Book Review: Five Little Peppers and How They Grew

Book Review: Five Little Peppers and How They Grew by Margaret Sidney In the small rural community of Badgertown, there is a little brown house where the Pepper family lives. Mr. Pepper passed some years ago, so Mary “Mamsie” Pepper takes in sewing and mending to feed her five children. From oldest to youngest, they… Continue reading Book Review: Five Little Peppers and How They Grew

Movie Review: Champagne

Our heroine fresh from crashing a plane.

Movie Review: Champagne (1928) directed by Alfred Hitchcock The Girl (Betty Balfour) is a spoiled heiress who is in love with The Boy (Jean Bradin.) The Father (Gordon Harker) thinks the boy is a “cake hound” who is after the family money, so has forbidden the girl to see him. The girl promptly hired a plane… Continue reading Movie Review: Champagne

Movie Review: An Affair to Remember

Nickie and Terry flirt aboard the ship.

Movie Review: An Affair to Remember (1957) directed by Leo McCarey International playboy Niccolo Ferrante (Cary Grant) is traveling back from Italy to marry his heiress fiancée Lois Clark (Neva Patterson). On the ship, Nickie discovers that his lost cigarette case is in the hands of nightclub singer Terry McKay (Deborah McKerr, singing voice by Marnie… Continue reading Movie Review: An Affair to Remember

Book Review: The Last Séance

Book Review: The Last Séance by Agatha Christie Agatha Christie is best remembered for her tales of mystery and detection, but she didn’t confine herself to that field. She also wrote stories with elements of the supernatural, and this new volume collects twenty of them in one place, rather than in scattered anthologies. The title… Continue reading Book Review: The Last Séance

Movie Review: Diamonds Are Forever

Case and Bond play a crane game.

Movie Review: Diamonds Are Forever (1971) directed by Guy Hamilton We open with James Bond (Sean Connery) globetrotting in a search for his archenemy, Ernst Stavros Blofeld (Charles Gray), leader of the international crime syndicate SPECTRE. He quickly catches up to and kills two Blofelds, one of whom was a surgically-altered double for the real criminal.… Continue reading Movie Review: Diamonds Are Forever

Book Review: If This Goes On

Gotta love this cover "old man yells at rocket."

Book Review: If This Goes On edited by Charles Nuetzel The “if this goes on” story is a staple of short science fiction. Pick a current trend like “women not wearing hats anymore” or “cat videos” and extend it out to an exaggerated conclusion. For example, the Robert Heinlein story of that name, which posits… Continue reading Book Review: If This Goes On

Movie Review: The Armour of God

Jackie prepares to infiltrate the monastery from the cliffside cave.

Movie Review: The Armour of God (1986) directed by Jackie Chan Jackie (Jackie Chan) used to belong to a pop singing group called The Losers. But his best friend Alan (Alan Tam) and sweetheart Lorelei (Rosamund Kwan) fell in love and the group broke up. Jackie switched careers entirely and became a soldier of fortune codenamed… Continue reading Movie Review: The Armour of God

Comic Strip Review: Batman: The Sunday Classics 1943-1946

Comic Strip Review: Batman: The Sunday Classics 1943-1946 by various creators Batman was a big success in the comic books, so it wasn’t long at all before it was decided that he’d probably be a hit in the newspaper comic strips as well. Once that was decided, the problem of Sundays had to be considered.… Continue reading Comic Strip Review: Batman: The Sunday Classics 1943-1946

Magazine Review: High Adventure #170: Best of Science Fiction Stories

Magazine Review: High Adventure #170: Best of Science Fiction Stories edited by John P. Gunnison This volume of the long-running pulp reprint magazine dips into the pages of Science Fiction and Science Fiction Stories, a magazine that ran from 1939 to 1943 with the last two issues being under the latter name. As so often… Continue reading Magazine Review: High Adventure #170: Best of Science Fiction Stories

Book Review: The Case of the Rolling Bones

Book Review: The Case of the Rolling Bones by Erle Stanley Gardner Attorney Perry Mason is having a slow week with no real meaty cases, just ongoing matters that require boring paperwork. So he’s thrilled when a delegation of three people associated with Gold Rush millionaire Alden Leeds appears. They believe Mr. Leeds may be… Continue reading Book Review: The Case of the Rolling Bones