Worlds of Fantasy was a science fiction pulp magazine that ran for 14 issues, from 1950 to 1954. It doesn’t appear to have been a huge success during its initial run but it lives on due its memorable covers.
Here’s a sampling of the Worlds of Fantasy.
by Gerald Facey
by Gerald Facey
by Gerald Facey
by Norman Light
by Gordon Davies
Artist Unknown
by Ron Embleton
Artist Unknown
Artist Unknown
“Jerry, I’m not a nice person. I’m a mean, selfish son-of-a-bitch. I know you want a story, but I want a killer and what I want comes first!”
— Detective Leo Kessler (Charles Bronson) in Ten To Midnight (1983)
At first, Detective Leo Kessler seems like exactly the type of cop that you would expect to find in a film about a serial killer who knows how to manipulate the system to his advantage. Kessler is tough, plain-spoken, a blue collar warrior who is trying to keep the streets of Los Angeles safe for citizens of every age.
“I remember when the legal meant lawful,” Kessler says, “Now, it means loophole.”
Kessler isn’t thrilled that his new partner, Paul McAnn (Andrew Stevens), is a graduate of Berkley and that he’s got a degree in sociology. Kessler’s doubts are actually justified. One of the first things that McAnn does is drop a wad of chewing gum on the ground at a crime scene. Kessler also knows that Warren Stacy (Gene Davis) is the psycho who has been targeting young women and making obscene phone calls to his daughter, Laurie (Lisa Eilbacher). When McAnn discovers that Kessler has planted blood evidence on Warren’s clothes, McAnn is torn about what to do. “Forget what’s legal,” Kessler says, “and do what’s right.”
But here’s the thing with Kessler. He may say that he’s a mean son of a bitch but he’s not. He’s actually a pretty nice guy. He even discovers that he likes and becomes a mentor to McAnn. Kessler just doesn’t think that someone like Warren Stacy should be wandering around, free to kill. Charles Bronson never gets nearly enough credit for his acting. Leo Kessler isn’t just a touch cop. He’s an old-fashioned guy in a changing world. He’s someone who doesn’t understand why the system is suddenly more worried about the Warrn Stacys of the world than the victims.
He’s also a father.
Leo: “I hate quiche.”
Laurie: “Why did you get it?”
Leo: “I thought it was pie.”
As violent and exploitive as From 10 To Midnight is, I have to admit that I have a sentimental attachment to the film. The difficult-but-loving relationship between Leo and Laurie Kessler reminds me of my own relationship with my Dad. I see a lot of my Dad in Leo and I also see a lot of myself in Laurie. There’s a scene early on where McAnn mentions to Laurie that she’s a lot like her father.
“You think so?” Laurie replies, “I don’t.”
That scene gets me every time because I’ve had people say the same thing to me about my Dad and I used to have the same response. Everyone else picked up on it long before I realized it. For all of Laurie complaints about Leo having always been too busy for her, she’s there to comfort him after he gets kicked off the force. “I’m getting drunk with my old man,” Laurie says. Leo replies that she’s not.
It’s rare to see Charles Bronson cast as a family man. Usually, he played loners, the type of solitary warriors who seemed to have nothing in their lives beyond doing accomplishing whatever their mission happened to be. The Death Wish films did give Bronson a family but they were all dead by the end of the second film. 10 To Midnight features Bronson as not just a tough cop but also Bronson as a father with an independent and intelligent daughter. I think that’s the main reason why 10 to Midnight is my favorite Bronson films.
“No, we won’t.”
— Detective Leo Kessler
Bronson only fires his gun once in 10 To Midnight but he definitely makes a statement with that shot. And after spending 101 minutes watching Kessler trying to stop Warren Stacy, there’s definitely something very cathartic about the simple brutality of the film’s ending. Trying to analyze or understand evil, the film tells us, is pointless.
Sometimes, you just need someone who is willing to say, “No, we won’t.”
Hero of the Day
When I first gave my “thoughts on the culture,” it was the day of Texas primaries. This third edition is being published on the day of the run-offs. There’s some symmetry there, if nothing else.
Speaking of the Run-offs:
One thing that doesn’t get stated enough in this country is that you’re not required to vote at all. One reason I’ve always disliked all of that “Vote or Die” or “Vote Blue No Matter Who” nonsense is because we don’t have mandatory voting in this country. If you feel neither candidate is up for the job, you have the right to say, “I’m not going to vote for someone I don’t trust.” I also don’t buy into this idea, which is popular amongst far too many people who should know better, that voting third party is the same thing as throwing your vote away. It’s your vote and you get to do with it what you want. If you want to use your vote to protest, that’s your right. If you want to use your vote to vote for the candidate who best reflects your views, that’s also your right.
I usually vote so I can cancel out one my cousin’s vote just by voting against whoever she was supporting. That’s honestly one of the most American things that you can do.
Stephen Colbert’s Next Step:
Last week, as I read story after story about Stephen Colbert’s final episode, it occurred to me that I think I only watched his show once during the entire time it was on the air. It was in 2016. I had a cold and I was pretty much just watching whatever came on the television. The only thing I remember about the show was that Tim Kaine was the guest and he wouldn’t stop playing that stupid harmonica. That was actually the first time I thought to myself, “Hillary might lose.”
Otherwise, I never watched Colbert. That’s really nothing against Stephen Colbert or his show. I may have only one watched one episode of Colbert but that’s one more than I’ve watched of Kimmel, Fallon, or Meyers. It’s just that, when it came to Colbert, his guests never really interested me. I used to see the commercials for Colbert while watching Big Brother and Survivor. His announcer always sounded excited when he said, “Tonight, Colbert’s got Sen. Elizabeth Warren and CNN’s Anderson Cooper!” but myself, I just couldn’t imagine specifically making time to watch a talk/comedy show featuring senators and governors.
For all the attention that was given to his exit by the mainstream media, it ultimately felt rather anti-climatic. One need only compare the drama of Conan’s exit from the Tonight Show to see how subdued things really were when it came to Colbert. That said, Stephen will be fine. He’s not being exiled to Elba. If anything, he’ll probably be running for office in 2028.
Fjord!
I actually am looking forward to seeing Fjord, the Romanian film that won the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year. It’s a film about a traditional Catholic family who move to a progressive Norway town and soon find themselves being accused of all sorts of things. Given that the film was directed by Cristian Mungiu, I doubt either side will be portrayed as simplistically as some people online are assuming. Romanian cinema fascinating, if just because the excesses and the downfall of Nicolae Ceaușescu tends to give Romanian filmmakers a unique perspective that a lot of American filmmakers just do not have.
For My Dad:
Today is the two-year anniversary of my Dad’s car accident. On May 26th, 2024, I got a phone call telling me that he had been in an accident and that he was in the hospital with a broken shoulder but that he would be fine. Nearly three months later, he passed away. My Dad liked Lynard Skynard. He liked the Eagles. He liked the Steve Miller Band and old school Aerosmith. He liked that “Money for Nothing” song by the Dire Straits. He even liked Pink Floyd which, to be honest, seems about as far away from Lynard Skynard as you can get. I’m sharing this song for him.
In Conclusion
Now get out there and vote! Or don’t. Do whatever the Hell you want.
For today’s song of the day, we have a classic 1960 instrumental from The Ventures. The baton-twirling cheerleader in the video was lifted from an odd 1963 film called The Yesterday Machine.
Since today is the 119th anniversary of the birth of John Wayne, it only seems right that today’s scene should come from the 1962 classic, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance!
The famous steak scene features three of the greatest screen icons of Hollywood’s golden age: James Stewart, John Wayne, and Lee Marvin. Lee Marvin is the bully who is terrorizing the entire town. James Stewart is the idealist who thinks that the law, and not violence, is the answer. And John Wayne is …. well, he’s John Wayne. He’s the only man in town who can stand up to Lee Marvin but, at the same time, he’s also aware that his time is coming to a close. In the scene below, all three of the characters display their different approaches to life and a disagreement with steak nearly leads to violence.
This scene — and really, the entire film — features these three actors at their best. John Wayne is an actor who is often described as having “just played himself” but that’s really not quite fair. While Wayne’s outsized persona definitely does influence how the audience reacts to any character that he plays, he was a better actor than he’s often given credit for being. That’s especially evident in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, in which Wayne plays a confident man’s man who knows that fate is closing in on him. The coming of civilization (represented by James Stewart) will be great for the town of Shinbone but it will also leave men like Wayne’s Ton Doniphon with nowhere to go. The coming of civilization means that the heroes of the past are destined to become obsolete.
Enjoy this scene from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance:
4 Shots from 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots from 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!
Today is Peter Cushing’s birthday! This edition of 4 Shots From 4 Films is dedicated to him, his memory, and his career!
4 Shots From 4 Peter Cushing Films
Hamlet (1948, dir by Laurence Olivier)
Doctor Who and the Daleks (1965, dir by Gordon Flemyng)
Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969, dir by Terence Fisher)
Star Wars (1977, dir by George Lucas)
The Sky On Election Day (by Erin Nicole)
To all of my fellow Texans, don’t forget to vote today in the run-offs! Curtesy of the pulps, here’s a little extra inspiration to get you down to your polling place!
By Emmett Watson
Unknown Artist
By Paul Rader
By Robert Bonfils
Unknown Artist
Unknown Artist
by Jerome Rozen
This is from World War II.
This cover of the Peter Frampton hit was featured on the soundtrack for one of the seminal films of Generation X, Reality Bites. Back in the day, MTV advertised the Hell out of Reality Bites, even though the movie portrayed MTV as being intellectually vapid and a net negative for the culture.
(As opposed to Ethan Hawke and his band, Hey, That’s My Bike!)
Enjoy!
Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Mondays, I will be reviewing CHiPs, which ran on NBC from 1977 to 1983. The entire show is currently streaming on Prime!
This week …. it’s jet pack time!
Episode 5.21 “The Game of War”
(Dir by Gordon Hessler, originally aired on March 14th, 1982)
While the members of the Highway Patrol try and fail to beat Harlan at chess, Peter J. Stoler (Clu Gulager) plots a prison break. Stoler is one of the leading members of a group of former soldiers. On the weekends, they engage in war games. During the week, they plot to spring their former leader, Rascoe (Johnny Seven), from prison. Peter has just received a jet pack. Unless the Highway Patrol can stop them, Rascoe is going to fly to freedom.
Meanwhile, a process server named Darla Mason (Sandra Kerns) goes to ludicrous lengths to serve her targets. She pretends to have car trouble. She wears old person makeup. She does whatever she needs to do to get her target to lower their defenses so that she can hand them their court papers and say, “You’ve been served.” Process servers are a necessary part of our legal system but I’ve never cared much for any of the ones that I’ve known. It takes a certain amount of cruelty to get close to someone just so you can give them a summons. Darla is a fairly annoying character and I certainly wasn’t upset when Rascoe’s militia abducted her. And when the episode ended with her getting served, it felt like poetic justice.
This episode was nothing special but it held my attention. I mean, how can you not enjoy a little jet pack action? Clu Gulager was actually somewhat sympathetic as the main bad guy. Personally, I think Ponch and Baker should have let him go. Just give him his jet pack and let him fly away. He didn’t mean any harm!
Seriously, they should have given Clu his own show.
Through the Shattered Lens 