Evil by Gaslight

Gaslight (aka "Angel Street") (1940)
Starrng: Anton Wallbrook, Diana Wynyard, Frank Pettingell, and Cathleen Cordell
Director: Thorold Dickinson
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

Abusive husband Paul Mallen (Wallbrook) sets about driving his mentally frail (but wealthy) wife insane after she unknowingly discovers a dark secret he is harboring. Will retired police detective B.G. Rough (Pettingell) uncover enough evidence about Paul's intent and true identity before it is too late to save Mrs. Mallen (Wynyard)?


"Gaslight" is a fabulous thriller set in Victorian London. If the modern day equavilients could have scripts this taught, victims this helpless and undeserving of torment, villains so absolutely sininster and intelligently evil, and camerawork and lighting as elegant and creative as is on display here, I wouldn't constantly be lamenting that the thriller is a dead genre.

The two lead actors in this film give astonishing performances. Paul Mallen has got to be among the most dispicable, evil villains to ever appear on film, and Anton Wallbrook plays him with perfect coldness. Diana Wynyard as the pitiable object of his twisted scheming plays Bella Mallen with just enough confusion and gentleness to make the viewer feel sorry for her but never feel irritated because she is too much of a victim. Instead, Paul Mallen's evil simply becomes that much more evident.

According to the IMDB entry for "Gaslight", when MGM acquired the rights to the film and did a remake in 1944, they attemted to destroy all copies of this original film. Fortunately, they did not succeed, and this very stylish, well-done thriller survives to this day in very good condition. It's one of the many forgotten and obscure cinematic gems included in Mill Creek's 100-movie boxed set, Mystery Classics, and it's one of the reasons many a reasons that set will appeal to lovers of thrillers, crime dramas, and film noir.

The Desert Peach takes to the air!

The Desert Peach: Politics, Pilots and Puppies (Mu/Aeon 1991)
Story and Art: Donna Barr
Rating: Ten of Ten Stars



In the second volume of the collected "The Desert Peach" tales, Donna Barr continues to develope the fictitious brother of Field Marshal Rommel, Colonel Pfirsich Rommel, and the misfits that make up his command staff in the Afrika Korps' 169th Support and Gravedigger Battalion. It's the most fun you'll ever have with the German Werhmacht of WW2, and one of the rare times where you'll find yourself on the side of the Germans while reading. Well, for the most part, because even here there are Nazis to dislike and outright hate.

There are three tales in the book, and every page will have you at least smiling and often giggling.

In the first tale, "Is There a Nazi in the House?", Berlin big-wigs are coming to inspect Pfirsich's base camp with the hopes of finding something to hold against his politically unpopular brother. When he tries to find members of the Nazi Party who can meet-and-greet the visitors, he discovers that no one in is command seems to ever have joined, including the battalion's most fervernt Nazi supporter. IT's a hilarious story as the officers of the Gravedigger Battalion grow increasingly paniced... until they find their single Party Member in the most unexpected place. But even once they've accomplished that, their troubles are not over, and the story only gets crazier.

In the second tale, "Flights of Fancy", Pfirsich takes to the air in his peach-colored spotter plane in order visit his brother's command camp. Along the way, he finds himself in a literal dogfight with a British Spitfire and in a metaphorical ethical dogfight with both his pilot and a German Ace intent on shooting down the British plane even if it's not necessary. The ethical quandry that Pfirisch is confronted with becomes all the more frustrating for him as the Ace in question is his long-time gay lover, a man who decidedly does not share the colonel's attitude that suffering and spilled blood should be minimized even in war-time.

Third, in "A Day Like Any Other", we are introduced to the entirety of Pfirshich's command staff, including his radio operator who has a most unusual disability, through the eyes of the battalion's new chief medical officer. (The new prisoner of war that the unit aquires also serves as yet another way for Barr to showcase the universal respect that her character has for life and human deeceny and the way he approaches everyone with the initial assumption that they share his refined and civilized values.

The book is rounded out by a short story loosely based on real events in Erwin Rommel's homelife, as well as his relationship with his wife and son Manfred. It's a cute tale that infuses a historical figure with a humanity that he is rarely credited with in ficitonal portrayls.

Some of the humor in "Desert Peach" does come from the fact that the younger brother of the more-macho-than-macho legendary Field Marshal Rommel is as flamingly gay as they come, but far more of it comes from the fact that he's a man of honor and sensitivity surrounded by brutes. A very appealing aspect of these tales is also that his high moral character rubs off on nearly everyone he meets.

It makes one wish that reality functioned as it does in "The Desert Peach," because if we were all like Pfirsich Rommel, we all would be living in peace, harmony and absolute tolerance of our differences.

While the book reviewed in this post is long out of print, you can read the stories it contains, as well as many others, by clicking here. (I don't know how long the stories will be available, though.)

Wrongfully accused man vs the 5th Column

Saboteur (1942)
Starring: Robert Cummings, Priscilla Lane, Otto Kruger, Alan Baxter and Normal Lloyd
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

A factory worker (Cummings) is wrongfully accused of an act of sabotage at an aircraft assembly plant that claimed the life of his best friend. When no one believes that he saw the real saboteur (Lloyd), he sets out to follow the only lead he has to clear his name before the police can catch him. His investigation and deseperate flight takes him clear across the United States and brings him face-to-face with Nazi agents at the very top of American society.


"Saboteur" was Alfred Hitchcock's first all-American production, and for anyone who has watched his British pictures from the 1930s there are a number of elements that will seem awfully familiar.

Like in "Young and Innocent," the hero in this picture must locate a man that only he knows to exist in order to clear his name. Like in "The 39 Steps," the destructive agents of a foreign, fascist power are hiding behind the veneer of wealth and respectability. And like in both movies, the hero has to rely on the assistance of a young lady (here played by Priscilla Lane) who believes him guilty and is initially trying to see that he gets captured by the authories.

While the three films share similar elements, they are utilized more effectively here, almost as if Hitchcock recognized what was best about those two previous movies and refined those aspects for use here. The pace is brisker and the tension is far higher throughout, until the end where the final few minutes are slightly mishandled.

Basically, our hero is cleared of all suspicion well before the film's famous show piece encounter high atop the Statue of Liberty. I suspect the logic Hitchcock and his screenwriters were using when they decided to put the hero in a position where he would have to save the life of the man who ruined his (and who wanted to ruin the whole country) was that they would underscore his basic decency, However, that climax would have been far more suspenseful if he had to save him or never see his name cleared.


But, letting the factory worker be heroic for the sake of being heroic and for plain respect for another human being's life fits with a theme that runs through the whole movie.

The most fascinating aspect of the film is the portrayal of the common American versus our country's elite. Throughout the film, the fugitive meets and is helped by everyday Americans who are more than willing to lend a hand to someone in trouble., even if it means risk to themselves. But whenever he encounters the rich, powerful or famous, they are either traitors who want to destroy the country they should be thanking for their good fortune, or they are dupes of those who want to destroy the country. Even the film's heroine falls into this category, as she starts the movie out as a typical celebretard who believes herself to be patriotic but who doesn't realize that "her people" are harboring enemies of America.

It seems either very little has changed since 1942, as America's elite still seems to be the place where those with the strongest hate for America and deepest love for its enemies can be found. How many rich and powerful and famous Americans are merely too stupid to see they are pawns of those who want to see America torn down once and for all instead of being actual evil and ungrateful traitors? Are Sean Penn and Danny Glover merely stupid, or are they Fifth Columnists on the magnitude of the villains at the top of the organizations in this film, just lacking in the logistical support from their buddies in Venezuela and Iran to fully bring their dreams to fruition? I hope we'll never know, but I would still wish fewer of American's elite would devote so much time and energy to tearing the country down.

This aspect of "Saboteur" makes it a film that still has something to offer modern audiences even beyond its expert pacing and well-orchestrated final confrontation on the Statue of Liberty (even if it could have been better with a slightly different structure to the overall ending).

Picture Perfect Wednesday: Hitler, we hardly knew thee

On April 30, 1945, as Allied forces pressed into Berlin, Adolf Hitler chose to take the coward's way out and committed suicide. He died as he lived.

Nazi scientists plot revenge on England

Counterblast (aka "The Devil's Plot") (1948)
Starring: Mervyn Johns, Robert Beatty, and Nova Pilbeam
Director: Paul Stein
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

A Nazi scientist (Johns) escapes from a British prison camp and murders and assumes the identity of a bacteriologist recently returned to Britain after decades abroad. In this guise, he continues developing deadly biological weapons as part of a plot to avenge Germany's defeat in WW2. Pressure on him grows, and risk of exposure becomes ever greater, as another scientist (Beatty) becomes suspicious, he is forced to take a well-meaning woman (Pilbeam) on as an assistant, and other Nazis start to press him to speed up his research. Will something give before a deadly plague is unleashed upon the English countryside?


"Counterblast" is a well-acted, well-written thriller. The complexity of the characters, particularly Johns' Nazi scientist, makes the film even more engaging and elevates beyond so many other similar films. Pilbeam, in one of her last roles before her retirement from screen acting, puts on an excellent show as always, as the young woman who travels half way around the world to take a position with the man she believes to be an old and good friend of her father's, only to find herself increasingly isolated and ever deeper involved in a deadly and monstrous research project. As in other roles she played, she projects a charming mix of vulnerability and independence. She is the perfect foil for the handsome, romantic Beatty... and it's easily believable that the young doctor would fall in love with her as quickly as he does.

"Counterblast" is a rarely seen post-WW2 drama, but I think it's worth tracking down, particularly if you are a fan of Nova Pilbeam (an actress whose work isn't given the recognition it deserves).

Nelson, Barry Nelson: The first James Bond

Casino Royale (1954)
Starring: Barry Nelson, Linda Christian, Peter Lorre and Michael Pate
Director: William H. Brown Jr.
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

When allied intelligence agencies learn that a key Soviet operative (Lorre) has been funding his gambling habit with KGB money, secret agent James Bond (Nelson) is charged with beating him at one final high-stakes card game and then expose his theft and force the Soviet spymasters to kill him in order to save face. When one of Bond's former lovers (Christian) turns up in the employ of the enemy, the mission becomes far more complicated and dangerous.


I did not make a mistake in the plot summary above. In this, the very first screen adventure of Ian Fleming's James Bond, Britain's super-spy isn't British at all. It's a little known fact that the very first James Bond adaptation was made by American producers and directed at an American television audience. They decided that Bond needed to be an American so they could relate better to him. While it feels a bit odd to have James Bond presented as an American, Barry Nelson does a decent job with the character, being at least the equal of the other one-shot James Bond, George Lazenby from "On Her Majesty's Secret Service".

As would be expected from a 1950s television drama, Bond more a man of romance than randiness. Also, as would be expected from a 1950s television drama, especially when one considers that it was performed and broadcast live, the adventure is not as wild as any of the "official" Bond pictures that followed. What is very unexpected, however, is the cold brutality of the villain, La Chiffe. He is as vicious and brutal as any Bond villain that follows. In fact, I don't think Bond was tortured in such a straight-forward manner as he is in this film until the Pierce Brosnan-starring "Die Another Day" in 2002.

Cast-wise, the film is also better than expected. As mentioned, Barry Nelson plays a very good Bond, while Peter Lorre is likewise the equal of any actor who portrayed a Bond villain in the 25 other cinematic Bond adventures in the 50+ years since this was filmed. Even Linda Christian is good--perhaps she is better in live performances than traditional filmmaking, because I never would have thought she could act based on other performances I've seen from her.

If you like spy thrillers, I think this movie is worth checking out. That goes double if you're a big-time Bond fan, as this historical curiosity shows that there has been more than one "reboot" of the James Bond "franchise" since its beginning.

(This version of "Casino Royale" is included as a bonus feature on the 2002 edition of the David Niven- and Ursula Andress-starring "Casino Royale" from 1967. (I will be reviewing that version eventually on the Watching the Detectives blog.)

A graphic novel for the girls of the house

Clubbing (Minx Books, 2007)
Writer: Andi Watson
Art: Josh Howard
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

After teenaged goth chick Lottie is busted trying to get into a night club using a fake ID, her parents send out of London to spend summer with her grandparents. Here, she gets a little variety in her life--learns about golfing and fishing, manages to win a cake decorating contest, and discovers that it is possible to survive without a cellphone--and learns that friends and possible romance can be found in places she never thought to look. She also becomes involved in a solving a mystery when a woman is murdered on her grandparents' golf courseher to spend the summer with her grandparents in the country... and her grandfather appears to be the most likely suspect.


"Clubbing" was one of the inaugural entries in the "Minx" line of graphic novels. These are books targeted at young teenage girls, and, as such, I am about as far away from being the target audience as possible.

However, a well-done book isa well-done book, and I enjoyed "Clubbing" quite a bit. Like any well-done juvenile fiction, the book can be read and enjoyed by kids and adults alike,

The basic storyline is one that I remember reading in countless mystery books when I was a kid, so juvenile fiction is apparently still juvenile fiction. The "big city kid goes to the country" is used with great effect here, particularly as writer Andi Watson ellicits such a perfect portrait of a spoiled rich girl who is somewhat out of her element. Kids and adults will both develop a strong liking for Lottie, smiling at her victories and feeling sorry for her during one particular scene where she tries to make friends and fails. (Some of her antics may be funnier to kids than adults, but they're consistently entertaining, and there's never a dull moment to be had.)

While the basic storyline is typical of juvenile fiction (I'm making an assumption here--it's been decades since I read my last "Hardy Boys", "Jimmy Bond", or "Secret Seven" novel, and I've let the whole Harry Potter thing pass me by, but since the Minx line is supposed to be all hip and cutting-edge and appealing for girls in their early teens, I think it's a safe bet that a talented professional like Watson was writing something appropriate for the target audience andthat therefore kids' lit is still kids' lit), Watson throws a twist into his tale at the end that I did not see coming. It's both funny, creepy, and he wrote which is one of my favorite lines from any fiction I've read recently, be it comics or "real" literature: "And that's the last I saw of Gran--as she was trying to hug an extra-dimensional horror."

(I don't think I'm spoiling too much by quoting that line... or by saying that this graphic novel put a twist on life in a quiet British village that's similar to that found in the movie "Hot Fuzz".)

As for the artwork, Josh Howard has a cartoony style that is both appropriate for the story and that should appeal to most readers. He also has a sense of layout and story-flow that few modern artists possess--it's a clear, easy-to-follow visual story-telling method that is remarkable because it doesn't call attention to itself. Howard is practicing graphic storytelling as it was done during the heyday of American comics, and it's nice to see such craftsmanship in a book that's supposed to be hip and new. If more up-and-coming artists and their editors and publishers had paid attention to these sorts of fundementals over the past 20 years, maybe American comics would be as big a business as they deserve to be.

"Clubbing" is a fun read that once again proves that comics can be used to tell all sorts of stories, and I think this is one that should appeal to just about every member in a household (except maybe the 9-year-old boy who thinks girls are yucky). The final page of the book sets up the potential for a sequel, and I'll be keeping an eye out for it.

Charlie Chaplin mocks fascism, bucks Hollywood mainstream

The Great Dictator (1940)
Starring: Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, and Jack Oakie
Director: Charlie Chaplin
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

A Jewish barber (Chaplin) is mistaken for the Great Dictator of Tomania, Adenoid Hynkel (also Chaplin) and the opportunity to free a nation from tyranny is created.


"The Great Dictator" was Charlie Chaplin's first film that featured a full soundtrack, and it is perhaps his greatest masterpiece. It is a spot-on skewering of Hitler and Mussolini and a sharp criticism of fascism made at a time when much of America's intellectual elite could still be heard saying nice things about it. It was also made at a time when Hollywood's powerbrokers were concerned about making movies that might offend the fascist regimes of Europe for fear of their bottom lines.

This movie is one of the few true classic films that have ever been made. Although its exact political context is gone, the message is carries--a defense of freedom, peace, and equality--remains as relevant today as it was then.

The warning it carries is also relevant, because just like in 1940, the "intellectual elite" and the powerful media moguls are once again refusing to use their platform responsibly and speak out against an obvious threat to peace and freedom that grows steadily worse with each passing week... and whose actions claim hundreds of innocent lives all around the world every week. No, I'm not speaking of Barack Obama or his predecessor George Bush... I'm speaking of Islamo-fascism and its terrorist foot soldiers.

If only there were filmmakers who would point fingers at the real evils that are threatening peace in the modern world instead of attempting to ingratiate themselves with it and appease it. Oliver Stone should not be white-washing Hitler in accordance with the agenda held by his buddies in Iran HIS version of "The Great Dictator". Amercian newspapers shouldn't be censoring or ignoring cartoons that mock Islamic fascists--they should be printing more of them.

Filmmakers across the free world should watch "The Great Dictator". They should attempt to do what Chaplin did, or they should hang their cowardly heads in shame. Scumbags like Danny Glover, Sean Penn and Oliver Stone should be FORCED to watch it until they break down like some character in Clockwork Orange.

(Regardless of your opinions of geo-politics, past or present, you need to see this movie, which unfolds like a nifty little fable. Chaplin is fabulous in a dual role of a Jewish barber who just happens to be an exact twin for the and the fascist dictator of Tomania, Hyenkle. Chaplin's Hitler impersonation is hilarious, and the legendary scene where he dances with a globe of the world in full Fuehrer get-up in one of cinema's Top Ten Greatest scenes. That said, this classic film is currently out of print. I wonder if it hits too close to home for whoever presently controls the rights to it, that whoever it is can see that the Hollywood mainstream and powerful are just as cowardly and misguided now as they were in the 1930s and 1940s.)

Picture Perfect Wednesday:The Nazi Party!

Even the Nazis are celebrating the fact they were bombed into historical oblivion 65 years ago.

Spies and/or ghosts threaten sea voyage

Mystery Liner (aka "The Ghost of John Holling") (1934)
Starring: Cornelius Keefe, Edwin Maxwell, Astrid Allwyn, Boothe Howard, Zeffie Tilbury, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Howard C. Hickman, George Hayes, and Noah Beery
Director: William Nigh
Rating: Four of Ten Stars

A passenger liner is used for a covert experiment that will allow ships to be remote controlled and thus revolutionize modern sea warfare (modern here being 1934). But, agents of "hostile foreign powers" threaten the project, the ship's captain (Beery) has gone insane, and a shadowy figure is creeping about the ship murdering people. Will Major Pope (Maxwell) save the day by untangling the mystery and unmaking a double-agent who is closer to the experiment than anyone suspects?

"Mystery Liner" has all the elements of being a really fun "detective thriller meets mad scientist" tale, but it's too talky, has just a touch too many subplots for a film that only runs an hour, and gets bogged down in the middle and becomes very, very boring. A couple of twists near the end will revive the interest of viewers who stick with it, but they really aren't interesting enough to warrant sitting throgh the lead-up.

With average camera work and staging, blah acting all around, and uninteresting, flat characters, the only strong part of this film is the core story concepts, and they're not interesting enough to lift it above a very low 4 rating.

(Triva: This film was based on a story by Edgar Wallace, a very popular mystery/thriller writer during the first quarter of the 20th century. Hundreds of films were made that adapted his work, and I think I've seen around a dozen. None have been all that good, however.)