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Post by charliegrenville on Jul 16, 2014 12:42:53 GMT
By the way, does anyone know- was Maureen O'Hara THE Maureen O'Hara? After all, Dulcie Gray was THE Dulcie Gray. And there does seem to be a certain oldeworldliness to her writing that would sit well with a woman of that age...
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Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2014 6:20:46 GMT
Yes.
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Post by charliegrenville on Jul 17, 2014 16:23:38 GMT
Well, that's what I like- a nice succinct reply that gets straight down to it and answers the question!!!
Makes you wonder if any other actresses ever penned any Pan classics...it would be interesting to see just who hid behind those pseudonyms. I've always thought the likes of Anna Massey, Jean Marsh, Eileen Atkins and maybe even Prunella Scales could have knocked out a few macabre masterpieces between them...
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Post by dem on Jul 18, 2014 9:05:01 GMT
By the way, does anyone know- was Maureen O'Hara THE Maureen O'Hara? After all, Dulcie Gray was THE Dulcie Gray. And there does seem to be a certain oldeworldliness to her writing that would sit well with a woman of that age... Amazing. If it is the same Maureen O'Hara, that certainly adds extra weirdness to her heroically miserable Fontana Horror#11 contribution, Rainbow, an anti-heroin tract which which takes it's name from the famous Finsbury Park rock venue. I guess writing for Van Thal & Mary Danby was an improvement on her usual paying gig. Who needs John Wayne when you can have Syd Bounds and Dorothy Kilmurry-Hall (aka Noele Gordon)? |
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Post by redbrain on Jul 18, 2014 22:05:09 GMT
If that cover is intended as spanking porn, it's a crap example.
Actually, I have a strong dislike of John Wayne. I have a huge DVD collection that includes not one of his pictures.
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Post by charliegrenville on Jul 19, 2014 12:45:14 GMT
I despise John Wayne and everything he stood for- but I do like some of his films. THE SEARCHERS, THE SONS OF KATIE ELDER, TRUE GRIT, THE SHOOTIST, BRANNIGAN and THE QUIET MAN do get occasional screenings round here.
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Post by jamesdoig on Jul 19, 2014 23:23:00 GMT
I despise John Wayne and everything he stood for- but I do like some of his films. THE SEARCHERS, THE SONS OF KATIE ELDER, TRUE GRIT, THE SHOOTIST, BRANNIGAN and THE QUIET MAN do get occasional screenings round here. The opening song to Chisum always cracks me up. |
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Post by dem on Jul 21, 2014 8:52:50 GMT
If that cover is intended as spanking porn, it's a crap example. Actually, I have a strong dislike of John Wayne. I have a huge DVD collection that includes not one of his pictures. I despise John Wayne and everything he stood for- but I do like some of his films. THE SEARCHERS, THE SONS OF KATIE ELDER, TRUE GRIT, THE SHOOTIST, BRANNIGAN and THE QUIET MAN do get occasional screenings round here. Mr Wayne's politics were not my own, but I really like Brannigan although that has plenty to do with the location shooting in and around a Wapping and Shadwell that no longer exist. The pub episode fascinates me. Of course, it might have been a set, but there are shades of The Brown Bear and the (long gone) Carlisle. The Green Berets which, along with his remarks about "red indians" in a Playboy interview - essentially he dismissed them as benefit "scroungers" - cemented his Uncle Sam/ anti-commie/ redneck image - is a guilty pleasure, fascinating for all the wrong reasons. And his performance in final film The Shootist is exceptional. But Millions Of Dead Cops probably called it right. |
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Post by charliegrenville on Jul 21, 2014 22:35:00 GMT
I prefer the description given in the misheard lyrics to "John Wayne Is Big Leggy"- "He's Stan So Hi, it's enough to make an erection cry, he was a tw*t...and he rode the garden-sweeping parson's wife, the lovely Les...cha cha cha cha cha cha cha cha."
As for his politics, I'm no PC leftie myself, nor Tory (I hate BOTH wings equally and see the whole thing as a charade) but the stories about how he hounded poor old Gary Cooper just because of the throwing of the badge in HIGH NOON, and how abusive he was to the journalists who dared question him on the Bullet Train, particularly Barry Norman, are enough to make you hate him for life. Then again, if he and Ward Bond (another tw*t) hadn't assisted Joe McCarthy so much in his persecution of certain individuals, we'd have never had Joseph Losey over here in the UK making some of the best cinema ever.
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Post by Swampirella on Apr 3, 2017 19:02:05 GMT
The 17th Pan Book Of Horror Stories ed. Herbert Van Thal (1976) Monica Lee - The Remains of Reindeer
Harry Turner - The Hypnotist
Elleston Trevor - They’re Making a Mistake
Barbara J. Eyre - Poor Rosie
Alex White - To Fatima
Jack Shackleford - Thy Intention Turn …
Maureen O’Hara - Nobody’s Child
Myc Harrison - Needle and Thread
Dawn Muscillo - Sister Coxall’s Revenge
Jonathan Cruise - The Claygo Worm
Myc Harrison - The Abscess
Norman P. Kaufman - An Opportunity in Local Government
Roger F Dunkley - The Man Called James
Charles Black wrote: I won't reveal which one, Dem, but one of these would go in your necrophillia themed anthology.I'm a bit suspicious of the Elleston Trevor story. The Chicken-Switch SF story in the 16th Pan was quite out of place. I think he's better known as 'Adam Hall' who wrote the Quiller spy stories - and I have a Boy's Own type racing story by him, too. I think I know the necrophilia story that Charles mentions. And if I remember right, Needle and Thread is a revenge story of a Jewish concentration camp survivor... And The Remains of Reindeer was grotesque and stylish and very weird! Of course it's a long time since I read them. The Remains of Reindeer by Monica Lee: In life, Melissa Weldon was not beautiful; but her hands are of a rare elegance and beauty, and they catch the attention of painter Henry Eyewetts. He paints many studies of Melissa’s hands, cleverly placing them to the foreground of his paintings, while, in the pictures, the rest of Melissa becomes diffuse or cloudy. So begins the cult of Melissa’s hands. And when she dies, the old family doctor carries out her wishes, and amputates and embalms them. Her brother Hubert thinks this thoughtful of her. He is going to be alone in the huge house apart from the staff. But now, with Melissa’s hands placed in a glass case, surrounded by white lilies, adorned with her favourite rings, it’s as if she is still here with him. It is not possible to keep the hands secret from the staff, and inevitably word reaches the world outside the house. The scandal causes Hubert, already reclusive, to shut himself off completely, retaining only Alfred Stubbs the butler as live-in help. And with the shutting off of the world, Hubert, already clearly bordering on the autistic, attempts to bring his sister more surely back into the world to fill his empty life. The title of the story refers to an article Hubert once wrote which explained how the people of Lapland use every part of the deer to live; the story itself – which is almost fifty pages long – is something of a tour de force, moving tirelessly from incident to disaster to yet more incidents, with more than a hint of both The Beast With Five Fingers and The Loved Dead. Hubert wrote: The Abscess is a great story, just don't read it when you have a toothache or right before you go to the (you've guessed it) dentist. I'd love to summarize it, but don't want to give the plot away. Seek it out and read it, all of you!
Poor Rosie and The man called James are fondly remembered here as well. The remains of reindeer is overlong and imho not really a horror story.Charles Black wrote: Agreed about The Abcess. My other favourites in this one are The Claygo Worm, and Thy Intention Turn, by our old friend, Jack Shackleford.What amazed me about Lee's story was how it was spun out to such a length without (in my opinion) becoming at all boring! I thought it was very stylish and entertaining. But I agree about The Abcess - Lovecraft goes to the dentist! Brilliant! ;D Bushwick wrote: SPOILER ALERT...(I SUPPOSE) This is a cracking Pan...haven't got that far into it, but The Remains Of Reindeer is excellent, gothic and nasty, that upper-class antiquated English grue that these books do so well. The Alex White story is great, very direct and brutal as you'd expect. A couple of lines really made me laugh despite myself during my lunch break today. This is not an adverse comment on the writing, more just me being a nasty juvenile bugger. Good straightforward murder descriptions that made me chuckle. And is this the only Alex White where the murderous protagonist actually gets his come-uppance? Alex White is the Lucio Fulci of the page. I love you Alex! Poor Rosie was alright but a bit throwaway. Same with They're Making A Mistake...didn't really 'get it'...inconsequential methinks... shit, how could I forget The Hypnotist? Brilliant. Jason King-style hero, camp as a row of tents, interesting premise and a decent villian. Some outlandish descriptions of gore too. Bit of a daft ending but the story was tongue-in-cheek to begin with.
Will report back when I've read some more. So much bloody stuff to read. Must keep off internet. Plus I'm constantly downloading all these interesting films (LEGALLY OF COURSE DISCLAIMER AHEM AHEM) and never get time to watch them. Plus I've got to finish my new story Human Cancer Cannon. So little time! [/color] Nightreader wrote: ]It's about 20 years since I read this one, but your comments make me want to re-read The Hypnotist. I found the most memorable story to be An Opportunity in Local Government - a bit more effective, 'punchy' (sorry) and nasty than NPK's other efforts, which were all pretty conte cruel-ish Demonik wrote: Perhaps if we keep going on about how great Alex White is, the forgotten Goddess of horror will get in contact with us. From beyond the grave, if necessary: I'm easy with that.
I remember the super-spiteful Sister Coxall's Revenge from Cuddon's Penguin Book of Horror Stories.
One top review, Bushwick, but excuse me if I don't like you just this second. 
Bushwick wrote: Quick update: Nobody's Child is a superb little tale. The casual political incorrectness, brutality and sexual violence, and the old-fashioned dialogue are classic Pan. This one 'kind of' has a happy ending, I suppose. It's one of those stories where you work out what you THINK is going to happen about halfway through, then the author flips it around. Very impressed. Has Maureen O'Hara written much more? Was it her who did Under The Flagstone? It was wasn't it? What is it with these incredibly nasty female authors? Growing up in the prim and proper England of yesteryear must have created a lot of unbridled violence and emotion just waiting to creatively pour out...
Thy Intention Turn was alright, scene set nicely but a disappointing ending I thought.
More as I work through it.Demonik wrote:
It was Morag Greer, and I've just found two stories of hers I don't think I've read before in Van Thals Bedside Book Of Strange Stories #1 and 2. I hope to get around to them this weekend.
Maureen O'Hara had On the Eve of the Wedding in #16 and The Atheist in my least favourite, # 18, if that means anything to you? I must admit, it doesn't to me offhand though I'm certain I've commented on at least one of them. 
Sister Coxall's Revenge always puts me in mind of the framing story in the Amicus anthology Asylum though it's a sight grimmer. J. A. Cuddon was impressed with it enough to include it in The Penguin Book of Horror Stories, the only original story from the Pan's to make the cut though a number of reprints made it in there too.Demonik wrote: I finally have a copy of this. Pretty obvious what story I'd read first: Alex White - To Fatima: Charts the progress of James from acts of sadism versus pets in childhood, through opportunist murder and a lengthy stint as a corpse-raping strangler in maturity to his downfall when he meets Fatima, the beautiful sister of a wealthy Arab and the only woman he ever loved. When Fatima insists on going through with her arranged marriage to Feisal, James falls back into his old ways. But Fatima's brother and Feisal are more than his match in dishing out suffering and his protracted torture at their hands, boots, whips and irons is hideous. Alex White is something of a Vault favourite and this is typically nasty if not in quite the same league as Never Talk To Strangers or her masterpiece The Clinic. Barbara Jane Eyre - Poor Rosie: Mentally unbalanced serial killers do not make the best mothers. Dead baby fun. Roger F. Dunkley - The Man Called James: A police helicopter hovers overhead and wheelchair-bound Maud finds a young man in her garden. A very personable fellow but he just can't endure suffering in his fellow creatures. When her cat lashes out at a dove he destroys the bird with his bare hands and tosses it away. Then he notices Maud's tablets ... Harry E. Turner - The Hypnotist: The under-rated Turner continues his tradition of reworking unpretentious twenties and thirties horror plots as ace reporter Stew McAlpine travels to Montreaux to interview master mesmerist Count Vladimir Von Beck. "All poppycock" reckons McAlpine until he meets with the happy clappy zombies on whom the Count conducts his experiments and, finally, experiences the man's uncanny abilities for himself. Plenty of gory surgical moments and much nastiness down in the cellar. [/quote] I've just finished "The Remains of Reindeer"; it is indeed a "stylish and entertaining" masterpiece! |
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Post by helrunar on Apr 4, 2017 1:28:40 GMT
I may have to pick this one up... I'm sure The Remains of Reindeer would help divert my next long bus ride this Summer.
In other news, I'm thinking about starting a thread on US fantasy author Thomas Burnett Swann (died 1976), if I can figure out just where in the boards to place him.
cheers, H.
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Post by ropardoe on Apr 4, 2017 8:46:46 GMT
I may have to pick this one up... I'm sure The Remains of Reindeer would help divert my next long bus ride this Summer. In other news, I'm thinking about starting a thread on US fantasy author Thomas Burnett Swann (died 1976), if I can figure out just where in the boards to place him. cheers, H. Definitely not the thread (with a heading like that!) to be finding a mention of the great Thomas Burnett Swann. Very unexpected! I loved his novels in the 1970s and read pretty much all of them avidly. Starting a thread on him now might be my excuse to refresh my memory. There was also a short story by him in which figures from a Hieronymous Bosch painting came to life. I expect I could track the details of that down on the Net, but can anyone save me to effort? |
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Post by ropardoe on Apr 4, 2017 8:47:39 GMT
Or even "the" effort?
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Post by Swampirella on Apr 4, 2017 10:45:13 GMT
I may have to pick this one up... I'm sure The Remains of Reindeer would help divert my next long bus ride this Summer. In other news, I'm thinking about starting a thread on US fantasy author Thomas Burnett Swann (died 1976), if I can figure out just where in the boards to place him. cheers, H. If you can find a copy at a price you consider reasonable; I decided to grab an "inexpensive" copy (under $20 incl.s/h) so as to complete (almost) my collection. My other favorites were "To Fatima" and "The Hypnotist" were also excellent, as were "Sister Coxall's Revenge" "An Opportunity in Local Government" and "Thy Intention Turn". |
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Post by helrunar on Apr 4, 2017 15:01:44 GMT
Hi Rosemary, There is a complete bibliography of TBS's work here, and I see some uncollected tales that were printed in magazines, but no synopsis or even hint of themes or topoi seems to have been provided by Mr. Saylor: www.stevensaylor.com/ThomasBurnettSwann/SwannBiblio.htmlI am on a "Facebook" group for fans of the work of TBS--I have the feeling that he represents a somewhat rarefied taste, but several people of whom I am very fond have expressed an admiration for his work. So, I'm charmed that you speak affectionately of his books as well. The group has perhaps thirty members of whom only a few have posted (but that is ever the way of things in these online convocations). I will ask if anyone on there recalls a tale by TBS involving a Bosch painting and report back if I hear anything. cheers, H. |
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