A Criminal Oversight

Ted Lewis on the set of Get Carter, 1971


BBC4 Radio documentry on life & career of Ted Lewis, click image to enlarge

Get Carter with Michael Caine stands as one of the best noir - revenge films ever. I first saw it on video in the early '90s when college roommate Wallace Stroby included it with a couple Chow Yun-fat gangster flicks in what the ex-wife called, 'Wally Mail.' Carter was the far better picture and it got me thinking about how many awful revenge films are out there and why Carter was so different.

Every Mel Gibson picture, from Mad Max (which is pretty darned good) to the American Revolution disaster, The Patriot, are all revenge pics. Mel has a big family. Family gets killed when Mel isn't looking. Bad guys mess up Mel. Mel gets mad and boom, you're in Act III, Mel kills bad guys, roll credits.

Get Carter has a professional hit man in London (Caine) who comes home (Newcastle) to find out who killed his brother. That's a pretty standard setup. But it never goes where you expect it to and like the best noir, you're not so sure you wanna go with it. Stark and dark but there's beauty here too. Get Carter is about as beautiful as you're gonna see and hear in a revenge pic.

The words came from writer and artist, Ted Lewis (1940 - 1982) who wrote the book, Jack's Return Home, that the film is based on. Thanks to noir guy, Wallace Stroby, I learned of a 28 minute radio program on BBC4 (here) about Lewis and his very short life and career. The program is available on line for six more days. Sadly, Lewis's books are barely available at all (prices here) but BBC 4 presents the first radio episode of, Jack's Return Home tonight at 11:00 PM GMT / 6:00PM EST with the second episode to air at the same time on 4 September (here).

The exchange below between Caine and Ian Hendry as Eric Paice, is a good example of the poetry Lewis created. I suppose it helps that Caine, whose career was soaring, and Hendry, whose career was tanking, didn't like each other. But it was Ted Lewis that gave 'em the poetry.

Come Up Screaming: Big Country

"You gotta love a band whose members are uglier than you." Wallace Stroby, 1983



As promised in Comments, above is the thuderous live version of Fields of Fire at the 1983 Glasgow Barrowlands New Year's Eve Concert.

Crazy? Take This Test...

From Special Forces Briefing, Ft Bragg, NC, 1978

Back in 2005, pal and crime writer, Wallace Stroby was looking for back ground on an ex-Army character he was developing for a third novel. Rather than winging it and creating a complete joke (Jack Reacher comes to mind), Stroby consulted my father who was kind enough to cc me in on their correspondence.

From: phred
To: Wally
Subject: Of Looney Tunes & Real Nutzos
Date: 11 May 2005

Looney Tunes goes with the territory of Special Ops people, cops, and similar "elite" (as they see themselves) in order to maintain the "glamorous" image portrayed in film and novels. Generally, this involves relatively harmless "prankster" stuff. The cop at a party who crawls under a glass-topped table to see if the woman sitting on it is wearing underwear. The SF guy who crawls up in the rafters in a bar and takes a "dump" over the ceiling fan.

But, then, there are the real Nutz with severe mental problems. At one point, you refer to the character as feeling "...no one is fit to judge him or his actions." That may be, but it's also characteristic of psychopaths and sociopaths, and then it becomes a real danger. In Special Forces, for example, precautions were taken to "weed out" the real nutz.

I remember taking a variety of psychological tests, including the Minnesota Multiphasic. Problem is/was that psychos are able to lie so successfully that they're most difficult to detect -- and can even beat a lie detector. I had such a nut on my first team. Was able to get rid of him before he did serious harm.

I understand that the shrinks are getting better with more effective tests than the simple multiple choice versions that attempted to catch people contradicting their previous answers. Here's a sample:

A woman, while at the funeral of her mother, met a man she did not know. She thought this guy was amazing, so much her dream guy she believed him to be just that! She fell in love with him right there, but didn't ask for his number and could not find him. A few days later she killed her sister.

Question: What is her motive in killing her sister?

Answer: She was hoping that the man would appear at her sister's funeral. If you answered this correctly, you think like a psychopath or sociopath.

By the way, if you got the answer correct, please let me know so I can take you off my email list -- unless that will piss you off, in which case I'll be extra nice to you from now on.

Another Plug for Wally

Wally Stroby on the right

At the Mysterious Book Shop in NYC

Wally in the back and John Fusco in the middle at the Alligator Farm 1982

Tintin (Left) and Wally (Right) 1982

Wally Stroby had a book reading and signing last night at the Mysterious Book Shop regardless of reports of snow up to one's pipik. It seems like I've been taking pictures of Wally for almost 30 years. Small price to pay for his friendship all these years and his musical taste. I've threatened you with his eclectic taste in songs before but I have to follow through this time with a play list that he claims was his inspiration when writing 'Gone Til November.'

Gone Til November - Wyclef Jean

Everybody Always Leaves - Matthew Ryan

I Still Miss Someone - Johnny Cash

I Miss You - Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes

Regina - Bunny Sigler

Jane, I Still Feel the Same - Matthew Ryan

Gone For Good - O.V. Wright

Great Expectations - The Gaslight Anthem

Trailer - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

Ramblin' Man - Hank Williams

Cure For Pain - Morphine

Nothing Stays the Same Forever - Percy Mayfield

Keep Moving On - Sam Cooke

Streets of Philadelphia - Bettye LaVette

People Get Ready - Blind Boys of Alabama

A Change is Gonna Come - Sam Cooke

(I Won't Be)Leaving - Dave Alvin

Tonight the Golf Foxtrot is reading Wally's book and we have Wally's mix playing. Man, there's a lotta leaving and moving on in this music but Sam Cooke is also singing a change is gonna come. Yes it will. You're may not learn any style tips from Wally but you'll love the haunting sadness of these songs and how they go so well with the characters of his book.

The Friday Belt: A Foggy Day

I had the gin. I always have the gin. I needed lemons and Pernod. I never keep Pernod.

Last night I cracked open Wally Stroby's new novel, Gone 'Til November. I was surprised to see my name in the acknowledgments. Why'd he do that? He also has this annoying habit of putting people's thoughts in italicized font. I finished the book and was struck by how Wally captured Florida and it's people. And the fog.

Am I making any sense? I've never seen fog like the fog I've seen in Florida. Maybe it's the elevation, the humidity, the swamps. I dunno. But it's thick and damned near impossible to drive through. Wally has a scene in the fog that's absolutely terrifying. It's bad enough dealing with mother nature in Florida but throw into the mix some heavily armed thugs from Newark, NJ and a parcel of stoned Haitian drug dealers with Soviet AKs and things get interesting.

And this morning I thought of the Foggy Day. An ounce and half of gin. A quarter ounce of Pernod. An ounce of water and a quarter ounce of lemon juice. Stir and throw in a slice of lemon. It's foggy to look at and if you have more than one -- I suggest you stay far away from I-95 between Jacksonville and St Augustine on a foggy morning. You never know what you'll run into.