Robert Bloch - Chamber Of Horrors

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Robert Bloch - Chamber Of Horrors (Corgi, 1977: originally 1966)

John Holmes

Introduction: Robert Bloch

The Living End
The Head Hunter
Impractical Joker
Pride Goes -------
The Screaming People
Beelzebub
Fat Chance
The Unpardonable Crime
Method For Murder
Two Of A Kind
Untouchable
Frozen Fear

Blurb:
TWELVE SPINE-CHILLING TRIPS INTO THE MACABRE MIND OF THE AUTHOR OF PSYCHO

Robert Bloch plunges beyond the imaginable to create a blood-curdling vault of terror and fear with these twelve masterpieces of the strange and the unknown. Inside lurk the deadly spirits and supernatural dreams of madness incarnate, gleefully waiting to test the nerves of any who dare enter his CHAMBER OF HORRORS


Some Weird Tales oldies, but this collection mainly concentrates on Bloch's work in the early sixties. A couple ended up dramatised by Amicus, though I doubt Subotsky ever considered tackling The Head Hunter (there's an extraordinary double page illustration to this story in Haining's Terror!). Impractical Joker is the story of 'Teddy' Baer, quite possibly the most obnoxious barman in literature, who even buys a You Don't Have To Be Mad To Work Here - But It Helps! card to hang on the wall because he's such a fun guy.

The Head Hunter: 1937. Otto Kranz, ex-butcher, is the official headsman for the Third Reich, and he derives a great deal of satisfaction from his work. To the point where he's begun taking the job home with him.

Frozen Fear: Walter Krass murders wife Cynthia with a poker, chops her up and stuffs her neatly packaged remains in the freezer. They refuse to lie down.

Method For Murder: Charles' pen and ink sketch of a character in his next novel, Dominick, "a strangler who has escaped from an asylum for the criminally insane", provides inspiration to wife Alice who is desperate to be rid of the old fool. With the assistance of her lover, Thornton, she convinces him that Dominick is alive ...

Impractical Joker: It's sociopath bartender Donald 'Teddy' Baer's last night working at Funland. It's too hot, the jukebox is too loud, people aren't getting his malice-fueled 'hilarious' jokes and, worst of all, the girl he fancies, Elle, has turned up with that punk medical student who left his bag behind the other night. Teddy checks out the contents and finds a test tube labeled Cult; tetanus bacilla. Time for another of his jolly japes!

Beelzebub: Author Howard, driven to distraction by his wife, career and life in general, is haunted and ultimately destroyed by a special fly.

The Unpardonable Crime: Sherry will do anything to get husband Roger back now a part in Milton's movie depends on it. The alternative - porno films to keep her in smack - doesn't bear thinking about. But Santos, the hood she left him for, had his boys beat Roger up far worse than she realised. Even an impromptu striptease is lost on him these days ..

[sean]

(many thanks to Franklin for a copy of this!)

The Living End
Herbert Zane develops an elixer of eternal life, mainly to outlive his wife. But when she discovers this, it all goes horribly wrong.

Pride Goes -------
Alice decides to get rid of her drunkard husband, to leave her free to marry her new love. Guess what? It all goes horribly wrong.

The Screaming People
A man suffering from amnesia after a terrible road accident comes under the care of Dr Wagram, who, it turns out has plans for him.

A great Bloch story, with lunatics and murders and convoluted evil plans. Wonderful.

Fat Chance
A husband plots to kill his wife, who has put on too much weight for his liking (husbands and wives always get on so well in Bloch's stories!), the chosen weapon being a box of poisoned chocolates.

Two Of A Kind
A rich businessman builds himself a hi-tech ark for what he believes will be the coming flood. people generally think he is nuts, until it starts to rain, and rain, and rain...

Untouchable
A horrible bigoted actor gets his cumuppance when he forces his attentions on someone he shouldn't have.

Another good collection!

[allthingshorror]

John Holmes artwork Dem.

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Untouchable: (The Saint Mystery Magazine, Nov. 1961). Obnoxious, xenophobic movie star Race Harmon can't keep it in his trousers for the duration of a brief location shoot in India. Drunk and belligerent, Harmon rapes a beautiful young woman he takes to be the Nizar's wife. She isn't. Hugh Lamb inexplicably revives this second stringer in The Star Book of Horror 1.

Pride Goes ----- : (The Saint Mystery Magazine, Aug. 1966). Young Alice Aiken has been carrying on with Ralph Gregory behind wealthy, ageing husband Fred's back, said spouse being too terminally soused to notice. Now she is desperate to remarry. How can she be shot of Fred but cling onto his inherited wealth? Clearly the situation calls for the perfect murder.

Fat Chance: (Keyhole Mystery, Aug. 1960). John and Mary are a typical American couple in that both wish the other dead. John, a chemist,has long tolerated his wife's several perceived failings, but this is the final straw. 'Pleasingly plump' when they married, Mary has since ballooned to a 240lb "repulsive mountain of flabby flesh." No way is he prepared to remain married to a fatso, not now that the lovely Frances has made herself available. But Frances gives him an ultimatum. Get rid of the lard arsed one, or she'll move back home to Oregon for keeps. Clearly the situation calls for the perfect murder again. Consequently, a desperate John puts his pharmaceutical knowledge to crude if deadly use. Nothing can possibly go wrong! Unless today of all days, Mary finally resolves to take a diet seriously.

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Continuing the Bloch mop up.

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Leo Summers

Two of a Kind: (Fantastic, May 1958 as Two by Two by 'E. K. Jarvis'). Lambert offered two people the priceless gift of salvation. But who needed it? After an exhaustive selection process, Preston Lambert, church elder and multi-millionaire offers Jim and Mary Dexter a place aboard his atomic-powered luxury cruise-liner. Deciding he's either demented or intent on murder, they decline.

Appears in the same issue as Bloch's juvenile-delinquents-are-in-league-with-Satan classic, Spawn of the Dark One, which may explain adoption of the Jarvis pseudonym.

The Living End: (The Saint Mystery Magazine, May 1963). Nobel Prize winning scientist Herbert Zane formulates an elixir of immortality. Realising that the human race is far from ready for immortality, he keeps the discovery to himself. All he need do now is bide his time until Hilda (despised wife) drops dead, then he can live a little, get himself a hot blonde babe like Kim Novack or Brigette Bardot! What could possibly go wrong?