Murder and the Movies opens with David Thomson and his wife playing a game. They try to list all the people who died in Season One of Ozark. From that introduction, you can see where this book is headed.

Like Thomson’s Sleeping With Strangers: How Movies Shaped Desire (you can read my review here), Thomson takes the reader on a guided tour of his subject. Yes, Thomson loves the murders in Hitchcock movies especially Strangers on a Train. Other Thomson favorite murder movies are The Conformist, The Godfather, and The Shining,

If you’re looking for a short, fun book that will jog your movie memory, or send you to Netflix to watch a movie you’ve missed, Murder and the Movies will delight you. GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

In Ozark — 1

Alone — 7

Red Rum — 17

I could… — 29

It’s not fair — 33

What is an overlook? — 47

A nice English murder — 59

The good soldier — 77

We can kill anybody — 91

Cruel being kind — 107

A lark! An aside — 121

Are murderers crazy? — 123

Single-handed — 135

Femme fatale — 149

The woodman’s bright axe — 163

Slaughter — 167

The room I had to live in — 183

Solitary confinement — 195

And now, Death — 203

Sources and Thanks — 217

Index — 221

For about 20 years I’ve been using TURBOTAX to do my taxes. Now that Diane and I are retired, our taxes are pretty straight-forward. We have our pensions and our Social Security and that’s just about it. We have Roth IRAs, but they are tax-free.

This year, it took me a little longer to use TURBOTAX because it insisted I upgrade my Apple Operating System to BIG SUR. That took about an hour. Then, TURBOTAX was finally ready to do its thing. I inputted my data and TURBOTAX informed me I was getting a $2100 Federal Tax refund. I also broke even on the New York State taxes so I owe them nothing.

Have you done your taxes? Have you received your Economic Stimulus check yet?

About 20 minutes of Patrick talking about Privacy.

Probably the best known story in this collection is Alfred Bester’s classic “Star Light, Star Bright” about a gifted but dangerous child. I enjoyed Charles L. Harness’s clever time-travel story, “Child by Chronos.” Anthony Boucher’s story about a little demon, “Snulbug,” has lost none of its charm over the decades.

In these early The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction volumes, the editors were partial to L. Sprague de Camp and Fletch Pratt’s Gavagan’s Bar stories (like “The Untimely Toper”) and Manly Wade Wellman’s Silver John stories (like “Vandy, Vandy” where an obsessive brand of Love leads to strangeness). This Third Series volume contains several excellent stories and Boucher’s wonderful Introductions to all the stories. GRADE: B+

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction / [Anthony Boucher, J. Francis McComas] — 7
Attitudes / Philip José Farmer — 13
Maybe just a little one / R. Bretnor — 35
The star gypsies / William Lindsay Gresham — 51
The untimely Toper / L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt — 69
Vandy, Vandy / Manly Wade Wellman — 79
Experiment / Kay Rogers — 96
Lot / Ward Moore — 100
Manuscript found in a vacuum / P.M. Hubbard — 131
The maladjusted classroom / H. Nearing, Jr. — 134
Child by Chronos / Charles L. Harness — 153
New ritual / Idris Seabright (aka,Margaret St. Clair — 172
Devlin / W.B. Ready — 182
Captive audience / Ann Warren Griffith — 197
Snulbug / Anthony Boucher — 213
Shepherd’s boy / Richard Middleton — 230
Star light, star bright / Alfred Bester — 233

TRACK LIST:

1	Sam And Dave*–	Hold On, I’m Comin’	2:26
2	Eddie Floyd–	Knock On Wood	3:01
3	The Staple Singers–	Respect Yourself	4:50
4	Carla Thomas–	B-A-B-Y	2:47
5	Shirley Brown–	Woman To Woman	3:53
6	The Soul Children*–	I’ll Be The Other Woman	3:31
7	Johnnie Taylor–	Cheaper To Keep Her	3:25
8	Little Milton–	That’s What Love Will Make You Do	3:56
9	William Bell–	I Forgot To Be Your Lover	2:39
10	Jean Knight–	Mr. Big Stuff	2:44
11	Rufus Thomas–	(Do The) Push And Pull, Part I	3:16
12	Booker T & The MGs*–	Green Onions	2:48
13	Mel And Tim*–	Starting All Over Again	3:27
14	The Dramatics–	In The Rain	5:06
15	The Emotions–	So I Can Love You	2:48
16	Otis Redding–	(Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay	2:38
17	The Staple Singers–	I’ll Take You There	4:36
18	Johnnie Taylor–	Who’s Making Love	2:45
19	Frederick Knight–	Lonely For So Long	3:17
20	Isaac Hayes–	Theme From “Shaft”	4:34

After Motown music, I was a big fan of the artists at STAX Records. I own all of Isaac Hayes’s albums. Loved Otis Redding (who left us too soon) and Booker T & The MGs. Later, I discovered William Bell and Johnny Taylor.

Even Wal-Mart created a Pandemic TV commercial featuring Sam & Dave’s “Hold On, I’m Comin'” as the music background. If you’re looking for some great Soul Music, Top of the STAX–in the words of The Staple Singers–will take you there! How many of these songs do you remember? Any favorites? GRADE: A

Let the Green Beer flow!

After crash-landing on Earth, an alien takes on the identity and appearance of a small-town Colorado doctor. While the alien searches for parts that have broken off his starship when it hit the ground, he has to contend humans and their strange ways. The alien’s secret mission is in danger by a Government agency investigating alien sightings.

The alien also has to deal with a local 9-year-old boy (whose father is the Mayor of the town) who is the only person who can recognize he is an alien. Resident Alien is based on the comic book of the same name by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse. This is plenty of fun if you like snarky humor with a touch of The X-Files. GRADE: B+

THINGS I “LIKED” FOR MEN

Star Trek

Victoria’s Secret

Herman Hesse

Aron Sorkin

TV in General

Frisbee Golf

Pink Floyd

Steely Dan

Jay-Z

Ultimate Frisbee

The Cardinals

The Browns

The Yankees

The Mets

The Jets

The Heat

Libertarianism

Meat

Ben Lerner

NBC

Hari Krishna Music

Judaism

Christainity

Money

Frugality

“Fun”

Fried Food

Video Games

Computer Games

Karaoke

Bocce

Herring

Whiskey

Vodka

Beer

Staying Up Late

Waking Up Early

Polyamory

Scuba Diving

Hegel

Gatorade

When I first read Liana Finck’s pretending list of Things I “Liked” for Men I just cracked up when I got to Hegel. And Hegel…to Gatorade! Brilliant and funny! If you’re looking for a laugh and some snarky social commentary, I highly recommend Liana Finck’s Excuse Me: Cartoons, Complaints, and Notes to Self. GRADE: A-

I tried to make a phone call but the line was dead. No dial tone, no nothing. Diane and I checked our four phones–two on the First Floor, one on the Second Floor, one in the basement–but they were all dead.

Diane used her iPhone to call Verizon Customer Service. We were told there was an “Area Wide Outage” and service would be restored in THREE DAYS!!!

Do you still have a landline? Are you thinking of dropping it?

I’m a fan of Cornell Woolrich’s short stories. But I have some problems with Woolrich’s novels. Waltz Into Darkness, published in 1947, tells the story of a Doomed Man–Louis Durand–who falls in love with his mail-order bride, “Julia Russell.” Durand eventually discovers, the Hard Way, that “Julia” is a liar, thief, and femme fatale. She steals Durand’s money and skips town.

Durand, mad with rage, vows to track “Julia” down and bring her to Justice. But–(mild spoiler) Durand remains in love with his manipulative wife–despite “Julia’s” conniving and cheating. Cornell Woolrich wrote plenty of stories about characters in the grip of Obsession. This may be the ultimate expression of that trope in his oeuvre.

Waltz Into Darkness has been filmed twice. The first movie, renamed Mississippi Mermaid and released in 1968, was directed by Francois Truffaut. Mississippi Mermaid starred Jean-Paul Belmondo as Louis Durand and Catherine Deneuve as “Julia.” In 2001, the book was filmed again with the title Original Sin starring Antonio Banderas and Angelina Jolie.

Are you a Cornell Woolrich fan? GRADE: B