Weird and Occult

[dem bones]

Weird and Occult 1/- Library #2, (Gerald G. Swan, 1960)

Henry Rawle - The Voice of Amalzzar
A. C. Bailey - Skulls That Cannot Be Shifted
A. C. Bailey - His Second Chance
F. Thomas - The Cat and the Occult
Hugh J. Gallagher - Death Mates
Dallas Kirby - Come Brother, Come!
A. C. Bailey - A Court Martialed Ghost
Chas. H. Bradford- “Where That Dark Water Is…”
Christine Gittings - Beneath the Mountain
John Russell Fearn - Judgement Bell
M. E. Orman - Made of Sand

It needed something very special indeed to lift my post-Eurovision Song Contest despondency (twenty years of hurt & counting. Will the nightmare never end?) and, pulp fair be praised, this is it!

Henry Rawle - The Voice of Amalzzar: "Tonight I hope to show you something without precedence in the annals of science, something that will silence for ever the stupid quibbling of 'doubting Thomasses' - a discovery that will rock the scientific world to its foundations!"

Professor Thomas Radford the controversial archaeologists invites narrator to his Sussex mansion to witness a miracle. Tonight he will reanimate the mind of a 3,000 years dead mummy! A blast of electrodes and Amalzzar, astrologer to Nebuchadnezzar II, launches into an exciting monologue detailing the pivotal episodes in a colourful life, culminating in his murder by a market trader he had deprived of both wife and tongue. Unfortunately, just as the mummy is about to reveal the future, Radford's rudimentary equipment explodes. Perhaps I should've spoilered that.

A. C. Bailey - Skulls That Cannot Be Shifted: "Non-fiction." Manchester, Lake District, Dorset. Skulls screaming, indestructible and stubbornly resisting all attempts to remove them from their ancestral homes.

A. C. Bailey - His Second Chance: When Mr. Samuel 'Big Sam' Ayslett is crushed beneath a bus on Ludgate Hill, his ghost wanders the streets desperately trying to attract attention. It's left to a ragged spectral match-seller to appraise him of his new circumstances. In the course of a few hours Ayslett learns what his wife, children, best friend and toady colleagues at the stock exchange really thought of him. Only Fido the dog mourns his passing. If only Big Sam could live life over, he'd not make the same mistakes again!

F. Thomas - The Cat and the Occult: Non-fiction. A veteran ghost-hunter swears by a pet cat as essential to the business of locating haunted houses.

Hugh J. Gallagher - Death Mates: The jungle rang to the shrill screams of Martinez and his cohorts as they turned the forest primeval into a charnel house for barbarous orgies of mutilation!"

My favourite so far by a distance. Jaded big game hunter Martinez advertises for batches of female entertainers to perform at his mansion in the South American jungle. Phyllis Castle, trapeze artist, and Miriam Daly, tap dancer, are among the latest arrivals whose number also includes a blues singer, magician's assistant, concert pianist and a lecturer. On the first night, Martinez and his men lead three of the women out into the trees. 'Phyllis' visits Miriam in her room and drops the bombshell that he's really Phil Castle of the Flying Castles, investigating the mysterious disappearance of his sister; last known whereabouts - this island! Screams in the night confirm their worst fears. Martinez and his goon squad, bored with bagging big cats, have taken to re-enacting The Most Dangerous Game with women as prey! Will Phil's Tarzan turn and Miriam's fainting on demand be enough to deliver them from the torture fiends? Don't look in the trophy cabinet!

[helrunar]

Many thanks for these delightful notes, Dem.  The Hugh Gallagher sounds like one the incomparable Christine Campbell Thomson might have bagged for the 1960s Not at Night treats.

Glad this proved to be good value for money!

cheers, H.

[dem bones]

Dallas Kirby - Come Brother, Come!: Rhosilli Bay. On the first anniversary of his death, David Tanner returns to get even with brother Sam who let him drown that he might steal his bride-to-be. On learning of Sam's crime of betrayal, the fair Sally turned to black magic to raise her true love from the sea bed.

A. C. Bailey - A Court Martialed Ghost: "Non fiction." A sentry bayonet charges an intruder at the Tower of London, passes straight through her, hits a wall and collapses in a heap! poor chap is charged with being drunk on duty. Two beefeaters testify that the ghost of Ann Boleyn regularly glides through that particular corridor.

Chas. H. Bradford- “Where That Dark Water Is…”: Did a siren goad the keepers at Barbarin lighthouse to destroy one another?

Christine Gittings - Beneath the Mountain: . "Phew!'' gasped Benton - ''a hundred feet long if it's an inch!" On inheriting his brother's desolate house in the Scottish Highlands, Joe Oakham, retired keeper of London Zoo's reptile house, takes to exploring the neighbouring caverns. He soon adopts a sheep-eating, tentacle-tongued sea monster for a pet. Shame he has no control over the creature ....

[dem bones]

Finally for Weird & Occult #2. Judgement Bell rivals Death Mates as personal best-of-issue nomination. Made Of Sand is a touch "enigmatic."

John Russell Fearn - Judgement Bell: " ...... and so ye tale doth run that ye saintly monk Dranwold wert slain by the assassin's hand, who did creep -" Enid broke off and sighed. "Whew! Whoever wrote this sure wouldn't sell much to a modern magazine.'
"For Heaven's sake, Enid, stop your damned blasphemous chatter!" I exploded. "Stop it, I say!"

Loves young dream Enid and Bob, picnicking in the Southern English countryside. A downpour drives them to seek shelter in the ponderous semi-ruined bulk that is legend haunted Kelby Abbey. Local lore has it that whenever the giant bell tolls, someone dies within the church. Enid is adamant that such stupid stories are "a lot of tosh" but then she is an irreligious child. They head for the the library. Enid selects a random manuscript from the shelves. It opens on the page headed Ye Legend of Kelbye Abbey!

" ... and so shall ye Judgement Bell ring for each descendant of the assassin of Dranwold. The assassin whose name is Cleggye."

Cleggye. Why, that's the original spelling of her own surname, Cleggy! And wasn't her uncle struck down by a bolt of lightening inside this very church twelve years ago? Enid's cynicism deserts her. No matter that there's a tempest going down outside, she must get away from this place, before ...! But it's too late. A cowled figure rises from prayer at the altar. The phantom giant bell tolls over and over. A zig-zag from the heavens chars Enid to the bones! Bearing witness to such horrors fair drives poor Bob out of his mind and he storms the belfry. Surprise, surprise. A flesh and blood entity, David Bolton, vicar of the abbey, awaits. He's been through this before and realises Bob won't accept that the supernatural is at work here until he sees - or doesn't see - the bell with his own eyes.

M. E. Orman - Made of Sand: A girl of ten or eleven years old, models a sarcophagus in sand and within - no, I'm not sure how she achieves this either - an effigy of herself. That night a mysterious figure arrives on the beach and inspects Mosina's weird sandcastle. The girl dies screaming in her bed. No idea what the author is attempting to communicate with this story but it's really miserable.