George Axelrod (1922–2003)

This book starts strong and ends strong. A little doughy in the middle though, with what felt like a lot of details that were not necessary to the story. And overall, the whole book gave me a sense of deja vu, as though I'd read it before. But I hadn't. Weird.
The story is that of a publisher being offered the posthumous, last ever book by a world-famous author. And he gets that offer twice in the matter of 24 hours! But which offer is real, and is there an actual book written by that actual show more author at all? It's a muddle of a situation that Dick Sherman, the publisher, gets tangled in, and the untangling may very well be his undoing! show less

Blackmailer was first published in 1952 and, if you didn't know that, you wouldn't have guessed it. The plot revolves around a publisher, Dick Sherman, of a small little-known publishing house, who often gets stuck entertaining authors' wives. Jean Dahl visits him and offers to sell him the last unpublished manuscript of a now-deceased but famous author, Charles Anstruther, who appears to be like Hemingway, a big game hunter, a traveler, a legend. Dahl "had thick, honey-colored blonde hair show more that she wore a little longer than this winter's styles dictated." She wore a beaver coat and a little black dress. Sherman thinks the whole thing is quite strange and thinks it over. An agent, Max Shriber, then sends him a letter offering to sell the same book. The whole thing is quite preposterous.
Turns out that Sherman ten years earlier, had dated Janet Whitney, who was now Hollywood's brightest, sexiest star. Between Whitney and Dahl, Sherman's head is spinning around. Ten years earlier, he had fallen for Whitney, but you know even then that she was going to be a big star. "She was a beautiful girl with soft, dark hair, greenish eyes, and a wide, exciting mouth" and "driving, compelling ambition." She had left him behind and never looked back.

It gets even crazier when two hoods follow Dahl to Sherman's apartment and tear the place apart looking for something. Tearing the place apart even includes stripsearching Dahl. With his head still spinning, Sherman sees both Dahl and Whitney at a party thrown at a mansion and bodies and blackmail start flying around.

Although it doesn't necessarily sound like much of a plot, it is a damn good book that is very hard to put down. The voice that Axelrod uses to narrate works quite well, an innocent man who can't quite comprehend what he has gotten mixed up in. Throw in movie starlets, mysterious dames, mean hoods, and rich people who have two-way mirrors and recording devices all over their houses and you have the makings of something real interesting. There are great fight scenes in the book and mysterious parlor games played at parties with the lights out. There is intrigue and mystery here. show less

Well made, in a 1950s style, with humour that feels more disturbing by today's standards. Nice musical background, and a good pace. We hadn't seen Marilyn Monroe before and were quite impressed although it was very hard to understand the strong Southern accent she used as 'Cherie' in this film.

I didn't like the rodeo scenes at all, which did not look at all pleasant for the animals concerned, and I thought the hero (Don Murray) was not just naive and ignorant, but unpleasantly arrogant too; show more I thought the ending forced and unlikely, despite being rather predictable.

But it made a good light evening's viewing. The rating U is misleading as it's really not suitable for children.

Longer review here: https://suesdvdreviews.blogspot.com/2024/02/bus-stop-marilyn-monroe.html show less

Substance: The basic story-line makes points about the frantic anti-Communism of the time (post-WW2 to post-Korean-War) and plays on the McCarthy accusations and hearings. Anything else will spoil the fun.
The romance between Ben and Rosie happens too quickly in the film; I presume the book is a bit less abbreviated.
Style: Suspenseful and dramatic at the time (1962), the plot now looks obvious and the acting histrionic. However, the flash-backs to the brain-washing are superbly contrived, and show more Angela Lansbury is magnificent.

NOTES: Yes, McCarthy was bone-headed and grand-standing, but there really were Communists in the government at the time - and afterwards.
FWIW, if you don't have an intimate acquaintance with the layout of a particular large auditorium, there is no way you can find a path from one place to another without a map or a lot of back-tracking. Dramatic license at work.

Bizarre: (Wikipedia 2011-12-09) "In 1998, software engineer C.J. Silverio noted that several long passages of the novel seemed to be borrowed, almost word for word, from Robert Graves' 1934 novel I, Claudius. Forensic linguist John Olsson judged that "There can be no disputing that Richard Condon plagiarized from Robert Graves." 1. ^ Lara, Adair (4 October 2003). "Has a local software engineer unmasked 'The Manchurian Candidate'? Menlo Park woman says author Richard Condon plagiarized.". San Francisco Chronicle. http://articles.sfgate.com/2003-10-04/entertainment/17512034_1_silverio-richard-.... Retrieved 4 March 2011.

Interesting: (Amazon 2011-12-09) Claims the film was withheld by Sinatra for 25 years after Kennedy's assassination in 1963, but see this review at http://www.bookrags.com/research/the-manchurian-candidate-sjpc-03/

"The film received mixed reviews and mixed reactions—it was picketed in Orange County for being left wing and picketed in Paris for being right wing—but its original and gripping delineation of the lone gunman and his preparations for the murder of the president, so close to the actual death of Kennedy, propelled it into a kind of obscurity. Over the next 15 years it was difficult to see the film, increasing its aura and, as the amount of contradictory information mounted on the death of Kennedy, the work seemed prophetic not only in foreseeing a president murdered, but in foreseeing a political atmosphere that could make any conspiracy seem imaginable." show less