Posts

Showing posts from April, 2026
Image
  WITNESS IN THE CITY aka UN TEMOIN DANS LA VILLE (1959) A man's wife is murdered by her lover and the lover gets away with it in the eyes of the law, but the husband has other ideas. What starts out as a simple tale of revenge descends into nightmarish complications. I was reminded of Fredric Brown's classic thriller novel HIS NAME WAS DEATH with all the creeping horror and relentless turns of the plot. The film originates from no less than Boileau-Narcejac, the French writing duo who wrote the source novels for Hitchcock's VERTIGO and Clouzot's LES DIABOLIQUES. Hitchcock would have hit the humorous moments better, but Molinaro was no slouch in the director's chair. This is a good movie.
Image
  A MAN CALLED NOON by Louis L'Amour This book features a minor villain named Lynch Manly - possibly the most over-the-top bad guy handle I have ever encountered in my life. Bravo, Lou!
Image
I'm writing a crime novel and I just made an off-hand reference about the 1980 novel EYE OF THE BEHOLDER by Marc Behm and I am struck by the thought that maybe no one else has ever read it. This doesn't matter the least little bit in the greater scheme of things, but it nags at me all the same.