Book Review: The Year’s Best S-F: 5th Annual Edition edited by Judith Merrill This 1960 book features a selection of speculative fiction short stories published during the 1958-60 time period. Editor Judith Merrill provides an introduction about the concept of wonder, chatty introductions to each story (she doesn’t think much of Kingsley Amis as a… Continue reading Book Review: The Year’s Best S-F: 5th Annual Edition
Tag: Hollywood
Movie Review: Trocadero (1944)
Movie Review: Trocadero (1944) Hollywood columnist Erskine Johnson (playing himself) needs a story for his Sunday slot, and goes to his favorite nightclub, the Trocadero. It’s hopping as usual, but headwaiter Sam (Ralph Morgan) finds a moment between celebrity cameos and musical numbers to talk to the columnist. He reveals that things were not always… Continue reading Movie Review: Trocadero (1944)
Book Review: Jet Set
Book Review: Jet Set: The People, the Planes, the Glamour, and the Sex in Aviation’s Glory Years by William Stadiem Disclaimer: I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway on the premise that I would review it. My copy was an Advance Uncorrected Proof, and there will be considerable changes made to the final product,… Continue reading Book Review: Jet Set
Comic Strip Review: Johnny Comet
Comic Strip Review: Johnny Comet by Frank Frazetta & Earl Baldwin Before Frank Frazetta hit it big with movie posters and book cover paintings of brawny barbarians and scantily-clad women, he worked in comic books and tried to break into the lucrative newspaper comics business. After a couple of abortive efforts, Mr. Frazetta was… Continue reading Comic Strip Review: Johnny Comet
Book Review: Splatterlands
Book Review: Splatterlands edited by Anthony Rivera and Sharon Lawson Disclaimer: I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway on the premise that I would review it. According to Wikipedia, “splatterpunk” was a movement in horror writing between roughly 1985 and 1995, distinguished by its graphic and often gory descriptions of violence and attempts to… Continue reading Book Review: Splatterlands
Book Review: City of Nets
Book Review: City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940s by Otto Friedrich The book’s title comes from a Bertolt Brecht opera, “The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny.” Brecht had not yet come to Hollywood at the time, but “like a net set for edible birds” is a plausible description of… Continue reading Book Review: City of Nets