Film Music Friday: Chase films, Jerry Goldsmith.

"Top o' the world":
James Cagney in
White Heat (1949)

The latest episodes of Kansas Public Radio's Film Music Friday feature music from chase films (e.g., The Bourne Identity, The Fugitive, North by Northwest, The 39 Steps, White Heat) and that by famed composer Jerry Goldsmith (e.g., Chinatown).

More Albert Glasser scores (film noir).

Following the release of Albert Glasser's score for Ed McBain's Cop Hater are Glasser's scores for the films Please Murder Me (with Raymond Burr and Angela Lansbury, 1956) and Treasure of Monte Cristo (with Glenn Langan, Adele Jergens, and Steve Brodie, 1949).

Also of interest: Glasser's score for The Big Caper (with Rory Calhoun and James Gregory, 1957)

 

Hardboiled programs, DeKalb (IL) Public Library.

From May through August, DeKalb (IL) Public Library is hosting the free monthly program "The Golden Age of Film Noir and Its Novels," discussing key novels and showing clips from their film adaptations. Authors featured include Dashiell Hammett (May 27), James M. Cain, W. R. Burnett, and Cornell Woolrich.

Photos: (left) James M. Cain; (right) Dashiell Hammett, Yank, 30 Nov. 1945; (bottom, top) illustration of W. R. Burnett by his first wife, Marjorie Burnett, 1932; Cornell Woolrich.

A Bunburyist milestone.

1,000,000

A milestone sneaked up on me: The Bunburyist has passed its 1 millionth view. When I began this blog in November 2005, I really had no idea if anyone would be interested in my posts (visitors probably have noticed that I am particularly fond of archival mystery goodies and exhibitions on mysteries, as I think these can tend to be overlooked and are valuable resources). In recent years, I've had to cut back on blogging because of work and writing commitments and the addition of my blog on US women in World War I—even wondering at times if I should end this blog. So, if you've ever stopped by, thanks. 

Here are the top-10 posts with the most views:

Eugène François Vidocq,
from Memoires de Vidocq,
Chef de la Police de Sureté
Jusqu'en 1827. Paris, 1828–29.

10. The First 100 Years of Detective Fiction.  "...[T"he Lilly Library of Indiana University's online version of its 1973 exhibition 'The First Hundred Years of Detective Fiction, 1841–1941' ... provides a useful history of the genre through the works selected"

9. Remembering Adam West: The Detectives. Although Adam West probably is best known as the titular character in the TV series Batman, he previously played Detective Sergeant Steve Nelson in the TV series The Detectives.

8. Shoot to Kill (film noir, 1947). A murder involves a gangster, a DA, a DA's wife/secretary, and a reporter.

7. "Iniquity is catching": Frank R. Stockton's The Stories of the Three Burglars (1889). Burglars bargain with a wronged homeowner in this work by the author of "The Lady, or the Tiger?"

6. "Security Risk" (GE True, 1963). A tale of espionage narrated by Jack Webb, directed by William Conrad, and starring Charles Aickman.

5. "Iconic detectives" exhibition at Ohio State. Library exhibition that featured "detectives from dime novels, young adult books, comic books, films, and manga."

4.  Hidden Fear (film, 1957). US cop John Payne works in Denmark to clear his sister of a murder charge.

3. "The Grave Grass Quivers," by MacKinlay Kantor. The poignant 1931 story by a Pulitzer Prize winner of a doctor who seeks to learn the fate of his long-missing father and brother. 

2. "Committed" (with Alan Ladd, 1954). In this episode of GE Theater, a writer is framed for murder and confined to an asylum.

1. The dozen best detective short stories ever written. Selected by author-critics such as Anthony Boucher, John Dickson Carr, August Derleth, Howard Haycraft, Ellery Queen, James Sandoe, and Vincent Starrett.

McFarland's 40% off sale.

McFarland is having a 40% off sale on all its titles until Nov 28 with coupon code HOLIDAY22. It's a good time to stock up on the McFarland Companions to Mystery Fiction that I edit; check out the full companion lineup.

Kickstarter campaign to re-record Bernard Herrmann.

As Scott Bettencourt notes in Film Score Monthly, Intrada has launched a Kickstarter campaign to support a re-recording by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra of Bernard Herrmann's scores to Nicholas Ray's On Dangerous Ground and Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much. 

The French Embassy's film noir series.

Out of the Past (1947).

Until July 5, the French Embassy in New York is hosting the series "Out of the Dark: The Mystery of Film Noir" for both in-person and virtual viewing. The films include Rififi (1955), Daybreak (1939), Out of the Past (1947), Nightfall (1956), Two Men in Manhattan (1959), Elevator to the Gallows (1958), Pepe le Moko (1937), Diabolique (1955), Breathless (1959), and Tirez sur le pianiste (Shoot the Piano Player, 1960).

The Lady Confesses (1945).

In The Lady Confesses, a couple's marriage plans are derailed when the man's estranged wife appears and is murdered. His fiance sets out to solve the crime, nosing around the activities of a nightclub. Mary Beth Hughes and Hugh Beaumont costar.

New Clues CFP: "Crime's Hybrid Forms."

"Genre Bending: Crime's Hybrid Forms" is a new call for papers for a theme issue of Clues that will be guest edited by Maurizio Ascari (University of Bologna). Submission deadline: October 1, 2019.

David Goodis's Dark Passage.

On Vienna's Vintage Hollywood there is an interesting discussion of Dark Passage (1947), the Bogart-Bacall film adapted from the David Goodis novel in which prison escapee Bogart seeks to prove he did not kill his wife. In the blog post, there also is a photo of Goodis with the stars.

The Unfaithful (1947).

Zachary Scott, Ann Sheridan, and Lew Ayres
in The Unfaithful (1947)

In The Unfaithful, Ann Sheridan claims that she killed an intruder in self-defense, but evidence emerges that she was more than well acquainted with the dead man. Lew Ayres, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden, and Jerome Cowan costar. The film is based on "The Letter" by Somerset Maugham (compare with the Bette Davis version), with a screenplay by David Goodis.

The Judge (1949).

In The Judge, an attorney feels remorse for the criminals freed by his defense work and seeks revenge on a police psychiatrist, who had an affair with his wife.

Clues CFP: "Interwar Mysteries" (deadline Oct 12, 2018).

The Bat (1926), adapted
from the play by
Mary Roberts Rinehart
and Avery Hopwood

 

A new Call for Papers has been posted for a theme issue of Clues: A Journal of Detection on "Interwar Mysteries: The Golden Age and Beyond." It will be guest edited by University of Leicester's Victoria Stewart (author, Crime Writing in Interwar Britain: Fact and Fiction in the Golden Age, and a previous contributor to Clues). Although the period between the World Wars is known as the Golden Age of traditional mystery fiction, other literary forms such as the hard-boiled subgenre, true crime, and noir emerged that often reflected a grimmer reality. Articles of between 3300 and 6000 words are sought that examine this important crossroads in mystery, detective, and crime fiction, with a deadline of Oct 12, 2018.

An Act of Murder (1948).

Frederic Marsh and Florence Eldridge in An Act of Murder

When the wife (Florence Eldridge) of a judge (Eldridge's real-life husband Frederic Marsh) is diagnosed with an incurable illness, the judge makes a difficult decision. Costars include Edmond O'Brien and Geraldine Brooks. The film is based on Ernst Lothar's The Mills of God (1935).

Jack Benny spoofs The Killers.

Jack Benny and guest star Dan Duryea poked fun at Ernest Hemingway's "The Killers" in "Death across the Lunch Counter," part of the 4 December 1960 episode of The Jack Benny Program.

Criss Cross (1949).

Burt Lancaster and
Yvonne De Carlo in
Criss Cross (1949)

In Criss Cross, Burt Lancaster becomes entangled with his ex-wife (Yvonne De Carlo), her gangster husband (Dan Duryea), and an armored car robbery. Other costars include Stephen McNally, Alan Napier, and Richard Long. The film is directed by Robert Siodmak (The Spiral Staircase).

Shoot to Kill (1947).

In Shoot to Kill, the charge of murder against a gangster (Douglas Blackley) involves an assistant district attorney (Edmund MacDonald), his wife/secretary (Susan Walters), and a reporter (Russell Wade).

Out of the Fog (1941).

Ida Lupino and John Garfield in
Out of the Fog

When racketeer John Garfield leans on fishing boat owner Thomas Mitchell and his friend for protection money and romances Mitchell's daughter (Ida Lupino), the men begin to think of murder. The film is based on the play "The Gentle People" by Irwin Shaw (The Young Lions; Rich Man, Poor Man).

Woman in the Window (1944).

Ad for Woman in the Window (1944)

In Woman in the Window, a married professor (Edward G. Robinson) finds himself entangled with a woman (Joan Bennett), blackmail, and murder. Raymond Massey and Dan Duryea costar. Directed by Fritz Lang, the film is adapted by noted journalist-screenwriter Nunnally Johnson from the novel Once Off Guard by J. H. Wallis.

99 River Street (1953).

From an ad for 99 River Street.

In 99 River Street, a former boxer (John Payne) is the chief suspect when his unfaithful wife (Peggie Castle) is murdered and must take steps to prove his innocence. Evelyn Keyes and future director Gene Reynolds (M*A*S*H) costar. The screenwriters are Robert Smith (I Walk Alone; Sea Hunt) and George Zuckerman (Under the Gun; Written on the Wind).