The Charlie Chan Collection includes Dark Alibi, Dangerous Money, The Trap, and The Chinese Ring from 1946 and 1947. I know the Charlie Chan films fell out of favor for years, victims of political correctness and charges of racism. I’m glad these films are being released so a new generation can judge them. These four films have never been on DVD before. If you’re a Charlie Chan fan, you can find almost all the movies on DVD. The only two not available yet are Chinatown and The Red Dragon. You can find this set at Sam’s Club or BJ’s Warehouse for about $25.

There aren’t too many books that I will drop everything to read, but those by Matthew Hughes make the list. Planet Stories just published Template, the story of a duelist from the gaming world of Thrais (think a Las Vegas world), where free markets and gambling reign supreme. Conn Labro, one of the greatest players on Thrais, finds himself swept up in a conspiracy that takes him to Old Earth where he finds that his origins and his future are involved in aristocratic skulduggery. Reading Matthew Hughes is almost like reading Jack Vance. That’s the highest praise I can think of. GRADE: A

Sorry for the dinky graphic. James Warner Bellah wrote the novelization of his screenplay (with Willis Goldbeck, based on a story by Dorothy M. Johnson) for The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance in 1962. There were a couple of paperback editions and then…nothing. Talk about being forgotten! James Warner Bellah wrote for The Saturday Evening Post and published over a dozen novels. He was also a successful Hollywood screenwriter. Bellah wrote the screenplays for The Sea Chase (1955), Thunder of Drums (1961), and X-15 (1961).

James Warner Bellah’s novels Dancing Lady (1932) and The Command (1954) were made into a movies. The movie Fort Apache (1948) was based on Bellah’s short story “Massacre” (later issued as a book), and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) was based on “War Party.” He both wrote the novel and later, the screenplay based on it, Sergeant Rutledge (1960) . Bellah also appeared in bit parts and as an extra in movies including The Man Behind the Gun (1952).

I loved the movie version of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance when I saw it as a kid. I immediately bought the Gene Pitney song (written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David) and read James Warner Bellah’s book at the Library. Those memories have stayed with me all these years.

The Girl Who Played With Fire, based on the flawed Stieg Larsson novel with the same title, features another electrifying performance by Noomi Rapace as the elfin computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander. If you haven’t read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo or seen the movie of the same name, you’ll be very confused about what’s happening in The Girl Who Played With Fire. The director and screenwriter pretty much assume you’ve read the books as they follow Larsson’s plot relentlessly. This movie lacks the intensity of the previous movie, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, simply because the two main characters, Lisbeth Salander and journalist Mikael Blomkvist, are separated for most of the film. However, once the murderous climax unfolds, you’ll be on the edge of your seat. All three MILLENNIUM movies were filmed together. The last installment, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, will open around Christmas. I can’t wait. GRADE: B+

“We had been living together for about a week when my roommate told me she had asked specifically to be paired up with a girl from a world as different as possible from her own.” That’s the opening line to Sigrid Nunez’s remarkable novel, The Last of Her Kind. Dooley Ann Drayton comes from the moneyed class, yet she devotes her life to the poor and oppressed. Her college roommate is Georgette George, born into hard-scrabble life with a violent mother and troubled siblings. One of these women will commit a murder. The Last of Her Kind is a social history. The two college students attend Barnard in the Sixties just as civil rights and the Vietnam War ignite student movements. Woodstock, Altamont, marijuana, LSD, speed, all become part of the story. Sigrid Nunez brings startling narrative effects to her story. Most of the book is narrated by Georgette, but when Georgette has an affair, she finds she can only relate it to us in the third person. And then there’s the shocking prison journal. I cannot praise this tour de force too much. It’s amazing! The Last of Her Kind is the best book I’ve read in 2010 so far. GRADE: A

(Thanks to the North Tonawanda Public Library for providing this book.)

Back in 1995, when Cutthroat Island was released, the movie opened and closed here in a week. Somehow, an action movie about a lady pirate didn’t appeal to mass audiences back then. If you missed Cutthroat Island on the first go-round, you’re in luck! I found a Blu-ray version of Cutthroat Island at BJ’s Warehouse for $7.99. Remember when Blu-ray movies were going for $25-$30? As I predicted a few months ago, prices are falling for Blu-ray movies, many can be found under $10. Cutthroat Island is pure fun: sword fights, swashbuckling adventures, and some light romance. But the reason to watch this movie in the Blu-ray HDTV format is for the colorful island spectacle and the elaborate ship-to-ship battle scenes. If you want crackling action featuring the delightful Geena Davis, the cute Matthew Modine, and the sinister Frank Langella, Cutthroat Island delivers. GRADE: B+

Charles Ardai, editor of HARD CASE CRIME books, sent this email message to readers:
Those of you who are tuned in to goings-on in the publishing industry may have seen the announcement last week from Dorchester Publishing that they’ve decided to get out of the business of publishing mass-market paperback novels (the main business they’ve been in for the past 40 years). Instead, they’ve announced they’re only going to publish ebooks and a limited number of larger trade paperbacks, using a ‘print on demand’ process.

What does this have to do with Hard Case Crime? Well, for the past six years, Dorchester has been the company that has printed and distributed our books. They’re a first-rate company run by good people, and I’m sorry to see them going through tough times. I’m also sorry to see them stop publishing books in our format. What does this mean for us? Well, either we’ll need to switch from the smaller “mass market” format to the larger “trade” format, or we’ll need to start working with another publisher, or both. (Most likely both, but we’ll see.)

I immediately went out and bought what is likely to be the last mass market format HARD CASE CRIME book: Murder is My Business with a great Robert McGinnis cover. Buy it fast! It’s the end of an era.

Diane, Patrick, and Katie all read Kathryn Stockett’s The Help so I thought I’m make it a complete family sweep by reading it too. This story begins in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962. Stockett introduces us to two black maids, Aibileen and Minny. We see and hear the racism of this time in the events Stockett includes: separate bathrooms for the maids, a near-murder of a worker who uses a “white” bathroom, and enormous cruelty by a bridge club of white women who rule the social scene in Jackson. Into this mix Stockett drops 22-year-old Skeeter with a degree from Ole Miss. Skeeter wants to be a writer and “change things.” With the encouragement of an editor at Harper & Row, Skeeter starts to secretly interview the maids about their views of their white employers. My chief quibble about this book is that Stockett alternates the narration of the chapters from Aibileen, to Minny, to Skeeter, all in the first person. I think a third-person narration would have been more effective. But, that being said, The Help presents an effective social history of those dark times. GRADE: B

(Thanks to the North Tonawanda Public Library for providing this book.)

The kids (Mia Wasikowsk and Josh Hutcherson) are all right, but the lesbian couple (Annette Bening and Julianne Moore) who raised them isn’t. The Kids Are All Right begins with the premise that kids born from sperm donor would want to contact their father. So far, so good. The kids contact their father (Mark Ruffalo), an owner of a restaurant, and after an awkward period, the kids and the father start to bond. It’s when the kids, their lesbian mothers, and the father meet over dinner that chaos enters their lives. All the relationships swirl around in the turmoil. This movie is being marketed as a comedy. It isn’t. Yes, there are comic moments, but the plot is serious…and conventional. With the strong cast and the novel situation, you would think the writer and director could have come up with a more innovative ending. But, no. This movie ends as most of the audience could have predicted. GRADE: B

Kim Stanley Robinson is best known for his excellent science fiction novels like his Mars trilogy: Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars. Robinson also wrote the under-rated Three Californias Trilogy: The Wild Shore, The Gold Coast, Pacific Edge (but that’s a topic for another FORGOTTEN BOOKS Friday). Most readers head for the novels. Yet, Robinson also wrote some dazzling short stories. Thanks to Night Shade Books, we have the just published collection, The Best of Kim Stanley Robinson. The title is no misnomer. Some of Robinson’s best writing can be found in these pages. Many of these stories hard to find. Now, they’re in one convenient package. Robinson also threw in a new, original story. There are hours of reading pleasure to be found here.
Table of Contents:
Venice Drowned
Ridge Running
Before I Wake
Black Air (World Fantasy Award Winner)
The Lucky Strike
A Sensitive Dependence on Initial Conditions
Arthur Sternbach Brings The Curveball To Mars
The Blind Geometer (Nebula Award Winner)
Our Town
Escape from Kathmandu
Remaking History
The Translator
Glacier
The Lunatics
Zurich
Vinland the Dream
“A History of the Twentieth Century, with Illustrations”
Muir On Shasta
Sexual Dimorphism
Discovering Life
Prometheus Unbound, At Last
The Timpanist of the Berlin Philharmonic, 1942 (First Publication)
Afterword by Kim Stanley Robinson

(This completes the August 2010 portion of my Short Story Reading Challenge. I will read and review one short story collection per month in 2010. To find out more about the Short Story Reading Challenge, be sure to click: “http://theshortstorychallenge.blogspot.com/”>Short Story Reading Challenge.