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MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE:  Memory
The Deadly Discrediting Affair   (6 of 10)

To take down a dangerous Eastern-European official-- without actually assassinating him-- a man with uncanny perfect memory recall impersonates a suspected double-agent, allows himself to be captured, then interrogated, so the information forced from him will IMPLICATE said official. Just explaining that is more complicated than it should be!

Albert Paulsen (THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE) is "Joseph Baresh", whose ability to remember anything serves him well while impersonating a dead spy that the bad guys don't realize has been dead for 6 months already. It also helps when he happens to glance over a complete list of the main baddie's spy network. What I can't believe is that IMF team leader Dan Briggs actually intended to leave Baresh behind in prison, something suggested at the start of the last act, but which I did not get at all when the mission was laid out. What the HELL kind of "good guy" is Briggs, anyway?

Leonard Stone is "Dimitri Soska", head of security at the prison, who takes far too much pleasure torturing people for information. I've seen Stone in many things over the years, but what always blows my mind the most was his 2 episodes of LOST IN SPACE, where he played galactic showman "Farnum B.", arguably the most exagerrated, ridiculous, over-the-top character in the entire run of that show. Watching him in anything else, it's hard to believe it's the same person. He really was some kind of actor!

Gene Dynarski is the "Sgt. Of Guard" at the prison. I've seen him in numerous things, including 2 episodes each of BATMAN, THE MONKEES, VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA and STAR TREK. When it comes to big, tough, moustached bad guys, he was to 60s TV what Harry Cording was to 30s movies.

Martin Landau, as "Rollin Hand", is listed in the opening credits, so I began to wonder, WHERE the heck is he, when he didn't turn up until 30 minutes into the story! And then he winds up having only a 3-minute cameo. That's what I call "playing around" with the format. Similarly, this is apparently the ONLY episode out of all 171 where the mission isn't delivered to the team leader by some kind of recorded message.

Although Dan specifically mentions "no killing" at the beginning, by the time it's all over, their target, "Janos Kirk" (William Keene) is put before a firing squad by the baddies, and later, Barney & Willy casually machine-gun a couple of guards during the prison break. I guess it all depends on WHO's being shot, when and by whom.

Ah! Emile Mercier and 'Wocko the Beaut'
Emile Mercier b. 10 August 1901
Popular and prolific French-New Caledonian born Sydney cartoonist and illustrator.
https:www.daao.org.au/bio/emile-mercier/biography/
Wocko the Beaut
https:ausreprints.net/issue/73707/0
Images for Emile Mercier and 'Wocko the Beaut'
https:duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=Emile+Mercier+and+%27Wocko+the+Beaut%27&atb=v289-1&iax=images&ia=images

More please, Dan!

Link to the comment: Lucky 'magpie' Comic

Not sure why Trig is called 'Trig'. I'm guessing it's short for 'Trigger', but if he uses maths to improve his shooting, it might be short for 'Trigonometry'.

Link to the comment: Trig Matson 1

Reprint of "Meet Merton' issue #4

Link to the comment: Meet Merton 11

You're welcome. I'm not sure when blue stopped being used as a black highlight.

Of course that old use of blue can lead to some interesting interpretations. I believe artist Alex Ross looked at Spider-Man's red and blue costume and painted it as red and black.

And some people have argued whether Beast & Nightcrawler have blue fur or black.

Ellery Queen Compilation

The Adventure of the Coffin Clue

Well, this was a nice fairplay mystery.

One nit though. Marge says it's the dressing table that was moved, but when Ellery was explaining it he said it was a bureau and the drawings matched the descriptions. Whoops!


The Adventure of the Blood Red Stamp

Hmmm... page 14 (29) panel 3, the picture of Velie almost looks like David Wayne (who played Inspector Queen in the 1970s TV show). What an odd coincidence.

Okayyyyy... so they faked the robbery, glued one stamp to the back of the other, then went and murdered three people and stole their books to cover up their crime... couldn't they just break a window and claim the stamp was stolen?


Third story – stage performer killed

Okay story.


Fourth story – ski resort

That was an abrupt ending. I checked the original comic to see if there was a missing page, but no. that's how they ended it.


Fifth story – circus

This is the second car crash in this collection Ellery has survived.

The Kane circus was never as successful after the Flying Grayson's died. 

Too few suspects to be much of a mystery.


Sixth story – train crash

Soooooo... a guy caused a train crash, while still on the train, and didn't expect to be hurt??? Should have solved the case by the size of his balls.


Seventh story – sabotage ring

I think the writer has mostly given up on the detective aspect of a detective story.


Eighth story – forcing down plane

Isn't this the third story where Ellery is taking his dad on a vacation?

Who didn't guess the criminal by his first line?

Now Ellery is surviving plane crashes.


Ninth story – Western picture

Risking the actual stars of a film with a real cattle stampede??? Stunt men should be doing that job.

Feels like someone had a western story they repurposed to be a 'detective' story.


Tenth story – scritpwriter killed

Maybe the writer should have suggested his murder plot for a movie script instead of actually using it?


Eleventh story – boating story

Again who didn't figure out the murderer and the method of murder on page one?


Twelfth story – Van Gogh painting

Soooooo... was the fingerprint powder spilled by accident or did the murderer use it to find his fingerprints and erase them? You'd think he'd have worn gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints.


Thirteenth story – hunting

Why did the letterer write the Ys like a straight line 4? It almost looked like Hs and I had trouble reading the word gypped.

Not much of a mystery.


The Adventure of the Twin Eye-Glasses

A title??? I thought the writers had forgotten how to create those.

Not that difficult a mystery.


Fourteenth story – oil well

The crumpled cigarette packet clue really seems a stretch. Why not remove the cigarettes to put in a case after you buy them, disposing of the packet at the store, or do it at home? Why wait till you've just been in a shoot out and stolen a deed?


Fifteenth story – cab story

I wonder if the writers calculate the minimum amount of mystery they need for a detective story and don't add any more?


Sixteenth story – diamond theft

The last two pages wouldn't look out of place in a story with guys wearing capes. Interesting shift in the visual storytelling from the earlier pages.


Seventeenth story – Shurane mystery

So which of those two graveyards is supposed to be the shabby one and which is the well-kept one? It's like the artist didn't really try to differentiate the two.

Oldest cliché whodunnit in the book.


Eighteenth story – Crowl case

But what about the case Inspector Queen wanted Ellery to look at?

The actual 'mystery' felt more like snippets of mystery elements to give the illusion of a true mystery story.


Adventure of the Snowman Who Bled

That title reminds me of an early Dick Tracy story.


The stories started off okay, but kinda got worse as it went along.

So, Chuck White decides to catch a speeder by speeding himself...

Link to the comment: Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact v6 9

Thank you for explaining, Superscrounge

This week:

'Trig' Matson #1 which features a Western hero, but it also has an aeronautical duo of adventurers in one backup feature, and a trio of humorous detectives in the other

Lucky 'magpie' Comic, another 52 page Frank Johnson one-off anthology

I really hope "Scanilations" will finally take off. I think they are such a cool idea. So, it's a "Yes From Me"!

Thanks, Mark,
The 3rd Dutch Scanlation book I've chosen for this Sunday's new Books for Review and Analysis by our Reading Group has just been uploaded by Crashryan.  It needs Administrator approval to be visible to members and other readers. So, I hope you or another administrator will be able to approve it today or tomorrow.

Thanks for your support in this new CB+ section, and with our Reading Group.  I'll soon start translating, "Bob Crack 1", another Golden Age Beeldroman (digest-size graphic novel) series from Jago Uitgevers (Publishers).