Stage Door Enquiries:
The Case of the Solid Key by Anthony Boucher
published 1941
I recently blogged for the first time on Boucher
Nine
Times Nine by Anthony Boucher
And was very happy to move on to another one: this is an
author I am enjoying.
The Case of the Solid Key is
set in Los Angeles and Hollywood, the world of theatre and film: Norman, a young broke
writer, hopes to get his play produced and make his fortune. He is led to a small low-key venue: The Carruthers Little
Theatre. Some of the people there have connections with Metropolis, one of the
big studios (confusingly nicknamed Polly, it took me a couple of goes to sort
that out, as it might be 'let's call Polly'). And it seems there is something funny going on at the theatre: an
investigation is already underway.
I always love a theatrical mystery, and having found this picture for a previous one, feel that this gives me a title for any such blogposts:
So everything is set up for the owner of the theatre,
Rupert Carruthers, to be found dead in a locked room. He was experimenting with
explosive special effects for a new play, and must have died in an accident.
But of course we suspect the worst.
Norman, and his Irish friend Fergus – a PI – wander round
interviewing people, and getting stocious drunk all the time. Norman is
pursuing a young woman, Sarah, who keeps disappearing. The staff and actors in
the theatre company have very enjoyable social events – including a
charades-like game in which a warning is slipped in to the list of items to be acted
out. I’m not sure that is actually explained in the end, but it is an excellent
turn of events - and I found a picture:
The current play at the theatre is by Lewis Jordan, a most interesting character: national hero, explorer, holder of controversial political views. He was a delight, and had a cat called Nansen – Jordan had worked with Nansen on refugee projects. I liked him very much, and treasured his every appearance. As everyone agrees, it is hard to write goodness in fiction, but Boucher succeeded here I thought.
However, his play was apparently terrible. “I agree with every word he says; but I would fight to the death against his right to say it so badly.”
The economics of the theatre are intriguing: the idea is
that it exists only to bring its writers and actors to the attention of the
studios, there is no intrinsic interest in drama as such. And then it seems
that the owner does very unfair deals with the artistes he discovers.
It is really hard to regret his death.
The lock seems solid – but is it possible there was some
funny business with the key? You be the judge. It wasn’t the best locked
solution ever, but the rest of the book was intriguing and good fun, with one real surprise, and I felt
(as with the previous book, Nine times Nine) that it gave a great picture of
how life really was in that time and place.
A visit to the Santa Monica Pier is rather a small part of
the plot, but I cannot resist the pictures…
'Norman waited a long time in front of the merry-go-round'. His date, Sarah, turns up wearing a light wool coat and a ‘scant sunsuit’.
They do the rounds.
‘Wagner must have loved rollercoasters” Sarah exclaimed as they staggered away limp after their fifth ride. “He couldn’t have written all those swell swoops without them. Oh look! Crazy House. Shall we?”
Picture shows a rehearsal from a few years earlier – part
of the records of the Federal Theatre Project
Image
11 of Miscellaneous Rehearsal | Library of Congress
And charades from a couple of years later
Denman
College, Student Group playing charades, 1950s. | Flickr
New
England Carousel Museum, Bristol, Connecticut - original digital file | Library
of Congress
I spent too much money on a nice Popular Library copy of this, and haven't read it yet. I need to correct that error!
ReplyDelete"it gave a great picture of how life really was in that time and place" - I felt that way about The Seven of Calvary, too, and amazingly enough, also about his collected Reviews and Commentary from the San Francisco Chronicle. I expected some pithy put-downs of all the bad books we've forgotten about, plus the occasional rave about something I could spend ages looking for. I got that, but also I felt like I was right there alongside the WW2 American literary scene as they grappled with the war, founded the MWA, and kept going to the theatre...
I love that charades picture! Charades in costume... did they put more effort and planning in back then?
I have Seven of Calvary lined up to read - did you perhaps recommend it? I had thought I didn't need to read his criticism, but you are making it sound very tempting.
DeleteI'm sure I've read of people in novels doing costumes for charades (obviously from light novels and detective stories, where I get all my info from). You can imagine the annoying eccentric families of recent posts would do that... but I must admit I thought if we were to play charades as grown-ups in the future I might get out the small bag of fancy dress stuff from the top of the wardrobe, left over from when the children were small...
I suppose the charades topics don't have to be related to the costumes, I hadn't really considered it that way...
DeleteI'm pretty sure it wasn't me that recommended Calvary? I did see another review of it recently so maybe it's in the ether right now.
I thinkThe Anthony Boucher Chronicles, which collects his mystery criticism, is a great book. It contains a biography, the mystery reviews, which are startlingly compact, and his columns and other longer reviews, which are where all the lovely detail comes in. It always takes me a long time to get through, it's pretty substantial, I can't binge-read it either. But I actually come back and read it again every few years because I enjoy it so much. I always leave it in renewed admiration of him as a person.
I'm sure you must force the costumes to fit the actable prompts! Being a stylish, Clothes in Books kind of person, I own a very fancy turban. I was terribly surprised to see it turn up in my children's acting out of a scene from Harry Potter. Apparently Lord Voldemort was tucked into the hat.
DeleteThe Boucher book does sound very tempting....
There's a Dorothy L Sayers story in In the Teeth of the Evidence - "Nebuchadnezzar" - which takes place during a game of charades with elaborate improvised costumes.
DeleteSovay
I have certainly read this, but no memory - I will have to look it up
DeleteI think that's a really inventive idea, Moira, to have a warning slipped in with a charades game! Very clever and not something I've read before. Locked-room sorts of mysteries can be very effective, too, and of course, the theatre setting does appeal! I've not read much by Boucher lately; you're inspiring me to get back to his work.
ReplyDeleteI think my American friends are more likely to have read him, Margot, he is not well known here, but he should be!
DeleteThe charades element was brilliant I thought. We think we've seen every possible variant but that was a new one on me too
I can attest to the frequency - in Southern California - of needing a warm wool coat in the morning and shedding everything for shorts and a t-top by early afternoon.
ReplyDelete(I know many people who will swear that the coldest place in the world is just before dawn at the small arms training range at Camp Pendleton which is just north of San Diego).
... and I'm guessing you're not wearing a sunsuit at the training range, either?
DeleteI like the idea of a big coat and a sunsuit, a look and a vibe
I don't think Boucher is very well known any longer in the US. I heard of him as a kid because he edited the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction for a number of years - before my time, but we had old issues around. I am fairly sure my mother said she'd had at least one pleasant rejection letter from him (as far as any rejection letter can be pleasant), but unfortunately she didn't keep it.
ReplyDeleteI'm getting increasingly interested in him! He does sound like a nice man
DeleteBoucher also wrote SF and fantasy, including stories with benevolent werewolves.
ReplyDeleteI'm reading Boucher's Rocket to the Morgue which has several SF/fantasy writers as murder suspects. At one of their informal gatherings, someone makes disparaging remarks about "Tony Boucher's" latest work.
DeleteBenevolent werewolves! Rocket to the Morgue! The man was plainly a genius...
DeleteI can't remember which, but one Boucher's detective stories revolves around a pair of sons (inspired by Arthur Conan Doyle's after Boucher encountered them over Holmes adaptaions) and their avid retention of every copyright privilege they could.
ReplyDelete... and I surrender to all these comments - I will seek out more by him.
DeleteThat is one niche reference to AC Doyle.
Theres is something to be written inspired by the Agatha Christie heirs...
The plot of Rocket to the Morgue involves rights to a deceased writer's works, and Boucher does compare the dead writer's series character to Holmes. I'm reminded of Fred Astaire's widow, who refused requests to show his films or use his image
DeleteOne advantage of Rocket to the Morgue is that it has been reprinted as part of the Otto Penzler Presents series. I picked up my copy at the Piccadilly Waterstones in the last few months.
DeleteIt was well worth the read, although it helped that I knew of some of the authors who are used as the basis of many of the characters, including the one who founded a religion.
This Rocket sounds more and more weird!
DeleteIt's sort of a sequel to Nine Times Nine, with the same policeman and his ex-burlesque queen wife, and the young couple--and Sister Ursula of course--from the earlier book. I wasn't really satisfied with the ending, but it was an entertaining read even for someone who doesn't get into sci-fi and fantasy. In the edition I read online, Boucher added a note at the end about his own "conversion" to the genre.
DeleteNice idea about a story based on the Christie heirs. A title might be Milk It for All It's Worth....
DeleteThat's quite unusual for the detective team to go over from classic crime to SF, I wasn't expecting that.
DeleteYou really made me laugh with the Christie title...
Can't resist Rocket to the Morgue (another contender for the Best Book Titles) - I've ordered a compendium of four Boucher books, also including Nine Times Nine, The Case of the Seven of Calvary and one that hasn't yet been mentioned here, The Case of the Crumpled Knave.
DeleteSovay
Rocket to the Morgue isn't itself SF, it's just set in LA's SF-writers' circle just before the war. The crime is more of a locked-room mystery (although there are some entertaining SF "theories" on how it was done).
DeleteDon't blame you Sovay, well done.
DeleteMarty, I'm a bit disappointed now!
There are probably some good "real SF" detectives out there, but I'm not the one who could point you in the right direction!
DeleteI bet there's someone on here who can tell us....
DeleteFantasy rather than SF, but Katherine Addison's sequels to The Goblin Emperor are mysteries featuring a detective whose title is "Witness for the Dead." He also appears in The Goblin Emperor, but that one, while including some detection, is really a coming-of-age story. Lois McMaster Bujold's Komarr is a sort of detection/thriller story, with forensic engineering (one in the Vorkosigan series). And of course Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden series, crazy though it is, starts out with Harry as wizard-for-hire very much in the noir detective style. I'm sure more will come to me now that the back of my mind has started cranking away!
DeleteI knew there would be answers! I have to say The Goblin Emperor sounds like a parody title....
DeleteIsaac Asimov's Caves of Steel had a human detective, Lije Bailey, with a robot partner, R. Daneel Olivaw, who pressed on him for political reasons and became buddies by the end (some tropes are eternal - see Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy in 24 Hours). I remember enjoying it in the 1970s, and while you can tell it was written in the 1950s (even if the author was politically to the left by USA standards), the fear of robots taking jobs away has echoes now with AI.
DeleteWhile it is mainly about the ideas and world-building, there is actually some detective work in this and in its immediate sequel, The Naked Sun, which features the same pairing.
A lot of his I, Robot stories involve two troubleshooters, Powell and Donovan, working out what went wrong with robots.
I would second Dame Eleanor Hull's recommendation of the Witness for the Dead.
Isaac Asimov seems like a good place to start!
DeleteThanks - helpful and interesting! I enjoyed his Black Widower short stories
DeleteAdding this to the list although there seem to be no copies for sale (affordable or otherwise) this side of the Atlantic.
ReplyDeleteDo you know who the girl in the sunsuit is? She looks familiar but I can't put a name to her.
Sovay
I believe it was part of a Life fashion spread on beach styles. There used to be a collection of fashion pictures online that I used all the time, 20,000 of them, and it was claimed they were available to use. I suspect that was not really true! I'm sorry to say I never checked, I just took the provider's word and used them. This was one of those... I still have quite a lot left in my files, and in past blogposts:I have used it before. This particular one is widely available online (the picture copyright monitors are fighting a losing battle), but I haven't seen any reference to a name. I agree with you though, she does look famliar.
DeleteI tried to find out about the model, but with no luck. I did find some interesting info on the photographer, though. She was apparently the first woman to regularly have photos in Life. She started out photographing animals, then broadened her field to American teenagers and fashion photos. (She herself was from Russia.) The blonde model was in several of the beach photos, but no name was given.
DeleteI should clarify that Nina Leen, the photographer, was one of the first female staff photographers but not the very first!
DeleteVery interesting about the photographer. We like a pioneer! And they are lovely photos
DeleteOn further study, I think it may be that the girl in the sunsuit reminds me of Emily Watson, rather than that I recognise her in her own right. The photographer does sound interesting though.
DeleteSovay
tee hee, I do see what you mean. Emily Watson not that old!
DeleteShe reminds me a bit of the late actress Sally Kellerman, but not as rangy.
DeleteYes, I see that too, something in the bottom of the face
Delete