Friday, 25 May 2018

Richard Marsten's "Murder In The Navy" / Ed McBain's "Death Of A Nurse"

[Imagine the noise of that whistle that pipes people on deck happening here, as a greeting!]

No side-pod for this, but I (Paul) have just finished reading Ed McBain's "Death of a Nurse", originally published as a Richard Marsten novel called "Murder In The Navy" (1955) - the latter title being a more accurate one for the actual content of the book, but "Death Of A Nurse" seems to have been adopted as a more suitably 'pulpy' title which, given the content of the book, is fair enough.

That said, the original release by Fawcett Publishers in their Gold Medal Books imprint, a pretty-damn-pulp-fiction publisher, has a cracking painted rendition of a Naval rating attempting to dispose of the body of his murder victim onboard ship. Even better, the recommendation plastered across the cover is from none other than the "author of THE BLACKBOARD JUNGLE" - yes, Evan Hunter himself, suggesting that his pseudonymous alter-ego has created a novel of "Superb Suspense!".

My edition was the 1980 Penguin Crime Fiction version, with the shiny Ed McBain graphic on the front that some of the 87th Precinct were (re)published in. The shattered thermometer on the front doesn't give anything of the story away, but by 1980 McBain's name is the main sales-pitch, so the image is almost secondary to that.


As to the tale itself - it's clearly Hunter writing in a proto-McBain voice. It's closer in tone to the 87th Precinct novels than it is to the Blackboard Jungle or A Matter Of Conviction and it is, once you strip away the specifics of the setting, a good mystery story with a pulpy romance woven through it. McBain/Marsten does a good job of stringing the reader along by quickly narrowing down the murder suspects down to two potential perpetrators, then following them in the story, but always concealing their name (in the hospital they always refer to the patients by bed-number, rather than name, for example), so we're left guessing in much the same way as our hero, Chuck Masters, who is following the case despite being told to leave it alone by the top brass. 

The trappings of life on board ship, at the naval training base in Norfolk, Virginia are all, despite the pre-book protestation that the locations and settings are not drawn as totally true-to-life, based on Evan's own navy experience in quite some detail (the ship isn't real and the layout of the bases etc., is fictionalised - a forerunner of the 87th Precinct "The city in these pages is imaginary..."). Hunter joined the Navy in 1944 (still under his birth name of Salvatore A Lombino) and served aboard the USS Hanson, which was commissioned in the docks at Norfolk, VA and, like the ship in the book, was selected to be converted to a radar picket ship. Much of the story revolves around the radar room and crew on board the vessel. Hunter himself served as a Radarman on the Hanson and so this is drawn from first hand experience. It's probably also worth noting that the inclusion of nurses on board and around the shipyards is perhaps a reflection of the time Hunter spent in hospital during his service, which happened at least a couple of times. 

The USS Hanson in 1966

The story ends with a properly pulpy resolution - a race against the clock, the increasing threat of violence, the damsel in (self-created) distress and our hero, sensitive and determined - but powerful - saving the day. It's a pretty good read for the scholar of McBain - seeing the development of the voice that comes to fruition in the 87th Precinct series - and it's a good example of the type of pulp output that helped to make or establish some authors in the 1950s. Look it up - it's available now in a new edition published by Otto Penzler's Mysterious Press, still listed as an Ed McBain ("writing as...") story, but now back to the original title of Murder In The Navy.

Thursday, 17 May 2018

Side-Pod - The Young Savages: A Glistening Pompadour

Hark! It's an 87th Precinct Podcast Sidepod

The team takes in the John Frankenheimer directed film "The Young Savages" from 1961. The film was based on Evan Hunter's "A Matter Of Conviction" from 1959 and is the tale of Hank Bell (Burt Lancaster) and his quest for the truth in preparation for his prosecution of three Italian street-gang members accused of the First-Degree murder of a Puerto Rican boy. When placed alongside the 87th Precinct book "See Them Die" of 1960, it seems streets gangs were much on Hunter's mind.

As we go along we hear some great jazz-slang, Paul's Bin Mystery, Stephen's very best Audiobook voice and discuss another link to the world of Columbo!

Join us soon as we slide back out of the 'real' New York back to the parallel-world of Isola and the 87th Precinct for the next book in the series, "The Empty Hours". Fare thee well. 

Thursday, 10 May 2018

On-Screen Carellas (and Carella substitutes!)

Here, for your delight and wonder, is a selection of the actors who have played our favourite Detective (2nd Grade) from the 87th Precinct, Steve Carella. Remember that Carella is described as:

"[giving] the impression of great power...
a fine-honed muscular power. He wore his brown hair short.
His eyes were brown, with a peculiar downward slant that
gave him a clean-shaved oriental appearance. He had wide
shoulders and narrow hips." (Cop Hater, 1956)

It's clear that McBain had a vision for his leading-man and, as with the other cops in the squad, his description is oft-repeated through the years. One of the questions that crops up a lot when discussing the 87th Precinct is "Who would you cast to play....?" - so here are some of the answers given by various producers and casting directors over the years.

click to enlarge

Not all of these actors played an exact Steve Carella, though - Tatsuya Nakadai plays Chief Detective Tokura in Kurosawa's High & Low (1963). His character is the closest the film has to Carella, but also combines aspects of Lt. Pete Byrnes. Also, Vinod Khanna, is based on the character in High and Low, rather than Carella in the book King's Ransom, but he's our only Bollywood Cop (Chief Inspector Gill), so he counts!

There are (probably) some missing Carellas. Some of the Japanese TV productions are hard to trace and sites such as IMDB rarely have character names and when they do they're often renamed to make them realistic for the setting. Without seeing these films and TV plays, it's hard to tell who is who. 

Another interesting point is that Robert Loggia, in the 1958 film version of Cop Hater, is playing a character called "Carelli" - quite why the name is changed by one vowel it's hard to tell, although I suspect that Carelli sounds even more Italian than Carella, thus reinforcing the character's ethnic background. 

Let us know who's your favourite out of the image above and if you've any suggestions who you'd like to see (or have seen) in the role.

Wednesday, 2 May 2018

Additional notes on the Lady, Lady, I Did It! Bonus episode - Henry Morrison

McBain's Lady, Lady, I Did It! is dedicated to Henry Morrison. A good story I've found about Henry is from Lawrence Block who recounts their time at the Scott Meredith agency and MANHUNT magazine here.

Henry Morrison, McBain's dedicatee, was an important part of the Scott Meredith agency. As with Evan Hunter, whose name was changed from Sal Lombino which was considered to sound too "Ethnic", Morrison was born Henry Moskowitz & changed it at Meredith's request.


There's more detail about Morrison, Meredith and the mysterious 'black box' pulp/porn publishing phenomenon in this article. By all accounts Henry Morrison was a much respected member of the agency.


Although I can't find an official up-to-date website, it appears Henry Morrison is still a literary agent having founded his own agency, Henry Morrison Inc., in 1965. It seems he notably handled Robert Ludlum - you may spot Henry's name in the credits of the Bourne movies as Executive producer!



Ed McBain's Lady, Lady, I Did It! - Episode 14, Bonus: Novelty P*nis Frying Pan

Hark! It's an 87th Precinct Podcast bonus episode!
FULL DISCLOSURE - we suffered our first ever real technical problem during the recording of this episode, so part way through there's a brief music-snippet to paste over the join. We do 'fess up to it and we didn't lose too much, so it's all okay!
In our follow-up to the main podcast episode, we finally reveal the details about Stevo's idea for the show "Criminals and Little and Large"! With amazing skill, Morgan manages to tie our chatter about 1980s/90s British comedy Double Acts back into the world of Police Procedurals, so all's well that ends well.
We have a good bout of Book Huffing and explore the peculiar differences between two seemingly identical editions of Lady, Lady, I Did It! and throw in a bit of detail about the history of Bar Codes and the sorts of things that can crop up if you're not careful with your internet searches.
Join us again soon for the next book in the series, "The Empty Hours" (1962) and some other Hunter/McBain items! Please remember to rate, review, and share wherever you can. Thanks for your support!