Nicks` Cabinet of Curios

  Basil Dearden (Director) - The Blue Lamp - Ealing - 1950 Recently had a welcome opportunity to watch The Blue Lamp, a film I`ve seen many times before. Many regard the film as a bit one-dimensional, a story of salt-of-the-earth coppers pursuing reckless young villains.  They can`t have been paying attention (or possibly they are confusing the film with the spin-off TV series Dixon of Dock Green). In fact, the film is a remarkably gritty depiction of a post-war Britain in which kids play on bomb sites and one officer has a spare room to let because his son is dead.  As the introductory voice-over makes clear, the young would-be hoodlums come from families damaged by war and are avoided by established organised crime as being undependable ("stick to gas meters" sneers one gangster when Dirk Bogarde`s psycho misfit Tom asks him to handle the proceeds of a proposed robbery). The signs of a war-ravaged city are all around, particularly in the scenes where the Police are out ...

David Stuart Davies - The Darke Chronicles Yorkshire man David Stuart Davies is, as you my know, a noted author, editor and playwright, a noted Sherlockian a member of The Detection Club, The Crime Writers` Association etc.  When I began reading this collection I was initially unsure if I would relate to the character of Luther Darke.  Needn`t have worried as in fact I thoroughly enjoyed the stories. In an interesting twist, Darkes` `Watson`, is a professional detective, Inspector Thornton, whereas Darke is a kind of `not-Holmes`. He sums up their relationship in the first story ;  "Ah, we see the world from different hilltops, you and I, Edward. You are the professional, scientific detective with a demand for rationality and feasibility ; whereas I am the amateur, an artist, doomed to view things from a different angle and able to see shifting and often unusual perspectives. We are two halves of the perfect whole." Whether he is quite as `not-Holmes` as...

Another dip into the record box, and today we look at two labels with similar names.  The top picture shows a UK issue on Earth International, a label run by Pat Rhoden, Les Foster and Denzil Dennis. This was apparently at the same time that Pat Rhoden was involved with Jama and related labels.  The lower picture shows a JA release on Roots International, one of a number of labels run by B B Seaton.  At one time I understand he and the late Renford Cogle ran a label named Links which released (among others) It Comes and Goes by The Melodians  B B Seaton currently releases his vintage productions on the London-based Soul Beat records (his son Richard releases Hip-Hop music in the US on a label of the same name) and runs a publishing company, Metronome Music.  He has recently written a book, 60 Years After, about his career in music. 

S John Peskett - Grim, Gruesome and Grisly - Frewin - 1974 A recent acquisition which I look forward to reading.  I know little about S John Peskett, though it is interesting to note that as Wing Commander Peskett he worked in intelligence during WWII, including a period at Bletchley Park.

Jama was a UK-based reggae record label.  De Koningh and Griffiths in their book Tighten Up ; The History of Reggae in the UK quote singer Pat Rhoden as saying that the label was begun by himself, Tito Simon and Earl Martin, the reason being that the two labels he had previously been working with, Pama and Trojan, were not recording new material at that time.  It`s said that Jama was short for Jamaica. I have always wondered if the idea was to create something that could easily be mistaken for the output of the longer-established Pama, but that`s just speculation on my part. Jama was active in the `70s and early `80s. The parent company was Jama Music and there were two or three subsidiaries, Eagle, Love and (I think) Wolf.  I have read that Earl Martin dropped out of the company later, to be replaced by Les Foster. However, that`s just from memory and I`ve not been able to check that*.  The top disc is one of Pat Rhoden`s own singles, Sweet ...

T E B Clarke - Murder at Buckingham Palace - Hale - 1981 This is the book I`m reading at the moment. Thomas Ernest Bennett Clarke, known by the nickname Tibby, was a prolific author of both fiction and non-fiction but is probably best remembered as a screenplay writer (The Blue Lamp, Passport to Pimlico, The Lavender Hill Mob and more). He is known for writing crime fiction novels disguised to seem like works of non-fiction, Murder at Buckingham Palace being a case in point. In fact, the disguise is pretty thin and I cannot imagine anyone reading this without realising it is a novel.  While I haven`t finished it yet it is thoroughly enjoyable and I`m giving serious thought to trying some of his other books.   

The Ringer (1953) A film I saw yesterday for the first time.  This is one of three films with this title, all based on an Edgar Wallace novel of the same name.   The earlier film versions are from 1928 and 1931. Another version of the same story was released in 1938 as The Gaunt Stranger, known as The Phantom Strikes in the US. Personally, my taste usually runs to a relatively short B movie, but this intriguing film with a very accomplished cast made for a good couple of hours viewing.