A Mélange of Minor Mentions

In the absence of major crime-fiction news, I again offer you some items of interest that don’t require lengthy consideration.

• A trailer has finally dropped for the er, unusual forthcoming spy film Argylle, directed by Matthew Vaughn (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, The King’s Men) and starring Henry Cavill and Bryce Dallas Howard. The Spy Command’s Bill Koenig describes the plot this way: “Novelist Elly Conway [Howard] has created the wildly successful Argylle spy novel series. … But Conway now is the target of real spies. The reason? What the author writes has a way of turning out to happen.” According to Wikipedia, “Argylle is scheduled to be released in the United States on February 2, 2024, by Universal Pictures theatrically, and on Apple TV+ at an undetermined date.” FOLLOW-UP: A podcast interview with director Matthew Vaughn, partly on the subject of Argylle, can be enjoyed here.

• Speaking of The Spy Command, the recent passing of Man From U.N.C.L.E. co-star David McCallum has led that blog to compile a list of “surviving stars of the 1960s spy craze.” I cringe at the thought that this might be inviting further deaths (“Aha,” says the Grim Reaper, “I didn’t realize they were still alive!”). On the other hand, I am pleased to see that so many familiar figures from my early TV years are still with us, including Mission: Impossible’s Barbara Bain, It Takes a Thief’s Robert Wagner, and The Avengers’ Linda Thorson.

• Many years ago, I added The Westlake Review to this page’s extensive blogroll. Managed by the pseudonymous Fred Fitch, it focused on the much-admired work of Donald E. Westlake. Postings there have dropped off of late, because as Fitch explains, “I ran out of books to review.” However he wrote this morning to tell me of “a new obsession, and even for me, an odd one.” I thought his note might interest other Rap Sheet readers, as well. Fitch writes:

I very unexpectedly got into the [2023 TV] show Gotham Knights, which only ran for thirteen episodes on the CW network, and was unceremoniously canceled, on a very disheartening cliffhanger. It was yet another show set in Gotham City where Batman doesn’t exist, because the rights for Batman are expensive (and if we’re being honest, he’s been done to death, in more ways than one).

Many dismissed it on this score alone, and the writing was all over the place (they were on a very tight budget), but I found all kinds of interesting themes in there, and some very compelling characters, most of whom never got much love in the comics or anywhere else. I just couldn’t accept the ending, and started writing my own. A chapter at a time. This is the result so far.

https://notoffended0.wordpress.com

Gotham Knights wasn’t about superheroes (these days, it’s hard to find anything that isn’t). It was about detectives, young people with many different skill sets pooling their knowledge and abilities to solve mysteries (a fair bit of romance as well—not entirely heterosexual in nature, since technically only two of the six main characters are straight and ‘cisgender’—I suppose I'll get used to that word eventually). My focus is heavily on Duela Dent, first introduced in the 70’s, as The Joker’s Daughter. Called herself Harlequin at one point, and yes, it’s pretty obvious she was one of the major influences on Harley Quinn. But she never really took form in the comics. She did on the show.

This is all inspired by Batman, but not following in his footsteps, because it’s a very lonely path, and this story is about making a family out of seemingly mismatching parts. Anyway, I’ve been at it almost two months now, the readership is growing, and so I’m going to humbly request you help me grow it a bit more.

Obviously this is fanfiction—pastiche, if you want to get fancy about it. So are all those off-brand Sherlock Holmes novels people keep putting out, and many a detective whose creator is long gone has managed to keep gumshoeing around, all the same. The difference is, I don’t have the rights to the characters—or all the song lyrics I keep sticking in there. I’m not making any money here, nor will I, ever. I’m just doing it for love. I feel like it’s fair use, and it’s unlikely I’ll ever have a large enough readership for those who do have the rights to care. They don’t care enough about these characters to give them a fair shot. I do.

I have gone ahead and added Fitch’s new Not Offended to the blogroll under “Short Fiction.” Let’s see what its future holds.

• This Zoom presentation by The Book Club of California, slated for Monday, October 30, sounds most intriguing. From Mystery Fanfare: “The Poison Book Project investigates potentially toxic pigments used in the manufacture of Victorian-era bookcloth. Lead scientist Dr. Rosie Grayburn will situate the use of English bookcloth colored with highly poisonous emerald green pigment and other toxic pigments within a broader historical context; recommend safe handling and storage practices for emerald green bookbindings; and report on the Poison Book Project’s most recent findings.” Register here.

• The Killing Times’ Paul Hirons uses the occasion of actor Michael Gambon’s demise earlier this week, at age 82, to revisit what he calls “one of my favourite TV shows ever,” The Singing Detective, on which Gambon starred as private eye Philip E. Marlow in the mid-1980s.

• Fans of the UK TV series The Persuaders!, starring Roger Moore and Tony Curtis, should be pleased to learn that historian Jaz Wiseman has a new book out about that 1971-1972 adventure-comedy.

• And I was finally able to watch Kenneth Branaugh’s A Haunting in Venice at a nearby theater. I agree with the blogger known as The Puzzle Doctor, who remarks that this film—loosely adapted from Agatha Christie’s 1969 Hercule Poirot novel, Hallowe’en Party—is “beautifully shot,” with “an effective creepiness throughout the whole thing.” It’s certainly my favorite of Branaugh’s now three Poirot pictures. If you’re looking for something to get you in the mood for next month’s Halloween, this just might be the ticket.