Nicks` Cabinet of Curios

Winston Hewitt - Snapshot - Corner Store Records - 1976 This year I skipped my usual monthly purchases of vintage reggae 45s for a month or two and used the money to buy Winston Hewitts` LP Snapshot from a seller in Canada.  The cost was actually not as high as I expected (around 23 GBP including postage) and I am very happy with my purchase.   The musicians are accomplished and versatile but never bland. The arrangements/production are excellent. Mr Hewitts` songs are mostly of the `dancing and romancing` variety and what he does, he does well. His reggae roots are never far away, but equally there is a pop sensibility and a touch of funk and soul.  It`s Winston Hewitt being Winston Hewitt but I have to give credit to all concerned as there are no weak performances here.  Songwriting and arrangements are by Winston Hewitt, with production credits shared between him and Mel Shaw. Winston Hewitt is also credited with acoustic guitar and some bass...

Winston Hewitt/Jackie James/Carlton Harrison Winston Hewitt was a founding member of The Pioneers reggae group and was their original lead singer. His association with the group ended when he moved to Canada in the 1960s, but he continued to perform and record. Additionally he worked as record producer and ran his own companies, Boss Records and W H Records. He was also founder of the Canadian Reggae Music Awards, intended by him to raise the profile of the music. As you can see, these pictures relate not to his own back catalogue, though I am a big fan, but at records by other artists that he released on Boss Records.  Sadly I know very little about either Carlton Harrison or Jackie James, though I would recommend Jackies` version of Piece of my Heart, which has become a personal favourite for me.     

I`m posting this rather belatedly, to say the least. However, last November, self, spouse and offspring took ourselves to Beeston, Nottingham to see this rather fine production of Murder Weapon. Obviously, a review this long after the event would be ridiculous, but I can say that all of us thoroughly enjoyed it and subject to practicalities (we live in Derbyshire) intend to partake of the pleasures offered by the Beeston players again. A small group, they put on two productions a year, normally one comedy and one thriller. It`s hardly cutting edge stuff, but I probably wouldn`t like it if it was.  I for one would rather see a group of locally-based amateurs who put their heart into it than pay big money to see a big star. But that`s just me. 

Sandra Dorne and Maxwell Reed in `Marilyn` aka `Roadhouse Girl`  Marilyn  (1953). British B Movie. Directed and Written by Wolf Rilla, based on the play Marion by Peter Jones. Starring Sandra Dorne and Maxwell Reed.  Marilyn was released in the US under the title Roadhouse Girl The first part of this film was really not that engaging. Frivolous blonde Marilyn dreams of the high life but is stifled by her domineering garage-owner husband. She seeks comfort in the arms of his new employee, mechanic Tom Price (Maxwell Reed). Her husband catches the two together and threatens his wife. Reeds` character steps in to protect her and before we know it the husband is dead.  So far, nothing new.  Immediately after this things take an unexpected turn. With her husband lying dead upstairs and her lover standing watching, Marilyn flirts openly with a stranger who has called  to buy petrol. Once a  Coroner has accepted the death as the result o...

Not so long ago, we looked at the works of J S Fletcher and hopefully I convinced you that a writer not normally regarded as one of the greats was nevertheless capable of works that not only stand comparison with the works of others but also stand the test of time. Now, slightly reluctantly, I have to mention a writer often regarded as a master of his craft didn`t always get it right. Known in his lifetime as the `Prince of Storytellers`, E P Oppenheim is regarded by many, including myself, as a master of his craft. His short story collection The Human Chase in many ways anticipates more modern ideas about crime fiction, it contains a story which is a personal favourite of mine (The Great West Raid). Sadly, taken as a whole it fails to convince. The stories feature Oppenheims` sleuth Peter Benskin, a serving Police Officer.  Benskin is unlike other fictional sleuths of the time. He is small and slightly built, he is troubled by some aspects of his work and is qu...

Rogues` Yarn (1957) -  British B Movie - Directed by Vernon Sewell, Screenplay by Vernon Sewell and Ernie Bradford. Starring Nicole Maurey, Derek Bond, Elwyn Brook-Jones Very nearly didn`t stay with this due to a bout of wildly histrionic over-acting by Nicole Maurey in the early scenes. Fortunately this did not set the tone for the film as a whole. The film tells the story of a man`s murder of his wife at the behest of his lover. It takes the form of what used to be called an `inverted detective story` , a form invented by writer R A Freeman and popularised by the TV series Columbo, in which the audience learns early on who did it, how and why and the interest lies in the way in which the detective brings him to justice. While Nicole Maurey and Derek Bond received top billing as the murderous adulterers, undoubtedly it is Elwyn Brooks- Jones as their unflappable and incisive nemesis that is the real star turn.  In places it is like seeing a crime so...

Halifax man J S Fletcher (1863-1935) was a pioneer of mystery fiction, prolific and extremely popular in his day.  Like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle he also wrote historical fiction and non-fiction but is remembered chiefly (if at all) for his detective stories. His admirers say he is unjustly overlooked, his detractors say that he simply wasn`t very good. Who`s right ? I`ve read a few of his short stories lately.These would have originally been serialised in the magazines of the time. Naturally they seem old-fashioned now, but overall, they stand up well.  The Silhouette - a naive young man dreams of embarking on a real-life adventure like the ones in the lurid novels he reads. When he actually walks headlong into just such a case, the outcome isn`t what he expects. Blind Gap Moor - A bank manager makes his own enquiries when his assistant is found murdered on the Moors. Some of the financial transactions that lead to the unmasking of the killer are incomprehensibl...