Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books Whose Endings Left Me Agog, Agape and Aghast.

Top Ten Tuesday is the weekly meme hosted by the gals at The Broke and the Bookish. Every week we post our top ten books on the given topic of the day. Don't forget to check in to see what books other bloggers are posting as their Top Ten.

Top Ten Books Whose Endings Left Me Agog, Agape and Aghast (not necessarily in a bad way):

Don't worry. No Spoilers. Far as I can help it, anyway.

1) THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD by Agatha Christie

When I read this Hercule Poirot mystery for the first time, many, MANY years ago, I remember wondering how Christie was able to do what she did in this tale of murder in the English village of King's Abbott. Of course I re-read it looking for the clues and still couldn't rightly figure it out, though I spotted a few sleights of hand.

This is the book that instantly catapulted Agatha Christie into the Valhalla of the Mystery Gods. It is definitely considered her most memorable and influential book  But I can't really say anymore without giving away the magician's trick.

2) AND THEN THERE WERE NONE by Agatha Christie

The second most famous of Christie's shocking endings, I suppose. A bunch of people gather on an island off the English coast at the palatial home of a wealthy man whom none of them actually knows. They are cut off from the mainland except by boat and the boatman seems to have disappeared.

The tension builds as murder by murder, each of the visitors is bumped off. Who could possibly be killing them off one by one? And why?

3) THE MAN IN THE BROWN SUIT by Agatha Christie

Christie used a similar sleight of hand in this book published previously to THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD - but no one seems to have noticed. Certainly this book didn't approach the notoriety that TMORA did.

When a daring young woman takes a sea voyage in search of clues to the identity of the man in the brown suit, she finds adventure, romance and intrigue. Not to mention, kidnapping and murder.

Note: I could easily fill this list with books by Agatha Christie alone since she was the Queen of Surprise Endings, but I'll restrain myself.

4) GARBO LAUGHS by Elizabeth Hay

Hay is a wonderful Canadian writer whom I discovered by accident and boy am I glad I did. GARBO LAUGHS is the story (more or less) of Harriet Browning who, denied her fair share of movies as a child, now indulges herself in daily movie-thons to the exclusion of everything else, i. e. reality and her family.

What happens when a woman would rather be watching movies than living life? Wait and see.

The ending comes out of left field and left me shocked, but bemused and sort of glad.

5) PASSAGE by Connie Willis

A doctor and a group of her students are studying the scientific effects of near death experiences at a labyrinthine hospital.

This sci-fi story, by the incomparable Connie Willis (thank you yet again Nancy Pearl for introducing me to Willis) contains one of the most shocking events I've ever happened upon in a book. Actually, this twist occurs in the middle of the story, but its effects reverberate for the rest of the book.  In the end you still can't quite believe what happened. So I'm including it in this list because it is such a cataclysmic thing - story-wise.

I know I'm building it up, but trust me, you will NEVER see this coming and once it does, you may put the book down and walk away.

I did, for awhile. Then I came back to see what happened next. Willis is a very daring writer.

I am not ordinarily a sci-fi reader and this book is not really what you might think of as sci-fi, but I don't know what else to call it.

6) BY A SLOW RIVER by Philippe Claudel

A retired policeman obsessed with the long ago murder of a young girl recounts a grim narrative of life as it was lived in his small French village during WWI.  Does one murder matter when just a few miles away, young men are killing each other over a few yards of muddy ground?

The unflinching ending will surprise and dismay.

7) A QUEER KIND OF LOVE by George Baxt

Pharaoh Love is an openly gay NYC Detective. He gets along because the higher-ups and his mates at the cop shop admire his flamboyant knack for catching murderers. His arrest record is unmatched.

The idea of an openly gay homicide cop is a bit far-fetched considering these books were published in or around 1994, but Pharaoh Love is one of Baxt's best creations and if you've never read any of the gritty, razzle-dazzle Love books, I recommend them. This one especially has quite a surprise ending which may or may not leave you smiling.

George Baxt was also the author of many mysteries which involved Hollywood stars and/or celebrities helping solve crimes. i.e. THE WILLIAM POWELL AND MYRNA LOY MURDER CASE. To see a complete listing of all Baxt's books, please check here.

8) ETHAN FROME by Edith Wharton

A grim story of forbidden love in a cold and harsh New England setting. Ethan Frome is a man who married the wrong woman and lives to deeply regret it when love in the form of his wife's young and lovely cousin comes to stay.

The ending, not what you'd expect, is still ghastly.

9) BRAT FARRAR by Josephine Tey

Eight years after a 13 year old boy named Patrick Ashby 'committed suicide' - his body was never found - he turns up again to claim an estate. Or does he? Patrick's twin brother says the young man calling himself Brat Farrar is an impostor, but the rest of his family accepts him.

10) PLOT IT YOURSELF by Rex Stout

A series of brutal murders is set in motion when a book organization which represents authors and publishers hires Nero Wolfe to stop what is obviously a lucrative swindle involving an especially egregious form of plagiarism.

Whodunit will shock you.

Tuesday Overlooked Films: ATHENA (1954) starring Jane Powell, Edmund Purdom and Debby Reynolds.

Tuesday is Overlooked (or Forgotten) Film Day a weekly meme hosted by Todd Mason over at his blog, SWEET FREEDOM. Don't forget to take a looksee to find out what other films and/or A/V material other bloggers are talking about today.

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ATHENA is such a goofy little film. A musical with pleasant but forgettable music and the oddest storyline this side of your favorite health spa and body-building gym. I've always suspected that ATHENA was the unwitting harbinger of the healthy foods and exercise-will-do-you-good craze which later took over America.

Could it be?

In ATHENA, a film directed by Richard Thorpe, with Esther Williams listed as an uncredited writer, Jane Powell (Athena) and Debby Reynolds (Minerva) play sisters who live with their eccentric astrology loving, health enthusiast grandparents (along with a bunch of other siblings) up in the California hills.

The grandmother, Salome Mulvain (Evelyn Varden) is the star gazer and the grandfather and patriarch, Ulysses Mulvain (Louis Calhern) is the muscles proponent. In fact the whole (and very large) family lives in a sort of back-to-nature compound (that could only exist in movie-land) where they're all free to commune with nature and perfect their body-building skills. (Though the grandma has always looked a bit plump to me, she was probably excused from heavy duty stretching and bending because of her age. Though why the same didn't apply to her hubby - who knows?)

The compound seems to be shared by a whole host of muscle-bound young men (can't remember if they just came there to train or if they were family members) who waltz (a figure of speech) around the place in brief attire flexing their many muscles and sneering at outsiders such as, Edmund Purdom who plays Adam Shaw, an uptight lawyer who gets tangled up with the Mulvains.

Director Richard Thorpe on set. Louis Calhern in yellow pants. Edmund Purdom far right.

These manly young men are all being primed to enter a Mr. Universe-like contest - and this is seen as a desirable thing. (In fact one of the men hanging around the compound is Steve Reeves, Mr. Universe, 1950. He featured largely in some of the film's posters.)

The screenplay theorizes that all anyone needs to de-stress and de-uptight is a good dose of spinach juice and three or four hours doing deep knee bends. Gazing at the stars wouldn't  hurt either.

Then it sounded like esoteric nonsense, now - maybe not so much. Though there is such a thing as too much muscle - don't you think?

I haven't seen ATHENA for many, MANY years but for whatever reason, I remember the storyline and the stars (the movie must have made some kind of impression on me). I wonder if someone out there in the Blogosphere will have heard of this movie and maybe we can dish about the strangeness of it all.

Here's the plot:

Life at the carefree Mulvain compound is thrown into a tizzy when reality, in the form of some sort of legal problem (something to do with taxes, I think), rears its unhealthy head. Grandpa Ulysses isn't the sort to pay too much attention to the outside world's rules and regulations. So that brings Adam Shaw's law firm into the mix.

He is a very uptight, upright, slightly pompous but handsome, three piece suit-wearing lawyer whose first mistake is to try and make heads or tails of the Mulvain's quirky lifestyle. In the midst of attempting to make the Grandfather understand the problems the Mulvains are facing, Adam meets Athena.  She is the complete opposite of his fiance (the sophisticated, cocktail drinking Linda Christian who was, I think, married to Purdom or just about to be in real life). 

Adam finds himself intrigued with Athena, a perky little blond who goes about in short shorts spouting healthful lifestyle hints, serving fruits and veggies and breaking into song as the mood strikes.

In truth, Jane Powell is delightful. (Far as I'm concerned, she can do no wrong.) She and Louis Calhern (who had co-starred together in other films) are the best things in the movie. Jane even manages through all the silliness to spout a bit of wisdom.

Grandma Mulvain (Evelyn Varden) Adam Shaw (Edmund Purdom) and Athena (Jane Powell)

Edmund Purdom is strangely compelling in a totally miscast role. Oh, he's okay as the uptight lawyer, but once he leaves his offices and meanders into the Mulvain compound he looks like a fish out of water - a stranger in a strange land. Well, he's supposed to, but jeez, the guy just looks so uneasy. So NOT ready to star in a musical about, astrology, exercise, vegetarian food, muscle bound men and young women with perky notions.

But he perseveres and occasionally doesn't look fretful.

Debby Reynolds exercising.

In the meantime, Minerva (Debby Reynolds) is being courted by another wimpy outsider, the crooner, Vic Damone, who plays Johnny Nyle. There is absolutely no chemistry between Reynolds and Damone (well, there was never any chemistry between Vic Damone and any of his co-stars, possibly why his screen career was not of long duration), but they gave it the good old MGM try.

Trouble festers when the Mulvains try to convert Adam to their way of life. But one can't expect him to suddenly throw over his previous (and very lucrative) career as a successful attorney to join in the Mulvain family hi-jinks. 

Let's face it, the Mulvains and the rest of the world are incompatible.

So there's drama and turmoil, Athena and Adam face heartbreak. But just when love's true course seems about to be permanently derailed, Adam manages to save the compound with some legal mumbo jumbo, there's some sort of muscle-bound pageant and all is forgiven. Or so I remember it.

In 1954, when I saw this, I would have been an impressionable kid. I loved this movie and thought I wouldn't mind being a member of the Mulvain clan. They all seemed so happy and content and sure of themselves. I could easily get to like spinach juice.

Looking backwards, from a great and wise old age, I see the movie's obvious faults and yet I can't help but think that all the nonsense the Mulvains spouted has come home to roost. What seemed arcane and weird then - the vegetarianism, the devotion to exercise, the star gazing, is all main stream now. (I could name a President who had a resident astrologer in the White House.)

Go figure.

The Dick Van Dyke Show Blogathon! Today!

Thanks go to fellow classic movie-TV-devotee Ivan Shreve who is doing hosting duties for The Dick Van Dyke Show Blogathon over at his blog, THRILLING DAYS OF YESTERYEAR.  That's where a bunch of us early television mavens will be dishing Dick Van Dyke all day today. So don't forget to check out what the other Blogathon participants are up to (at the link above).

Ivan (who should know) considers The Dick Van Dyke Show the best television comedy show of all time. His Desert Island pick. So of course, he had to choose the show as the subject for his first ever BLOGATHON, especially since October 3rd is the 50th Anniversary of the show's debut on the air.

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The oh-so-amiable and talented clown, Dick Van Dyke, had such a quirky way of moving. Smooth he was not.  If he were a letter of the alphabet, he would be the letter Z. All angles - the perfect klutz. That odd, long and blocky face fits him perfectly too. And he was always so good at looking befuddled. (Which, as Rob Petrie he spent a lot of time doing.) There never was anyone else quite like him on television.

Mary Tyler Moore has such a winning personality. As Rob's wife, Laura Petrie, she was a real casting coup. No matter what happened on the show or how funny she was called on to be, she was always a lady - the likes of which you never see on TV anymore.

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Okay, on to the show:

Today I'm talking about two Dick Van Dyke episodes in keeping with our excess of zeal: Both episodes are from the last season of the show - Season 5.

So, all together now, let's start humming the theme song.

LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO DAY (directed by Jerry Paris) is one of my favorite episodes primarily because it features lots of Ann Morgan Guilbert who plays Millie Helper, Laura's ditzy best friend and neighbor. Guilbert always made me laugh and I have a slight suspicion it's because she kind of reminded me of Imogene Coca - they both had the same kind of insipient looniness lurking in their eyes. (In later years, Guilbert was hilarious as the hotsy-totsy grandma on THE NANNY.)

Ann Morgan Guilbert and Jerry Paris

Millie is the wife of Jerry Helper (played by another favorite: Jerry Paris - who also directed these two episodes).  Jerry is a dentist - which in and of itself is funny, though why that should be, I don't know. It just is. They live next door to Rob and Laura Petrie in New Rochelle, New York - a suburban enclave.

In Long Day's Journey Into Day, Rob, Ritchie (Rob and Laura's young son), Jerry and Millie and their kids, are going on an overnight fishing trip. Laura is staying home because she's got a cold.

She reassures Rob who is hesitant to leave her, and bravely claims she's not at all afraid to stay in the house overnight by herself. She tells Rob that she has tons of sewing to do. (Hey, it was the early 60's) She thinks she'll be fine. But of course, we know different.

By the way, at the beginning of this episode Laura is wearing white patent leather go-go boots. They were a HUGE fad in the 6o's. (We all had them.) Just in case you should see this episode and not being from that time (unlike some of us) you wonder why on earth Laura is wearing drum majorette boots in the house.

Just before leaving, Millie tells Laura to place a bunch of tin cans in front of the door so if anyone breaks in she'll hear the racket. Millie is the sort of friend who reacts with paranoia at the slightest provocation - that's why I love her.

Besides paranoia, Millie has brought over their pet bird, Herschel (some sort of parrot but looks more like a mynah bird) who keeps saying, "Don't be nervous, don't be nervous."  Just what you need to hear when you're pretending you're not nervous.

Millie also gives Laura a parting gift: a thing that looks like a pen but is really an alarm. "If someone breaks in and tries to bash you in the head..." You pull the 'pen' apart and and it makes a big noise.

Millie's just trying to be helpful.

Okay, so after everyone leaves, Laura and Herschel are home alone in a house that suddenly looks and feels remarkably sterile and unfriendly. Laura paces, telling herself there's nothing to worry about. She tries to do some busy work but the house creaks and groans and makes strange night time house noises. (She turns on both the radio and television to keep herself company.)

Mary Tyler Moore is so good at being brave when she's really jumpy, helpless and scared - Millie's paranoia has caught on.

Later that same night, as Laura takes a shower (after placing a bunch of tin cans by the front door), Millie returns - she's caught a train back to keep Laura company. She makes a heck of racket knocking over the cans at the front door (she has a key) but Laura doesn't hear it. When Millie figures out that Laura must be in the bathroom she marches right in and they both share a nice screaming bout of hysteria.

For the rest of the evening Laura and Millie react to every noise and creak as though Jack the Ripper and a gang of burglars were about to break in at any moment. It is very funny stuff. Then later, Rob himself, hit with an allergy attack at the fishing cabin, decides he'd better drive home before morning.

Well, you have to see the show but I think you can figure out what happens next.

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A DAY IN THE LIFE OF ALAN BRADY (directed by Jerry Paris) is my second episode and it features the whole show's staff - Rob Petrie is the head comedy writer for the Alan Brady Show which stars the egomaniacal Alan Brady (played by the one and only Carl Reiner - the creator of The Dick Van Dyke Show). Rob's writing partners down at the television studio are Buddy Sorrell (Morey Amsterdam) and Sally Rogers (Rose-Marie). Richard Deacon plays the perpetually pompous Mel Cooley, the show's all around manager (for want of a better title).

This particular episode takes place on a day when a documentary film crew is following Alan Brady around filming a typical day in the egocentric star's life.

Alan decides he want to film at Rob and Laura's typical suburban house so he can show America how the 'little people' love him. The fact that Rob and Laura are throwing Millie and Jerry an anniversary party that same night doesn't faze Alan in the slightest

Millie is flabbergasted that Alan Brady wants to be part of their anniversary celebration - (and that the party will be on television). She loves the idea despite the fact that Alan can never remember who she and Jerry are.

So the evening is set for disaster...uh, I mean, Alan Brady's spontaneous arrival.

Among the guests at the party are a husband and wife whom no one seems to like but they're invited anyway because they give good presents. He drinks, she flirts with anything in pants. They are the infamous Hy (Lou Wills) and Blanche (Joyce Jameson).

Joyce Jameson

When Blanche hangs all over Rob (I'm just crazy about comedy writers.), then Buddy then Alan, events go rapidly down hill.

Rob directs everyone to act naturally when Alan Brady shows up with his documentary crew. No muss. No fuss. But Alan doesn't want natural. He wants everyone to rush to the door and embrace him. He wants tons of love flung in his direction. Okay, let's shoot it again and this time gimme all the love you got. Blanche takes that a bit too literally.

Why doesn't anything ever go according to plan?

Because then it wouldn't be The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Saturday Salon + Flash Fiction Challenge

Reginald Marsh's incredible work as an artist had somehow escaped me until a couple of days ago I saw three of his paintings on Patti Abbott's blog. I was instantly smitten.

"I must see more," I said.

And I did.  Ain't the internet grand?

A bit of bio:

Reginald Marsh (1898 - 1954) was an American artist born in France. but he grew up in New Jersey. He is most notably known for his riotous, vivid in movement, paintings of NYC in the 1920's and 30's.  Marsh captured the hurly-burly of Depression era streets, crowded Coney Island beaches, the Bowery, burlesque shows and other assorted low-cost entertainments. All were fodder for his creative mind. When The New Yorker began publication in 1925, Marsh was one of their first cartoonists.

Interestingly enough, one of Marsh's early art teachers was famed American painter John Sloan. (Whose paintings of NYC, I featured on a Saturday Salon post a few weeks ago.)

Marsh's body of work comes under the label of Social Realism. Work that was heavily influenced by Marsh's admiration of Rembrandt, Titian, Tintoretto and Rubens whom he studied when he visited Paris again as a young man.

Later in his life, when Reginald Marsh taught at the Art Students League of NY, one of his students was Roy Lichtenstein.

To read more about Reginald Marsh, please use this link to his Wikipedia page and/or these other links.butlerart.com or artnet.com

Now for the Flash Fiction Challenge News. Patti Abbott will donate five dollars to Union Settlement, a social services agency in Harlem, currently in need of funding - for every short story we write and submit. The deadline is October 18th. So we need to start writing. (I'm in.) Please go to Patti's website, PATTINASE to get ALL the details. Don't delay.

The writing prompt is this: The story must be based on any one of Reginald Marsh's paintings. 

Cool - huh?