and a woman who is crucial to the tale being told, often tragic romances as in TRUE DETECTIVE, TRUE CRIME, THE MILLION-DOLLAR WOUND, FLYING BLIND and BYE BYE, BABY. Some of these are real women, like Amelia Earhart, Sally Rand and Evelyn MacClean Walsh, and this gets me nasty letters at times (“How dare you?”). I had death threats over my depiction of Earhart as bisexual. Here’s the thing: Nate Heller didn’t have sex with any of these women, because Nate Heller is a fictional character.

My sex scenes do make people uncomfortable at times, and I’m rather proud of that. A mystery writer pal of mine, when TRUE DETECTIVE came out, was offended (perhaps the term is “grossed out”) that Heller used condoms and he and the lady in question cleaned up after the act. The sex was too real, apparently. An editor talked me into toning down oral sex passages in ANGEL IN BLACK…between Heller and his wife (oral sex was both characterization and a major clue in that novel).

Anyway, if you guys out there want to skip the sex scenes, fine by me. My generation of guys would more likely have underlined them. If this is progress, count me out.

And isn’t it interesting that none of these reviewers have ever complained about the graphic blood-splattering violence in my work?

* * *

We had a very nice review for the upcoming Barbara Allan, ANTIQUES DISPOSAL, in Publisher’s Weekly.

Our good friend and that good writer Ron Fortier wrote a lovely review of ANTIQUES DISPOSAL on his fun Pulp Fiction web site.

Brandywine Books posted yet another fine Heller review, this time looking at TRUE DETECTIVE.

The low price ($2) this month of FLYING BLIND on Kindle e-book caught some nice attention here.

Perfect Crime Books has announced their Nolan reprint series, with all the covers posted.

The quirky and entertaining Temple of Schlock reviewed THE CONSUMMATA, and back on my birthday took an eccentric look at QUARRY’S EX.

Nate is heading to Japan for a month on a business vacation. He will still be handling the weekly Updates, but they will likely be a little shorter in the near future. Also, I’m working on ANTIQUES CHOP, which means you may be spared these longer entries until I am finished and Nate returns.

M.A.C.

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When I’m 64

Tuesday, March 6th, 2012

Davy Jones of the Monkees died at 66 the other day. One of the major Monkees fan clubs is based in Muscatine, and my band Crusin’ contributed a song (“Little Bit Me, Little Bit You”) to a Monkees tribute CD in the early ‘90s (Bobby Hart did the liner notes). In my first year of college, I loved the Monkees – their albums remain surprisingly strong – and my band (then called the Daybreakers) did tons of their stuff. So the passing of Davy Jones gives me more than twinge of melancholy, not to mention paranoia, since I turned 64 on March 3rd.

On my birthday, I played a band job with the current, very strong Crusin’ line-up at a particularly hip venue (a blues club in Bettendorf called the Muddy Waters) and we received a warm welcome to say the least. Rock ‘n’ roll definitely happened (Crusin’ is myself, guitarist Jim Van Winkle, bass player Brian Van Winkle, and drummer Steve Kundel). And we pulled “I’m a Believer” out of our nether regions by way of tribute to Davy. Word got around that it was my birthday, and somebody did the math and figured out I was 64. It’s nice that a lot of people seemed to find it tough to believe that I was that age, but nonetheless I am.

One thing I’ve noticed about other bands who play ‘60s material (and we play originals and early ‘70s and other things we feel like) is that they tend to be either sleepy (literally sitting down on the job) or kitschy (going all amateur-night Sha Na Na). On the other hand, our approach remains the same balls-to-the-wall garage band rock we always specialized in, although it gets ballsier when the audience is like the one at the Muddy Waters.

While I physically on occasion do feel like 64 (or older), my attitudes haven’t changed much. I’m not going to wear a baseball cap on stage and sit down while I play keyboards. I’m not going to soften my sex and violence (even when an editor requests it) or tone down the dumb jokes or change in any way my approach, other than to improve whenever possible. I’m not slowing down my productivity if for no other reason than time is in fact running out, and I still have stories to tell. I am not going gently into this good night. I am going fucking screaming.

Triple Play

I get a certain amount of shit about living in Iowa – about having stayed in Iowa. This often comes from people who haven’t accomplished a fraction of what I have in various facets of show business. I have always lived a fairly low-key life – minimal drinking, no smoking – and remain married to the same beautiful woman after forty-some years. And she is beautiful, and incredibly thoughtful. Who else but Barb would spend the day after my birthday going to a matinee with me called “Project X” (great movie, and if you don’t think so, you are 64) (at least) about a shy kid’s birthday bash that turns into a neighborhood apocalypse. Barb spent all weekend making sure this birthday (which sucks – you don’t even qualify for the senior discount at 64, or your Social Security check) was fun and not traumatic.

Barb, by the way, is the cover girl on the upcoming TRIPLE PLAY, the Nate Heller novella collection coming out in April. I’ve always thought she looks like Marilyn Monroe, and I submitted a picture of her to Amazon Encore from the early ‘90s that I thought might work. See for yourself.

* * *

There were several nice mentions of my birthday on the net this past week. Check this one out, if you’re a Ms. Tree fan.

A blogger did a piece on Sadie Hawkins Day that lambasted Al Capp, and I responded. That response was named comment of the day.

Nathan Heller and I got some nice local love from a Cedar Rapids writer.

The Raymond Chandler centennial short-story collection got written up, with special mention of my story. I commented, because an assumption had been made about the story, which has appeared with both Marlowe and Nate Heller as its protagonist, that needed correcting.

Here’s a nice “desert island” reading list of graphic novels where ROAD TO PERDITION ranks number three.

Another blogger has an interesting take on BYE BYE, BABY, using it as starting point for his own MM research.

This coming week I will be working on ANTIQUES CHOP, Barb having just wrapped up her draft.

M.A.C.

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Required Viewing List Part Two

Tuesday, February 28th, 2012

Last week I came up with a list of my favorite sixteen movies, which got some interesting reaction. But that number was ungainly, so I’ve decided to bring it up to 25 Favorite movies with nine more.

Understand that I’m not listing my take on best movies. This is a personal list. Ed Gorman responded to mine in his blog, saying he liked my choices and then listed his. Every one of Ed’s favorites were films I like a lot, yet none were on my favorites list, which I define by how often I want to return to these films. A favorite film is a place you want to revisit, like a cottage on the lake or a restaurant that’s worth a fifty-mile drive.

Both Ed and I have been questioned because we have so few foreign films (he has one, DIABOLIQUE) on our lists, and also that so few films are included that were made in the last couple decades. Barb and I go to the movies just about every week, sometimes more than once – I don’t know anybody except Leonard Maltin who sees more movies than I do. But the films that resonate for me are Hollywood born, in the mid-20th Century. These films – like the books of Hammett, Chandler, Cain, and Spillane – influenced me. So I celebrate them here.

I also plan to follow up with a favorite director’s list. Many of my favorite films are not courtesy of my favorite directors – for example, the Randolph Scott westerns of Budd Boetticher are among my most loved films, but I view them as a body of work. Some of my most loved directors made the list last week – Hitchcock and Joseph H. Lewis, for example – but most did not.

By the way, I did not watch the Academy Awards this year. I almost never do (the year ROAD TO PERDITION was up for a bunch of Oscars was the last time). I watch a movie instead.

For now, here are the rest of my Top 25.

The Bad Seed

17. THE BAD SEED (1956). This should be no surprise to anyone, since my indie film MOMMY (1995) has been called an unofficial sequel, casting Patty McCormack as a grown-up variation on homicidal child Rhoda Penmark. The novel by William March and the play by Maxwell Anderson are both brilliant works, and director Mervyn Leroy’s faithful, gently opened up recreation of the Broadway hit captures all the black humor and dread of both. Leroy often gets criticized for the Hollywood ending, but there is a WIZARD OF OZ-like otherworldly tone to Rhoda walking in the thunder storm in her little raincoat, running her flashlight along a picket fence, on her way to once and for all retrieve the spelling medal (which made the “pen marks” on little Claude Daigle’s forehead and hands). The much criticized curtain call, with Nancy Kelly spanking Patty was actually part of the stage play, considered a necessary cooling off after the shock of the original (Rhoda surviving her mother’s efforts to kill her). Astonishingly, Nancy Kelly (sister of Bart Maverick, Jack Kelly) never had another movie role, despite her Academy Award nomination and a wonderfully melodramatic performance worthy of Bette Davis or Joan Crawford. The new Blu-ray reveals nuances in Patty’s performance that reveal her already understanding the difference between stage and film.

18. MARK OF ZORRO (1940). As a kid and even today I am a sucker for swashbuckling movies, and Tyrone Power was the 1940s king of those, the sound-era version of Douglas Fairbanks (literally in this remake). Johnston McCulley’s novel is faithfully followed in this, the greatest of all Zorro films, with perhaps the most exciting duel ever put on him as Power faces down evil Basil Rathbone, who could actually fence. Rouben Mamoulian directed this funny, sexy, exciting film with a rousing score by Alfred Newman. One to watch again and again.

19. POINT BLANK (1967). John Boorman’s spellbinding pop art, European-influenced take on the Richard Stark “Parker” novels transcends a spotty script to become one of the two most influential crime films of the ‘60s (BONNIE AND CLYDE is the other). Haunted zombie Lee Marvin walks through this dream-like neo-noir landscape (he’s named Walker, after all) exhibiting a quietly sociopathic intensity that makes this almost a horror film.

20. PRETTY POISON (1968). Another dream-like film, this one is heavily influenced by BONNIE AND CLYDE and plays off the Perkins PSYCHO persona as well. Yet it is strikingly original, funny, dark, and disturbing. Tuesday Weld is so fetching and sweetly evil that just about any heterosexual male would do for her the things Perkins does. Why director Noel Black did not enjoy a major career after this is a sad mystery.

21. DAMN YANKEES (1958). Another of that small handful of Broadway musicals brought faithfully to the screen, with stars Ray Walston (his signature performance, despite my wife referring to him as “My Little Martian”) and funny, sexy Gwen Verdon doing her famous “Whatever Lola Wants.” A great score from the PAJAMA GAME team of Richard Adler and Jerry Ross (Ross would tragically die young after these two great shows) provides the spine of this terrific Faust story in which a baseball fan learns that he actually loves his wife more than he does the Washington Senators. Tab Hunter is excellent here, despite critical carping, and Walston is just fantastic as Applegate (“I see cannibals a’munchin’, a missionary luncheon”). You go to the ball game. I’ll stay home and watch this.

22. RIO BRAVO (1959). John Wayne and Howard Hawks answer HIGH NOON in this classic western where the sheriff turns down help from the citizens. Dean Martin turns in his finest performance as the reformed drunk who becomes Wayne’s deputy, and Angie Dickinson makes a stunning impression in her first major film role. Even Ricky Nelson seems perfect. My son Nate (normally very perceptive) found this movie corny when I showed it to him a few years ago, in particular Walter Brennan’s trademark old geezer performance, but some day he will wise up.

23. DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER (1941). Another dream-like film, and another Faust story. Director William Dieterle’s brilliant film, beautifully acted, is a Halloween favorite around the Collins household. The performance by Simone Simon as a ghostly seductress is mesmerizing – again, most men will understand why farmer James Craig casts lovely Anne Shirley aside for her. Craig’s trial in front of a jury of the damned (including the likes of Benedict Arnold and Captain Kidd) probably marks the high point of actor Edward Arnold’s distinguished career. And Walter Huston is as scary as he is hilarious as Mr. Scratch. Then there’s that Bernard Hermann score….

24. BEDAZZLED (1967). Did I mention I’m a fool for Faust films? Director Stanley Donen is most famous as a director of fifties musicals, but here he perfectly captures the mid- ‘60s in swinging London and along the way provides the only great screen representation of comedy team Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. If you’ve seen and enjoyed this, you have probably had moments when you’ve blown the raspberry much as Moore’s Stanley does, anxious to trade one reality for another. Each hilarious and dismal attempt by Stanley to come up with a future worth trading his soul for is topped by the next disaster. The score by Moore is a shimmering delight, in particular the pop star sequence, which proves as prescient as PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE.

25. THE PRODUCERS (1968). Do I really have to write anything about this one? How about, “I’m hysterical and I’m wet,” or Lee Meredith dancing for Max and Leo, or “Max, he’s wearing a dress,” or “I have said this is the short fuse, and this is the short fuse”? Let’s leave it at this – liking this movie is an example of smartness.

* * *

I’m pleased to report that THE NEW ADVENTURES OF MIKE HAMMER VOLUME 3: ENCORE FOR MURDER has been nominated for the Audie in the Best Original Work category. We won last year with THE LITTLE DEATH. This is the full-cast radio “novel” with Stacy Keach and a full cast (including the last major performance by my late friend and collaborator, Mike Cornelison).

More nice things are being said about the new Paul Cain book that Lynn Myers and I edited. I haven’t got my copy yet, but you can check out the info here.

And here’s a nice ANGEL IN BLACK review.

Finally, here’s a way to pick up the unedited, complete versions of my Dreadtime Stories, REINCARNAL and WOLF, full-cast presentations. More to come: A GOOD HEAD ON HIS SHOULDERS and MERCY are in the pipeline. MERCY is a new story (the others are adapted from previously published work of mine).

M.A.C.

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