The Lovely Marjorie Reynolds Returns in John Dandola's Latest Mystery

My mystery-writing friend John Dandola has just released his new title, DEAD IN SMALL DOSES, and I'm glad to say he's brought back the character of Marjorie Reynolds, a Paramount actress whom people might remember from movies like Holiday Inn, in which she famously sang "White Christmas" with Bing Crosby.

Reynolds pairs up with Dandola's main amateur sleuth, a barber named Tony Del Plato; as in Dandola's previous book, Del Plato helps the eccentric (and real) millionaire, John Hays Hammond, Jr. Why did John borrow Reynolds' real persona as a fictional version of herself? He cites her plentiful charm, and the fact that his story takes place in Old Hollywood:

"The dynamics between characters, just like real people, change over the years. Enter Marjorie Reynolds. From everything I’ve learned about her through research and interviews, the late Miss Reynolds wasn’t just pretty and charming on-screen; she seems to have been a breath of fresh air off-screen. I thoroughly enjoy writing about her. She has become absolutely real on every page she occupies, and she just clicked with the barber character. What’s more, the trajectory of her career can easily be understood by anyone in the outside world who has suffered from indifferent bosses and bureaucratic mindsets. That is a tremendously humanizing element in her appeal—even beyond her 1940's movie star looks.”

I'm looking forward to reading John's new title; his books are like a journey back to a glamorous Hollywood of yesteryear, but with all the gritty reality of today's crime world.

And by the way--couldn't Katherine Heigl be a double for Reynolds if they cast her in a Reynods bio-pic today?

Check out John Dandola's books at www.johndandola.com

(Image: wikipedia)

Iron Man Evokes The Ancient Greek Hero

As the mother of two sons and the wife of a man-child who loves superheroes, my fate was to see Iron Man in the weekend that it came out. We have been marking the days, literally, on our calendar until the exciting debut of this latest Marvel-inspired film. I've seen lots of superhero movies with my bevy of men--Spiderman 1-3, Batman in all its incarnations, Superman, Hulk, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, X-men. They were all fun according to this pattern: superhero takes on a villain and saves the city (usually New York).

But Iron Man is different. Iron Man is not just about the evil nature of the villain without, but about the dual nature of the man within. It is about violence and conscience, power and accountability. And Robert Downey, Jr. makes it work with a very nuanced performance.

On the way home I was buzzing about the movie, trying to get the men to think about it on a symbolic level. They didn't really want to. They liked the testosterone of it, the giant metal suits, the pure power that perhaps every man, and some women, dream of.

To me, Tony Stark, the arms dealer who becomes Iron Man, could have been a character written by Sophocles, if Sophocles could be brought to Hollywood and asked to write a screenplay (and I'm sure Sophocles would have a lot to say about Hollywood . . .).
Stark is a flawed man, a man who may have wasted his life in the pursuit of power and pleasure. But he has a moment of redemption, and that moment fuels a new passion. Still, he remains flawed, and the Ancient Greeks would suggest that he must take responsibility for those flaws, no matter how often he himself is a victim, and no matter that he has changed his worldview. He will always be burdened by his past.

I like the fact that a modern-day movie raises some of the questions of the ages: Why does power so often corrupt? Why do people seek to solve problems with ever-escalating violence? Where is the logic in thinking that we can make weapons ever larger, ever more powerful, and can somehow still remain unscathed?

I recommend the movie, both as a fun superhero romp and as a thought-provoking examination of the modern world and its weapons. Jon Favreau, the director, seems to enjoy asking those big questions, and I intend to keep watching his movies to see if he comes closer to an answer.