Robert Rostand wrote a third excellent action thriller about Mike Locken, the hero of The Killer Elite and Viper's Game.
This time the story is sraight out of Mission: Impossible.
A high-ranking former KGB officer, known as "The Butcher" for
his enthusiastic and highly effective activities, wants
to defect. Locken's mission is to get him out from behind the
Iron Curtain, despite the numerous forces—military, police,
the secret services of more than one country—that will be trying
just as hard to kill the turncoat. Complicating things even further is the appearance of Locken's
old partner, Jorn Perry, compared to whom Locken always
felt much inferior, even giving himself the nickname of The Plodder.
Perry wants the KGB target for the CIA, to extract all information
they can from him. And if Locken won't step aside so Perry's
team can get him, then Perry vows simply to take the man
from Locken. The story has all the pleasures of this kind of caper. In the beginning
there's a very nice build up, starting with the KGB threat's first moves
and some nice foreshadowing of Locken's appearance. (In the third
chapter, a man searching an apartment in Rome notes, while looking
through clothes in a closet, that the "right and left shoes of both
pairs were worn unevenly" If you know Locken from the other
books then you know that this is Locken's apartment.) After a few murders and various other excitements and intrigue in
Rome, Locken has to put his team together, which is always fun.
In an interesting twist that's typical of the tone of the Locken
novels, the first person Locken approaches simply says no. And
this is a real no. You never see that character again. He doesn't change
his mind and show up unexpectedly to rescue somebody. In another ominous scene, Locken goes to have his shooting and moving
skills evaluated by a former comrade on a professional assault course.
The specialist's evalutaion is that Locken is "in shit shape" and is
going to have to "count on prayer and adrenalin". Which is how it always seems to be for Locken, facing terrible odds
without any of the preparedness one would want. Then of course there's the execution of the plan and
the various things that go wrong. These are very adroitly
handled by the author and it's hard to put the book
down in this section. Ultimately we end up back in Rome for a devastating conclusion.
A Killing in Rome is a strangely muted title for
this book. There are several killings in Rome, some even
perhaps more figurative than literal, and the title seems
too flimsy to handle all of what it could be suggesting.
Of course I can't think of a title that would be better
so am happy to take it as it is. The Locken novels were really good, unusual and exciting.
I'll be checking out something else by Mr. Rostand one
of these days. The first line of A Killing in Rome is
"On a coolish late September evening, the officer in charge
of the embassy security watch was a KGB lieutenant
named Melnichenko".
2020 September 23 • Wednesday
Mike Locken, the protagonist of The Killer Elite, returns in
Viper's Game, also by Robert Rostand.
Locken has recovered quite a bit from his maiming in the previous
novel. Part of the credit goes to tai chi. I thought that this might
have been something the author picked up from the Peckinpah
movie of The Killer Elite but it's hard to say. Viper's Game has a copyright date of 1974 and The Killer
Elite was apparently shot in March and April of 1974. Of course there would have been a screenplay before that, and perhaps
Rostand heard about what was in it or was otherwise somehow
connected to the production or to people working on it. Anyway, Viper's Game is, like The Killer Elite,
an almost constant race for survival, scrambling to beat
ever mounting odds, taking on ever more weight to carry while
always running lower on supplies. Locken has been placed on the island of São Tome as a piece
in a geopolitical chess game. A revolutionary leader names James Morais, who has been considerably
well supplied and trained by some other powerful country,
combines his small armed force with the considerable strengths
of a Cargo Cult tribe that lives on the island. Racial, political and colonial tensions that have
been building up for years explode once Morais lights teh
fuse and Locken find himself leading a small and very diverse
group of adults as well as a larger group of orphaned
children, in various directions over the island,
simultaneously cautious and frantic, desperately
trying just to stay ahead of their would be
killers and, if possible, find some means to escape. Morais quickly eliminates the military presence that was stationed
on the island and takes over all means of communication,
so they're really on their own. As in The Killer Elite, Locken is aided by at least
one very valuable expert: in this case a Vietnam veteran
named Cooper, battle-hardened, very knowledgable and experienced
and absolutely an asset when it comes to getting things done
that have to be done. Also as in The Killer Elite, there turn out to be
some unpleasant surprises lurking beneath the surfaces of
some of the characters. Since part of Locken's backstory is his participation in
the Cuban revolution, on the side of Castro and Guevara,
he has firsthand knowledge of what's happening, and what
Morais and his followers are likely to be doing. Rostand improves on his previous novel in his handling
of many of the characters. You shouldn't expect too much
from the women in this book. There's a madonna/whore
division without any subtlety between two of them,
and for the third woman character, well she has to have
sex with Locken in situations that seem like absurd
times and places to have sex in. Even more regrettably
and dismayingly she's a victim of rape fairly early
on in the book. None of this does much for the story
and she has enough of a character, as written, that
I wish Rostand could have had some other things happen
for her. Otherwise the writing is extremely good. One character, a shady and sleazy real estate developer
that you know is going to be bad news in a big way and, hey,
you're right, is introduced to us as he looks around
the big resort hotel he's hoping to make a bundle from. His gaze lands on giant aquarium for tropical fish that he's had
installed behind the bar. Rostand has a neat trick where he throws the reader into the
future, a kind of foreshadowing that's not pretending
to be anything other than foreshadowing. It gets you eager to turn
the page. At one point Cooper rigs a booby trap with an assault
rifle, so that when Morais's soldiers try to take the rifle,
they get blown up by a bomb. "A chance of eliminating one or
two more seemed worth the rifle. Later, Locken damned his
shortsightedness." And of course Locken has to fight himself as much
as anything else. His body, which suffers numerous injuries
during this ordeal—he has to get his ribs taped at one point—
and his mind as well, which can only force him to keep going
for so long, when it isn't trying to confuse him.
"Anger, hatred, caring, they all distorted judgment."
In The Killer Elite there was something
about how at least some of the characters were in it
just for the action itself, to test themselves, to
be victorious against overwhelming odds or to beat
the best opponents they can find. Politics, money,
personal vendettas, none of that mattered. Locken floats more or less the same idea at one point
and maybe there's something to that but hsi commitment
seems deeper and more driven. Survival, yes, which can
only be part of victory, but he gives the impression
of caring as well. He's not sentimental, and when
people die, they die, and there's not much point
of making a big deal about it. The first line is "A man with a gun".
A half-dozen brightly colored fish floated on the surface, nibbled at
by the other fish in the tank. The whole thing would have to go
before opening. Nobnody wants to drink watching a bunch of
fish cannibalize each other. Hell, maybe they do. You never
know what turns people on. He'd think about it.
2020 September 21 • Monday
Jerry Fielding's music for Sam Peckinpah's
The Killer Elite
is the 640th
Soundtrack of the Week.
"Try a Little Softer (Love Theme from The Killer Elite)"
is a plaintive trumpet-led ballad with gentle orchestral backing and
soft brushes on snare and cymbals. It's similar in mood and feel to
Jerry Goldsmith's theme from Chinatown
but not as urgent or muscular. Then there's an alternate version of the main title theme,
a stolidly paced and martial sounding 9/4 piece that’s
brimming with tension and suspense. Subtle and spare percussion until the strings come
bleeding in, sounding almost otherworldly, set the scene
for "Locken Shot". "Buddy Cat" is another spare and minimalist piece with
gently pulsating low tones and light crystalline statements
manifesting above it. This is followed by "On the Stairs", a reprise of the opening love
theme but with saxophone and flute starting and trumpet coming in later.
The orchestral accompaniment is more assertive here. "In the Limo" is similar to “Buddy Cat” but with less of the ethereal element. After a flute intro, "You're Back In" has different string voices weave
in and out, eventually joined by the rest of the
orchestra to create a lush yet unsettling atmosphere. Then there's "Bye Bye", a short reprise of the love theme. Two pieces of source music are next. "Mack's Garage" is country rock lounge pop with twangy lead guitar as
well as pedal steel, piano and organ, while "Club Source" is
a Hammond-driven 6/8 soul groove rocker with horn section and
excellent drumming. The Chinatown sequence might be the best scene in the movie.
It gets started with "Garbage Truck", in which strings create
a feeling tension while flutes spit out occasional stings.
This continues in the next cue, "Let's Go". "Hot Waltz on Thin Ice in Two Movements Without Pause"
is a sprightly jazz waltz featuring piano with support from
vibes and horns in addition to the rhythm section. Long tones on the strings are again creating suspense while
this time the vibes add statements here and there for
"Hansen at Steel Yard". There are similar strings in Crane Stance/Salmon Up the
River" but with some divebombing low notes on bowed
upright bass and more subdued contributions from woodwinds. "Mack Shoots Hank" is another quiet exercise in tension and restraint,
this time with some eerie sounds coming, I think, from the percussion section. The strings get choppier and more desperate in "Hansen Gets Tokyo
Tose/Hansen Gets His" and the bursts
of music from other parts of the orchestra also seem more
anxious and more on edge. The second half brings the energy
level down a bit and is a bit more melodic. Then there's a very short, about half a minute, ostinato with a
flourish of percussion and strings and winds for "Listen Carefully". "Sailing to Suisun Bay" conjures up motifs subtly suggestive of wind and
waves while keeping the elements of danger and uncertainty very
much present and "Collis Gets His" explodes with bursts of sound from piano and percussion before lightening up and then exploding again. Strings and winds circle and weave and fly around in "Mothball Karate"
while the percussionists create a pugnacious and unsettling mood.
It also quotes alternate main title. "Swords" has lots of percussion and strings and the most obvious
attempts to create “Asian”-sounding music, with something that
sounds like an electric shamisen or a keyboard trying to emulate it. And then we arrive at the "End Credits", which starts in a tense and percussive
mode before a segue into a robust and charging piece that might be in 9/8. As a bonus track, there's the "Main Title", which is very similar to the
previously heard alternate main title music.
2020 September 18 • Friday
Sam Peckinpah's The Killer Elite is a curious movie.
It's not very good. But visually, the way it looks and moves, it's
gorgeous. The use of light and color, camera movements and compositions,
editing and of course slow motion, are all magnificent (though not
as stunningly avantgarde in its intentional disorientation and use
of sound as, say, The Getaway).
It's assured and vibrant film-making by a master of the medium but it's also clunky and
just not very interesting for the most part. Having sat down with the Robert Rostand novel that was
adapted in the movie, it's clear that the screenplay has to take
a lot of the blame. The book is a solid and relentless violent action thriller
with a twisty and downbeat plot, sort of like survival action
as opposed to survival horror.
The character played by Robert Duvall is very different in the book.
He's not friends with the protagonist, Mike Locken. They don't even know each other.
In the movie they're given this intense, homoerotic relationship,
presumably because the movie couldn't go near a significant and perverse
element to the hero's maiming. The driver character is fairly consistent in the two versions of the story,
though there is one hugely important addition to this person in the book
that didn't make it into the movie. The character of the gun expert is wildly different. In the movie,
they make him kind of crazy but in a sort of A Team way.
He's also one of Locken's old and trusted friends. In the book,
Locken doesn't know this person, who's very young and forced on
him by his old boss who's giving him the mission in the first place. There are no ninjas in the book.
Locken in the book is trying to help an exiled African leader return
to his country before he's murdered. There are no fewer than
three elite assassins (hence the title) converging on him in London. Locken has to start as soon as he gets the assignment. And from
the moment he starts it's constant mayhem. Everywhere they go, from the apartment to the airport to wherever, they
run into explosive violence. Locken also has an interesting backstory involving finding
with Cuban revolutionaries, alongside Castro and Guevara.
A woman from those days, with whom he was involved but who fingered
him for being counter-revolutionary, which almost killed him but instead
just landed him in a Cuban jail for three years. This woman is one of the three assassins Locken has to deal with.
Another is a French Algerian explosives expert and the third is the
South African man who starts the story by violently injuring Locken
so that he can never work as a field agent again. This is a book that's brutal to its characters. They're all
convincing and distinct and Rostand is subtle with his positioning
of them. You might realize that somebody near the end of the book
is somebody you haven't seen since the very beginning. And just
as you're enjoying that bit of consistency, maybe even feeling
a little cozy about it, that person will die violently right
in front of you. So the movie, whatever, it has its points but it's frustratingly
flawed in so many ways that it's really best watched for its
aesthetic qualities and a few other bits of business, like
some good acting. But the book, the book is great, if you're into this sort of thing.
And it's the first of three about Mike Locken! Interestingly, while these sorts of books tend to be fantasies
of male competence or male expertise or male excellence,
The Killer Elite returns again and again to visions
of male inadequacy. The hero is constantly scrambling just ahead
of certain defeat and is always figuring out what's going on too
late to do anything useful about it. It's an unusual approach and a refreshing one, though
perhaps it also explains why the book appears not to be
especially well liked by readers who enjoy macho action thrillers. The first line is "Locken slid his eyes away from the four repeater
screens of the infra-red warning system, each etching in thermal
profile, one sector of approach to the farmhouse".
2020 September 16 • Wednesday
Once you've seen Godmonster of Indian Flats,
what else is there? Not much, but there are still some bizarre and unusual monster movies
out there. One of the lowest budget and most Psychotronic of
these is surely Blood Freak.
It's about a biker named Herschel.
After helping a woman with car trouble on the highway, he
joins her for a party that her wild druggie sister is having. What kind of party is it? This kind of party:
There's this cool tiger painting in the house.
So Herschel sticks around, falls in love with the sister
and gets a job at a turkey farm. They're doing some experiments
on the turkeys, I forget what, but for some extra money Herschel
agrees to eat the experimental turkeys just to make sure that
they're safe to eat. Screw the FDA, I guess. And after ingesting mutant turkey flesh, Herschel turns
into a giant turkey monster and goes around killing people
and drinking their blood.
The turkey mask makes it hard to show him drinking blood so
it ends up looking more like he's rubbing blood on his beak.
Every once in a while the movie cuts to this guy, who smokes
cigarettes, comments on the action and makes sort of general
observations about life.
I don't really mind the wall behind him, though it's not
very professional looking. I do wish that they'd moved
that chair out of the shot, though. The music by Gil Ward, who was also the editor, is pretty good and the
movie could have used
more of it. There are several silent scenes that would
have played more effectively with additional music.
Too bad it's called Blood Freak. Sure, the monster
is definitely a blood freak, but it's a vague title.
There would be no way of knowing that this is a movie about
a mutant turkey monster from that title and there must be
hundreds of movies that could have been called Blood Freak.
2020 September 14 • Monday
The 639th Soundtrack of the Week
is the Repo Man album.
This is a collection of songs from the movie and like
many a teenager in the 1980s, I owned this on cassette. It's also possibly unique in its relationship to the
movie. Universal releaseds Repo Man for one
week in the late winter of 1984—the liner notes for the Criterion
blu-ray release of the movie says February and
Wikipedia says March—and after a week of not much happening
at the box office, Universal pulled it and figured
that was that. But then the soundtrack album became something of
a hit on its own, causing the studio to put the
movie back into theatres later in the year. The soundtrack album is really good, too. Iggy Pop's title song is one of the best things
he's done in the last forty years. The other stand-out track for me is the majestic
"Reel Ten" by The Plugz. In the movie itself,
there's a fair amount of score from this great band
that remains unreleased, as far as I know. Their Spanish-language version of "Secret
Agent Man", "Hombre Secreto", is here
as well, as is the very high-energy and
multi-faceted vocal number "El Clavo Y La Cruz". Black Flag's "TV Party" is a classic of bored,
suburban, adolecent snottiness while the
Circle Jerks' hilarious "When the Shit Hits the Fan",
heard here as it is in the movie, performed by the
band itself, acoustic and with drum machine.
The lyrics are really great, even if the presentation
is intentionally shabby. With "Coup d'Etat" you'll find the Circle Jerks
in their usual punk/hardcore setting with
pounding energy and politically astute and acerbic lyrics.
(Also really nice panning for "A push from the
left and a shove from the right".) "Bad Man" by Juicy Bananas is a menacing
soul groove number about dangerous living. Fear's "Let's Have a War" is a classic hardcore
political song: "Let's Have a War / So you can go and
die". "Pablo Picasso" by Burning Sensations is a funny
and somewhat snotty song in a "Peter Gunn"
zone while "Institutionalized" by Suicidal Tendencies
is a howl of fear and rage with blistering energy.
2020 September 11 • Friday
As of this writing you can still get Reuben Radding's third
Corona Diary. The first two sold out fast because
Reuben is a brilliant photographer and his work is amazing.
Get it here.
2020 September 09 • Wednesday
Other Half has been my favorite brewery for a while now and their Brooklyn
location a beloved and scruffy oasis in a very unassuming area:
conveniently near the F and G train, across the street from a McDonald's,
practically under the BQE and a stone's throw from a junkyard
and the Gowanus Canal.
Walking home from there can, if I play my cards right, take me past
the Department of Sanitation block where parked garbage trucks line
the streets. With the pandemic shutting down Other Half's tap room
and all bars being either closed or only a little bit open
for the last half a year or so, Other Half started cranking
out can releases (plus a few bottles) and has been
producing some fantastic beers during the spring and summer,
all available for online order and curbside pick-up (with delivery
and shipping to some areas). But they really outdid themselves with their Green City event
this year. Since they couldn't have an in-person festival as they usually do,
they went all out on concept. Their "Broccoli" beers, which do not
contain broccoli, are more or less mapped to the Mario video games. So for Green City 2020 they made this into a big thing,
with Broccoli World Level 1: Broccoli Kong vs Wizard as
an opening salvo. And then came the Green City box, with levels 2, 3 and 4 plus
four regional editions, a few stouts, a triple IPA and another one
that I'm not remembering. And it came in this box:
In addition to 24 cans of beer, inside were your own paper art Super Broctendo
console and cartridge.
Also a pin with their Rochester, NY, location logo.
That would have been more than enough but they went ahead and made Broccoli World
a real game you could play on your phone or tablet.
You talk to beer cans, find lost kittens, go into bars, do a Frogger-like
level at one point, jump over moving chattering teeth, use moving
platforms to get around and eventually collect five ingredients you
need to brew a beer to soothe a melted cheese volcano monster. Something like that.
And then they did something on their YouTube channel that was probably
great but I wasn't able to watch it live and haven't had the time to
check it out yet.
Of course the beer is the important thing. I was able to get through
the first three levels today, with the help of a friend. So far
Level 3 is the favorite.
Looking forward to leveling up soon!
2020 September 07 • Monday
Dominic Frontiere's score for the movie
Hammersmith Is Out is our 638th
Soundtrack of the Week.
The main title blends harpsichord with a weird
electric guitar sound, something similar to a wah effect
but I don't think it's that. A breathy female
voice says "Hammersmith is out!" with echo,
the groove gets a little deeper, and then
after a Morricone-like percussion sting,
it swings into groovy psych pop. It's an unusual mixture of
things but it's neat! The next tune is "Kiddo", which is kind
of a cheesy lounge pop instrumental number with a sprinkle
of soul and sunshine pop and, out of nowhere,
a blistering acid rock guitar solo that's quite impressive. Then there's a proper song, "For Openers",
which has lyrics by its singer, Sally Stevens.
It's a country pop/rock/blues/waltz. "Many times I've
tried / Walking out the door / But your fancy lies /
Kept me coming back for more." It even has a
recitation section. Then it's back to cheesy lounge pop background music
stuff for "Cookout Society". It's hard to listen to
without thinking of wall to wall carpet and ferns.
It's a nice tune but the sonics of it instantly
conjure up a kind of anaesthetized decadence. Nice
guitar playing on this one, too. "Henry Joe and Jimmie Jean" is a wistful
and western-tinged cue that has harmonica has
the lead song and stylistically fits comfortably
in between some of Henry Mancini's music for
Silver Streak and John Barry's
Americana concert music. The A side is over after "Get Me Out of Here",
which starts off sounding like the album's first
representation of dramatic underscore but very quickly
revisits the main title theme. Side B kicks off with another song that Sally Stevens
wrote lyrics for: "When Were Your Dreams Worth
Remembering (Jimmie Jean's Theme)". "Sad little girl
in the looking glass / Who told you wishes come true?"
The vocals are provided by a female chorus and Frontiere
accompanies them with lush string arrangements. After this we go "Under the Bridge" for another reprise
of the main theme with a very dramatic intro that uses
what sounds like a cathedral organ. Things pick up in energy and tempo for
"Topless Rock" which is a frenetic go-go number
with Hammond organ and horns adding to the electric
guitar, bass and drums. It's pretty crazy and
hard to resist! It's a smooth transition from that to the bluesy
and relaxed "Road House Blues", another tune
that features the harmonica. "Jimmie Jean's Theme" is an instrumental version
of the vocal that started out the album side
but slower, heavier and more solemn with
a rich atmosphere of portentousness. The energy level shoots up again with the acid rock
funk go-go "Snake Dance", a definite highlight of this record
with another burning guitar solo. And then we just get the end title of the main theme
again, and this colorful and exciting record is over
too soon!
2020 September 04 • Friday
Direct from the heart of the Art Deco age, here's the September 1931
Delineator magazine.
And the content is remarkable as well, with some very reasonable
suggestions for talking to children about sex and intriguing
short fiction and serialized novels. This kitchen is pretty stunning.
In the book You Only Live Twice, the head of the
Japanese Secret Service tells James Bond that "this Western
habit of blowing the nose and carefully wrapping up the result
in silk or fine linen and harbouring it in your pocket as if
it were something precious" is ridiculous.
Many of the ads are striking, exactly as they were meant to be.
There's also a large piece about the new Waldorf Astoria hotel. The old one had been torn down to make way for the Empire State Building, currently under construction.
Prior to looking at this magazine, I hadn't realized there had been an old Waldorf Astoria where the Empire State Building is.
2020 September 02 • Wednesday
Happy birthday! The July 1959 issue of Tempo, a "men's magazine",
leads with a provocative cover story: "5 Million Hot Rodders:
Are They a Menace?".
They start out by noting that "Hollywood and yellow journalism"
bear much responsibility for the fact that "an uninformed
United States public associates the term with leather-jacketed
juvenile delinquents, crazy-mixed-up kids and hell-raising
adolescents".
"Nothing—but nothing—could be further from the truth", they go on. Not only have "Hot Rodders … been highly approved by the
governments, police departments and civic leagues of every city
they have emerged in", President Eisenhower himself
"beams his approval as he congratulates 50 finalists in
a Teen-Age Road-e-O".
(And surely it's worth noting that the photo shows Eisenhower,
who commanded both the National Guard and the US Army to integrate schools,
affectionately shaking hands with the only non-white person in the photo.) According to Tempo, "Hot Rodders are bound by word and
deed and honor to assist any motorist in trouble" and that they
have been investigated and given "a clean bill of health" by the FBI.
The article concludes by informing its readers that today's
Hot Rodder is tomorrow's Engineer!
They also credit the publishers of Rods Illustrated
for "statistical information and photographs".
