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Post by cauldronbrewer on Nov 13, 2018 12:39:04 GMT
"The Mansion of Unholy Magic" is another wild one. By the second page, de Grandin and Trowbridge find themselves pursued by a strange running figure that can keep pace with an automobile going at forty miles an hour. Trowbridge decides to take a break from being useless and make a millstone of himself: he spoils de Grandin's shot at their stalker, saying, "You can't do that ... it would be murder!"
Truly, he is the worst sidekick an occult detective could have.
When the pair of them and their young driver reach their destination--a classic cabin in the woods--they're swiftly besieged by mummies. Eventually, they make their way to the mansion of unholy magic and do battle with the mummies, which are possessed by ancient Egyptian elemental spirits. In a scene reminiscent of Monty Python's Holy Grail, de Grandin defeats one of them by cutting off all its limbs. It tries to squirm away, but he sets it on fire.
The story's heroine-du-jour is an interesting case. She's a tomboy taxi driver whose first instinct on seeing a mummy is to grab a gun and fill the monster with bullets. Just to reassure us that this is a de Grandin story, she's captured, stripped naked, and forced to lick the feet of the beautiful but evil mummy princess (Quinn's transparent bid for a Weird Tales cover). But she's not paired off with a suitor at the end of the story. Instead, de Grandin gives her a billhook and sends her to butcher the now-helpless necromancer who reanimated the mummies that killed her father.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 13, 2018 13:54:21 GMT
"The Mansion of Unholy Magic" is another wild one. By the second page, de Grandin and Trowbridge find themselves pursued by a strange running figure that can keep pace with an automobile going at forty miles an hour. Trowbridge decides to take a break from being useless and make a millstone of himself: he spoils de Grandin's shot at their stalker, saying, "You can't do that ... it would be murder!" Truly, he is the worst sidekick an occult detective could have. When the pair of them and their young driver reach their destination--a classic cabin in the woods--they're swiftly besieged by mummies. Eventually, they make their way to the mansion of unholy magic and do battle with the mummies, which are possessed by ancient Egyptian elemental spirits. In a scene reminiscent of Monty Python's Holy Grail, de Grandin defeats one of them by cutting off all its limbs. It tries to squirm away, but he sets it on fire. The story's heroine-du-jour is an interesting case. She's a tomboy taxi driver whose first instinct on seeing a mummy is to grab a gun and fill it with bullets. Just to reassure us that this is a de Grandin story, she's captured, stripped naked, and forced to lick the feet of the beautiful but evil mummy princess (Quinn's transparent bid for a Weird Tales cover). But she's not paired off with a suitor at the end of the story. Instead, de Grandin gives her a billhook and sends her to butcher the now-helpless necromancer who reanimated the mummies that killed her father. Lovely post, Mr. B! When he's on this form (and the preceding Malay Horror) Quinn/ de Grandin is untouchable. Robert Weinberg didn't miss too many of the full-on barnstormers but he slipped up in overlooking this pair. It's just a shame that, for me at least, the series gradually lost its sparkle post WW2, probably earlier. Law of diminishing returns, I guess. The repeal of the Prohibion law seemed to have a negative impact - where's the fun in joining our heroes in a fierce post-adventure session when it's no longer illegal?
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Nov 14, 2018 12:42:43 GMT
Robert Weinberg didn't miss too many of the full-on barnstormers but he slipped up in overlooking this pair. If Weinberg had plans for further books in the Popular Library series-- which seems to be the case--then perhaps he would've included those two in the next installment. My own thinking is that there were enough leftovers to justify at least a seventh, if not an eight, book.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Nov 14, 2018 13:38:32 GMT
After 35+ plus years as a fan of the De Grandin stories, and several years after obtained the "Compleat" set, I've still to read about 30-40 of the 93 stories. While they're great fun, they very much lose their impact if you read several in quick succession; I tend to read one or two every couple of months. I am, maybe unwisely, steaming right on through Volume 4 in the Nightshade series. Next up is "Red Gauntlets of Czerni" which falls on the sillier end of the Seabury spectrum. Our heroes--well, de Grandin, really--take on a rotten Commie incubus that's slipping ectoplasmic roofies to a Hungarian count's daughter. Upon witnessing the invisible groper in action, Trowbridge inevitably misinterprets what's happening: "Quick, waken her, de Grandin; this sort of thing may lead to erotomania!" The Frenchman pooh-poohs Freud by name, but a psychoanalytic critic would have a field day with the manifestation's streaming white emissions and purple gorged features. In any event, de Grandin comes up with a non-traditional approach to defeating the incubus. Read no further if you want to preserve the mystery ... ... he lures it out and sucks it up with a vacuum cleaner! Worth noting: The story includes a throwaway mention to a "Dr. Brundage." Perhaps that's tribute to the Weird Tales cover artist, Margaret Brundage?
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Post by andydecker on Nov 14, 2018 18:28:16 GMT
Instead, de Grandin gives her a billhook and sends her to butcher the now-helpless necromancer who reanimated the mummies that killed her father. It's just a shame that, for me at least, the series gradually lost its sparkle post WW2, probably earlier. Law of diminishing returns, I guess. The repeal of the Prohibion law seemed to have a negative impact - where's the fun in joining our heroes in a fierce post-adventure session when it's no longer illegal? In hindsight it is no wonder that Weird Tales didn't last long after the war. The world had changed so much, and the WT kind of story couldn't keep up with the changes. Or the writers. I often wrote how much I adore that Robert Bloch changed so much. Especially if you read his Mythos stuff his later work seem to be written by another writer. But there were not many who adapted that much.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Nov 19, 2018 12:51:14 GMT
It's just a shame that, for me at least, the series gradually lost its sparkle post WW2, probably earlier. Law of diminishing returns, I guess. And now I seem to have hit a rough patch in the series. "The Red Knife of Hassan" is a dull murder-mystery involving the ancient cult of hashish-eating assassins. There's no supernatural elemental at all (plenty of xenophobia, however). "Hands of the Dead" is a bit more entertaining. It's Quinn's spin on The Hands of Orlac, complete with a piano-playing scene (except in this case the hands in question have been grafted onto a lovely young woman, this being a de Grandin story). There's also an evil stage hypnotist controlling the hands. Our hero solves the crisis by straight-up murdering the hypnotist with a surgical needle (Trowbridge is rather taken aback by this). There's a fun exchange at the end where a stuffy Austrian professor says he's going to get drunk, and de Grandin tells him, "For a week I've known you, yet never till this instant have I heard you speak one word of sense!" In the "The Black Orchid," a jilted witch from Madagascar uses a bloodsucking flower to inflict vengeance on her former husband and his daughter. The daughter might've been innocent, but the husband kind of deserved it. Unlike the mummies in "The Mansion of Unholy Magic," the one in "The Dead-Alive Mummy" just lies there as it slowly drains the life from its young American doppelganger. One session of hypnotism with de Gradin, and the problem is solved. Not exactly a dynamic plot. "A Rival from the Grave" reads more like Quinn's take on 1930s pulp soft-core S&M with a bit of ectoplasm--make that "psychoplasm"--thrown in; there's an impressive amount of conjugal pain-inflicting and bloodsucking. Most of the story is a long tale-within-a-tale, so de Grandin spends most of it listening, asking questions, and interjecting in the name of the blue monkey or what-have-you. After he's done playing supernatural marriage counselor, he x-rays the evil succubus into oblivion.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Nov 19, 2018 13:15:45 GMT
There's no supernatural elemental at all Surely all elementals are supernatural?
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Nov 19, 2018 13:54:24 GMT
There's no supernatural elemental at all Surely all elementals are supernatural? I suppose it says something about me that I automatically substitute "elemental" for "element."
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Post by helrunar on Nov 19, 2018 13:55:37 GMT
Hi Cauldron Brewer, in one of the Seabury Quinn threads (most likely earlier on in this one), several readers have commented that the stories are best enjoyed in really small doses. I seem to recall one seasoned critic commenting that about one per month was probably about perfect.
Nevertheless, if some of the stories are just outright bad, I don't think that will save one from feeling impatient or irritated at having wasted one's time. I've only read a few Jules de Grandin stories. I enjoy them as "slick" mag fiction of the period circa 1929 (though some were written in the 1940s or 1950s, I believe--his style does not appear to have evolved in any significant way).
cheers, Helrunar
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Nov 19, 2018 14:13:57 GMT
Hi Cauldron Brewer, in one of the Seabury Quinn threads (most likely earlier on in this one), several readers have commented that the stories are best enjoyed in really small doses. I seem to recall one seasoned critic commenting that about one per month was probably about perfect. That's probably true, but I have a fixation on finishing whatever book I've started reading. So it's onward through A Rival from the Grave. On the bright side, the next three titles sound promising: "Witch-House," "Children of the Bat," and "Satan's Palimpsest."
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Post by dem bones on Jan 7, 2021 22:27:10 GMT
Chris Worthington - The Hauntings of Harrisonville and Others: A Companion to the Adventures of Jules de Grandin (CreateSpace, 2011: "New and Revised Edition") Joseph Wehrle The Fiction and Professional Articles of Seabury Grandin Quinn by Year Introduction to Jules de Grandin The Adventures of Jules de Grandin An Alphabetical Index of Characters and Places which Occur in the Cases of Jules de Grandin An Index of Themes A Few Items Recommended That the Budding Phantom Hunter Carries Favourite Quotes References Acknowledgements In PreparationAn obsession, labour of love, call it what you will, this oversized paperback contains more than you could possibly ever want or need to know about Harrisonville's finest ever phantom fighter. The book begins with far the most comprehensive bibliography of Seabury Quinn's work I've seen to date, commencing with the article, The Law Of The Movies, published in Motion Picture Magazine, Dec 1917, through to the 'John Barlow' adventure, Pauline's Progress, ( Dodge Chemical Company Magazine, Dec. 1969). Next is The Adventures of Jules de Grandin, a ten page introduction devoted to the main good guys - de Grandin, Dr Samuel Trowbridge, DS Jeremy Costello, Nora Mcginnis - and such Quinn trademarks as "barbarous oaths ...laboured ethnic speeches," wilful defiance of the Volstead act, foot fetishism, morbid hatred of turnips, etc. A fun read, if a little bewildering in part. Mr. Worthington's meandering essay gives way to the good stuff - his capsule reviews of all ninety-three of the Quinn-penned de Grandin adventures, plus a few oddities. He's not afraid to promote his favourites or slate the occasional turkey, and his comments have already decided me to tackle three of the post-war adventures I'd not previously been tempted to explore. The other substantial entry, An Alphabetical Index of Characters and Places .... is as comprehensive an A-Z of things de Grandin-related as there is every likely to be. Lucius Sorriano
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Post by ripper on Jan 8, 2021 10:41:15 GMT
There used to be a really good website with reviews for many of the JDG stories, along with other pulp series such as Doc Savage, The Spider etc, plus the Fu Manchu novels, cliffhanger serials and much more. Sadly, it seemed to disappear quite a while ago, and now I can't even recall what it was called.
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