Read/watchlist

Readlist:

The Talent Code – Daniel Coyle. Also known as: Practice makes myelin. Myelin makes magic. Also known as: ten points of extra credit.

Spark: the Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain – John Ratey. Also known as: do I really need twenty points of extra credit?

Wintersmith – Terry Pratchett

I have holds on the local library for Mental State (Todd Henderson) and the release version of House of Assassins, but frankly it’ll take a while.

Watchlist:

The Duel at Silver Creek – 1952, Audie Murphy, Susan Cabot, Faith Domergue, Some Other Guy Who Smiles A Bunch (Steven McNally). Oh, and a mustached and just about downright unrecognizable Lee Marvin in a minor role.
This is a fairly light-weight western, bordering on straight pastiche. Audie–a bit unsteady on his acting legs, but maybe it’s the two-gun rig; it looks kinda silly on him–actually plays the sidekick rather than the hero, but comes off all the better for it, since McNally’s hero is kind of a twerp. The plot is unspectacular: a gang of claim jumpers has been stealing and murdering the owners of silver mines, including Audie’s pa. Marshal Lightning Tyrone (no, really), is doggedly but not very intelligently trying to ride down them no-good skunks, while heavily distracted by the femme fatale-ish Domergue and totally ignoring the cute-as-a-button Susan Cabot. (Who is also handy with a shotgun, keeps her head in a crisis, and consistently helpful and competent). Anyhow, Opal turns out to be the sister of the bad guy (first hint: when she strangles an injured man to death with his own bandana); Audie falls for Cabot and vice versa; Lightning, well, gets to be sheriff and ride off at the head of the posse into the sunset.
So everybody’s happy.
Rated: three gold nuggets out of five.

Stalag 17 – 1953, William Holden. WW2 prison comedy. (It more or less inspired Hogan’s Heroes, though it’s less farcial).
The Mother of Skaith liked this one. It’s pretty good.
Rated: four racemice out of five.

On the queue:

Johnny Eager – 1950-something, Robert Taylor and Lana Turner, noir romance of some kind.

Fox Fire – 1955 – Jeff Chandler, Dan Duryea, Jane Russell; it’s a romance-noir-western. Of some kind.