Category: 42 Word Retrospectives

King Kong (1933)

King Kong

dir. Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack (1933)

Film poster: “King Kong” dir. Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack (1933)

Ambitious but poor, of interest mostly as an unintentional critique encapsulating assumptions of white privilege. Kong smacks of goofy claymation, pitted against a plethora of equally unconvincing dinosaurs (mostly rabid herbivores). Robert Armstrong delivers his lines as if caught serenading a teleprompter.

Red Flowers

Red Flowers: The Complete Mature Works of Yoshiharu Tsuge, Volume 2

by Yoshiharu Tsuge

ed. Mitsuhiro Asakawa, trans. Ryan Holmberg (Drawn & Quartelry, 2021)

Book cover: “Red Flowers: The Complete Mature Works of Yoshiharu Tsuge, Volume 2” by Yoshiharu Tsuge, ed. Mitsuhiro Asakawa, trans. Ryan Holmberg (Drawn & Quartelry, 2021)

Black-and-white comics in collectible hardcover with a lengthy essay discussing Tsuge’s work in the period 1967-1968. The backdrops of rural Japan are exquisitely detailed, the stories themselves mostly wistful, open-ended mood pieces depicting Tsuge’s travels and characters that stuck in his mind.

Star Wars: Heir to the Empire

Star Wars: Heir to the Empire

by Timothy Zahn (Bantam Spectra, 1991)

audiobook read by Marc Thompson (Random House, 2011)

Book cover: “Star Wars: Heir to the Empire” by Timothy Zahn (Bantam Spectra, 1991); audiobook read by Marc Thompson (Random House, 2011)

The novel that triggered a publishing avalanche. Zahn deserves credit for his treatment of old favourites, for developing a subdued, somewhat cynical military/political setting post- Return of the Jedi, and in the person of Thrawn for taking adversaries in a new direction.

The Confessions of Arsène Lupin

The Confessions of Arsène Lupin

by Maurice Leblanc (Éditions Pierre Lafitte, 1913)

audiobook read by Maxwell Caulfield, Juliet Mills & Stefan Rudnicki (Blackstone, 2020)

Book cover: “The Confessions of Arsène Lupin” by Maurice Leblanc (Éditions Pierre Lafitte, 1913); audiobook read by Maxwell Caulfield, Juliet Mills & Stefan Rudnicki (Blackstone, 2020)

Ten more stories in which self-styled gentleman thief Arsène Lupin outwits the French police (and everyone else), albeit he does survive a few close calls this volume. Leblanc crafts ingenious scenarios, lighter in narrative voice but no less memorable than Conan Doyle.

Death on the Cherwell

Death on the Cherwell

by Mavis Doriel Hay (Skeffington & Son, 1935)

audiobook read by Patience Tomlinson (Soundings, 2015)

Book cover: “Death on the Cherwell” by Mavis Doriel Hay (Skeffington & Son, 1935); audiobook read by Patience Tomlinson (Soundings, 2015)

Hay starts off with amateur detectives (students from the Oxford women’s college whose setting elevates the novel) then discards them—along with the obvious suspects—in favour of an avuncular Scotland Yard man whose deductive skills at no point outstrip the reader’s.

Yes Minister, Series 1

Yes Minister, Series 1

by Antony Jay & Jonathan Lynn (BBC 2, 1980)

TV poster: “Yes Minister, Series 1” by Antony Jay & Jonathan Lynn (BBC 2, 1980)

A slightly patchy satire, which in later series would become truly sublime in deriding British government and the Civil Service—both gleefully caricatured yet tellingly believable! The well-meaning but ductile Jim Hacker struggles to make headway against silver-tongued bureaucrat Sir Humphrey Appleby.

Third Year at Malory Towers

Third Year at Malory Towers

by Enid Blyton (Methuen, 1948)

audiobook read by Beth Eyre (Bolinda, 2021)

Book cover: “Third Year at Malory Towers” by Enid Blyton (Methuen, 1948); audiobook read by Beth Eyre (Bolinda, 2021)

Once again, Darrell is largely sidelined, Blyton leaning a little too heavily into everyday depictions… while reserving all the drama for three new characters! Still, the term breezes by and offers some tear-jerking highs amidst all the idyll of Malory Towers life.

Derelict Space Sheep