THE ANSWER

X-THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES was a 1963 Roger Corman film starring Ray Milland and, in a supporting role, Don Rickles. Gold Key published a one-shot adaptation (I own a copy) of the film that same year which makes this Rickles first comic book appearance. 

THE FIRST FOUR COLOR DON RICKLES

Common wisdom holds that legendary insult comedian Don Rickles (whom I saw perform twice during his long career, once in Las Vegas at the now gone Stardust Hotel and again at Austin's Paramount Theatre)  made his first and only comic book appearances in SUPERMAN'S PAL JIMMY OLSEN #139 (July, 1971) and # 141 (September, 1971). Published by DC Comics, both issues were written and drawn by Jack "King" Kirby. The stories are wacky fun and have earned a reputation as two of craziest, oddest comic books ever published by a mainstream comics company. But hey, it was the early '70s and Kirby was in complete control of SUPERMAN'S PAL JIMMY OLSEN, THE FOREVER PEOPLE, THE NEW GODS and MISTER MIRACLE. Kirby's incredibly fertile imagination just kept spewing forth all sorts of ideas, concepts and characters, most of which worked, while some, sadly, didn't.

But regardless of how you feel about Don and his alter ego Goody, love 'em or hate 'em (me, I love 'em!), everyone knows that these two comics mark the first time that Don Rickles appeared in an American comic book. 

Not so fast you hockey puck.

Rickles actually made his first appearance in an American comic book (published by a major, mainstream publisher) eight years previously. 

First reader to correctly name this comic book won't win a damn thing.

 What, did you expect me to drop my pants and shoot a rocket? 

ASSIGNMENT CEYLON

ASSIGNMENT CEYLON was (as you can see on the cover pictured above), the 36th published adventure in the durable Sam Durell spy series written by Edward S. Aarons and continued by his son after the elder's death. There were 48 Sam Durell "Assignment" novels published in all. I've read a few of them over the years and while they're not the best they're far from the worst (I'm looking at you Nick Carter, Spymaster).

Published in the fall of 1973 (my senior year in high school), ASSIGNMENT CEYLON finds Durell on the island nation trying to rescue a kidnapped American diplomat. The man has been snatched and held for ransom by a radical terrorist organization led by an obscenely obese criminal mastermind named, wait for it, Dr. Sinn. The kidnapped American is also an amateur archeologist who claims to have found the legendary Buddha Stone, an ancient relic that could turn modern Buddhism upside down if the inscriptions said to be on the stone are accurate.

To complicate Sam's search for the ambassador, he's been branded a traitor by his own intelligence agency, Section K of the CIA. He's lumped in with other agents from other countries (including a murderous Russian), who have betrayed their countries to join Sinn's private army of intelligence agents and killers. Sam has to go on the run to clear his name while fighting off Willie Wells, one of his own fellow agents who has been assigned to kill Sam. There's also a Ceylonese security agent, the lovely divorced wife of the ambassador, (Sam rekindles a brief romance with her), her rebellious, drug addict American son, Skoll, a massive Soviet agent with whom Sam has teamed up with on previous assignments and other dangers to be faced. 

The action climaxes on Dr. Sinn's private island (shades of DR. NO), where Durell and Wells are forced to engage in a hunt to the death in the jungle (Aarons borrows liberally here from Richard Connell's classic 1924 short story THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME). Things come to an explosive climax with Dr. Sinn escaping his burning island headquarters to menace Durell and mankind another day. Durell is one tough guy to kill as are Skoll and Wells. They all receive various forms of torture and punishment but ultimately survive to fight again.

 The action is swift and sure, the exotic locale (Ceylon is now, of course, Sri Lanka) is vividly drawn, the villains are larger than life, and Durell is faced with a life changing decision at the end of the novel. Fast paced and fun, ASSIGNMENT CEYLON is a great way to spend an afternoon. I've enjoyed all of the Sam Durell ASSIGNMENT books I've read and this one's another winner. Check it out.

A DAME CALLED MURDER

Kudos to Greg Luce at Armchair Fiction for another winner. Luce, who is the mastermind behind Sinister Cinema, a website specializing in obscure, public domain titles of various types of genre and exploitation films, is also responsible for the insanely ambitious Armchair Fiction line of handsome trade paperback reprints of vintage crime, science fiction, fantasy and horror fiction. Again, it's material that's fallen into the public domain but that in no way lessens the appeal of these hard boiled, two-fisted pulp classics.

Case in point A DAME CALLED MURDER by Milton Ozaki. Originally published in 1955, the Armchair Fiction edition was published in 2014. The novel stars Chicago private detective Max Keene who, while on an assignment for a client, stumbles across what appears to be a very sophisticated shoplifting ring. Max takes one of the comely female suspects back to her apartment but before he can tend to her illness, he's hit over the head and knocked out. He comes to in the apartment of another young woman and he soon discovers that the first woman is dead in her apartment, brutally murdered, her corpse savaged by bite marks. Oh yes and Max's fingerprints are all over the place. 

Max is pegged as suspect numero uno and quickly goes on the lam deep into the Chicago underworld in a quest to clear his name and find the real killer. Along the way, he learns a great deal about professional shoplifting, visits several sleazy strip clubs, encounters a stripper who uses a giant python in her act, runs across crooked cops, a sinister homosexual and other colorful characters. 

Ozaki was no great stylist but he sure as hell knew how to keep things moving.  A DAME CALLED MURDER opens with a chapter that double dog dares you to stop reading and before you know it, you've breezed through 183 pages of pure pulp magic, the kind of "quick and dirty" storytelling I like and admire. 

Check out the Armchair Fiction website (armchairfiction.com) for more info.  

And if you end up ordering a book (or two, or three..) be sure and tell Greg I sent you. 

THE BIG HOUSE

THE BIG HOUSE occupies ground zero for an entire genre of American films, the prison picture. This gritty, early sound, pre-Code drama offers a no-holds barred glimpse into an American prison during the early years of the Great Depression. The film was a huge hit and served as the template for countless other prison movies that soon followed.

The narrative starts by following Kent (Robert Montgomery), an average Joe without a criminal past, who is sent to prison on a charge of manslaughter (he killed a man while driving drunk). We're set up to believe that the story is going to be about Kent and his trials and tribulations behind bars (early on he's told, "if you've got a yellow streak, prison will bring it out", which turns out to be prophetic). But the focus shifts once Kent is introduced to his cellmates, the murderous Butch (Wallace Beery) and career criminal Morgan (Chester Morris). 

Morgan comes to dominate the rest of the film. He's slated for an early release for time served and good behavior but Kent plants a knife on him, which ends up sending Morgan to "the hole", where Butch is already doing time. Morgan stages a daring escape in a morgue wagon and once freed, strikes up a relationship with Kent's pretty sister, bookstore owner Anne (Leila Hyams). But Morgan is eventually captured and sent back to prison just in time to discover a bold escape plan engineered by Butch about to be set in motion. 

The escape, of course, goes wrong and erupts into a furious gun battle between the prisoners and the "screws". Tommy guns, .50 caliber machine guns, pistols, gas and two military tanks (!) are used to put down the riot. It's a bravura, exciting and thrilling finale to an extremely compelling story. 

The legendary Lon Chaney was originally set to play the part of Butch. But when Chaney died of throat cancer, the part went to Beery, who earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his performance. The nomination and acclaim led Beery to become the world's highest paid actor within two years. The Best Screenplay Oscar went to Francis Marion, while Douglas Shearer took home the very first Academy Award for Sound. THE BIG HOUSE was also nominated for Best Picture of the Year. 

Sporting massive sets (courtesy of fabled art director Cedric Gibbons) and amazingly fluid camera work by Harold Wenstrom, THE BIG HOUSE is a hard boiled classic. Recommended.

AT THE CIRCUS

I first encountered the Marx Brothers' 1939 film AT THE CIRCUS on late night television many years ago. It was one of my earliest exposures to this classic comedy team and I loved it. I've since seen it several more times over the years, along with many other Marx Brothers films and, having watched it again recently, I find that it's a good but far from great Marx Brothers film.

Die hard Marx fans are well aware of the vast gulf that separates the early films the team made at Paramount Studios and their later efforts produced at MGM (with far bigger budgets and lavish production values). Put simply, the Paramount Marxes showcase a trio of anarchists, intent on destroying society through jokes and pratfalls while the MGM Marxes are merely funny guys who try to help people using unorthodox ways and means. DUCK SOUP (1933) is not only their masterpiece, it also ranks as one of the greatest comedies ever made while AT THE CIRCUS is simply a funny movie, a nice way to pass the time on a cold, grey winter afternoon.

In AT THE CIRCUS, the brothers come to the aid of a young circus owner (Kenny Baker) and his lovely fiance (Florence Rice). The couple is about to lose the circus to a bad guy (James Burke) and his evil henchmen, a strong man (Nat Pendleton), a midget (Jerry Maren) and a ceiling-walker stunt performer (Eve Arden). Chico sends for ace attorney J. Cheever Loophole (Groucho), to help the desperate couple and all three brothers are soon mixed up in a case of missing money. Loophole enlists a society matron (Margaret Dumont), to throw a benefit for the circus. She thinks her guests will enjoy an orchestral performance but Loophole literally brings the circus to her estate for a madcap finale.

All of the hallmarks of an MGM Marx Brothers' film are on display here. There's the young lovers and their sappy love songs, Chico demonstrates his amazing skills at the keyboard, Harpo performs for an audience comprised entirely of African-American men, women and children (as he did in AT THE RACES (1937)), Groucho and Chico exchange comic banter early in the film and Groucho insults Dumont repeatedly (which she appears to enjoy). Set pieces include the brothers in a tiny train car questioning a midget suspect, Groucho and Eve Arden walking on the ceiling (Arden completely disappears from the film after this sequence) and of course the flying trapeze finale. 

But the greatest thing about AT THE CIRCUS is Groucho's performance of the song, "Lydia the Tattooed Lady". It's far and away the high point of what is otherwise a pretty formulaic, routine comedy outing. 

Recommended for Marx fans and any one interested in becoming one. But if you're new to the Marx Brothers, start your viewing with DUCK SOUP. 

3 GODFATHERS

This may be a bit heretical but I'll go ahead and say it anyway. I think John Ford is among the most overrated American filmmakers of the twentieth century. While I haven't seen all of his films, the ones I have seen fall into three categories: great, good and terrible. I rate STAGECOACH (1939), THE GRAPES OF WRATH (1940) and THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE (1962) among the great with the worst being HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY (1941) (a film I wouldn't watch again with someone else's eyes), MOGAMBO (1953), MISTER ROBERTS (1955), DONOVAN'S REEF (1963) and 7 WOMEN (1966). All of the other Ford films I've seen fall somewhere between these two extremes. 

And while I haven't seen every John Wayne movie ever made, I've seen a lot of them over the years and find the majority of them to be entertaining and worth watching at least once.  

I can now add to my list of good John Ford films 3 GODFATHERS (1948) starring John Wayne, Pedro Armendariz and Harry Carey Jr. Wayne plays an outlaw for a change of pace. He's Robert Hightower, who, along with Pete (Pedro Armendariz) and William Kearney (Harry Carey, Jr.), plot to rob the bank in the small town of Welcome, Arizona. Kearney is wounded in the getaway and Sheriff Buck Sweet (Ward Bond) is soon on their trail with a posse in tow. The men strike out across the desert and soon run out of both water and horses before stumbling upon a deserted wagon wherein a pregnant woman (Mildred Natwick), who is also Sheriff Sweet's niece, is about to give birth. The men assist with the delivery and she asks each of them to serve as godfathers for the infant boy. They agree, she dies and the men must now take care of a newborn baby while trying to keep themselves alive.

The gag of three incompetents saddled with a troublesome baby is usually the fodder for comedies. The Three Stooges tried to take care of a babe found abandoned on their doorstep in one of their two-reelers while THREE MEN AND A BABY (1987), was a blockbuster hit. Here, what starts out humorous quickly turns grim as first Kearney and then Pete succumb to their injuries, leaving Bob alone to care for the child. Kearney tried to impart some faith into his companions by reading from the Bible before he died and it's the Bible that Bob turns to, reluctantly, when he's at the end of his rope. He reads the passage about Jesus commanding his disciples to go into a village and find a donkey and her colt and bring them to him. Just then, miraculously, a donkey and colt appear to help transport Bob and the baby to the nearest town. All of this happens on Christmas Eve with a bright star in the heavens to guide him on.

Filmed largely on location in California's Death Valley, 3 GODFATHERS is a lush, Technicolor western that mixes humor with grim drama as Bob finds redemption from his life of crime by becoming a loving, caring father of his young godson. Ford regular Jane (THE GRAPES OF WRATH) Darwell has a bit part as a train station boss while young Ben Johnson is a member of Bond's posse. 

3 GODFATHERS is far from the best work of either Ford or Wayne but it's an engaging, handsomely mounted film that Judy and I thoroughly enjoyed watching. Thumbs up.