52-Pick-Up, by Elmore Leonard

(pb; 1974)

From the back cover

"Detroit businessman Harry Mitchell was having a mid-life crisis. He had an attractive wife at home. He had a voluptuous girlfriend on the side. And now he had a problem with porno movies.

"He was in one.

"A man with a stocking over his head and a .38 in his hand wanted a hundred grand to keep Harry's picture out of circulation. But the hoods behind this blackmail scam made a big mistake when they fingered Harry Mitchell for their pigeon.

"Because Harry Mitchell was the type of guy who played every game by nobody's rules but his own. And the more they got him mad, the more certain it was that the only pay-off Harry planned was getting even."


Review

Taut, plot corkscrew-y, riveting, edgy crime thriller, with characters and a denouement you're not likely to forget any time soon.

Excellent work from a top-notch writer.

Check this out.

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The film version was released stateside on November 7, 1986.

Roy Scheider played Harry Mitchell. Ann-Margaret played Barbara Mitchell. Kelly Preston played Cini.

John Glover played Alan Raimy. Robert Trebor played Leo Franks. Clarence Williams III played Bobby Shy. Vanity played Doreen. Lonny Chapman played Jim O'Boyle. Doug McClure played Mark Arveson.

Ron Jeremy (billed as Ron Jeremy Hyatt) played "Party Goer". Other porn star "Party Goer" cameos included: Amber Lynn, Tom Byron, Sharon Mitchell and Herschel Savage (billed as Harvey Cowen).

John Frankenheimer directed the film, from a screenplay by book author Elmore Leonard and John Steppling.

What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?, by Henry Farrell

(pb; 1960)

From the back cover:

“Baby Jane, a child star of early vaudeville, resented having to grow up in the shadow of her prettier sister Blanche Hudson, who became Hollywood’s reigning love goddess. Now, some fifty years later, they are together and alone. And reality has toppled crazily into eerie fantasy.

“Blanche now finds she is growing old in the shadow cast by Baby Jane – and a very sinister shadow it is.”

Review:

This gothic tale of sisterly love gone seriously wrong is at once beautiful and ugly. Beautiful because there is a weird kind of love between the two sisters, the invalid Blanche (whose films many people remember) and Baby Jane, whose petulant, erratic star waned the moment their parents died. Ugly because there’s a malevolent, creepy undertone to this novel, an undertone that doesn’t take long to rise to the troubling surface: consistently shocking, sad, with some great twists, this is a perfect read.

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Two movies resulted from this novel.

The first version was released stateside on October 31, 1962.

Bette Davis played Baby Jane Hudson. Joan Crawford played Blanche Hudson. Victor Buono as Edwin Flagg.

Robert Aldrich directed the film, from a script by Lukas Heller.

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The second version aired on American television on February 17, 1991. David Greene directed the film, from a script by Brian Taggert.

Vanessa Redgrave played Blanche Hudson. Lynn Redgrave, Vanessa's real-life sister, played Jane Hudson. John Glover played Billy. Amy Steel played Connie. Bruce A. Young played Dominick.