Three Things Make a Post

[moon_custafer]

Der Kaliber, Mullner, 1828. While looking for a different early work of detective fiction (that turned out to be Mlle. De Scuderie by Hoffman), I came across refences to this work in which, as the title suggests, the resolution turns on proving the fatal bullet could not have been fired from the suspect’s weapon. Google books has a preview of the first half, and it’s a weird read, because on the one hand – well-constructed murder mystery, with forensics and everything, over a dozen years before Poe; and then on the other, it’s totally a work of German Romanticism, with characters who threaten to kill themselves every few paragraphs. Basically imagine CSI meets The Sorrows of Young Werther. The Jewish heroine is cool, the rather fetishy way the story treats her, less so. Still, I’d love a look at the rest of the story.

Malpertuis AKA Legend of Doom House (1971) While looking at tumblr-user idlesuperstar’s review of the real and fake noses of Orson Welles yesterday (happy birthday!), I saw mention of this Belgian fantasy-horror film in which... Orson Welles is a bedridden occultist trying to trap the Greek gods in human form? According to idlesuperstar, Welles’ nose in this one is F for Fake.

Someone made a chamber opera of the Tiger Oil Memos; although I'm not sure “cold efficiency” is the right term for a boss who once wrote: “Do not speak to me when you see me. If I want to to speak to you, I will do so. I want to save my throat. I don’t want to ruin it by saying hello to all of you sons-of-bitches.”

https://books.google.ca/books?id=aRD87w_kObIC&pg=PA9&lpg=PA9&dq=the+caliber+m%C3%BCllner&source=bl&ots=y0UnqwZ9LP&sig=3VVswEo3CrUbGCxN69FW_SqMsU8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwins4n2z_TaAhVK7oMKHap-CCYQ6AEwAHoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=the%20caliber%20m%C3%BCllner&f=false

https://idlesuperstar.tumblr.com/post/83818808876/f-for-fake-a-study-of-orson-welles-film-noses
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malpertuis_(film)

http://scottleemusic.net/tigeroilmemos.php

http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/08/tiger-oil-memos.html

Comments

[kore]

Basically imagine CSI meets The Sorrows of Young Werther

....oooh.

[sovay]

Orson Welles is a bedridden occultist trying to trap the Greek gods in human form?

Whut.

(Der Kaliber honestly sounds amazing.)

[moon_custafer]

Whut
The IMDb description is “A young sailor (Mathieu Carrière) discovers his uncle is capturing dying Greek gods and sewing them into human flesh.”
ETA -- looks like a few different cuts are up on YouTube, along with a trailer which indicates that among other things the movie contains an actual scene of SAI-LORS FIGHTING IN A DANCE HALL


I forgot to mention that Der Kaliber opens with the narrator, who is a local magistrate, poring over reports hoping to find a case of someone killed by the bandits who’ve been attacking travellers — he’s been trying for months to get the governor of the region or whatever to send some men to capture them, and been informed that no resources will be diverted unless the bandits actually kill, as opposed to just rob, somebody. When a young man comes to see him, gasping that his brother’s just been shot by a bandit in the forest, the Magistrate’s reaction is basically “YES! Uh, I mean, how awful, tell me what happened.”