The basis for the action thriller Die Hard, a movie that, however tongue in cheek, consistently makes media lists of the top Christmas films of all time. This, it's fair to say, because in spite of getting the core of the story right, it doesn't end quite the same way, and that makes all the difference in the world. The book, Thorp's sequel to his own 1966 novel The Detective (which was also made into a film, starring Frank Sinatra), is the story of Joe Leland, a retired New York cop, who flies to California on Christmas Eve to be with his daughter and ends up trapped inside her skyscraper office building during a terrorist attack. It, too, is an action thriller -- Leland, who begins with one gun and no shoes, must outmaneuver and kill his opponents, all while trying to keep the hostages, including his daughter, alive -- but it is also filled with Leland's ruminations on a life not always well lived, particularly in terms of his failed marriage and the mistakes he made raising his child. (Knowledge of the previous book or at least the Sinatra film is not required, but certainly doesn't hurt.) Late in the story, it also becomes vaguely political. No wonder the prose is occasionally a bit choppy. Still, it's the action and the suspense that carry the day, and that make this book an entertaining read. Until the end, anyway, which hits a note so jarringly off-key that, if it doesn't spoil the book, probably will leave you content to revisit it at the movies.
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The basis for the action thriller Die Hard, a movie that, however tongue in cheek, consistently makes media lists of the top Christmas films of all time. This, it's fair to say, because in spite of getting the core of the story right, it doesn't end quite the same way, and that makes all the difference in the world. The book, Thorp's sequel to his own 1966 novel The Detective (which was also made into a film, starring Frank Sinatra), is the story of Joe Leland, a retired New York cop, who flies to California on Christmas Eve to be with his daughter and ends up trapped inside her skyscraper office building during a terrorist attack. It, too, is an action thriller -- Leland, who begins with one gun and no shoes, must outmaneuver and kill his opponents, all while trying to keep the hostages, including his daughter, alive -- but it is also filled with Leland's ruminations on a life not always well lived, particularly in terms of his failed marriage and the mistakes he made raising his child. (Knowledge of the previous book or at least the Sinatra film is not required, but certainly doesn't hurt.) Late in the story, it also becomes vaguely political. No wonder the prose is occasionally a bit choppy. Still, it's the action and the suspense that carry the day, and that make this book an entertaining read. Until the end, anyway, which hits a note so jarringly off-key that, if it doesn't spoil the book, probably will leave you content to revisit it at the movies.
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+++ Official with the United States War Crimes Commission (Edward G. Robinson) tracks high-level Nazi to small Connecticut town and finds Charles Rankin (Orson Welles), a prep school teacher and clock aficionado about to be married to the daughter (Loretta Young) of a Supreme Court Justice. Dark, well-written drama made memorable by Welles' odd performance -- he plays Rankin as reserved and calculating to the point of abstraction -- and a spectacular climax on the top of a clock tower. +++ Adaptation of Richard Matheson's horror novel Hell House, written by Matheson himself. The body of the story remains -- a scientist, his wife, and a couple of psychic investigators are hired to settle once and for all the question of survival after death by temporarily moving into an infamous haunted house -- but most of the connective tissue in Matheson's novel is missing, making the film seem more of a companion piece to the novel than a work in its own right. The individual parts aren't so much scenes as vignettes, each of which imparts another important plot point. Because each scene is, really, equally important, it doesn't build the way a narrative should. On the other hand, if the peaks are missing, so, too, are the troughs. It's a naive approach, but one that does give the film an unusual, if minor, fascination. This isn't a scary movie; it's ominous, from beginning to end. With good acting, though, by the likes of Clive Revill, Pamela Franklin, Roddy McDowall, and Gayle Hunnicutt. The special effects are also quite good. +++ Good, if somewhat superficial, adaptation of James Hilton's superior novel about a group of people fleeing a revolution who are kidnapped and flown to a mysterious lamasery (a Tibetan monastery) where, free from the cares of the outside world, some of them find paradise while others perceive only a prison. Begins with titles that ask the audience if they have ever imagined a perfect world, which is significant because here (not so in the book) the protagonist, Bob Conway, is an everyman type (albeit a middle-aged, somewhat world weary everyman), and as such his character needs little more than generalities to support it. And generalities are all we ever get. At the same time, it opens the door to the Hollywood sop, the love interest, played by Jane Wyatt. Still, a pleasant drama, worth watching for the evolution of the characters as they come to terms with their new situation in life, with suspense provided by those who don't: one member of Conway's party and one of the lamas. Edward Everett Horton adds humor as a new character, a timid palentologist who learns to assert himself. As Conway, Ronald Colman is both believable and likeable. With an ending that departs from the book not so much in terms of action as psychology, and which is, in its own way, very dramatic. Over the years, parts of this film were lost, and the current restoration includes the complete soundtrack, with stills substituted for seven minutes of still-missing footage. (Trust us, it isn't much of a distraction.) +++ Competent if uninspired thriller about a young mother whose two children are kidnapped -- on the seventh anniversary of the kidnapping and murder of her two previous children. Made the Mystery Writers of America's list of the top 100 mystery novels of all time, probably due to the remembered effect on its members of the book's then-novel theme of child molestation (though, to be fair, it should be noted that the bad guy, even today, remains a compelling character). Clark's first suspense novel. Based in part on the real life Alice Crimmins case, of a young wife and mother accused of killing her two children. Made into a movie in 1986, starring Jill Clayburgh. +++ Reasonably good, fast-paced crime thriller about a diver who is hired to salvage a ship which, he discovers, hasn't sunk yet. Nominated at the time for an Edgar Award in the Paperback Original category, and it delivers on that level. Before it's all over John Lange (i.e., Michael Crichton) has mixed in money laundering, the Mafia, and missing World War II treasure. And a couple of vicious ocelots. Our hero doesn't say much, but that's probably because the plot is so breathless. +++ Pre-Code adaptation of H. G. Wells' novel The Island of Dr. Moreau is a notable horror film in its own right, though it departs significantly from the source material. That it will be different is given away as early as the credits when "The Panther Woman" is given equal billing with stars Charles Laughton, Richard Arlen, Leila Hyams, and Bela Lugosi. Wells didn't bother with women, feline or otherwise. Not till the closing credits do we discover that the Panther Woman is actually Kathleen Burke. (Burke, a dental assistant at the time, won a talent contest for the part.) Arlen plays the luckless man who unintentionally ends up on mad doctor Moreau's island of horrors, where Moreau (Laughton) is tentatively worshipped (and secretly hated) by the human-like creatures he has fashioned out of a variety of different animals in his feared House of Pain. Lota, the Panther Woman, is his greatest achievement; Moreau tricks Arlen into staying so that he can try to mate him with Lota. Wells himself didn't like this film, but then he didn't like Metropolis either. In fact, this is an atmospheric, exciting, and surprisingly adult horror movie that also has a few chilling moments, such as the one that shows us the ultimate fate of Moreau himself. But the best costuming and makeup in the film, in spite of all the weird creatures, is arguably that for Burke, whose erotic exoticism is one of the best reasons to see this picture. +++ Tough yet principled New York detective (Frank Sinatra) has his hands full with a failing marriage, the high-profile murder of a homosexual, a questionable suicide, and his own career goals. Supporting cast includes Robert Duval as a bigoted cop, Lee Remick as the detective's wandering wife, and Jacqueline Bisset as a woman who believes her husband's death has been whitewashed by the cops. Bleak, but with much to appreciate if not precisely enjoy: a convoluted plot that is nevertheless well-constructed, its dark and moody atmosphere, and fine performances. Based on the novel by Roderick Thorp, the sequel to which, Nothing Lasts Forever, was also made into a standalone film -- Die Hard. +++1/2 Truly horrific tale of one man's unintentional sojourn with an amoral vivisectionist who carries out his terrible experiments far from the public eye on a small island populated by his bizarre, human-like creations. Vivisection, by the way, is surgical experimentation on live animals; Wells doesn't get into the medical details, fortunately, yet manages in other ways to convey the enormity of Moreau's "House of Pain." Meanwhile, as Moreau concedes and our narrator discovers, the good doctor has so far failed to make his alterations stick, and the creatures he creates soon begin to forget their human qualites and revert to their more primitive natures. Wells' message, that mankind isn't so far removed from his animal past as he might think, is confusing and somewhat self-contradictory, but he doesn't spend a lot of time on it, either. This is a full-frontal assault on our civilized sensibilities, and it is reaching, as critics and literary historians have done, to classify it as science fiction; it is horror through and through. It isn't pleasant, but it's worth reading. Adapted several times for film, most notably in 1932 (as Island of Lost Souls), but also, among others, in 1977 and again in 1996. +++ Novelization of the original film, credited to Lucas but actually ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster. Foster adds nothing of significance to the film, but doesn’t tinker with the story, characters, or dialogue either, making this an enjoyable, if clearly inferior, alternative. In a far-off galaxy, farmboy Luke Skywalker is swept up in a rebellion against an evil empire led by the fearsome Darth Vader. His allies — mystical Obi Wan Kenobi, tough Princess Leia, cynical Han Solo and Chewbacca, and the robots See Threepio and Artoo Detoo — provide variety and humor in a clockwork plot that delivers lots of action and excitement. A good book in the dicey category of novelizations. |
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