Small Wonders

This is going to be McCloud Day here at The Rap Sheet, as we have a series of posts about that 1970s TV crime drama to roll out. First, however, there are a few newsier items deserving of mention.

• Brent McKee doesn’t have high hopes for the rebooted Charlie’s Angels. “I certainly wouldn’t bet on it getting a full season order,” he writes in I Am a Child of Television. “Based on what I’ve seen it doesn’t deserve one. It is one bad piece of television.

• The NoirCon site applauds the 1995 film The Burglar, based on David Goodis’ 1953 novel of the same name and “starring Dan Duryea as a jewel thief and Jayne Mansfield as his sexy accomplice.”

• Javier Bardem confirms that he’ll play the villain in the upcoming 23rd James Bond flick, whatever it’s called.

• In the latest edition of the podcast I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere, hosts Scott Monty and Burt Wolder talk with Michael Hoey, the son of Dennis Hoey, who in the classic movies played Inspector Lestrade to Basil Rathone’s Sherlock Holmes. Listen here.

• Author Max Allan Collins picks his 10 favorite detective novels. It’s a good list, and thankfully, I’ve read almost all of the books mentioned. (Hat tip to Pulp Serenade.)

• Montreal blogger Jacques Filippi has posted two new things worth seeing: a short piece about Bouchercon in St. Louis and a good-size interview with George Pelecanos.

• Three other interviews worth checking out: Raymond Benson talks with The Comic Book Nerd about his new novel, Black Stiletto; J. Sydney Jones goes one-on-one with Brian McGilloway, author of the Inspector Benedict Devlin series; and Jen Forbus has posted a videotaped interview with Robert Crais from Bouchercon.

• R.I.P., George Baker of Inspector Wexford fame.

• Gary Phillips says that American football is “as ripe (or rotten)” a subject for noir-fiction treatment as boxing ever was.

• This is pretty funny. The Democratic National Committee has set up a new Web project called “Which Mitt?” that documents the multiple instances in which Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney has come out for and against nearly every major policy idea on the political landscape. How can anybody trust this guy?

• Are these really the nine best mystery books for children?

• I’m not sure I have ever seen this trailer for The Birds.

• About a year ago, I wrote a post here about Lee Goldberg’s short independent film Remaindered. At the time, that movie wasn’t available to browsers on the Web, but now it is.

• What a hideous Avengers wannabe this was. But, my of my, Morgan Fairchild certainly was beautiful in her late 20s, when she co-starred in this Quinn Martin pilot film.

• And Happy Thanksgiving to all our Canadian friends.