Batman in the 1980s Issue 25: January 1982

 

The Dark Knight in the 1980s
by Jack Seabrook &
Peter Enfantino

Colan/Giordano

Batman #343

"A Dagger So Deadly..."

Story by Gerry Conway

Art by Gene Colan & Klaus Janson

Batman failed to find Man-Bat and is exhausted, but crime never sleeps in Gotham! The Caped Crusader is driving home when he witnesses a costumed rogue on a motorcycle cause a tractor-trailer to crash by puncturing one of its tires with a well-thrown dagger. The villain, who refers to himself as Dagger, tells the trucker to be sure to pay his protection money to avoid any more accidents. Batman gives chase, but "A Dagger So Deadly..." lands in the front grille of the Batmobile, causing it to burst into flames. Batman ditches the vehicle in a body of water below Gotham Bridge.

Bruce Wayne attends a meeting of the Wayne Foundation and they manage to get a delay before turning over all of their assets to Poison Ivy. An hour later, Dagger holds up a jewelry store, again demanding protection money. Meanwhile, mayoral hopeful Arthur Reeves meets with a mysterious man who wants to help him win the race by giving him proof of Batman's secret identity. Speaking of the Dark Knight, he recovers the dagger from the Batmobile's grille and takes it to the Batcave for examination. It is stamped with the name, Rennington Steel, so Batman visits the home and headquarters of the knife manufacturing company.

Not surprisingly, Rennington turns out to be Dagger and, once he's changed into his costume, he and Batman have at it for a few pages, with the usual result. 

Peter: I can't stress enough how enjoyable it is to read Gerry Conway's cross-over stories in 'tec and Batman. The big reveal, the photos of "Batman's real identity," will carry over into this month's 'tec and the Poison Ivy saga will probably go on for months (that particular subplot is pretty darn weak, though, if you ask me... "I really want to tell everyone that Ivy made us sign that darn pap...agh-ugh-ackkk!"); all that adds up to my friend, Continuity. "A Dagger So Deadly..." is a serviceable action-thriller, with all the requisite stops and starts and pants and gasps but, oh, that Dagger costume is the pits. Big old pirate boots and some head-scratching blade placements (I mean, those things aren't even covered and one of them, with a decent bend, is going to cut Rennington's femoral to ribbons). Oh, and the giant "D" on the chest just in case no one gets it. I think one day we'll find out these nobodies had to shop at Sixth-Tier Villain Warehouse for their suits.

Jack: What a thrill to see Klaus Janson ink Gene Colan on Batman! It looks like Tomb of the Dark Knight. The story isn't quite up to the art, and the scene where Batman has to drive the Batmobile off of a bridge doesn't seem to make the words fit the picture, but who cares? Colan is a great visual storyteller and a creative page designer. You are right to mock Dagger's costume, and I really have a hard time believing that one knife could cause the Batmobile to burst into flames, but the story chugs along at a rapid clip and never seems dull. The concluding fight is exciting, even though we never doubt the outcome.

"Odyssey's End"

Story by Gerry Conway

Art by Trevor Von Eeden & Rodin Rodriguez

Robin drops Deanna off at a medical clinic but notices that the doctor's pin is upside down. He does some surveillance and discovers that the medical staff has been tied up and fake doctors are smuggling drugs. Deanna is trapped in a nightmare from her previous ordeal but manages to save Robin's life when the drug smugglers tie him up and try to poison him with gas. The Teen Wonder turns the tables and saves the day, and Deanna snaps out of her nightmare state.

Peter: The concluding chapter of "Robin vs. the Satanic Drug Smugglers" is just as good as the previous two, and certainly head and shoulders above any of the other current backups. I wondered if the tell-tale upside down "Caduceus" was a nod to the satanic roots of the bad guys or if it was just down to a clumsy mistake. 

Jack: I think it was just a clumsy mistake, since this group of baddies does not seem to have any connection to the satanic worshippers of the prior issue. These guys are just drug smugglers. Trevor Von Eeden's art continues to improve, and the inks this time by Rodin Rodriguez are particularly sharp.

Aparo

The Brave and the Bold #182

"Interlude on Earth-Two"

Story by Alan Brennert

Art by Jim Aparo

A strange electrical storm buffets Gotham City on Earth Two, so Robin and Starman investigate, only to find that the disturbance was caused by Hugo Strange, whose holograph announces his plan to destroy Gotham and who takes Starman's cosmic rod to help him do so. On Earth One, Batman feels compelled to visit a strange cemetery and, when lightning strikes, he suddenly finds himself on Earth Two, in front of the grave of Bruce Wayne!

Batman heads to the headquarters of the Justice Society for help and runs into Robin. The two of them are attacked by menaces from the past that have been revived by Strange with the help of Starman's cosmic rod: Selina Kyle's Pantherjet and a giant, spinning top from the Spinner. Much-needed help arrives in the form of Batwoman, who assists Batman and Robin when they are attacked by the original Batmobile.

Batman deduces that Strange must be in the old Batcave, so the trio of heroes hop aboard Whirlybats and fly there. They must contend with the giant T-Rex trophy that has been brought to life, followed by a robot Batman that nearly defeats them. Finally, Batman confronts Strange, who is now elderly and weak. Confronted with his own misery, Strange uses the cosmic rod to commit suicide and is reduced to a heap of dust. Starman uses his cosmic rod to send Batman back to Earth One.

Jack: Chalk one story up for my ten best of 1982 list! "Interlude on Earth-Two" has many of the things I love about DC Comics and Batman in particular. The art by Aparo is superb, and the appearances of Starman, the adult Robin, Batwoman, and Hugo Strange are all handled well. I did not know that Batman of Earth Two was dead, so I had to do a bit of online research, including a quick read through the story in Adventure 462 where he dies. Having Brennert join The Brave and the Bold as writer is a huge benefit, and I know we'll eventually get to the classic issue #197 where... but I don't want to spoil things.

Peter: Aside from the endless bickering, I can't remember the last time I simultaneously enjoyed the heck out of a story and couldn't figure out what the hell was going on. Obviously, it helps to have some knowledge about all the "alternate Earths" in the DC Universe but I'm too lazy to do homework so I'll just accept "Interlude..." for what it is: complicated fun. Extra bonus points to Alan Brennert for having the brain capacity to write something based in this Universe and keep track of who's dead and who's old and all that other important stuff.

"Enter... Greyfox"

Story by Cary Burkett

Art by Dan Spiegle

While Nemesis spends his time trying to teach Valerie how to shoot with accuracy, the three remaining members of the Council engage the services of an assassin named Greyfox to find and kill Nemesis. Greyfox has goons rough up Valerie's brother, Chris, who calls her for help. Valerie tells Chris to come to New York City and, when he does, Greyfox follows him, correctly assuming that Nemesis will be in the vicinity. Nemesis disguises himself as a blind man but Greyfox catches on; a smokescreen and a quick change allow Nemesis to escape for the time being.

Jack: "Enter... Greyfox" is such a disappointment after the great lead story in this issue. The Nemesis series just keeps plodding along, as if each entry is part of a bad, old Saturday-morning movie serial with dreadful art.

Peter: The art's as terrible as it's always been but I'll admit to being slightly intrigued by Traquer/Greyfox, at least until Burkett runs that character into the ground as well. I guess I'll take anything interesting at this point. This series is just such a mess. What the hell is Valerie wearing on the splash? And does she have the handgun propped up against her nose? Not the best shooting stance. 

Colan/Giordano

Detective Comics #510

"Head-Hunt by a Mad Hatter"

Story by Gerry Conway

Art by Gene Colan & Klaus Janson

Gotham's mayoral debate is about to get underway and Batman sits in the wings, watching. Suddenly, nearby, a TV store is robbed and the thieves attempt their getaway. Batman swings into action and nabs one of the crooks, but candidate Arthur Reeves, not having seen the robbery, views the act as an assault and tries to make a citizen's arrest. The Dark Knight laughs at Reeves and Reeves's opponent, Hamilton Hill, sees the incident as a victory. No one notices Reeves walking away with a mischievous smile on his face.

Meanwhile, The Mad Hatter is back in town and he's taken Lucius Fox hostage, demanding two million bucks from Bruce Wayne for Fox's return. Wayne agrees, but his alter-ego is able to track the loony Hatter to his lair and bargain with the evil genius for Fox's release. Batman agrees to sit in a chair that will steal his thoughts and transfer them to a machine the Hatter can use for his financial gain. But the Caped Crusader has an ace up his sleeve and foils the Mad Hatter's plot. As Batman leaves the hideout, Commissioner Gordon hands him a newspaper with the headline: "Reeves to Batman: 'I Know Who You Are, and I Can Prove It!'" To be continued...

Peter: "Head-Hunt by a Mad Hatter" is not a bad little one-off, but the Hatter interludes seem almost like an afterthought to the political intrigue. I was intrigued by the bit of 411 the Hatter drops, that he's the Real McCoy and that the guy who's been doing business in Gotham for the last umpteen years is a forgery. This Hatter has been in an asylum until recently and, when he escaped, he "disposed of the imposter..." Now, that's the bit I would have liked to see, not this goofy mind-stealing-machine business. A quick dip into Wikipedia reveals that the imposter was the tall, red-headed goofball we've all been used to seeing (last appearing in Batman #297, March 1978) and this issue's version, Jervis Tetch, is the original. Lost yet? I'm digging Gene Colan's work here; Gene's work has a noirish quality to it that no one could touch (save, maybe, Frank Miller) and Batman is the perfect receptacle for "Gentleman" Gene's vast talents. 

Jack: What really struck me with this story is how much it looks like mid- to late-1960s Daredevil! I love Colan's art, but this hit me a couple of pages in and, from then on, I couldn't stop noticing how Batman's poses and the faces and gestures of the supporting cast all look very much like a Colan issue of Daredevil. Not that that's a bad thing; it was just a surprise. I was happy to see the Mad Hatter return and I love the continuing stories across two series.

"Bride of Destruction!

Story by Cary Burkett

Art by Jose Delbo & Joe Giella

The Annihilator continues his quest to destroy Supergirl, but now he's got a side plan as well: he intends to zap Batgirl with super powers, destroy mankind, and then make whoopie with Babs and repopulate the Earth! But Babs's incredible deductive skills and Supergirl's super-breath combine to put the kibosh on the big-head's big plans.

Peter: Boy, was this dumb. Typical dumb DC funny book story. Yeah, I know I sound like a 1970s' Marvel Zombie, but I don't remember the competitor's stuff being quite this lame-brained (DC Zombie Jack will straighten me out, no doubt). Bad art and totally patched-together script. Was I napping last issue when Big-Brain announced that his goal in life was to get Babs between the sheets, or was that really just a left turn at the beginning of this chapter? At the end of the day, Earth's most dangerous bald midget was foiled by a fire hydrant. High stakes.

Jack: Yes, it's bad, but it's better than Nemesis. The solution was dopey and Supergirl basically says "See ya!" and flies off. These last few stories, featuring Batgirl and Supergirl, remind me of how comics (at least in my family) were segregated by gender when I was a kid: I read the boy comics and my sister read the girl ones, like Lois Lane, Supergirl, Rima, etc. It's weird to think about it today, but that's how it was and I would never have voluntarily read a girls' comic in the early '70s. How times change.

Next Week...
The Screaming Cacophony of
Sheer Joyous Lunacy Returns!

The Caroline Munro Archive: Diez Minutos, February 10, 1973

by John Scoleri

Welcome to the latest installment of this semi-regular feature on bare•bones where I share rarities from my Caroline Munro collection. You may have noticed that it's been more than two years since my last Munro post. Despite my primary focus on the print edition of bare•bones, it has always been my intention to continue to share relics from my archive here (where I can share them in color!). 

"When it comes to sitting, she proves to have a special technique."

 

This time out, I'm highlighting a two-page spread in a Spanish magazine from 1973 with several great photos. While unattributed, I believe they may be the work of P.O. Stearns, who shot a lot of the early risqué photos of Caroline that turned up in early 70s magazine appearances. 

 

Diez Minutos (Ten Minutes)

Madrid-Barcelona 10/2/1973 (February 10, 1973)

Año XXIII, Numero 1,120 (Year XXIII, Number 1120) 

15 pesetas

page 66-67

(translated from Spanish)

 

 

SHE WREAKS HAVOC IN LONDON

It all happened quickly, as in a story, a movie, or in the imagination of young women around the world who dream of one day seeing their name among the cast in a famous movie.

Caroline Munro, paradoxically, did not intend for such a thing to happen when visiting London for the first time. She's young, pretty. Scottish, nineteen, beautiful and lucid. She aspired to grow in the great capital, to find a place under the sun of prosperity, progress, the youthful airs of London.

Coming from a humble family, she hoped to find a suitable job that would allow her to live with decency, perhaps to help her parents when circumstances made it possible.

She decided to move to Brighton. A sports fan, she participated in a spearfishing championship, getting a prominent position, which helped her name to appear in the newspapers. Then, the routine, the job search, the struggle of life.

Until one day David Bailey, an experienced photographer (Catherine Deneuve's ex-husband), a deep connoisseur of current film trends when it comes to female types, turned to her when Caroline was traveling through Chelsea.

"Miss, do you want to be my model?"

The question, of course, surprised Caroline at first. She almost didn't answer and continued her walk, but David Bailey insisted. He explained who he was. He asked about her. Finally, they came to an agreement: Caroline would start her career as a model, and try later, when she had some experience, to make the leap to the big screen.

Indeed, Caroline's first photos appeared in "Vogue" and "Harpers Bazaar." One of the magazines ended up on the table of a director of a major American production company. The man immediately knew he had found what he was looking for. Conference with London. Proposed film contract. And her time as a model, just started, was suspended.

The launch is serious, Hollywood is fully confident in her potential. In Europe, Caroline became very interested. So don't forget her name. She will soon be one of your favorites.

"She will surely have an excellent career in cinema."

"Here, Caroline seems to be challenging someone."

"Extremely sophisticated, but always beautiful."

"She looks very angry!"

(I apologize for the watermarks — but one of the other reasons I originally decided to scale back on such posts was I had gotten tired of seeing the scans show up on Facebook and other sites without attribution. At least now, the images themselves point back to the blog where fans can find a lot more Munro goodness between all of Jack and Peter's great posts!)

Be sure to bookmark the blog and check back regularly for more rarities from my Caroline Munro Archive!

The Hitchcock Project-William Fay Part Eight: No Pain [5.5]

by Jack Seabrook

William Fay's first teleplay for the fifth season of Alfred Hitchcock Presents was "No Pain," an engaging look at the ugly hearts of two beautiful people whose marriage has been shattered by a tragic illness. The episode premiered on CBS on Sunday, October 25, 1959, and features strong performances by Brian Keith and Joanna Moore as the unfortunate couple.

"No Pain" is based on a short story called "Pigeon in an Iron Lung" by Talmage Powell that was first published in the November 1956 issue of Manhunt. Talmage Powell (1920-2000) wrote hundreds of short stories and a handful of novels from the early 1940s to the early 1980s, including some novels under the Ellery Queen byline. Four of his stories have been adapted for television, including two for Alfred Hitchcock Presents; he adapted one himself and wrote another teleplay based on a story by another author.

"Pigeon in an Iron Lung"
was first published here

"Pigeon in an Iron Lung" is narrated by Dave Ramey, a successful Florida real estate developer who clawed his way up from a boyhood spent in the slums of Chicago. Married to a beautiful Southern blonde named Cindy, he is now trapped in an iron lung, the unwieldy machine being the only thing that has kept him breathing since he contracted polio. Cindy recently met poor but handsome Arnold Barrett and now spends her days with him at the beach, while her husband remains behind, immobile from the neck down. Able to see events reflected in a mirror positioned above his head, Dave has his nurse wheel him out onto the terrace, where he watches Cindy and Arnold frolic in a sailboat on the water.

Later that afternoon, Cindy and Arnold return and Dave's nurse departs for an evening off. Arnold drives the nurse into town, leaving Dave and Cindy alone together. Dave confronts his wife, telling her that he hopes his killing will be painless. She does not deny that her plan is to murder him that night, and Arnold returns to join the unhappy couple for dinner. Once the meal is concluded, Dave encourages his wife and her lover to go for an evening swim. An hour later, Arnold returns alone, confirming for Dave that he has killed Cindy in the water and made it look like an accident. Dave and Arnold have known each other since they were young men in Chicago, and Dave promised Arnold $50,000 to murder his wife. Still trapped in the iron lung, Dave is relieved that his wife's death did not cause her to suffer needlessly.

Brian Keith as Dave Ramey

"Pigeon in an Iron Lung" is a short story that depends on a gimmick and a twist. The gimmick is the iron lung, which lulls the reader into thinking that Dave Ramey is helpless and destined to be a victim. The twist is the surprise ending, where it is revealed that Ramey arranged to have his wife meet and befriend Arnold, who is actually an old criminal colleague of Dave's. As the story's narrator, Dave leads the reader to believe that it is he who is going to be killed, while he knows all the while that the real victim will be his wife. Author Powell sets up the ending flawlessly and, until the last few paragraphs, the reader has no reason to suspect that things are the opposite of how they seem.

The producers of Alfred Hitchcock Presents set a challenge for themselves when they chose to adapt Powell's tale for the small screen; there is no action, there are only four characters, and the protagonist is trapped inside an iron lung the whole time. William Fay's teleplay does a great job of deepening the story's themes and increasing its suspense, while Norman Lloyd's creative direction ensures that the viewer's interest never flags in what is essentially a static situation.

Joanna Moore as Cindy Ramey

The show opens with a closeup of a long extension cord plugged into a wall. The camera follows the path of the cord across a carpeted floor until it reaches the iron lung, a long, metal tube with portholes on the side and windows on the top. At the head end of the machine, a mirror is positioned above it. The camera pulls back to show that the machine sits by itself in the middle of a large, modern living room with a stone fireplace. There is then a cut and the camera is positioned behind the head of the lung's inhabitant, who lies flat on his back but whose face is reflected in the mirror.

Iron lungs are obsolete today, but in 1959 the viewer of this episode would have recognized the machine immediately and understood that its inhabitant suffered from polio, a terrible disease that could cause muscle wasting and make a person unable to breathe on his own. The machine created pressure to push the chest in and out to assist breathing, since the person's muscles were no longer up to the task. The TV show's initial scene plays out just as it does in the short story, and Joanna Moore, playing Cindy, closely resembles the character described by Powell: "She stood motionless for a moment, lithe, tanned, tall, beautiful in white shorts and halter, a yachting cap cocked to one side on her close-cut blonde hair." Moore is wearing a bathing suit rather than shorts and wears it (with a shirt over it) throughout the show.

Fay's teleplay then skips the next page of the short story, in which Powell provides the background of Dave Ramey's early life, how he met Cindy, and how their life was changed when he contracted polio. Instead, there is a dissolve to Nurse Collins wheeling the iron lung out onto the patio and arranging the mirror so he can watch his wife sailing with her lover. The nurse introduces a new idea into the story when she suggests that they try taking Dave off the respirator for a few minutes, reminding him that the doctor said they could increase his time off the machine to eight or nine minutes. Dave defers, preferring to watch... the boats (the pause suggests that he's really watching his wife and her lover), commenting that "'I used to be pretty good with boats. Was pretty good with women, too.'" A dissolve is then used to switch to a short flashback that replaces the page of exposition in the short story.

Yale Wexler as Arnold

In the flashback, Dave and Cindy are on the beach at night, having just come out of the water. He is muscular and shirtless, wearing short bathing trunks. Dave and Cindy then trade kisses and cuddles, wrapped in a blanket, while he makes one of the least romantic marriage proposals in television history; he admits he plans to buy her and compares their decision to wed to "'betting on the horses or buying a block of real estate.'" Dave says he owns the boat and buys the liquor, so this scene, after the ones in his well-appointed, mid-century modern home, demonstrate that he is rich and that he uses money to get what he wants, including Cindy. He admits "'I was a mug five years ago,'" but says that now he owns a fair percentage of Florida real estate and has six million dollars in the bank. The camera pans away from the lovers on the beach to the moonlit bay and then the scene dissolves back to the present, again in Dave's house.

The nurse wheels the iron lung back into the living room and she and Dave discuss Cindy's suggestion that she take the evening off; the static scene is made more interesting by the sight of the nurse reaching through portholes into the iron lung to clean Dave's chest, which had been so muscular in the prior flashback scene but which is now incapacitated. There is another dissolve, and now Cindy and Arnold Barrett have joined Dave in the living room, still in their bathing suits. There is plenty of sexual innuendo below the surface of the dialogue. Dave says "'Things get pretty dull here, nights,'" and Arnold remarks that Cindy "'certainly knows her way around.'" Arnold departs with Nurse Collins in order to drive her to the bus, and Dave and Cindy discuss him after he departs. The camera then follows Cindy's gaze as she stares at the extension cord that is plugged into the wall and we realize that it is the only thing that stands between life and death for Dave. Ominous music plays on the soundtrack and Dave notices his wife looking at the plug; he tells her that he hopes the killing that she has planned for tonight will be painless, and the first act ends on this note of tension and suspense.

Dorothea Lord as Nurse Collins

In the second act, Cindy does not deny that she plans to kill Dave, but Fay's teleplay goes in a different direction than the short story. During a tight closeup on Dave's face, the steady hum of the iron lung's motor suddenly goes quiet. Dave asks his wife if this is the time, referring to his murder, but instead she pulls his gurney out of the iron lung, saying that Nurse Collins said that he could be out safely for ten minutes. There is a closeup of the clock above the fireplace and we see that it is ten minutes to seven; the race is now on to see if Cindy will let Dave suffocate or whether she will put him back into the iron lung in time. Complicating matters is the fact that she is drunk.

They discuss their relationship and their shared past as she continues to drink and the minutes tick by. At one point, she even pours some of her drink on his bare chest and massages it in like rubbing alcohol. She expresses self-pity and refuses to deny that her plan includes murder. The clock edges closer to seven o'clock and Cindy leaves the room, promising to be right back. We see her in her bedroom, admiring herself in a hand mirror and applying lipstick; these shots are intercut with shots of Dave, flat on his back in the iron lung, waiting for her to return to hook him back up to the life-sustaining machine. She sits down on the bed unsteadily as sweat pours off of Dave's forehead and his eyes begin to close, but she suddenly returns, pushes the gurney back into the machine, and restarts the motor after a moment's hesitation where it looks like she is about to pass out drunk.

Arnold comes back from taking Nurse Collins to the bus and stopping home to change clothes; he now sports a jacket and tie. Cindy tells him that Dave knows of their plan and he suggests a swim to sober her up. In the short story, the events are more spaced out in time. Cindy does not disconnect Dave from the iron lung and Arnold returns to have dinner with the unhappy couple. Dave suggests that Arnold and Cindy go for a swim. In the TV version, events are closer together in time and Cindy compliments Arnold on being so calm and dependable. He replies that all the girls say it's "'nice to know they're dealing with an old, dependable firm,'" a comment that seems to be in jest when he says it.

Arnold tells Dave that he'll have to borrow his swimming trunks and the camera fades out before fading back in on another close shot of the iron lung. There is a pan along the side of the machine to a closeup of Dave's head; his eyes snap open when he hears a slapping sound, and Arnold is then reflected in the machine's mirror, drying himself off with a towel. He reports on having killed Cindy in such a way that her body will be found with the change of tide. Dave makes sure that she suffered "'no pain'" and the arrangement and relationship between the two men is revealed. Fay's teleplay adds a fitting coda, as Dave asks Arnold if Cindy tried to make him a better offer. Arnold admits that he was tempted but reminds Dave that he's "'an old reliable firm.'"

"No Pain" is a faithful adaptation of "Pigeon in an Iron Lung," where William Fay enhances the story by adding a scene of great suspense where Cindy removes Dave from the iron lung and the viewer is forced to watch her get slowly more drunk and unreliable as the minutes pass and Dave's survival is called into question.

Director Norman Lloyd (1914- ) was born Norman Perlmutter and was active in the theater in the 1930s. He had a long career as a film and television actor, from 1939 to 2015, and he appeared in Hitchcock's Saboteur (1942) and Spellbound (1945). He also directed for television from 1951 to 1984. He acted in five episodes of the Hitchcock series and directed 22, including "Man from the South."

Brian Keith (1921-1997) spends most of the episode flat on his back as Dave Ramey. A popular actor in TV and on film, Keith was born in New Jersey and made his film debut in 1924 at age three. He was a Marine air gunner in World War II and then went into acting as an adult after the war. He started on TV in 1952 and eventually would star in no less than 11 TV series and miniseries, the most famous being Family Affair (1966-71). He also appeared in the prison-break film 5 Against the House (1955), based on a novel by Jack Finney. He appeared on the Hitchcock series five times (including "Cell 227") and committed suicide in 1997.

Joanna Moore (1934-1997), who plays Cindy, was born Dorothy Joanne Cook. She was orphaned as a child when her parents and sister were killed in a car accident. She grew to be a beautiful young woman and won a beauty contest in Georgia, then headed for Hollywood, where she began appearing on screen in 1956. She had film roles that included Touch of Evil (1958), Monster on the Campus (1958) and Walk on the Wild Side (1962). She had a recurring role on The Andy Griffith Show and appeared in six episodes of the Hitchcock series, including "Post Mortem." She was married to Ryan O'Neal from 1963 to 1967 and one of her children was Tatum O'Neal. Her later years were unhappily marred by bouts of addiction to drugs and alcohol and she died of lung cancer, as did so many actors and actresses of her era, in 1997. Like many beautiful women who led tumultuous lives, she has received a lot of attention online, and a good summary may be found here.

Yale Wexler (1930-1996) plays Arnold. He had a couple of roles on Broadway in the mid-1950s and was onscreen from 1955 to 1961, mostly on TV. He later became a successful real estate developer. His brother was cinematographer and director, Haskell Wexler and this was Yale's only appearance on the Hitchcock series.

Dorothea Lord (1920-2000) plays Nurse Collins; her TV career lasted only four years, from 1958 to 1962, but during that time she was in seven episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including "A True Account."

Watch "No Pain" for free online here or order the DVD here. Read the GenreSnaps take on this episode here.

Sources:

The FictionMags Index, www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/0start.htm.

Grams, Martin, and Patrik Wikstrom. The Alfred Hitchcock Presents Companion. OTR Pub., 2001.

IBDb, IBDb.com, www.ibdb.com.

IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com.

"No Pain." Alfred Hitchcock Presents, season 5, episode 5, CBS, 25 Oct., 1959.

Powell, Talmage. "Pigeon in an Iron Lung."  The Best of Manhunt. Ed. Jeff Vorzimmer. Eureka, CA, Stark House Press, 2019. 320-25.

Stephensen-Payne, Phil. Galactic Central, philsp.com/.

Vintage New Media, inc. “Authors > Talmage Powell.” Vintage Library, www.vintagelibrary.com/author/talmage-powell.

Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, www.wikipedia.org/.

In two weeks: The Contest for Aaron Gold, starring Barry Gordon and Sydney Pollack!

Listen to Al Sjoerdsma discuss "The Gentleman from America" here!

Listen to Annie and Kathryn discuss "Bang! You're Dead" here!

The Warren Report Issue 56: September 1974

 

The Critical Guide to 

the Warren Illustrated Magazines

1964-1983

by Uncle Jack

& Cousin Peter

Sanjulian

Vampirella #36

"The Vampire of the Nile" ★★

Story by Flaxman Loew

Art by Jose Ortiz

"A Wonderful Morning!" ★★

Story and Art by Fernando Fernandez

"The Tiara of Dagon!" ★★1/2

Story by John Jacobson

Art by Esteban Maroto

"Good to the Last Drop!" ★1/2

Story by Martin Pasko

Art by Ramon Torrents

"Sword Play" ★

Story by Martin Pasko

Art by Felix Mas

"Prey for Me!" ★★1/2

Story by Rich Margopoulos

Art by Rafael Auraleon

"Puppet-Player!" ★★1/2

Story and Art by Jose Bea

While in Egypt to do a gig, Vampirella and Pendragon are involved in a serious car accident (thanks, in no small part, to the alcoholic tendencies of Pendy) and their spirits fly out of their bodies and into some kind of time/space paradox. They awake to find themselves in ancient Egypt, Vampirella as Cleopatra and Pendy as her loyal slave. One night, CleoVamp is taken from her palace and brought before her brother (who also happens to be her hubby) Ptolemy in a dark underground chamber. Chained to a column, CleoVamp is dined on by Ptolemy, who happens to also be the Vampire-King of the Nile!

Her vampirism isn't much of a downer until she meets and falls in love with Mark Antony, who returns the favor with his undying love. Alas, as we all know, the union is not to last for, when Antony witnesses CleoVamp dine on a big cat with fangs bared, he gasps, utters profanities, and becomes one with his sword. Saddened, CleoVamp hoofs it to Ptolemy's tomb, where she puts an end to his undead reign with a stake to the heart. Amun-Ra appears and tells the girl that he will reward her service to him by transporting her to a planet beyond the stars, where blood flows like rivers and the girls wear nothing but G-strings: Drakulon! Suddenly, Vampirella awakens in a hospital bed, with a very handsome doctor named Antonioni smiling at her.

I don't know what to make of "The Vampire of the Nile." It's either a really dumb dream story or an equally dumb reboot of the origin. Was Vampi reliving events that had happened centuries before? I don't know. But one thing I do know: that "hic... burp" routine of Pendy's is getting really old. These Vampi stories continue to be disposable in the story department but rewarding with the "eye candy." Ortiz has stepped in nicely for Gonzalez in the "highlights" department; Vampi continues to be voluptuous and everything a pimply-faced teenage boy would love to "read" late at night after mom and dad have gone to sleep.

At some point in the future (could be tomorrow), all the adults in the world have been wiped out and the Earth is home only to children. We're not told if these children killed every single adult and how exactly that event transpired but, anyway, there are a whole lot of kids running around in this idyllic setting when word goes 'round that the last adult in the world has been spotted running up a hill. The kids give chase, catch him, and kill him. Oh, what "A Wonderful Morning!" I thought this one started out okay but quickly devolved into the usual preach. So many questions to be asked. Ferinstance, what's the cut-off age? Will these kids be killed when they reach that age a la Logan's Run? The color (by Corben) does no favors to Fernandez's artwork, which usually looks great in black and white. Here, it seems as though Warren hired somebody off the street to color by numbers (especially that hideous panel reprinted above, which looks like a TV Guide advert for Eight is Enough). I assume the deep, deep, deep message here is that kids could run this world a heck of a lot better than adults.

Simon Pepper, curator of the Arkham Museum, has had enough of the trollish high priest who continually visits and tries to barter for "The Tiara of Dagon!" Pepper tells the unsavory man one more time that the Tiara is not for sale, but his visitor pulls out a gold bar worth thousands and offers it up, hoping this time he has a deal. Pepper pulls a gun and nabs the gold bar, telling the little man to be gone. The priest laughs and tells the curator that he behaved exactly as expected and that the gold was treated with a chemical that will kill Pepper in a matter of minutes. Simon takes a shot at the man but he finds he's all alone in the museum. At first scoffing at the idea that he's been poisoned, Pepper soon learns that the priest was telling the truth. I love comic stories that are flavored with Lovecraft; there's such a huge universe to draw from. "The Tiara of Dagon!" is a bit disjointed and it's cloudy as to what's happening in that museum after Pepper steals the gold bar. Ideally, this would have been drawn by Tom Sutton; this does not look like your typical Maroto (not one half-nekkid chick to be found in that museum). 

"Good to the Last Drop!" is an almost unreadable bit of nonsense about a man who accidentally murders his wife when he discovers she's stepping out on him. He then chops her body up and takes it down to the coffee factory he owns and dry-freezes her teensy bits. The revenge angle comes in when he decides to serve her in a cup to her boyfriend. A miscue leads to both men drinking the coffee and dying... because the wife was so guilt-ridden she had decided to off herself and downed a shot of poison just before hubby killed her. This is the kind of murder/tryst story EC would do just about every month. The difference is that most of their tales worked. This one's just dumb. Nice to look at, though.

Marty Pasko is also responsible for the equally dopey "Sword Play," wherein a group of students discover their fencing teacher is a vampire. The first half of the story is like something out of a bad ABC Mystery Movie of the Week (complete with corny teen dialogue) and the "twist" comes off as though Pasko had written himself into a corner and couldn't figure out if he wanted to go full-out Pretty Maids All in a Row. The reveal is tired and desperate. "Prey For Me!" is another one of those The Most Dangerous Game riffs, this time with a werewolf (yep, just like The Beast Must Die, released the same year by Amicus). Eccentric millionaire invites big-game hunters to his estate, then drugs them and releases them into the woods with a rifle loaded with one silver bullet. Then he lets the wolfman out of his cage. All this, we're reminded several times, is done in the name of vengeance for all the animals killed by hunters. There's a good twist at the climax and the art by Auraleon is adequate (he did much better covers than interior art in my humble opinion). I might just have been in the mood for a story that wasn't crap.

"Puppet-Player"

Gino Malaspina is a master puppet-man; many come to see his shows and enjoy the playful violence. But the beatings his puppets administer to each other grow ever more violent until the little dolls turn the tables on Gino and give the puppet-master a good beating. The art of "Puppet-Player!" is much stronger than its script; the climax doesn't make much sense when you stop and think about it. But Jose Bea is such a strong penciller that, many times, all that's needed are some great visuals to forget about the silly words. Unlike the Fernandez story, I thought the color actually complemented Bea's work this time out. The color duties were handed to Michele Brand, who was once married to Warren artist Roger Brand and who would wed Bernie Wrightson soon after this story appeared.-Peter

Jack-"The Tiara of Dagon!" was the best of a bad batch of stories this time out, solely due to the highly unusual art by Maroto. He uses solid blacks and whites and empty spaces to give the story a noirish feeling that makes up for the half-baked Lovecraft references. I enjoyed all of the references to Ancient Egypt and Rome in "The Vampire of the Nile," and Ortiz draws a gorgeous Vampirella, but in the end it's just another dream story like "Superman Marries Lois Lane!" "A Wonderful Morning!" is another dated '70s fable; Fernandez can draw but the story falls flat and so does Corben's color. Jose Bea's continuing weirdness made "Puppet-Player!" bearable, though the story is marred by a disappointing finish.

I'm always happy to see a story drawn by Auraleon, but "Prey for Me!" made me realize that a big part of the artist's appeal lies in the way he draws women--and there are none in this story. Finally, Martin Pasko scrapes the bottom of the barrel with "Good to the Last Drop," which takes Lamb to the Slaughter to a new, more disgusting level. Incredibly, things get worse with "Sword Play," which is nearly incomprehensible. The best thing about this issue is the cover!

Kelly

Creepy #65

"The Land of Bone"

(Reprinted from Creepy #47)

"Star-Slaughter"

(Reprinted from Creepy #51)

"The Men Who Called Him Monster"

(Reprinted from Creepy #43)

"Tell-Tale Heart"

(Reprinted from Creepy #3)

"The Quaking Horror"

(Reprinted from Creepy #42)

"Bed of Roses"

(Reprinted from Creepy #51)

"The Accursed Flower"

(Reprinted from Creepy #49)

"A Chronicle"

(Reprinted from Creepy #42)

"The Third Night of Mourning"

(Reprinted from Creepy #49)

Jack-Not a great package, this. Nine stories, only three of which are worth reprinting: "Tell-Tale Heart," from way back in Creepy #3 in 1965, features strong art by Reed Crandall; "The Accursed Flower", from Creepy #49 in November 1972, a spooky story that highlights how weird Jose Bea's work can be; and "The Third Night of Mourning," from the same issue, a Gothic collaboration between James Stenstrum and Jaime Brocal. The rest of the issue is padded with junk by the likes of Moench, Skeates, and McGregor--hardly worth $1.25 in 1974.

Kelly

Eerie #60

"24 Hours of Hell!"★★★

Story by Bruce Bezaire

Art by Jose Ortiz

"Nightfall"★★★★

Story by Bill DuBay

Art by Bernie Wrightson

"Exterminator One"★★★1/2

Story by Bill DuBay

Art by Paul Neary

"Childhood's End"★★

Story by Budd Lewis

Art by Rich Corben

"The Man Hunters"★★★

Story by Gerry Boudreau

Art by Wally Wood

"The Unholy Creation"★★1/2

Story by Steve Skeates

Art by Leopold Sanchez

"Interlude"★★★

Story by Gerry Boudreau

Art by Isidro Mones

"24 Hours of Hell!"

When Samuel Garson and his new bride check into London's Whitechapel Hotel, they don't expect their 19th-century evening of bliss will turn into "24 Hours of Hell!" On this night, a group of miserable vagrants descend upon the hotel, dosing themselves with a drug called Jackass that turns them into murderers and rapists for a day before they die. The inhabitants of the hotel retreat to the top floor but end up fighting off the human monsters and, in the end, only two of the men survive.

I read this first episode of "Night of the Jackass!" thinking it was drawn by Bernie Wrightson and, on realizing that it was actually Jose Ortiz, I went back and looked for a credit but found none. Ortiz's scribbled signature on page one even resembles that of Wrightson. Bruce Bezaire's story is unrelentingly gloomy and not really my cup of tea; the whole thing recalls Night of the Living Dead.

Little Nemo is terrified of a monster named Igor who visits him every night. His parents don't believe it, since Igor and his fellow monsters disappear every time Mom and Dad come into their son's bedroom. Nemo's parents finally relent and let him sleep with them, but Igor promises that, come the next "Nightfall," he and his fiends will be back.

"Nightfall"

Wrightson does nice work in this eight-pager, which doesn't waste time on explanations. The art is superb and makes great use of shades of grey, though why DuBay chose to name the child Nemo (and, at one point, to reference Slumberland) remains a mystery.

"Exterminator One" 
  

It's 2014, and Peter Orwell's human brain is encased in the body of a robot. He is "Exterminator One," sent on his first mission to kill a human being. Peter thinks back to learning that he and his wife disregarded a government order not to have a baby and went ahead and brought a little girl into the world. Because Peter was considered genetically imperfect, he was jailed for four years, until he was given the option to taste freedom, in the body of a robotic killing machine. Too bad his first assignment is to kill his own daughter! He resists at first but eventually goes through with the murder, since the computer won't let him back out.

A captivating story with a brutal, surprising finish. DuBay does a nice job of moving back and forth between the present and the past and, as the conclusion neared, I expected Peter to be on a mission to kill his wife. The revelation that he was sent to kill his daughter was so much worse and the finale, where he is forced to go through with it, is just awful. Paul Neary's art is just right for a futuristic story with a robot as the main character.

"Childhood's End"

The creature known as Child sees a crystal fall from the sky and picks it up, thinking it a precious gift from Heaven. Though he hides the crystal under a bush, another little boy is watching and takes it when Child is gone. The crystal explodes, spewing forth starfish that attach themselves to the boy's face. The starfish cause illness but Child just wants to punish the boy for taking the crystal, so he kills the boy's father and runs off with the son. Villagers follow Child and shoot to kill; as he dies, the starfish leave the boy's face and attach themselves to Child.

"Childhood's End" is the welcome end of the Child series, featuring a cloying script and unpleasant Corben art. The color gives it that special sense of Corben weirdness, but there's not much to see here and I won't miss the series.

Brenda is ready to give up after spending eight months exploring outer space, trying to find out what happened to her husband, David. Her ship lands on the planet Thyna, and she and her two male companions discover big yellow aliens with tentacles and many eyes. The two men are killed, but one of the creatures spares Brenda, eventually taking her to a computer, where she learns that David's brain was transplanted into the kindly creature. She decides to stay with her man, tentacles and all.

"The Man Hunters"

"The Unholy Creation"

I am so thrilled to see "The Man Hunters," a new, eight-page outer space story drawn by the great Wally Wood! This one has it all: gorgeous color, a gorgeous gal, and creatures with tentacles. The story by Gerry Boudreau is nothing special, and it was obvious that the creature was David, but it's such a treat to see new art by Wally Wood that I really don't care.

Why doesn't Jason Boswell show up for his wedding? It turns out that he took a woman home from his bachelor party the night before and woke up at four a.m. While staggering home, he was set upon by crooks and murdered, all in order to provide a mad scientist with a fresh brain for his Frankenstein-monster-like creation. Unfortunately, the mad scientist forgot to hook up "The Unholy Creation's" nerve endings, so he can't feel anything. The monster kills his creator and is left to face life alone, unable to feel pleasure or pain.

We dump on Moench and Skeates a lot on this blog, and stories like this are the reason why. Were it not for some pretty cool panels by Leopold Sanchez, who draws a neat monster, this would be an utter waste of space. The ending is so abrupt that I found myself paging through the ads in the back of the book to try to find the final page or pages.

"Interlude"

Dr. Archaeus doesn't recognize Jamaica Jennsen right off, but as soon as she leaves to notify Miles Sanford, Archaeus realizes who she was and that he can't go home. Sanford breaks into the doctor's room and reads his list of victims, but the doctor does not return. The next day, Miles boards a coach to visit Scotland Yard, but the coachman is working for Dr. Archaeus and takes a detour, delivering an unconscious Sanford to the ruined Lancashire Abbey, where Archaeus waits to kills him. Sanford manages to defeat the coachman, only to receive a fatal arrow in his chest from Archaeus's bow.

"Interlude" is another satisfying entry in the saga of Dr. Archaeus. The story isn't spectacular, the art isn't the best in the issue, but somehow it all works together to make a fun final product. I can't always keep straight who the characters are (other than Archaeus), but for some reason it succeeds and I look forward to the next chapter. All in all, an above-average issue of Eerie! A very sharp cover, too.-Jack

Peter-I really liked the first chapter of "The Night of the Jackass," while acknowledging that it has its faults. The title, for instance, doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, and it teeters on pretension. We're told that the drug causes the user to become psychotic and then die after 24 hours, but not why they sprout Spock-ears as well. And, though I thought "24 Hours of Hell!" was a grueling and grim roller-coaster ride from beginning to end, I'm not sure the hook should be stretched out into a four-chapter series. I guess we'll have to wait and see. 

"Nightfall" is a beauty. Tough to come up with new adjectives to apply to Bernie's work, so I'll add that this is probably DuBay's peak, the one he'd put on his résumé. It's got a very intense, Neal Adams/House of Mystery vibe to it ("Nightmare" from HOM #186 comes to mind), different in tone from any of the other Warren stories. Top Ten of all time? Probably. We'll see. At first glance, "Exterminator One" is a half-assed rip-off of Deathlok the Demolisher (itself a rip-off of Martin Caidin's Cyborg, the basis for The Six Million Dollar Man), but since Deathlok had just appeared a couple months before, I'll give Dube some slack. It's not that great of a read but it does have a nasty kick in the tail. 

After three interminably cute and pretentious chapters, "Child" is finally put out of its misery. I know the series has its fans, but I think this chapter might be the nadir. "...and it doomed your sweet soul. But child... poor child... have you even a soul? Daddy always said a soul makes man divine.... In your lonely, painful wanderings have you yet become... divine?" What kind of atmosphere bred writers who longed to be Doug Moench when they grew up, or did Budd Lewis come to Warren a fully-formed Moenchite? I love how our country doctor knows everything there is to know about the parasites latching onto little Timmy's face, despite this being a completely alien lifeform ("I got this theory..."). This really is the pits.

If nothing else, "The Man Hunters" brings Wally Wood back into the fold after a long absence, but it would have been more respectful had they given Wally a good script rather than an utterly predictable rehash of past outer space monster sagas. And what a happy ending! Gorgeous chick married to Cthulhu. This probably would have looked better sans color. "The Unholy Creation" is some warped public safety announcement about adultery, right? It's oddly disjointed and doesn't seem to know what direction it's going. It's better than "Child" but that's about as much praise as I'll give it.

Eerie won't be as much fun to visit once Boudreau and Mones finish their Dr. Archaeus run next issue. Panel for panel, I think this may be the best series Eerie ever ran. I didn't think that way the first time I critiqued the series characters a decade ago for From the Tomb (you can read it here and here); I probably would have handed the Silver Goblet to Hunter II. But a second reading has been enormously entertaining. My regret is that Jim Warren never talked Aurora into issuing a Dr. Archaeus Monster Scenes kit. Imagine that under the tree for Christmas!

Next Week...
A double dose of
Colan!