In the annals of crime, crime fiction, and crime news stories even to this day is the phrase killed when cleaning the gun. What this refers to is the after-the-fact explanation for how the father, friend, brother, mother, and sometimes the self, got shot. Because when you shoot somebody out of intent but you don’t… Continue reading Killed When Cleaning Gun: Alibis That Never Make Sense
Author: Lee Wallender
Deception, influence, fakes, illusions, themed environments, simulations, secret places, secret infrastructure, imagined places, dreamscapes, movie sets and props, evasions, camouflage, studio backlots, miniatures.
Switchboard Receptionist School: Never Again
File this one in the annals of things that will never again exist: switchboard operator school. This ad from the June 1, 1948 Los Angeles Times hit the zeitgeist of the times perfectly well, though. Picture: it’s 1948, the war has just ended, L.A. is booming, phones are still run through switchboards (though not for… Continue reading Switchboard Receptionist School: Never Again
Nancy Kovack, Forgotten Siren of the Sixties, the One That Got Away
Nancy Kovack is long retired, no need to act anymore, and firmly married to conductor Zubin Mehta. But in her day, she graced both the big screen and the cathode ray screen with her elegantly sleek looks reminiscent of Honor Blackman. Nancy Kovack is also the one who got away. With big-star quality looks and… Continue reading Nancy Kovack, Forgotten Siren of the Sixties, the One That Got Away
Causality Story Sequencer: Stroke-of-Genius Plot Structuring Software You Need
For fiction or scriptwriters, it’s the age-old problem of balancing the creative right-brain side of masterful prose, characters, inner thoughts, and scene descriptions–what I collectively will call “writing”–with the structured left-brain planning side of making and moving around chunks of plot. The balance always seems to be off: you’re always too far in one direction… Continue reading Causality Story Sequencer: Stroke-of-Genius Plot Structuring Software You Need
“The Mob” (1951): Unsung Film Noir With Stellar Cast
In some kind of dream classic film world, you would watch a movie with Broderick Crawford, Ernest Borgnine, Richard Kiley, Neville Brand, with a brief walk-on from Charles Bronson. It’s no dream, it’s reality, but you have to claw back to 1951 for that one–well before most of those names had achieved star status. Crawford… Continue reading “The Mob” (1951): Unsung Film Noir With Stellar Cast