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Post by dem on Feb 5, 2021 19:13:58 GMT
Brenda Lillian Smith - "Nowhere in Particular"; Suzette is amused at lover Tim's loathing for a painting on display at the local art gallery. "There's something sinister about it, the houses are so tall they're almost menacing. Its too empty, just an alley, going nowhere, as if - as if the life has been drained out of it." Soon afterward, Suzette goes missing ...
Guy N. Smith - Man Astray: Set during a time of civil war and car bomb attacks. Michael is spending his evenings at 'work', and wife Jennifer suspects he is cheating with a younger, more attractive. fertile woman. The truth - which you've most likely guessed correctly - is far worse.
B. R. Swan - Dips Dilmma: A detective imposes upon a career pickpocket to steal back a wallet containing his warrant card.
James D. Brown - The Bell: The sacred bell in the valley is all that stands between this world and the forces of darkness that would destroy mankind. A know-it-all Westerner can't leave well alone.
Nothing much special about today's batch.
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Post by dem on Jul 21, 2024 5:47:20 GMT
The London Mystery Magazine #24 (Norman Kark Publications, Feb. 1955) The London Mystery Magazine: Introduction
Frederick E. Smith - Sea Shroud
Ian McLeod - The Devil Weeps
Robert Standish - At the Villa Janine
Langston Day - The Devil in Mayfair
Terrave Burnern - His Second Most Interesting Case
Alan Stuart - The Grey Lady of Glengarrion
Leslie Vaughan - The Saint
André Villers - The Oubliette [trans. by P. W. Inwood]
Stuart Palmer - She Never Lets You Co
Brenda Rockett - The Fatal Glass
Peter Pardigon - Myself When Young
C. D. Heriot - A Walk by Moonlight
Philip Spring - Mistress of Death
Crooks in Books: ReviewsIntroduction: THE LONDON MYSTERY MAGAZINE In this issue we are offering you something in the nature of an entente d'horreur. All these exercises in the macabre, save one, have either British or French backgrounds. The exception is a gruesome sea story of black magic and dark superstition, and even this is not wholly outside the pale, if one takes the cynical view of Douglas William Jerrold who believed "the best thing between France and England was the sea." For the rest, both national backgrounds are but the settings for various expositions on the theme of betrayal. In France we range from calculated personal treachery in "The Oubliette" and "The Mistress of Death" to the involuntary and tragic deception "At the Villa Janine," and from thence to the horror of the supernatural ambush of "she" who "never lets you go." In England the pattern is clearer, and more immediately diabolical, as in the grisly tales where "The Devil Weeps," "The Saint” is at his least beneficent, and the most guileful of baited traps is sprung in "Professor Hartmann's Second Most Interesting Case." This is not to say that the island background affords no subtlety. On the contrary, in "The Fatal Glass" we witness the terror of animate spite, and in "Myself When Young" there is the final, cold-sweat betrayal of a man, by himself. There is much else here of moonlight, castles and devils, to chill and fever the imagination. England or France; there's the choice. You may prefer the domestic backcloth for horrible imaginings, or you may agree with a paraphrased Laurence Sterne that "they order these matters better in France." Either way your taste will be fully satisfied in this twenty-fourth issue of LONDON MYSTERY MAGAZINE which, as ever, maintains its flesh-creeping pre-eminence.  Anthony Baynes: A coastal resort near Cape Town. Early in their marriage, Nanda lost her husband to the sea. A non-swimmer, he drowned in a fishing accident. Heartbroken, the young widow attempts Iqira doll magic to return him from beneath the waves. A Pan Book of Horror story four years too soon. Ian McLeod - The Devil Weeps: Archie is nursed through serious illness by Ella of the horrible nose, who can't forgive his throwing her over for Jenny all those years ago. At last, she has him just where she wants him - inside a box awaiting burial. Unfussy Poe-influenced three pager. André Villers - The Oubliette [trans. by P. W. Inwood]: "No condemned person ever comes out of these vaults, Monsieur ... Nobody brings food to the condemned." A sadistic Duke has a Lothario cast into the château dungeon for seducing his sainted daughter. Chevalier Favorelli's only hope of escape is via the fireplace and up through the narrow neck of a chimney. Sixty feet into the climb, he reaches an alcove and a shaft leading to his lover's chamber! She has only to raise the heavy plate fire-back to save him! A fine time to find out his lover is truly her father's daughter. Terrave Burnern - His Second Most Interesting Case: Professor Hartmann, insufferably smug university tutor and criminologist, identifies a murder where none was suspected. A locked room mystery.  Anthony Baynes
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Post by andydecker on Jul 21, 2024 11:40:27 GMT
Ah yes, the mystery and lure of the "cabaret" star in the 50s, especially for well to do men. Always good for a story or like here an ad.
Considering that Ellery Queen's and Hitchcock's are still runing, it is sad that London Mystery Magazine didn't made it into the new millennium.
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Post by dem on Jul 22, 2024 9:11:57 GMT
Ah yes, the mystery and lure of the "cabaret" star in the 50s, especially for well to do men. Always good for a story or like here an ad.
Considering that Ellery Queen's and Hitchcock's are still runing, it is sad that London Mystery Magazine didn't made it into the new millennium.
The final issue, #132, is dated March 1982 when, from what little I've seen of the later LMM's, its best years - the fifties - were long behind it. I'd love to see a contemporary equivalent, but would prefer we were spared a "revival."  Leslie Domeny: The four turreted Loch side mansion comes complete with two-hundred year old manservant and lethal golden haired, grey faced spectre. By the time John Grant, its latest owner, pleads with our narrator to stay the week, he is already beyond rescue. Liked the ghost and the sense of impending doom. Langston Day - The Devil in Mayfair: "I propose to raise the Prince of Devils by the fearful Kabbalistic Rite of Lucifuge." House party at Ralph and Dorice Pinkerton's London residence. Among the invited, Sombart, an aggressively self-promoting Black Magician and strip poker enthusiast. Alerted by the noise, Mr. Minney, camp clergyman, calls to ask if anyone requires assistance? The hosts invite him to stay and join the fun ... Philip Spring - Mistress of Death: Non-fiction. The Life and crimes of the seventeenth century Marquise de Brinvilliers, mass poisoner, whose comeuppance provided the basis for Conan Doyle's supernatural sado-horror short, The Leather Funnel Leslie Domeny |
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Post by dem on Jul 24, 2024 18:33:56 GMT
 Rolf Harris She Never Lets You Go: "She is said to walk at night in the churchyard, ever since the church burnt down. She has been heard weeping softly in the night when there has been a death in the town - but always the death of a pure and innocent young girl, or so the legend goes ..." Lieutenant Charles Barron, abuses his position as American Military Governor to St. Ambrose des Ouragans, Normandy to drink dry the tavern and intimidate a meek servant girl to sleep with him. The next morning he hears this mademoiselle Albertine singing cheerfully as she goes about her chores. So who - or what - lies beside him in bed? Another supernatural horror worthy of an early Pan Book of Horror (and our lovely sex with dead people anthology in the making). Brenda Rockett - The Fatal Glass: Inspector Blake investigates an onstage poisoning during a performance at the Fountain Theatre. Miss Morgan, the understudy, gave a dreadful performance, but that hardly justifies an attempt on her life. Which of the feuding Thespians had it in for her - or was the fatal glass meant for another? W. E. Jones The Devil in Mayfair |
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Post by sadako on Sept 4, 2024 22:56:47 GMT
The 23rd edition, from 1955, includes Frederick E. Smith’s short story that was filmed as Devil Doll in 1964. Was it published anywhere else?   |
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Post by helrunar on Sept 5, 2024 3:37:45 GMT
I always feel such intense, keen desire to get hold of one of these whenever scans are posted, but I think if findable they're quite pricey over here.
Devil Doll is a film that is a great deal of fun, with some quirky scenes that have very little to do with the story--barnstorming lead performance by offbeat American actor Bryant Halliday, who used to live very near my workplace in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Hel.
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Post by sadako on Sept 5, 2024 4:43:00 GMT
The magazine ran up into the 1980s, and featured Guy N Smith over a dozen times before his hit novel Night of the Crabs finally launched his career.
Devil Doll was filmed in a little south London studio a couple of miles away from where I was growing up. I also love Bryant in Projected Man and especially Tower of Evil. A shame he didn’t make more movies.
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Post by dem on Sept 5, 2024 7:17:04 GMT
The 23rd edition, from 1955, includes Frederick E. Smith’s short story that was filmed as Devil Doll in 1964. Was it published anywhere else? Elizabeth Dearnley includes it in her recent British Library Tales of the Weird anthology, Deadly Dolls: Haunting Tales of the Uncanny. |
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Post by helrunar on Sept 5, 2024 20:25:16 GMT
Sadako, that's cool that you lived near that studio. Bryant gave a tour de force performance in a less than stellar film shot sometime around 1963-64, The Curse of Simba, also released as Curse of the Voodoo and Voodoo Blood Death. There wasn't much to the story, but Bryant Haliday's bravura acting made it compelling, for this viewer at least. Dennis Price had a minor role as well.
cheers, Hel.
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Post by sadako on Sept 5, 2024 21:01:09 GMT
Sadako, that's cool that you lived near that studio. Bryant gave a tour de force performance in a less than stellar film shot sometime around 1963-64, The Curse of Simba, also released as Curse of the Voodoo and Voodoo Blood Death. There wasn't much to the story, but Bryant Haliday's bravura acting made it compelling, for this viewer at least. Dennis Price had a minor role as well. cheers, Hel. Yes, that’s one I’m about to watch! |
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Post by sadako on Sept 6, 2024 18:48:16 GMT
The 23rd edition, from 1955, includes Frederick E. Smith’s short story that was filmed as Devil Doll in 1964. Was it published anywhere else? Elizabeth Dearnley includes it in her recent British Library Tales of the Weird anthology, Deadly Dolls: Haunting Tales of the Uncanny. Oh, wonderful! Glad it’s been published more recently. |
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