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Post by pulphack on Dec 19, 2008 10:32:56 GMT
i'm surprised Baker plugs the Mirror, as his political leanings would have made him more of a Mail or Express reader. anyway...
interesting point about Drake being one-dimensional, and therefore it could easily be a de-Blaked title. i don't think it is, but the thing is that it would have been so easy. Blake was little more than a set of characteristics that the reader fleshed out over time. even going back pre-Baker to the golden age, it was always the series villains that stood out. this was partly because the writers could create their own, whereas they were stuck with what everyone else had done to Blake and Tinker, and the editorial template. but mostly i guess it's because you have to keep the hero of a multi-author series fairly general, and not too detailed, as then nuances between writers will be really jarring to continuity. you only have to look at Nick Carter (not that Franklin needs an excuse for that!) or Mack Bolan to see that in action up to the present.
with Drake, if you look at some old Danger Man episodes now, he was a very cold, aloof character, and that would be hard to translate to the page for anyone. the only way i could think of it happening would be if Pat McGoohan had ghosted a ook as McNee did with Leslie for the Avengers.
by the way, doesn't the bloke he's fighting on that cover look like Denholm Elliott!
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Post by pulphack on Dec 19, 2008 10:23:23 GMT
just picked up three wordsworth collections that are worth a mention though somewhat at a tangent to tyhe general run mentioned here.
first, there's the HH Munro 'Collected Stories Of Saki'. no westminster alice, Brassington, or When William Came, but sticks to the stories alone (is it me, or did a previous edition include the rest?). so Reginald, Clovis and all the faves from anthologies are here. worth every peny of 1.99, and i'm looking forward to renewing my acquaintance with this over xmas.
in their 5.99 range (cheaper on amazon) they have a massiove GK Chesterton volume, which eschews poetry and essays in favor of fiction. at around 1500 pages, even if you have the volumes wordsworth issued sepeartely (which are included), there's still over a thousand pages of long out of print stuff. all the Father Brown, some novels which probably haven't seen print since the 30's, and the incredible The Man Who Was Thursday and The Napoleon Of Notting Hill. mystic and philosopher, like i said elsewhere once he's the Light Lord to Machen's Dark Magus, and any Machen admirer who isn't aware of him should give it a go.
Rosemary Gray has compiled another massive 5.99 volume - Gripping Yarns - which is very similar to the old 30's hardbacks. lots of Edwardian and Victorian ghost, supernatural and thriller material. the usual suspects are represented from those volumes, though sometimes with unusual choices. and let's face it, even the usual suspects to us musty book searchers are going to be new to the casual browser. plus, there are massive selection of Edgar Wallace (horray!) and Conan Doyle that feature tales very rarely anthologised (now see Dem prove me wrong and show my ignorance!).
all three from amazon for a shade over eleven quid, and only fourteen from the shops. you know it makes sense.
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Post by pulphack on Dec 16, 2008 18:44:39 GMT
Boothby's work was massive in his day, and he died quite young, I think, which makes his fecundity all the more astounding. Certainly, it makes me want to read the volumes that I haven't... I had a lovely old Ward Lock edition of Dr Nikola, with that classic portrait of the hooded-eyed Doc with the cat peering maliciously over his shoulder that Peter Haining bunged in his suspense and mystery art books.
The thing that struck me about it was, as you say, that it doesn't read as contemporary to its time. The subject matter is in tune with thrillers of the day, but the style is almost a throwback to the great age of gothic. It's a juxtaposition that gives it one hell of a weight. I was also struck when reading it by the immense sense of despair and loss from Bruce when he's wandering alone at the end of the book... well, near the end. It also seemed like Nikola wasn't the great supervillain I'd been led to belive - that's what you get for reading one alone, and out of sequence, by the look of it!
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Post by pulphack on Dec 16, 2008 11:58:18 GMT
Well, sort of...
For a brief period, Mr B was author at large for ITC, penning seven novels based on their series. (He wasn't the only paperbacker to do this, but that's by-the-by)
The odd thing is that although most of his tie-in work was for Pan, it was only on the novelisation published by Hodder (who he worked for to a much lesser extent) that he used his own name. The six that were published by Pan came out under the name Robert Miall. I'd love to know if the deals were set up by his agent or by the production company, as this could explain the name/publisher anomaly. Actually, I'd love to know what the working practise was per se. Apologies if you've already covered this, Johnny, but I haven't been back to the JB site for a while!
First things first. The Hodder tie-in was for STRANGE REPORT, and was published in 1970.
The Miall books were: UFO (1970), UFO2 (1971), JASON KING and KILL JASON KING (1972), and THE PROTECTORS (1973). There was also a tie-in for THE ADVENTURER, which was, I assume, the same year. I have all of them except the latter, so I can't say much about that. I did have it at the time, but I was only 8, so don't expect much in the way of a feat of memory!
As it happens, I had all the Mialls back then, as I was a bookworm and was also obsessed by those ITC shows. I also have the three FE Smith PERSUADERS books lurking in a cupboard, though they are pretty dire.
Which the Burke's are not. STRANGE REPORT was a a series coproduced with Arena, the men bhind UNCLE, and it starred Anthony Quayle as Adam Strange, a psychologist and pathologist who worked in an unofficial capacity whenever an oddity or anomaly arose. He had two assistants: student pathologist Hamilton Gynt, an exile from Minnesota, who could handle the action stuff; and Evelyn Maclean, part-time model and struggling artist who rents half of Starnge's large house.
Now, this was my fave series when I was about 8 as it was kinetic, she was pretty (and blonde - the start of a fatal addiction), and Strange bombed around London in an old black cab. What I only came to appreciate in later years, following re-runs on Bravo (and I'd recommend the DVD box, too), was that many of the stories have depth and complexity that takes them beyond the Baker and Berman/Spooner series that were the core of ITC at this time. Many of the episodes deal with men who have psychological issues, and there's a lot about the philosophy of death and murder. Cracking.
As befits such depth, Mr B gives us something approaching a 'proper' novel. The two episodes chosen are two of the more populist - one involving a cult and pop groups, the other being the most straightforward thriller of the run - but the way he interweaves them into one narrative and also syupplies back story for the protagionists - particualrly filling out the character of Strange - is excellently done. A book that can stand up in its own right, and well worth searching out. Finding this in 1988 set me off on buying up old paperbacks again, so it's got a lot to answer for!
The Miall books are smoothly written, and have panache, but are much more superficial and surface, as befits the source material, I guess. Perhaps this was partly behind the pseudonym?
Anyway, UFO and UFO2 take a couple of episodes and interweave them once more. The former has a captured alien, and the storyline that sees experimental pilot Paul Foster see a UFO, get the bit between his teeth, and become Col Paul Foster of SHADO. The latter uses the episodes where the aforesaid Foster gets stranded on the surface of the moon, and forsm an alliance with a similarly stranded alien. Adversity bereeds companionship, and when the alien is killed by a SHADO astronaut, it raises questions about who or what the enemy is... Also included is the episode where a relationship between two SHADO operatives may have caused the inadvertant death of a Mobile crew. Not as slam bang as the first book, but better for it as it reflects that this ws the most adult of Gerry Anderson's shows, and despite critical carping did at least try to tackle something beyond action.
JASON KING and KILL JASON KING... ah, the oppposite of depth! Divorced from the frame of Dept S, the stories were always too flimsy, and King was better as a comment on the action rather than forceful hero. It's a poor viewing experience now, but the books are better. Again, two interlinked episodes, but stripped to the barest of bones, the better for mr B to include priceless Wyngarde dialogue, and add a suitably arch narrative tone that is tongue-in-cheek. Don't bother with the DVD's, search these out instead.
Bloody Wyngarde's got a lot to answer for. I thought being a writer meant being rich, surrounded by gorgeous women, and never doing any work. The bastard...
Ahem, anyway, on to THE PROTECTORS. I would suspect that THE ADVENTURER suffers from the same problems as this book. For a start, the 25 min episodes never allowed for any plot development beyond the obvious, and the characterisation was minimal. THE ADVENTURER looks crap now, whereas THE PROTECTORS just about carries it on the affability of Tony Anholt (an underrated actor), the loveliness of Nyree Dawn Porter (though she was a complete bitch according to someone I knew who was movie publicist), and the sheer charisma of Robert Vaughn.
Unfortunately, this doesn't translate to print. Three episodes instead of two, in the same pages. In truth, four may have been better, as it stretches the gruel far too thin. With no real plot, and little character to work with, Mr B does his best, but it's hard going. I bet he was glad to get this one out of the way. Even pulling out the stops, no-one could make a silk purse from this sows ear. Still, five out of six is pretty good going, and I would recommend all of them bar the last.
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Post by pulphack on Dec 16, 2008 11:19:11 GMT
Really, this reads like a Blake with Drake cunningly substituted. I think the lack of salaciousnerss can be put down mostly to the fact that McGoohan would stamp his foot. On TV, Drake never got involved in such shennanigans, and this was mostly down to big Pat's views on such matters. Also, and this is really sweet, actually, he didn't want his kids to see him kiss another woman other than their mum on TV. I love the man for such idiosyncracies.
The Exterminator, which is credited to WA Ballinger on the Zenith reprint I have, isn't so beautifully sixties, but still worth a read. I think it's a Baker, as he didn't seem to use the Ballinger name for anyone other than himself until much later.
Peter Leslie also did a Danger Man - Hell For Tomorrow - which I've gleaned from an excellent Steve Holland interview in PBO#4, the paperback collectors newsletter, for 1997, which a chum of mine unearthed in his attic recently. I have no idea if this was for Press Ed, or was ATV generated. Mr Leslie, of course, ghosted a coupole fo Avengers titles for Pat McNee, which are mentioned elsewhere. Which follows me following Dem on the New Avengers... and all of this without DVD or VHS! Ain't paperbacking grand?
All we need is for John Burke to have done one... but he didn't. Meanwhile, over on HIS thread...
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Post by pulphack on Dec 16, 2008 11:10:07 GMT
It has to be said, the New Avengers books are better than the series - got a couple of episodes on VHS, and it looks ropey as hell. Hate to say it, but the lovely Ms Lumley is awful, and Gareth Hunt is far better than history allows him. As for Steed... well, why is he there apart from continuity?
The books are another matter. Cave excels himself, Walter Harris turns in a good effort, and they're great fun.
This is TV-tie-in posting day...
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Post by pulphack on Dec 11, 2008 15:22:07 GMT
They were indeed. I suppose 'Don't Turn Around' isn't a bad pop hit, and sounds ok on oldies radio, but it's nowhere near the intensity they used to have. The old quality/success inverse ratio at work. A pity the earlier stuff couldn't have made their name big style.
And I wasn't being ironic about the Doubledeckers, sad to say. Bloody awful, like those terrible Childrens Film Foundation things. An adults idea of what kids should like, rather than adults with the minds of kids making it. Which is maybe the difference between the likes of JK Rowling and Oliver Postgate, and stuff that never really catches on.
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Post by pulphack on Dec 11, 2008 15:18:22 GMT
The Maze... now there's a film to bring back memories! Saw it on C4, not the beeb, sad to say, and much later. Barking mad idea, though - mad scottish relative turns out to be frog monster living in pond at centre of maze, glimpsed briefly and rather splendidly at the end.
They don't make 'em like that anymore, and more's the pity. Nowt wrong with modern horror movies - a bit of gore is no bad thing - but by god you can't beat the sheer audacity of those low budget mavens.
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Post by pulphack on Dec 10, 2008 15:44:25 GMT
ulp... no, i regret to say that this is exactly what i meant... it wasn't all oliver postgate and quality back then, was it... although that does sort of prove what we've been saying on the postgate RIP thread, though.
Brinsley had quite a dodgy career pre-Aswad, really - me and mrs ph were watching the Please Sir! movie on C4 last week (slackers!), and he cropped up in that, puling a 'i is an oppressed boy' trick on some dolly bird and getting john alderton into trouble.
Aswad may have gone downhill quality wise in the eighties, but thinking about it, it does makes you forgive 'em for 'don't turn around', really. at least it saved him from a lifetime of cheeky chappie roles...
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Post by pulphack on Dec 10, 2008 14:10:08 GMT
nice bit of research, there, dem. thanks for that, one to add to the list for abebooks,etc... mind you, i wouldn't recognise the film from the blurb! that makes it sound a bit like the doubledeckers go dub, which it most certainly isn't. worth a watch if you like brit movies from that period.
(i've just wonderd why i shoved the doubledeckers on there - am i remembering wrong, or has my addled brain dredged up that brinsley forde was in that?)
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Post by pulphack on Dec 10, 2008 14:04:39 GMT
i think that part of arlen's problem in asessing him these days is that he touched on mnay genres, but only in brief and oblique ways. in the same way that ghoul of golders green is horror but only sort of, so his forays into crime are similarly angled. his main concern was chronicling the lives and relationships of the world he created, so it falls to some stories to be involved in crime, or the apparently weird, but only really as a backdrop. what he does have with the passage of time is a uniqueness that attracts you because of the way in which he tells the story, rather than the story itself. so if you like one, then you may like others even though they may ostensibly be about subjects that you'd usually swerve.
(ps - you're safe, he never went near sf!)
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Post by pulphack on Dec 10, 2008 13:58:44 GMT
loved all of his and Firmin's work when i was younger, and looking at it now there's something about their underlying socialism and humanity that informs it in a way that makes it last, wheeras other stuff just dates. or am i being sentimental? noggin, ivor, the clangers, bagpuss - all massive influences on us when we were kids. i agree with you there, craig - this stuff that got us when we were young resonates through anything we do.
and now to take a turn for the trivial - They Must be Russians! blimey, who would've seen the bagpuss influence in them!
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Fear
Dec 7, 2008 21:20:37 GMT
Post by pulphack on Dec 7, 2008 21:20:37 GMT
you are not alone, caroline! how many times have i written 'i used to have this book...' and regretted its going. but at one time i moved three times in two years, and lots of stuff got shed along the way. lots more went just because i got fed up with the clutter.
frankly, some of it has been bought again. you will, too... you know you will...
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Post by pulphack on Dec 7, 2008 21:15:24 GMT
... is the title of a movie made in 1980, about competing sound systems in London. stars Brinsley Forde and Karl Howman, is gritty and as street as you could get (more Scum than Breaking Glass), and has a great soundtrack from Aswad, Misty In Roots, and the great Dennis Bovell.
watching it last night, i saw at the end that NEL did a tie-in p/b. i've never seen this anywhere (and frankly wonder how they'd translate patois to the printed page), and don't knwo who wrote it. which is why i've posted this: justin, franklin - any ideas?
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Post by pulphack on Dec 7, 2008 21:11:17 GMT
funny enough, dem, i picked up a copy of this a couple of months back. nice little book, and a cracking series that still holds up. pauses for thought about anette andre...
i do love all those ITC series, and would recommend to anyone Robert Sellars' Cult TV: The Golden Age Of ITC, published by Plexus. this covers everything ITC did from William Tell to Sapphire And Steel and all points between. no series synopses here, but loads of detail about the making of the shows, the creative teams, and amazing machinations of Lord Lew Grade!
mike pratt, of course, wrote Little White Bull and other toons for Tommy Steele, and his son guy is dave gilmour's bass player (his autobiog came out a year or two back).
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