Am I Right, Sir? A Real-Life Mr. Memory

I was looking around on CNN and found this story about the "Amazing memory man [who] never forgets."

To Williams and his family, his ability to recall events -- and especially dates -- is a regular source of amusement. But according to one expert, Williams' skill might rank his memory among the best in the world. Doctors are now studying him, and a woman with similar talents, hoping to achieve a deeper understanding of memory.

Of course, I immediately thought of Mr. Memory in The 39 Steps by Alfred Hitchcock. In that film, Wylie Watson plays a music-hall performer who is able to recall, on request, the most trivial bits of information. Of course, his memory is portrayed as perfect, while the subjects discussed at CNN seem to be limited by their interests--for instance, if one doesn't like sports, he cannot recall sports facts as well.

Being a in thriller, Hitchcock's Mr. Memory of course became central to the problem of the 39 steps. I wonder if any other thrillers have made use of super-accurate memory in this way.

"Intruding" on the Screen

Hmm. I really liked Intruder in the Dust back when I read it last year. Now Coming Soon reports that it's going to be filmed.

The book's fairly minor as Faulkner goes--a mystery story revolving around a black man wrongly accused of killing a white man--and I found it interesting primarily because of its stream-of-consciousness prose. But it's got some very striking images--such as the young protagonist, his African-American friend and an old woman digging up a grave and finding--

Well.

This might prove interesting.

Darkman

I've been going through a "Shadow" phase, looking up everything I could about the mysterious crimefighter with the laugh that chills the hearts of criminals everywhere. In the process of that, I've come across Darkman--the brainchild of Sam Raimi, of more recent Spider-Man fame. Apparently, Raimi wanted to create a movie version of The Shadow, but couldn't get the rights, so he created his own version, adding bits and pieces of The Phantom of the Opera and other horror elements. Since Wal-Mart had the "Franchise Collection" edition of the movies--the initial theatrical cut and the two direct-to-video sequels--I decided to pick them up and give them a look.

The first film features Liam Neeson as Peyton Westlake, a scientist whose face is disfigured in an explosion triggered by the finger-collecting gangster Robert Durant. Westlake survives, and is rescued by a hospital doing experimental surgery on homeless men. The nerves delivering messages of pain to his brain are severed, which keeps him from suffering, but has the unfortunate side-effect of causing feelings of alienation and super-human strength.

It's easy to see why Raimi was selected for Spider-Man. Indeed, several visual tricks will crop up in the later movies--such as a dissolve from Francis McDormand (who plays Westlake's lover)as she stands looking at her destroyed apartment to the graveyard on the day of Westlake's funeral, as well as animations of Darkman's brain chemistry when he goes into a rage.

It's also interesting that this movie ends--as Spider-Man does--with the hero making a fateful decision between personal happiness and the "greater good." Of course, with Darkman it's more a matter of choice between love and his demons.

In many ways, however, Darkman is more successful than the webslinger's exploits. Neeson is an excellent actor and is able to bring out the desperation in the character's situation, as well as the insane thirst for revenge, even under the layers of makeup required for the role. And in his own face, he is hollow-eyed and haunted, conveying desperation and horror at what he has become. The villain--played by Larry Drake--is acted with cool understatement (quite a feat for a man with a finger-fetish). The only weak link is Colin Friels as the man pulling the strings; he is almost too bland about his crookedness, admits it up front to the first person to confront him with it, as if there is nothing unusual about it. In the right hands, he could have been even more chilling than Durant; as it is, he strikes the wrong note consistently.

Darkman wears its influences on its sleeve. In addition to "The Shadow" and The Phantom of the Opera, there is a definite unreality to the gang of crooks--including one with a machine-gun in his artificial leg--that calls Dick Tracy to mind (I'm thinking of the old black and white B-pictures like Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome, though I get the feeling the comics are pretty close). Larry Drake even looks like a Dick Tracy villain.

In all, Darkman is an excellent entry for anyone's library of crimefighters, and is highly recommended. From what I've seen of the sequels, they don't nearly live up to the theatrical film, but I'll cover them in due time.

The Hardy Boys in India

I grew up buying the Hardy Boys novels in packs of five at "Sam's Club" and inhaling them in short order. They were the bread and butter of my reading life until I discovered Agatha Christie at about the age of thirteen--after that, they fell into disfavor. But I still have a soft spot for the two teen sleuths and their chums, and it's nice to see they're still going strong:

For 80 years, The Hardy Boys has been an essential part of every detective-fiction lover’s childhood. Now the Hardy bros appear in graphic novels — in candy colours, toting mobile phones and guns. Nancy Drew too is keeping up with the times, in a similar series.

Candy colours?!

At any rate, the comics will be updates of novelized adventures, with the boys being "tech savvy." Huh. When I was a child, a personal boat was tech-savvy enough for me, but there you go. Apparently this series is only being released in India--where they also seem to be issuing comic-books of Agatha Christie's novels.

Hmm. This is the second story I've linked to that has to do with India. I'm beginning to wonder if there is a sociological reason that "classical" detective fiction seems to be--at least, until recently--going so strong over there while it labors in obscurity in America.

It's Official---Only Halfwit Authors Write Mysteries.

...or so the British legal system has decided:

This week, Joan Brady - a talented American novelist living in Devon, who won the Whitbread prize in 1993 - received £115,000 in an out-of-court settlement from a cobbler close to her Totnes home. The novelist alleged that fumes from solvents used at the plant had caused her physical distress and mental distraction.

One example given of her problems [...]was that she had become so confused by the fumes that she was forced to abandon a serious novel, Cool Wind from the Future, and turn instead to mystery fiction, with Bleedout.

More at the link. This kind of stuff maddens me; there is no reason why a well-written mystery novel should be considered inferior to a well-written "serious" novel. Indeed, one could argue that the pretensions of "serious" fiction are inferior-making properties in themselves. "Plot-driven fiction" is, at any rate, directed outward, to the reader--it invites the reader into a mutual experience. In that way, it's essentially democratic and egalitarian.

Furthermore, we should note--as this commentator does--that many authors of "serious" fiction are now using tropes from mystery novels. In fact, they're using tropes from all kinds of genre fiction. The classes are melting together--just a bit--and a decision like this only shows how out-of-touch many "highbrow" people are.

Bond 22 is "Quantum of Solace"

Commander Bond has the story--with plot details. I must say, Bond 22 is shaping up quite promisingly. (FWIW--Quantum of Solace is the title of a Fleming story--and though we've been assured that the plot of the film is original to it, still the story might be worth checking out).

It's an odd choice. Risico or Property of a Lady might have made more sense; what's more (unlike other Fleming titles,) this is a remarkable un-exotic title.

On the other hand, it sounds literate (unlike Die Another Day), and I trust this latest direction for the films, so we'll have to wait and see.

"The Man Who was Clever"

I'm working my way through The First Saint Omnibus--a collection of thirteen novellas featuring Leslie Charteris' Simon Templar. They're arranged chronologically, from a story from the Saint's earliest appearance (Enter the Saint) through the later years.

The first story in the set is "The Man Who was Clever." It is a straightforward caper, with few elements of mystery or espionage. The plot revolves around Templar's efforts to bring down a criminal who uses a beauty-supply store as a front for drug dealing (sound familiar?). Simon Templar, also known as the Saint, does not seem as well-established as he will later become. Heis in the process of establishing his position as the "Robin Hood of modern crime," the man criminals fear. His character, therefore, is much more opaque than I expect it to be in future stories--he's building a mystery, creating a persona (hey! I wonder if this could tie in with my discussion of personhood over at General Thinker).

Still, this lack of insight into thought-processes of the Saint make him into a bit too much of a superman--he can, obviously, do anything and get out of anything. Not that that's a problem, as a rule; however, a humanizing touch here and there would go a long way toward making Templar more believable (remember how ubermensch Ellery Queen is humanized by the author's tongue-in-cheek tone? Something along these lines would be in order here).

The pace is sound and the plot enjoyable, and though everything is not quite in place, I look forward to see the development of the Saintly formula in future stories and novels.