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Book Review - Death of a Dude by Rex Stout
April 28, 2023
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I love the Golden Age of detective fiction. Wikipedia tells me it was the era of murder mystery novels written between 1920 and 1940, with the Second World War bringing an end to the lighthearted whodunnit. While writers may not be writing them as much, and publishers aren’t buying them as much, I’m thankful that it was such a prolific time in literary history.

The books go fast, and there’s still more than I can read in a lifetime.

While the British authors, like Dorothy Sayers, are wonderful, it’s the Americans who attract me most. S.S. Van Dine, Ellery Queen, Erle Stanley Gardner, Raymond Chandler, and of course Rex Stout, have huge bibliographies to which I return again and again. Stout is a particular favorite, as he didn’t let a world war spoil his fun. While society, technology, and times changed, his detective duo never aged. 

Nero Wolfe resists change, and even time submits to his indomitable character. 

The novels were written between 1934 and 1975, which was an era of major upheaval, yet the routine in the old brownstone on West 35th street remained more or less unaffected. So the 44th novel, Death of a Dude (1969), is unique for several reasons. It’s a little more of its time, with some acknowledgment of late 60’s turmoil, which was a sour note for me. Fortunately, it was only scene dressing and not part of the plot. 

Speaking of the plot…

That too is unusual, as the story takes place entirely away from Wolfe’s domain, and I don’t just mean the brownstone. The story opens with Archie on a Montana vacation that’s just been spoiled by a murder. The primary suspect is something of a friend-of-a-friend, and the local law isn’t interested in looking any further, so Archie writes Wolfe to say he’ll be late coming home. This, of course, is intolerable. To everyone’s shock (and the readers’ delight), Wolfe gets on a plane. 

“The mountain,” Archie’s ladyfriend Lily Rowan observes, “has come to Mohammad.” 

Not only has Wolfe abandoned his domicile and strict routine, but he’s also forced into a culture where handshakes are required and the food is far from gourmet. But with 15 potential murderers to vet, there’s no way he can conduct an investigation from his yellow armchair. While he’d never admit it, there’s every indication that he finds some pleasure in this “working vacation.”

Author Rex Stout is also forced to try new things.

Since the novels are written in first person from Archie’s point of view and Wolfe often prefers to keep in him the dark, Stout often has Archie pursue wild geese or get tangled up with the cops. But this story requires a little more than that in order to be true to the western setting. This time, Archie ends up in the local jail for an entire weekend and Wolfe is forced to rely on what he can control. 

Of course, it all works out in the end.

One of the things I appreciate most about murder mysteries, and especially the Wolfe stories, is the sense of stability. There may be chaos outside my door in or my Twitter feed, but for a few hours I can step into Rex Stout’s well-drawn world. There’s the peace that comes with rhythm. Every fan knows Wolfe’s rules and routine, and if we could we would make them our own. Yet for there to be a story there must be conflict. Murder is one of the greatest offenses to the social order and chaos usually erupts in Wolfe’s office at some point, but these things will be brought to bear. 

What happens when we take Wolfe away from his home?

It’s a testament to Stout’s skill that he still maintains the sense of calm throughout the story. There are long descriptions of meals (maybe that’s the true reason why I love these books so much). Archie gets plenty angry, but never worried. Wolfe maintains his dignity in the midst of numerous affronts, which is a lesson to us all. Even everyone, characters, audience, and author, are removed from the status quo, we can all remain true to ourselves.

Death of a Dude is great fun for the familiar fans.

If you’ve never read a Nero Wolfe mystery, I wouldn’t start here. I think the first one I read was The Silent Speaker, which seems like as good a place as any to dive in. The first novel, Fer-de-Lance, features characters that aren’t quite fully formed, and Wolfe, well, he isn’t quite himself. But if you’re looking for a soothing, light, distinctly American murder mystery series, you really can’t do much better.

 

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Is Ladyballers Doomed from the Start?

The most honest analysis I've seen.

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F1 is Modern Western

As a nation, the United States is unique. We don’t share a genetic heritage, but a creed. Americans and our ideas come from all over the world. But we’re at our best when take those outside ideas and make them our own. Everything we have came from another culture, but there was a time when we could take things and collectively make them better.

Democracy? Check. Rock’n’roll? Check. Heck! Chinese food? Yes, we did.

Don’t hate. You know I’m right.

One of the greatest art forms we’ve given the world is the western genre. While rooted in courtly romances of King Arthur, we took the idea of the man on horseback who makes things right on his quest for something spiritual and made it distinctly American. Most of the time, these stories aren’t historically accurate, but that’s not the point. They’re soaked in the American ethos. For better or for worse, the western has become the American myth, even more so than 1776.

And the cool thing about myths is that you can take them and tell other stories. 

Star Trek (and later Firefly) took the western to space. 

A few weeks ago I was able to see F1: The Movie on IMAX, and I had high hopes. Director Joseph Krasinski had proved himself with Top Gun: Maverick, which is about as American as a modern movie can get. But mostly, I just wanted to see if he could do with racecars what he’d done with fighter jets. In that regard, I was everything I’d hoped it would be. The idea of Americanism didn’t even cross my mind, since F1 is primarily a European sport.

Boy, was I surprised.

Brad Pitt plays Sonny Hayes with all the careless cool of Paul Newman in his prime and a Steve McQueen swagger. While Pitt has never played a cowboy and isn’t a racecar driver in real life, Newman and McQueen played both, and did both. Hayes has been keeping himself busy with no-name races since an F1 crash nearly killed him some 30 years before. But when Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem), an old friend and rival, needs some wins to save the team, he tracks down Sonny.

And the old dog knows a few tricks.

Naturally, his tactics put him at odds with his teammate, Joshua Pierce (Damson Idris), and his cocky attitude is a big red flag to the team’s engineer, Kate McKenna (Kerry Conden). So the movie all the tropes of a sports film, and I don’t think I need to summarize further. But it’s not a sports film. Or rather, it’s not just a sports a film. Surprise, surprise, it’s the western myth transposed into a racing a story.

It’s spelled out in the trailer, but it didn’t strike me until the very end.

Kate calls Sonny Hayes an “old school rough and tumble cowboy” in a line used in the marketing. When he arrives in the garage, only Ruben knows him. Sonny is the stranger in town. Like James Garner in Support Your Local Sheriff, his method of restoring order and winning is unorthodox and effective. Like Shane, in that Alan Ladd classic, he’s guarded about his past. And like John Wayne in The Searchers and so many other westerns, Sonny Hayes is the outsider who must leave civilization once he’s made it civilized for those who belong there.

But he doesn’t.


Perhaps the hardboiled crime story, another uniquely American genre, is also an outgrowth of the western. Philip Marlow is the man who must walk down mean streets, who is not himself mean. As Raymond Chandler said, “He is a lonely man and his pride is that you will treat him as a proud man or be very sorry you ever saw him.” Basically, the man he’s describing is dangerous, but not cruel. Dispassionate in taking revenge, and restrained by a code of honor.

But destined to be lonely, nonetheless.

Why we’ve made that an essential part of the American is a topic for another time. But there it is. And it’s the story of Sonny Hayes. At the end of the movie [SPOILER], he rides off into the sunset as the credits roll. The western isn’t dead. It’s still there, in essence, speaking to our hearts in different ways.

Nothing more American than that. 

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Girl-Power Isn't the Problem: Stop Treating Movies Like TV Pilots

Last weekend I was able to sneak off the theater for a screening of From the World of John Wick: Ballerina. Did I feel silly, telling the high school girl at the ticket counter, “One for Ballerina, and a small drink”? Well, not in the moment. 

I probably drank a liter of cherry vanilla Coke Zero, and that didn’t feel so great.

Plenty of box office analysts and Hollywood types are wracking their brains, trying to figure out why movies like Furiosa and Ballerina aren’t drawing huge crowds. Mad Max and John Wick are popular franchises, but apparently telling the stories of the women in those worlds isn’t working. Even if the movies are pretty good.

I’ve seen both, and they’re pretty good.

Some are arguing that no one will go near a movie that looks like it’s feminist girl-bossing. Others counter that movies like Alien and Kill Bill are female-led action films that were successful. Now, I’m not going to say that Ballerina is on par with those modern day classics. But I will say that, as a man watching the movie, it didn’t offend me. The movie never challenged me to confront any internalized misogyny. The small girl doesn’t take down John Wick in hand-to-hand combat.

Honestly, if you like franchise, whether you’re male or female, you should watch Ballerina.

In short, from a purely cinematic experience perspective, neither Furiosa nor Ballerina would be any better or worse with a male lead. Maybe that’s a hot take. But that’s mine, for whatever it’s worth. Well, okay, I wouldn’t watch a movie called Ballerina if it stared a dude. Nevertheless, I think you get my point. Petite women warriors aside, the plots and action are exactly as expected.

So what’s the deal?

Well, what no one seems to have noticed is that Ripley and The Bride weren’t replacing anyone. As we were watching their movies for the first time, we weren’t thinking about other characters for whom we already had a preference. Movies are more like TV than TV right now, and replacement characters have always been a hard sell, regardless of gender. We all remember Sam and Diane. Who still talks about Sam and Rebecca (even though Kirstie Alley won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for the part)? I had to look up her name. 

No, they aren’t technically replacing them. It’s a spin-off, set in the same world.

Spin-offs tend to succeed when the characters are already well established (eg: Frasier). Furiosa and Ballerina are more like backdoor pilots, where new characters are dropped in for a single episode to sell us on the idea of a new show. This technique is very hit and miss on TV, and I can’t think of a single example of this working in a movie franchise. Film and television are very different mediums, and should be treated as such.

Still, if it doesn’t work on TV, it’s probably not gonna work at the movies. Not where new characters and spin-offs are concerned. 

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Going Back to 1995

Maybe I’m just getting old, but it doesn’t feel like we had the thriving and distinct pop culture of past generations. Has there been a look or stye, or feeling, that defines this moment? Everything seems to have stagnated for the last twenty years. And it’s not as if I don’t pay attention. 

It’s making me nostalgic. 

Consequently, for the rest of the year, I’m prioritizing movies from 1995, the year I was twelve. At that time, my family didn’t really go to the theater, and when we did rent VHS tapes, more often than it is was older Disney movies or entirely forgettable Christian titles. Now that I’ve grown tired of trying to keep up with new releases, not there’s much worth watching anyway, it feels like a good time to catch up on those 30 year old movies that have become ingrained in what’s left of our pop culture.

So over on Criticless, I made a list.

Some of these are movies I’ve seen before, but not in a long time. Others will be first time watches for me. There’s really no rhyme or reason to what I put on my list. It’s just movies that either interest me, or are currently in my collection, sadly unwatched. As things become available on streaming, I may add to the list. And if I don’t get to everything before the end of the year, no big deal.

Hopefully, they aren’t going anywhere. 

I’ll be posting some reviews and analysis as I go, so be sure to follow me here. 

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