Rec. #267: Blackpool

What: Well, where else will you get a chance to see some of your favorite British television faces singing along to "Viva Las Vegas," "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'," and "The Gambler," all during the investigation into a messy murder?

There's David Morrissey* as a megalomaniac arcade owner; Sarah Parish** as his long-suffering wife; and David Tennant*** as the conflicted investigating detective. Did I mention that they all sing?

It's dark and funny and a bit twisted, and I don't know why it works, but it does.


*(currently dictating all over The Walking Dead)
**(regular lead of British TV and reliable supporter in U.S. romantic comedies)
***(widely adored tenth Doctor of Doctor Who)


Opening lines: "The gaming industry creates gambling addicts, misery, and family breakup . . . That's what they say, eh? The do-gooders, the lentil-jockeys outside."

Representative quote:
"Well, I wouldn't know about that. I run a family entertainment center."
"And I'm a crime-citizen-interface consultant."

You might not like it if: It's a British mystery/crime/drama series set in Blackpool with intermittent singing. You probably know yourself well enough to decide whether this will be your thing or not.

How to get it: Rent it or buy it or watch it in pieces on YouTube. It might also be helpful to know that when it aired on BBCAmerica several years ago, they called it Viva Blackpool.

Connections to previous Wreckage: I mentioned Blackpool before in part 3 of my post "Some Dishy British Male Actors and Where to Find Them. Phwoar" (List #16). And you can also see David Morrissey in State of Play (Rec. #104).

First Sign of Murder #9: In a Dark House

"Hemmed in on one side by a sofa, on the other by what seemed to be stacks of lumber, Rose tried to turn back the other way. As she maneuvered her body round, her gloved hand came down on something that yielded beneath her fingers. It felt malleable, like flesh, with the brittleness of bone beneath.

Rose looked down, blinking eyes burning and swollen from the heat, and felt the bile rise in her throat. 'Jesus Christ,' she said. 'We've got a body.'"

--- In a Dark House, Deborah Crombie, 2004

See also: Dreaming of the Bones (Rec. #55) and List #4: 7 Mysteries from Authors Who Are Still Alive.

Friday Flashback: Rec. #194 (abbrev.): Midnight

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some earlier posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand.

What: Screwball comedy, 1939, Claudette Colbert, showgirl, would-be gold-digger, stranded in Paris, taxi cabs, Don Ameche, evening gown, the Ritz, noses, party crashing, John Barrymore, missing luggage, railway station, fake barons and baronesses, Billy Wilder, millionaires, divorce court, Mary Astor, hats, taxi driver cafe

Representative quote:
"I landed a lord, almost."
"Almost?"
"Well, the family came between us. His mother came to my hotel and offered me a bribe."
"You threw her out, I hope!"
"How could I, with my hands full of money?"

Also: Claudette Colbert and Mary Astor reteamed for more screwball in 1942's The Palm Beach Story (Rec. #17).

[Originally posted 10/12/11.]

First Sign of Murder #8: The Club Dumas

"The flash projected the outline of the hanged man onto the wall. He hung motionless from a light fixture in the center of the room, and as the photographer moved around him, taking pictures, the flashes threw the silhouette onto a succession of paintings, glass cabinets full of porcelain, shelves of books, open curtains framing great windows beyond which the rain was falling.

The examining magistrate was a young man. His thinning hair was untidy and still damp, as was the raincoat he wore while he dictated to a clerk who sat on a sofa as he typed, his typewriter on a chair. The tapping punctuated the monotonous voice of the magistrate and the whispered comments of the policemen who were moving about the room."

--- opening lines, The Club Dumas, Arturo Pérez-Reverte, 1993

Rec. #266: All About Emily

What: In this fast romp of a novella, Connie Willis demonstrates, once again, her adeptness at taking samples from every depth of pop culture (from All About Eve and Isaac Asimov to the Rockettes), submerging those fragments in thought exercises on free will and identity, and then sprinkling them with snow and sending them on their merry way.

Comparable to: All About Emily fits nicely alongside Willis's other celebrated short(er) fiction, like "The Last of the Winnebagos" and "Inside Job."

Opening lines: "All right, so you're probably wondering how I, Claire Havilland --- three-time Tony winner, Broadway legend, and star of Only Human --- ended up here, standing outside Radio City Music Hall in a freezing rain two days before Christmas, soaked to the skin and on the verge of pneumonia, accosting harmless passersby."

You might not like it if: You are familiar enough with Willis's work to know that she writes both comedies and tragedies and you can't always tell which is which until someone dies, and you can't bring yourself to take that risk right now. (Hint of Reassurance: This is a comedy . . . mainly.)

How to get it: Your best bets are getting it from your library or downloading it to your Kindle.

Connections to previous Wreckage: Enjoy more Connie Willis with To Say Nothing of the Dog (Rec. #100), Blackout/All Clear (Gift Idea #1), Bellwether (Rec. #218), and Lincoln's Dreams (Rec. #248). Not all of them are comedies.

Friday Flashback: Rec. #196 and Rec. #197: Paul Schneider and the Real Girls

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some earlier posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand.

Sometimes I feel a bit bad for Paul Schneider because Parks and Recreation became widely and fervently adored right after he left the show. Sure, his movie career is doing just fine, thanks, but is it enough? Can it be enough, when he must see "Leslie + Ben forever!" scrawled on all the lockers of the metaphorical showbiz high school?

What: Amusingly (for me, at least), Paul Schneider is in both Lars and the Real Girl and All the Real Girls. Both films are excellent, and he is excellent in them.

In Lars and the Real Girl, he plays a key supporting role as the older brother of Lars, a troubled and introverted young man whose new companion is a doll he ordered online. The movie does not go in for cheap laughs. It is careful instead of knee-jerk, thoughtful instead of facile, and generous instead of petty. (Also, Patricia Clarkson does a superb job and . . . whoops, she's been on Parks & Rec recently. Sorry, Paul.)

In All the Real Girls, he takes the lead as a womanizer who forces himself into sincerity when he falls for his best friend's sister. It is not a romantic comedy. (The currently overexposed Zooey Deschanel is also in this, but don't hold that against the movie. It came out in 2003.) (And, also, Patricia Clarkson is here, too.)

Representative quote from Paul's character (Lars and the Real Girl): [on what it means to be a man] "Like, you don't jerk people around, and you don't cheat on your woman, and you take care of your family, you know, and you admit when you're wrong, or you try to, anyways. That's all I can think of --- it sound like it's easy and for some reason it's not."

Representative quote from Paul's character (All the Real Girls): "When people from before come up, I want you to understand what they hate when they see me."

Connection to previous Wreckage: Paul Schneider played Mark Brendanawicz on the first two seasons of Parks and Recreation. And the show was very good! But season 3 was a-maz-ing (Rec. #119).

[Originally posted 10/15/11.]

First Sign of Murder #7: At Bertram's Hotel

"It was a fine night and he walked home to Bertram's Hotel after first getting into a bus which took him in the opposite direction. It was midnight when he got in and Bertram's Hotel at midnight usually preserved a decorous appearance of everyone having gone to bed. The lift was on a higher floor so the Canon walked up the stairs. He came to his room, inserted the key in the lock, threw the door open and entered!

Good gracious, was he seeing things? But who -- how -- he saw the upraised arm too late. . .

Stars exploded in a kind of Guy Fawkes' display within his head. . ."

--- At Bertram's Hotel, Agatha Christie, 1965

Friday Flashback: Rec. #195: Orion You Came and You Took All My Marbles

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some earlier posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand.

What: Kira Henehan's debut novel is about Investigations, puppets, a snake named Lavender, mimed bowling, yellow eyes, surf memorabilia, gravel, Assignments, marbles, red hair, contemporary art, memory loss, savage pocketry, Russians, baseball jerseys, framing, shrimps, Lolita, and golf carts. Finley is the painstakingly accurate --- but never reliable --- narrator.

Comparable to: It's a little bit like George Saunders and Jaclyn Moriarty went on a road trip with some Tom Robbins characters and then wrote a book about it. Which is to say, it's free-spirited, impressionistic, episodic, and highly stylized, but nonetheless often an incisive reflection of how people really do act and speak.

Representative quote: "It was all over gravel, but better than the last place. There was all over swampland and crocodiles."

You might not like it if: At its most self-indulgent, the book skirts the edges of impenetrability. So watch out for that.

How to get it: Look at me, recommending a fairly new book that's in print and everything! (And, yes, Kindle-able.)


[Originally posted 10/13/11.]

First Sign of Murder #6: First Hit of the Season

"Like most of Jocelyn's domestic resolutions, this one was doomed to come to naught, but this time for the worst of reasons. Just as they were about to go for their coats, the door of the study burst open and Jason Saylin came staggering into the room, looking like a puppet who'd just been electrocuted."

--- First Hit of the Season, Jane Dentinger, 1984

Friday Flashback: Rec. #188: Metropolitan Life

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some earlier posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand. 

What: Fran Lebowitz, author of the 1974 essay collection Metropolitan Life, has often been compared to Dorothy Parker. This comparison is trite, but accurate. Which, of course, leads us to . . . lots of quotes (below).

Comparable to: Dorothy Parker. I just said so. Also, all those collections of humorous essays that have been published in the last ten years? By David Sedaris, Sarah Vowell, David Rakoff, and basically anyone else from This American Life? They all owe a heck of a lot to Lebowitz.

Representative quotes:
"Having been unpopular in high school is not just cause for book publication." --- from "Letters"

"Children respond inadequately to sardonic humor and veiled threats." --- from "Children: Pro or Con?"

"He is audibly tan." --- from "My Day: An Introduction of Sorts"

"I love sleep because it is both pleasant and safe to use." --- from "Why I Love Sleep"

"There is no such thing as inner peace. There is only nervousness or death. Any attempt to prove otherwise constitutes unacceptable behavior." --- from "Manners"

You might not like it if: Like Parker, Lebowitz will go a long way for a pun. This can get exhausting.

How to get it: After the success of Martin Scorsese's documentary on Fran Lebowitz (Public Speaking), we got a rerelease of The Fran Lebowitz Reader. It includes both Metropolitan Life and Social Studies. It's also Kindle-able.

Connection to previous Wreckage: I suggested The Portable Dorothy Parker during Personal Wreck Week (List #3).



[Originally posted 10/2/12.]

Rec. #265: Dead Again

What: Goodness gracious, there is an awful lot going on in this early-'90s wannabe-neo-noir flick. Amnesia! Hypnosis! Flashbacks! Reincarnation! Double dual roles! Accents! Fakeouts! Hitchcock nods! Twists! Brief appearance by Robin Williams!

A Los Angeles private detective stumbles across a mysterious mute amnesiac who keeps having nightmares about a murder that took place in the 1940s. Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson each play two roles: We get the modern-day story in color and the flashbacks to the doomed '40s couple in black and white.

Representative quote: "This is fate we're talking about, and if fate works at all, it works because people think that THIS TIME, it isn't going to happen!"

You might not like it if: You can't get over how Kenneth Branagh can't get over himself. (Who gives themselves two starring roles for their sophomore directing effort?) But you can have a good giggle at the various accents he tries out.

How to get it: Buy it, rent it, borrow it.

Connections to previous Wreckage: Emma Thompson is excellent, as always, even in the unlikely dual roles of "mute amnesiac" and "soon-to-be-murdered pianist." Also see her in Wit (Rec. #132).

First Sign of Murder #5: The Thin Man

"She gave me a newspaper and a cup of coffee and said: 'Read that.'

I patiently read a paragraph or two, then put the paper down and took a sip of coffee. 'Fun's fun,' I said, 'but right now I'd swap you all the interviews with Mayor-elect O'Brien ever printed --- and throw in the Indian picture --- for a slug of whis--'

'Not that, stupid.' She put a finger on the paper. 'That.'"

---The Thin Man, Dashiell Hammett, 1933

For more, see also: Rec. #234