My Blog

Best Crime Movie in Ages

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Add me to the chorus of people who are raving about THE LAST LULLABY, a terrific, l0w-budget indie crime movie directed by Jeffrey Goodman and starring Tom Sizemore as an insomniac hitman on his last assignment. It's based the novel THE LAST QUARRY by Max Alan Collins, who co-wrote the script with Peter Biegen.  It isn't yet another in a seemingly endless spew of pop-culture-referencing, amped-up, martial-arts, dizzyingly-edited action montages masquarading as movies. This is the real deal, a genuine, character-based noir tale that packs a surprising punch. No bells and whistles. No CGI. No explosions. But plenty of mood, atmosphere, emotion and startling, unromanticized violence. And a touch of romance, too. This is a crime movie for adults who don't have A.D.D.  Goodman says:

"I guess Lullaby is a smattering of things I like," explains its director Jeffrey Goodman.  "If I have combined them in a way that feels fresh I will be happy.  There's a dose of playfulness from the French New Wave, a bit of slowness of some art films, the naturalistic style of early seventies American film, and a strong commitment to narrative taken from film noir.  Yet, in all honesty, more than anything, I just wanted to get away from irony and cynicism and try to put something on screen that was sincere."

He succeeded. Brilliantly. I loved it. Best indie crime movie I've seen since, oh, DIAMOND MEN.

Putting on your Comedy Hat

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Earl Pomerantz has posted another wonderful anecdote from his days writing and producing Major Dad.

I meet with McRaney and his manager to discuss the problems McRaney’s having with the scripts. At some point in the discussion, McRaney’s manager, coincidentally a former Marine, says, “Now, putting on my ‘comedy hat’….”

I, internally, hit the roof, and bang my head against it a few hundred times. I’m not a Marine. I don’t claim, and never have claimed, to have a “Marine hat.” McRaney’s manager had never been involved in a comedy. Where the heck did he get a “comedy hat”!?

If you love tv, you should be reading Earl's blog.

Amazon is taking over the world

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Publisher's Weekly reports that Amazon has purchased Abebooks, the online used bookstore.

AbeBooks, which has over 110 million books for sale listed by independent booksellers, will continue to function as a stand-alone operation based in Victoria, British Columbia.  AbeBooks will maintain all its Web sites, including its Canadian Web site, and all sites will continue to have country-specific content.

On the Road with Mr. Monk

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For a while now, people have occasionally sent me pictures of themselves in far-flung places with one of my MONK books in their hands. If you're out and about, and happen to have one of my MONK books with you, please send me a photo (to Lee AT Leegoldbrg.com) and I will post it here. (That's me with the Naked Bookseller of Quartzite, AZ)

Mr. Monk has a Bookgasm

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Alan Cranis at Bookgasm has given MR. MONK IS MISERABLE a rave review. He writes, in part:

Goldberg realizes the obligations he must fulfill in writing tie-ins, and successfully recreates the rhythms and nuances of the television characters on the printed page. But he never cheats his readers. The scenes are well-researched, and the plot is as inventive and vivid as any original story. Additionally, the author adds just enough interior emotion to give the story depth without sacrificing the energetic pace.

His biggest challenge, as always, is Monk himself. For those with only scant knowledge of the TV series or the characteristics of OCD, Monk might seem like an insufferable asshole. But while staying true to these traits, Goldberg manages to bring our sympathies to Monk, first with the humorous observation of his ever- patient assistant and finally when we see Monk fully involved and secure in what he does best: solving murders.

Goldberg also manages to have some fun with a few traditional mystery techniques. Monk’s sharp-eyed observations and detached explanations are positively Holmesian. And one scene recreates a classic “locked room” murder right out of John Dickson Carr.

But like most tie-ins, the bottom-line mission is to entertain. And Goldberg expertly succeeds here as well. Series fans will find much to enjoy and celebrate. And for everyone else there is a neat, surprisingly literate and well-written mystery starring a most unlikely crime solver.

Thanks, Alan!

Mr. Monk is Miserable Today

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My seventh original "Monk" novel, MR. MONK IS MISERABLE, hits the shelves of bookstores nationwide today. It picks up where my last book, MR. MONK GOES TO GERMANY, left off. And I think you should rush out RIGHT THIS SECOND and buy it…or click here.   Here's how the publisher describes the book:

Monk already ruined a trip to Germany for his long-suffering assistant Natalie. The least he can do is accompany her on a detour to France—and try not to ruin that too. In fact, Monk stuns Natalie by announcing that he wants to visit the sewers of Paris. The historic underground maze of pipes and tunnels is famous for making the City of Light sanitary, and to Monk, that’s worth paying tribute to.

The only problem is that their explorations lead them to another hidden world below the Parisian streets: the catacombs, filled with aging skulls and bones. Monk’s sharp eye catches sight of one skull that’s not so old—and that shows evidence of murder—pulling them into a case more twisted than the catacombs themselves. 

I hope that you enjoy it!

Saintly Diversions

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  Over the holiday, I read Roger Moore's delightful memoir MY WORD IS MY BOND and I watched the documentary THE SAINT STEPS IN…TO TELEVISION. Both are a "must" for any fan of THE SAINT. But if I had to pick just one to recommend, it would be the book.

Moore's good humor and engaging personality comes through on every page of his memoir. Although the book is a fairly superficial skimming of his life and career, there's still plenty of amusing anecdotes and production details for die-hard MAVERICK, SAINT, PERSUADERS and Bond fans (the stories about THE PERSUADERS are particularly entertaining).  But readers looking for scandalous details about his love life, or those of other Hollywood personalities, will be disappointed.  Overall, it's a fast, informative, and fun read.7952968med

Many of the stories Moore tells about the Saint in his memoir are repeated in the documentary, only not as well. The documentary, narrated by Roger Moore and Ian Ogilvy, is bloated, plodding and unbelievably repetitive. That's not to say there isn't some real gold in there for SAINT fans and students of television in general…but you have to pan through a lot of  gravel to get to it.

I enjoyed the interviews with the SAINT writers (and interviews about the writers), the
discussions about script troubles, and the nasty script notes from author Leslie Charteris…but even that got extremely tiresome after
a while, since they basically kept repeating the same anecdotes, or
variations of the same anecdotes, over and over, long after the points were made. That's true of every subject the documentary tackles (it felt like an hour was spent just talking about what a nice guy Roger Moore is). And there's a long section about going from black-and-white to color episodes that can be marketed as a cure for insomnia.

The section on THE RETURN OF THE SAINT moves much more briskly, but the whole project feels needlessly padded … which, in fact, it was. The documentary is actually two shorter films made as "DVD extras" for the series boxed sets that were combined and expanded to fill a standalone release. I'll bet that the shorter versions play much, much better…and are every bit as informative.

Rejected Bond Theme Songs

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Over the years, a number of major artists have recorded Bond themes that were rejected by the producers. You can find out about many of these “lost” songs in the excellent BBC documentary JAMES BOND’S GREATEST HITS.
Here are a few of the rejected Bond theme songs, starting below with Johnny Cash’s rejected THUNDERBALL theme played against the THUNDERBALL main title sequence:



Here is Alice Cooper’s rejected theme for THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN. He’s interviewed on the “James Bond’s Greatest Hits” documentary and is pretty pissed off that his theme was tossed in favor of Lulu’s awful theme:



Here is Dionne Warwick’s MR. KISS KISS BANG BANG, another rejected THUNDERBALL main title theme. Shirley Bassey also recorded a version of it. Both versions are available on the Best of James Bond CD collection:



Here is Julie Roger’s rejected theme for YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, which is also available on the Best of James Bond CD collection. She’s interviewed on the “James Bond’s Greatest Hits” documentary and talks about her disappointment at being passed over:



Here is Blondie’s rejected theme to FOR YOUR EYES ONLY:


Here is St. Etienne’s rejected theme for TOMORROW NEVER DIES. She’s also interviewed in the documentary and isn’t a fan of Sheryl Crow’s theme:


Here’s Pulp’s rejected theme for TOMORROW NEVER DIES (which they retitled “Tomorrow Never Lies” for their album). They’re also interviewed in the documentary.



Here is Phyllis Hyman’s rejected theme for NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN. Hyman isn’t interviewed but Lani Hall and Herb Alpert, who did the final theme, do appear and admit that their winning song wasn’t very good.