TV review - "Alfred Hitchcock Presents Season 1 Ep 12 - Hangover" (1962) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

 Reunites Tony Randall and Jayne Mansfield from Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? and Randall even plays an ad man again. He's got a hangover and can't remember what he did. There was a Cornell Woolrich story with that plot but this one is based on a story by John D MacDonald.

Randall is excellent and believable in his descent to murder. Mansfield is quite good - better than the actor who plays Randall's wife. Mansfield's short hair is a shock and it works for the reality of her performance.

It didn't need to be an hour. It feels like half an hour. I thought it would be Randall retracing his steps and he does a bit of that but there's no real accumulation of narrative. It's more, he was on the piss, remembers how he stuffs up, accidentally kills his wife.

Worth a watch though esp for that Randall-Mansfield re-teaming.

Movie review - "Cape Fear" (1962) ****

 Robert Mitchum is electrifying - it's a brave performance in a way showing what a complete prick he could be.

He teams well with Gregory Peck whose decency and dullness (maybe that's unfair) is a wonderful counterpoint. Bergen rises to the occasion, particularly in the rape sequence - it's so powerful. 

I can understand the censor's unease about some because Peck's daughter (Lori Martin) looks really young. I mean, she looks twelve or something.

A simple story brought to life by excellent cast and writing plus divine photography and Bernard Herrmann's score. It's not exactly a barrell of laughs.

Superb support work from Barrie Chase the girl who got raped - is this is sensational role. Was this Joan Henry's influence on J. Lee Thompson? You don't normally see this kind of sensitivity.

The one flaw - the plan of Peck's character at the end, luring Mitchum into a trap with just one deputy. That's so risky and dumb. And not needed - they just could have Peck and his family go into hiding with a bodyguard.

And the final fight sequence probably drags on a bit.

Book review - McGee #5 - "A Deadly Shade of Gold" by John D MacDonald (1965)

I read this after The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapped and liked it more - it was easier to read, pacier. There was more action and suspense, less stuff about real estate cons. The McGuffin is an old statue - the motivation is clear: avenging the death of a friend. The friend had a woman, so of course McGee has sex with her in her traumatised state. She dies which gives the piece some heft. Some life goes out of the book after this - it introduces a whole new woman and bunch of characters and got tiring. Meyer is in it too being annoying but not much. The physical stuff is well done, Mexico is evocatively described, the second half is too long, but I found this a strong entry.

Book review - McGee#10 - "The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper" by John D MacDonald (1968)

McGee gets a request from an ex (who he seduced when she was recovering from a bad marriage) who has died... to look after her daughter who is in trouble. Presumably McGee thinks he can bang her  - or her sister; he thinks about it but doesn't go through with it.

There was a lot of plot here - a lot - heaps of stuff about real estate fraud that got confusing. He has sex with a nurse who winds up dead. There's an intriguing relationship with a cop. Good action but all the plot and investigation got me down. And McGee got on my nerves a lot.

Book review - Travis McGee#9 - "Pale Gray for Guilt" by John D. MacDonald

I'm struggling to get through these McGee novels now. The set up is great - McGee avenging the supposed suicide of an old friend - but the bulk of this is dull real estate talk with a sting from McGee and the dull, smug Meyer. The ending is good with another exciting action scene on the boat and there is some decent description of small towns in Florida. But the middle section was hard for me.

He has a girlfriend Puss who hangs around and disappears - it turns out she thought she was going to die, so rooted McGee to feel better, then got better and... anyway I just wish she was more involved in the plot. He doesn't have sex with the grieving widow and gets high fives for it.

Book review - McGee#6 - "Bright Orange for the Shroud" (1965) by John D. MacDonald

I was wishing McGee would stop trying to help emotionally damaged women who he'd "fix" and end up having sex with but in this one he's helping an emotionally damaged man, an old male friend, and it removes all sexual tension and is less interesting. So serves me right.

I didn't like this for the most part - I couldn't care less about McGee's stupid friend who was ripped off. The best thing about it was the description of Florida life - small towns, boats, etc. But the last third it really picked up with some excellent action and three great scenes - fighting the psycho, where McGee gets knocked out and comes across two dead bodies (he's passive but it's pretty powerful) and a final confrontation on the boat. The villain is a real piece of work, a charismatic rapist, like the first McGee villain.

Movie review - McGee# 8 - "One Fearful Yellow Eye" by John D. MacDonald

McGee heads to Chicago a town he clearly dislikes for another adventure. It feels longer and flabbier than other books in the series, but he's still "healing" emotionally crippled women by seducing them.

He's called on a case by an ex who married a doctor who died and some money is missing. McGee takes sideswipes at gays, and meets a frigid girl who - you guessed it - he makes unfrigid. The doctor was a great guy though he slept with a teenager.

It's not a bad mystery, involving blackmail and kids who turn out not to be the kids of people. The Nazi twist with some Israeli agents does seem a little OTT and I wasn't wild how McGee was saved by a deux ex machina.

Some very good description of action and interesting philosophy.

Book review - McGee #7 - "Darker than Amber" by John D. MacDonald (1966)

One of the best known McGee novels because it was turned into a film with Rod Taylor. I can see why they went with this one - it's exciting and moody for the most part, and has a great beginning with Vangie being thrown off a bridge into the water, and strong emotional currents with McGee kind of falling for her... then she dies. He goes looking for revenge.

His plan is very complicated for what is basically messing with someone's head. The second big female role is the other girl who helped Vangie, who is a bit of a shallow bitch in MacDonald's world and not worth saving - she suggests having sex with him of course as does Vangie. and the girl he talks about at the beginning, who was getting over a bad relationship - McGee really likes to take advantage of vulnerable women (he refers to another woman he took advantage of, one he was holed up in a hotel room with while fleeing her ex). The girl who doubles for Vangie is more enigmatic - from memory she had a bigger part in the movie.
 
There is some good writing here - description of a fight scene, an exciting confrontation with a killer called Griff, the death of Vangie.  MacDonald probably should have had a living client who was being fleeced to complicate things.

Book review - Travis McGee#4 - "The Quick Red Fox" by John D. MacDonald (1964)

A Hollywood movie star is being blackmailed for participating in a couple of orgies giving McGee the opportunity to be judgey about other people's sex lives. He falls in love with the movie star's assistant (unleashing her sexuality of course) which made me worry for her... she is almost killed though not killed... she reveals at the end she's married, that's how they get rid of her.

He punches out a couple of lesbians, there's a surprisingly high death toll for a blackmail yarn - the baddy is a bit of a psycho. Some colourful characters if not a great mystery.

Book review - McGee#3 - "A Purple Place for Dying" (1964) by John D. MacDonald (warning: spoilers)

Gets off to a great start with McGee hired to do a job by a woman who is then shot to death in front of him... Then the body can't be found and people don't believe him. The death toll is high in this one - there's her lover, husband, the killer, the killer's helper... there's a good last minute Chinatown twist and of course a broken woman (the dead woman's lover's sister) who just needs a good shagging from McGee to be put right. Entertaining read though at times MacDonald seems to place equal importance on things in his books so I miss vital stuff. That could just be me.

Book review - McGee #2 - "Nightmare in Pink" by John D. MacDonald (1964) (warning: spoilers)

The first half of this I wasn't that wild about - McGee being a big stud, particularly with the nubile sister of an old army buddy. There's endless descriptions of their love making and all the girls want McGee. But half way through he's cap is captured and drugged and although the baddy does the Basil Exposition thing too much it's very exciting - the second half is extremely exciting, in part because McGee is fighting off the influence of drugs, but also because you assume the girl is going to die since she and McGee have been so happy. (In fact she lives and the romance just peters out which is a nice realistic touch.)

Book review - "The Deep Blue Goodbye" (1964) by John D MacDonald 1st McGee (warning: spoilers)

The first Travis McGee. I'm giving this series a go. He's a good hero with many great wish fulfilment aspects - he lives on a boat, is in great shape, is smart, has a lot of women around some of who he has sex with. There's no Meyer in this one.

The plot has him chase after some missing money. McGee spends most of his time in pursuit of an evil guy, a thief and a rapist. The book is actually not that heavy on plot - it's more encounters with people and McGee's reflections on human nature. There's some tough fight scenes and a surprise at the end when a key girl dies. I can see its appeal to filmmakers but also the challenge involved. You'd really have to go into character - do voice over the whole lot, I feel.