THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS

 

The Fantastic Four are another legendary group of comic book characters that have been the subject of a number of forgettable movie adaptations over the years. This time Marvel Studios finally gets to build an entire feature around them, and as expected they get things right with THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS. 

This film is not set in the 1960s--instead it is set on "Earth 828", a world that appears old fashioned and advanced at the same time. The Alternate Earth concept is an easy way for Marvel to avoid explaining why the FF haven't been around for all the other movies made by the company this century--but it's also a bold and satisfying storytelling choice. I loved the entire retro futuristic aesthetic, and it enables FIRST STEPS to stand out from all the other comic book flicks that have been churned out over the last few years. The Alternate Earth setting also means that, at least for this film, there are no connections to the rest of the Marvel Mutliverse, so you don't have to worry about watching a bunch of other movies and/or TV shows before delving into this one. 

Besides the unique production design, FIRST STEPS also has in its favor a story about family, which is what the Fantastic Four really are. Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm--they all interact with each other in a natural and realistic manner, and they make their characters appealing and likable. One doesn't think of them as metahumans or mutants. 

Director Matt Shakman keeps the focus on the Four, as it should be, but he also makes this film into a sci-fi epic. FIRST STEPS reminded me very much of the 1960s giant Kaiju films made in Japan by Toho Studios and directed by Ishiro Honda. The delegates of dozens of nations, meeting in a large hall, discussing the fate of the world, with humanity coming together and using incredible technology to fight an overwhelming foe?? That's what happens in FIRST STEPS, but those elements can also be found in just about every Godzilla movie made in the classic era. (Galacticus, the main villain here, is basically a giant monster run amok.) 

FIRST STEPS is a fun and energetic ride, and the family aspects of the plot make it relatable to everyone. It's far better than the latest SUPERMAN, and it's the type of movie that reminds one what Marvel Studios can do when they are at the top of their game. 

SUPERMAN

 

Here we go again--another attempt at putting the Man of Steel on the big screen, and another attempt to create some sort of DC Multiverse. What's the saying about doing the same thing over and over again and coming up with the same result? 

This time around writer-director James Gunn tries to inject some smarmy, hip GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY vibes, but at the same time he also wants to make parallels to current political & social events. The result is a movie with a very inconsistent tone, and a title character who a lot of the time takes a back seat to a Kyptonian dog and a group of very obscure DC comic book heroes.  

David Corenswet is the new Son of Krypton, and while he's okay in the role, he doesn't have the presence of Christopher Reeve (or even Henry Cavill, for that matter). It appears James Gunn really wanted his Superman to be more of a "regular guy"--but the thing is, the character isn't a regular guy. At times Corenswet acts insecure, and even a bit whiny--and these are attributes that in my opinion Superman should never show. (To take the regular guy concept even further, Gunn presents a Ma and Pa Kent so rural they seem to be related to the Beverly Hillbillies.) 

All the expected elements are here: Metropolis, the Daily Planet, the Fortress of Solitude, Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult)....but none of them particularly stand out. I must admit that by now I have a bad case of Comic Book Movie Fatigue--how many times can you watch huge skyscrapers fall over and break apart in slow motion, or CGI-fueled fight scenes that go on just a bit too long? 

The new SUPERMAN isn't a terrible movie by any means--but it was just too goofy for my taste. My personal idea of the Superman mythology still hasn't been presented on the big screen yet (except for maybe the first hour or so of SUPERMAN--THE MOVIE back in 1978.) 

THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WANTED

 

This is a movie I've long wanted to see. THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WANTED is a 1940 RKO production, starring Carole Lombard and Charles Laughton, and based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Sidney Howard. Every so often I check and see if this film can be viewed on the internet, and I happened upon it last night. 

Regular readers of this blog will know that Carole Lombard is my favorite actress, and THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WANTED has long been a missing link in her filmography. The movie is unavailable on home video due to rights issues, and apparently it can't even be shown on television either. The fact that Lombard only made two other films after this one makes it even more desirable among the actress's fans. 

Unfortunately THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WANTED is a heavy-going melodrama that does Lombard no favors. It was the last in a string of four dramatic stories Lombard starred in (MADE FOR EACH OTHER, IN NAME ONLY, and VIGIL IN THE NIGHT). Out of the four THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WANTED deserves to be in last place. 

The story concerns Italian immigrant Tony Patucci (Charles Laughton), a boisterous fellow who runs a successful vineyard in California's Napa Valley. While on a business trip to San Francisco, Tony becomes infatuated with a waitress he sees in a restaurant. When he gets back home, Patucci demands that his foreman Joe (William Gargan) write a letter to the waitress for him. The woman, Amy Peters (Carole Lombard), responds, and the two become pen pals. Tony decides to ask Amy to marry him, but she asks for a picture. Tony (not the handsomest man in the world) sends a picture of Joe instead. Amy agrees to the marriage and comes out to Tony's ranch, where she discovers to her dismay that her intended husband doesn't look anything like she thought he would. 

Amy, against her better judgement, still agrees to marry Tony--her main reason for this is to get away from her dead-end job. The jubilant Tony holds a huge wedding eve party, but after having too much to drink he tries to show off by climbing up on the roof of his house. Tony falls off, breaking both his legs. The wedding is delayed, and while Tony recuperates, presumed lady killer Joe and a restless Amy have a one-night stand, with the result being she winds up pregnant. Joe and Amy have no idea how to settle this situation without hurting the naive Tony. 

THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WANTED was meant to be an "important" film for RKO, what with two major stars, a story based on award-winning material, location shooting in Northern California, and esteemed names behind the camera, such as director Garson Kanin and producer Erich Pommer. (The main editor on this movie was future director John Sturges.) The entire affair has a very big John Steinbeck-like vibe to it, with the rural Golden State setting and the intimate interactions between "regular" folks. The movie comes off at times as too self-important, with plenty of ripe dialogue and a music score by Alfred Newman that goes out of its way to highlight every major moment. 

The most notable--or most nefarious, depending on your point of view--aspect of the film is the very broad performance by Charles Laughton as Tony. With his black curly hair, mustache, thick Chico Marx accent, and childlike behavior, Laughton winds up being buffoonish instead of a realistic human being. It's hard to gather up much sympathy for Tony while you're wondering how in the heck a guy like him was able to build up a major vineyard. Carole Lombard does the best she can as Amy, but this is a role that should have been played by a younger actress with less star power. Lombard seems way too smart a person to get involved in the situation that Amy finds herself in, and despite her talents, even she can't make the viewer buy into it when Amy says she really does love Tony. (It needs to be pointed out that by 1940 Lombard was able to pick and choose the projects that she was going to star in, so it wasn't as if she was somehow forced into appearing in this picture.) 

Carole Lombard and Charles Laughton in THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WANTED

William Gargan's Joe is supposed to be so masculine that Amy can't help but eventually give in to him, but the actor doesn't seem to be the type that would believably cause Carole Lombard to passionately succumb. Personally, while watching this I felt Gargan resembled Bud Abbott--and that may be due to the fact that Joe talks down to Tony just like Abbott would talk down to Lou Costello. (Gargan, believe it or not, got a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination.) Harry Carey plays a very country doctor, and Frank Fay plays a priest. (If you know anything about Fay's personal life--and beliefs--you'll assume that the idea of casting him as a man of the cloth must have been someone's idea of a bad joke.) Karl Malden and Tom Ewell can be spotted at the pre-wedding festival. 

The climax of THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WANTED is a major disappointment. I'm not going to give it away, but I assume that the final result of the film's triangle was mainly due to the Production Code. The ending is somewhat fitting for a desultory story that would have been better made in a different time period. 

THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WANTED wasn't a big success for RKO--or for Lombard. The actress went back to comedies--the two films she completed before her death in January of 1942 were MR. & MRS. SMITH and TO BE OR NOT TO BE. Lombard's dramatic quartet might have proved she could play non-comedic roles, but they weren't particularly popular with audiences at the time, and they don't appear to be well-received by most fans of Carole today. 

There's one thing I know I want--a proper official release of this film on home video. It's not one of Lombard's best, but she still looks beautiful, even when playing a waitress with a drab wardrobe. 

THE BRUTE MAN

 

THE BRUTE MAN could be considered a "lost" Universal horror. It was made by that studio, but sold off to poverty row company PRC in 1946. Various sources state that Universal did this due to a change in policy concerning low-budget genre fare, but when one watches THE BRUTE MAN, and realizes how bad it is, one has to wonder if the studio just wanted to wash its hands of it. 

Rondo Hatton plays the title character, "The Creeper", a vicious killer stalking about in an unnamed large city. Hatton now has near-legendary status among old monster movie buffs, due to the fact that he was the horror actor who didn't need makeup, since he was afflicted with acromegaly. Universal tried to build up Hatton as a chiller star, but this attempt was made at the very end of the studio's classic horror period, and Rondo wound up in some very lackluster features, such as THE JUNGLE CAPTIVE and THE SPIDER WOMAN STRIKES BACK. 

THE BRUTE MAN is bottom-of-the-barrel when it comes to 1940s Universal horror output. The Creeper is actually a man named Hal Moffat. About 15 years ago, Moffat was a popular football star at the local college, but he disappeared after ruining his good looks in a chemistry accident. Now the Creeper is back, targeting those he knew back in college. While on the run from the police, Hal hides out in the apartment of a lovely young piano teacher named Helen (Jane Adams), who happens to be blind. When Hal discovers that Helen is not afraid of him, since she cannot see his twisted features, he falls for the kindly woman and tries to help her, but his quest for vengeance against his classmates leads to his eventual capture. 

Even though THE BRUTE MAN is only about an hour long, it listlessly plods along, with no sense of suspense or style. Director Jean Yarbrough (a low-budget movie veteran) stages things as generically as possible, and even the Creeper's ramblings and killings have a perfunctory air to them. 

I feel uneasy in criticizing Rondo Hatton's performance, considering what he had to deal with in his too-short life, but the fact is he wasn't very good as an actor. Hatton fails to bring any sort of menace to the role--he just lumbers along, going about things in a very mechanical manner. What little dialogue Hatton gets is still way too much--his raspy monotone displays no sort of emotion. Hatton was much better used as a supporting menace--his most effective Universal role was in the Sherlock Holmes film THE PEARL OF DEATH, mainly because Roy William Neill was a fine enough director to realize that Hatton was best kept as a shadowy, mysterious presence. (The Universal publicity stills of Hatton are far more atmospheric than any of his onscreen appearances.) 

The attempt to gain the Creeper some sympathy through his attraction to Helen is totally negated by the story's flashback, which establishes the young Hal (played by Fred Coby) as a cocky big man on campus with a bad temper. (Hal himself causes the accident which transforms his features, due to his anger.) It doesn't help that Hatton can't provide any sort of proper reaction to Helen--he responds to her as if she's a piece of furniture. Jane Adams is so bright and likable as Helen that one can't understand why she doesn't immediately sense the Creeper is no good. (Adams played a hunchbacked nurse in Universal's HOUSE OF DRACULA, and with her portrayal of a blind person here, the actress must have wondered what the studio really thought about her.) 

Almost all the Universal horror classics of the 1930s and early 40s had wonderful supporting casts. THE BRUTE MAN decidedly does not. Donald MacBride and Peter Whitney play a couple of unlikable police officers (their attempts at comic relief fall absolutely flat), and there is no equivalent to what could be called a leading man role. Tom Neal, who gained some cult fame for the B movie classic DETOUR, appears as one of Hal's old college chums. 

If THE BRUTE MAN is remembered for anything, it is in using aspects of Rondo Hatton's real life in a story about a psychopathic killer. Did Universal do Hatton a favor by giving him the leading role in a film built around him, or were they merely exploiting his tragic condition?? That's up for the individual viewer to decide. Hatton himself never saw the finished film--he died months before its release. (Hatton's passing may have been another reason why Universal dumped the movie onto PRC.) THE BRUTE MAN shows how far the Universal horror series had fallen by the mid 1940s. 

THE STRANGLER OF BLACKMOOR CASTLE On Blu-ray From Eureka

 

I wrote a blog post on this movie in January of this year, but it is included in Eureka's TERROR IN THE FOG box set of 1960s German Krimis. THE STRANGLER OF BLACKMOOR CASTLE looks fantastic here, with a very sharp black & white print presented in the movie's original 1.66:1 aspect ratio. This version also contains the original main title credits sequence. 

BLACKMOOR CASTLE is one of the better overall non-Edgar Wallace Krimis, with a major star of that genre, Karin Dor, as the female lead, and fine direction by Harald Reinl. In my January post on the film I ventured the opinion that Reinl might have gotten more atmosphere out of the title location, but seeing this restored print I think the director and cinematographer Ernst W. Kalinke brought plenty of visual suspense to the tale. 

Like the other films in the TERROR IN THE FOG set, BLACKMOOR CASTLE comes with German and English voice tracks, along with English subtitles. Tim Lucas provides an introduction in which he explains that while the film's story is credited to a Bryan Edgar Wallace novel, it was actually written by Gustav Kampendonk (there's a name for you) and Ladislas Fodor. The movie also has a brand new commentary by Kevin Lyons and Jonathan Rigby. It's a lively one, with the duo clearly enjoying their talk and discussing such subjects as the lack of confirmed info on the life of Bryan Edgar Wallace and the typical Krimi's bizarre attempts at creating a believable early 1960s England. 

One of the most important things about the TERROR IN THE FOG set is that it provides the best versions so far of a number of Krimi films for Region A & B audiences. Most of these features have only been available on public domain or below-average home video versions, or they could only be seen on shoddy YouTube videos. When one sees these Krimis uncut and properly restored on Blu-ray, one realizes how well-made and effective they really are. 

LAW AND ORDER (1932) On Blu-ray From Kino

 

When one thinks of films made by Universal in the early 1930s, what immediately comes to mind is the studio's horror movies. Universal made plenty of other films during the period, and one of them gets a fantastic restoration and a special home video release from Kino. LAW AND ORDER is a taut, tough Western from 1932 that is basically a fictional telling of the events surrounding the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral. 

Walter Huston plays legendary lawman Frame "Saint" Johnson, who has become tired of the life of a frontier peacekeeper. Johnson and his three companions--brother Luther (Russell Hopton), Brandt (Harry Carey), and Deadwood (Raymond Hatton)--wind up in the rough and tumble town of Tombstone, a place controlled by the corrupt Northrup brothers. Frame Johnson, against his better judgment, accepts the job of Marshal of Tombstone, and his hard-line stance on cleaning up the town leads to the inevitable violent climatic confrontation. 

LAW AND ORDER was based on the novel of the same name, written by W.R. Burnett. Burnett also wrote LITTLE CAESAR, and LAW AND ORDER the film feels more like a 19th Century gangster tale than a traditional Western. There's no wide open spaces, or sense of community, or an attempt to make Tombstone progressive and modern. Nearly the entire film takes place within the town--this is one of the most urban Westerns ever--and this Tombstone is a dusty, ramshackle place, as are the people that reside there. There are no female characters, and the only major family element is the relationship between Frame and his brother. 

Frame, based on Wyatt Earp, isn't exactly a paragon of virtue. His main reason for taking the job of Marshal appears to be the fact that he and the Nortrups don't like each other--Johnson doesn't seem all that concerned about the town itself or its citizens. Walter Huston makes Frame a taciturn, gruff fellow who is more intimidating than heroic. Harry Carey is a bit more engaging as Doc Holiday stand-in Brandt, but he's also the type of guy who carries around a shotgun at all times (and isn't afraid to use it). 

The director of LAW AND ORDER was Edward L. Cahn, who is best known now for the many cult genre movies he helmed in the 1950s. LAW AND ORDER is quite lively from a visual standpoint for a lower-budget feature of 1932. The camera moves all over the place, and there are a number of very complicated tracking shots with plenty of movement going on in the scene. (The cinematographer here was Jackson Rose.) The final gunfight is edited almost like an action scene of today, with as many cuts as there are pistol shots. I had never seen LAW AND ORDER before, and I was amazed at how cinematic it was. 

One of the writers credited on LAW AND ORDER was John Huston, then just starting out at Universal (and of course the son of Walter Huston). John Huston would go on to have a long relationship with the works of W.R. Burnett. This movie also has small roles for Walter Brennan and Andy Devine. 

This new restoration of LAW AND ORDER looks perfect on this Kino Blu-ray (you can easily make out the dirt and grime on the characters' clothes). Kino has packed plenty of extras on this Region A disc--they probably felt that a black & white movie from 1932 that runs only 72 minutes needed some appetizers. 

The extras include a long conversation with French director Bertrand Tavernier, who extols the virtues that he finds in LAW AND ORDER. There's also a new commentary featuring writer Max Allan Collins and podcaster Heath Holland. It's an excellent one, with the duo discussing the various films based on the life of Wyatt Earp, the work of W.R. Burnett, and the intersection of the gangster and Western genres. Collins and Holland are a pair that I'd look forward listening to on future commentaries. 

Kino has also included a bonus feature--a 1932 Western called WITHOUT HONOR, starring Harry Carey. This movie doesn't look anywhere near as impressive as LAW AND ORDER, and quite frankly, it's not very good. It does have an audio commentary of its own, by Toby Roan, that I haven't listened to yet. 

The most important thing about this LAW AND ORDER Blu-ray is that it presents a magnificent restoration to a rare film that needs more attention from Western and Pre-Code fans. I sincerely hope Kino has some more obscure Universal early 1930s goodies in store for the future. 

THE FIVE MAN ARMY

 

This is a well-mounted 1969 Euro Western that, while it doesn't offer any surprises, comes off as an above-average action-adventure heist flick. Peter Graves plays a character only referred to as "The Dutchman", a soldier of fortune who brings together four other associates for the purpose of robbing a Mexican army train during that country's revolution. The other four are the big, burly Mesito (Bud Spencer), a dynamite expert (James Daly), a Japanese samurai (Tetsuro Tanba) and a young hothead (Nino Castelnuovo). 

The amount of money on the train happens to be half of a million dollars--which, as expected, creates some friction within the group, since the sum is supposed to go to Mexican rebels. Almost the entire second half of this film is taken up with the train robbery, which is staged and edited rather effectively (helped by the fact that it's the main actors themselves clambering about the locomotive and its cars.) 

THE FIVE MAN ARMY appears to have been designed to reach more of a general audience than the usual Spaghetti Western. It lacks any outlandish or ridiculous set-pieces, and it reminds one of numerous more famous films, such as THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, THE DIRTY DOZEN, and THE WILD BUNCH. The characterizations are paper thin--none of the five main actors get a chance to stand out, and the Dutchman only reveals his past as part of a climatic plot twist. There's no main overall villain, just a bunch of faceless Mexican Federales, and there's not even one major female character. There's plenty of shootings & killings, but the overall violence is generic in scope (the movie originally had a PG rating in America.) 

Nevertheless, if you're looking for an action story that doesn't have any annoying or intrusive flourishes, this one's for you. Don Taylor (Mr. Hazel Court) is credited on-screen as director, but various sources say he didn't finish the film, or barely started on it; those sources also mention that producer Italo Zingarelli or even co-screenwriter Dario Argento directed most of it. I certainly don't know what happened, but THE FIVE MAN ARMY doesn't feel like a troubled production--the train robbery sequence has a fair amount of suspense, and the entire effort has a solid look to it. (Producer Zingarelli and cinematographer Enzo Barboni would go on to make the original TRINITY films.) 

THE FIVE MAN ARMY might rank a higher place in Euro Western history if it had a more suitable leading man. Peter Graves gives a competent performance, but he seems too clean-cut and out of place--it's as if he arrived at the set of the wrong movie. It must be noted that Bud Spencer is not dubbed in this, and he's actually speaking English. Tetsuro Tanba played the head of the Japanese Secret Service in the 007 outing YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE. 

One big element of THE FIVE MAN ARMY is the music score by none other than Ennio Morricone. It contains one of the Maestro's best main themes, and the score is probably better known than the movie itself. THE FIVE MAN ARMY isn't as good as the many films it takes after, but it's an easy near two hours of entertainment. 

THE CURSE OF THE YELLOW SNAKE On Blu-ray From Eureka

 

The first film in Eureka's TERROR IN THE FOG Blu-ray set is THE CURSE OF THE YELLOW SNAKE, made in 1963 by Artur Brauner's CCC company. Unlike the other films in this set, this one is not attributed to the works of Bryan Edgar Wallace --it is an adaptation of an Edgar Wallace novel. Everything about the production--the opening sequence, the actors in it, the overall style--makes one think it is a Rialto Edgar Wallace Krimi, but it isn't. (The original German title of the film is DER FLUCH DER GELBEN SCHLANGE.) 

One main difference that THE CURSE OF THE YELLOW SNAKE has from most of the Rialto Wallace Krimis is that it is more of an adventure thriller instead of a mystery with Gothic overtones. Half-Chinese, half-English Fing-Su (Pinkas Braun) is determined to acquire an artifact known as the Yellow Snake, a golden statuette that will somehow endow him with enough power to lead all of Asia in a mammoth battle against the West. Opposing him is his half-brother, Clifford Lynn (Joachim Fuchsberger). The two men are also caught up in a scheme to marry their cousins (Brigitte Grothum and Doris Kirchner). 

THE CURSE OF THE YELLOW SNAKE has a very Fu Manchu-like aspect to it. It might have been better if it had been set back in the 1920s, when Edgar Wallace originally wrote the novel upon which it is based--the "Yellow Peril" daring-do doesn't sit too well in the 1960s. It's never explained how the Yellow Snake will give Fing-Su so much overwhelming power--he needs better henchmen than he does a mysterious knick knack. For all the glum-looking Chinese at his command, Fing-Su can't even get rid of his half-brother, a fellow who isn't all that impressive as a hero. 

It doesn't help that the makeup job used on Pinkas Braun makes him look like a Vulcan or Romulan from STAR TREK instead of a credible half-Chinese. Krimi regular Eddi Arent once again supplies the comic relief as Clifford's friend, a cowardly antiques dealer. Doris Kirchner makes a big impression as Mabel, the cynical cousin who winds up gaining the viewer's sympathy. 

I had already owned THE CURSE OF THE YELLOW SNAKE on DVD--it was included on one of Retromedia's Edgar Wallace collections. Eureka presents the film uncut, in its original 1.66:1 aspect ratio, and most importantly, the print includes the original main titles, which feature a striking injection of color. The black & white image on the print is very sharp, and German and English voice tracks are available, along with English subtitles. 

THE CURSE OF THE YELLOW SNAKE shares the first disc in Eureka's TERROR IN THE FOG set with THE STRANGLER OF BLACKMOOR CASTLE. Among the extras included on this disc is a six-minute program in which Tim Lucas defines what actually is a Krimi (he does this by mostly differentiating it from the Giallo). Lucas also provides an introduction to YELLOW SNAKE, where he discusses the film's complicated genesis. 

THE CURSE OF THE YELLOW SNAKE also gets a brand new audio commentary, featuring Kim Newman and Barry Forshaw. The duo spend a lot of time talking about Edgar Wallace's life, work, and how his output stands up in the 21st Century. Both men are also not very impressed with Eddi Arent's role in the film. Any one wishing to know more about the Krimi genre would do well to listen to the comments made by Lucas, Newman, and Forshaw on the extras. An original German trailer for YELLOW SNAKE is also included. 

This film may have been meant to be a close copy of an entry in the Rialto Edgar Wallace series, but it feels different from those movies, with its threats against the Empire storyline and serial-like thrills. THE CURSE OF THE YELLOW SNAKE is a diverting enough tale, but the rest of the films in the TERROR IN THE FOG box set all have much more traditional Krimi aspects. 

Book Review: DEALS WITH THE DEVIL, DIALOGUES WITH DEATH

 

DEALS WITH THE DEVIL, DIALOGUES WITH DEATH is the fifth volume in writer Frank Dello Stritto's Historical Monster Fiction series. All five books feature characters from various classic films and TV shows taking part in and existing alongside real life historical events, an idea that is ingeniously and creatively accomplished by the author. 

This time around Dello Stritto covers numerous cinematic and television presentations of the Devil and physical manifestations of Death. An unnamed young American male is working on the passenger ship General Slocum when it catches fire and sinks on June 15, 1904. The man appears to have drowned, but he's given a second chance, due to a mysterious figure who calls himself Cadwallader. The man's "deal" with this fellow gives him immortality and indestructibility. For about the next hundred years, the reader follows the man's strange experiences. 

The man cannot die, but in a way he can't actually live either. Instead of making the most out of his prolonged status, the man constantly winds up involved in one famous disaster after another, all the while remaining alone and mostly cut off from the rest of humanity. The man continues to encounter the Devil in various guises, but he also has many meetings with different representations of Death, since his true appointment with the Grim Reaper was back in 1904, and his tab is still waiting to be collected. 

DEALS WITH DEVIL, DIALOGUES WITH DEATH is a fascinating read, but it's also somewhat darker than the author's other books in the series. A number of weighty factors are measured throughout, such as the meaning of life and death, what it is to really live, and whether the choices we make are our own, or that of some higher power. Despite all these important questions, the book isn't a depressing slog--it's a fast moving tale that makes the reader wonder what the main character will experience next. 

History and movie geeks will both enjoy DEALS WITH DEVIL, as the author once again impressively ties in actual famous events with numerous fictional film and TV characters, along with their dialogue and actions from the productions they appeared in. Dello Stritto favorites such as Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, and even Abbott & Costello get cameo roles. Fans of THE TWILIGHT ZONE will adore this volume, since many of its episodes are referred to. The book's magnificent cover art is by George Chastain, and it's clean, concise design is by Rick Brower. (The volume is published by Cult Movie Press.) 

I'm a huge fan of the entire Historical Monster Fiction series, so much so that whenever I finish reading the latest entry I can't wait for the next one. The "Strittoverse", in my opinion, is far more entertaining and interesting than most blockbuster films and trending TV shows of the present day. If you have a taste for world history and classic genre storytelling, Frank Dello Stritto's DEALS WITH DEVIL, DIALOGUES WITH DEATH is perfect summer reading.