Regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog will remember my review of three neglected swashbuckler novels by Alexandre Dumas. (For those three – Georges, Captain Pamphile and La Dame de Monsoreau click HERE )
Regular readers will also recall my look at the way Dumas’ The Corsican Brothers is NOT really a swashbuckler story in the spirit of The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo or The Man in the Iron Mask, but because it’s a Dumas tale it often gets adapted AS IF it’s an action-oriented sword and pistol saga.
And that brings us to Dumas’ novel The Black Tulip set in the Netherlands’ city of Haarlem in the 1670s.
When I was a little boy thrilled with the Musketeers, Monte Cristo and Iron Mask I excitedly grabbed The Black Tulip to read, assuming it, too would feature derring-do and swordplay. Much to my disappointment the novel instead dealt with attempts to cultivate a black tulip, the mob-slaying of Netherlands politicians Johann and Cornelius de Witt, romance and the redemption of personal honor.
Using the approach of the adaptors of The Corsican Brothers, let’s MAKE The Black Tulip a rousing swashbuckler just because it’s by Dumas.
THE BLACK TULIP (1850) – I would make it so that “the Black Tulip” was a masked and costumed identity adopted by the novel’s hero Dr. Cornelius Van Baerle in order to pursue his crusade to redeem his family honor, tainted from the scandal following the grisly slaying of the de Witts (Insert your own Joyce de Witt joke here). Continue reading
TOP DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS SWASHBUCKLER MOVIES – My review of the eight spectacular, milestone silent movies starring Fairbanks in the forerunners of today’s action blockbusters. (1920-1929) Click 
AMPHIBIAN MAN (1962) – Review of this bad Russian movie. Odd science fiction piece. Click 
JANUARY 1970 AT MARVEL – Brief reviews of Marvel’s January ’70 releases – Avengers vs the supervillain team called Zodiac, X-Men vs Sunfire, Spider-Man vs the Chameleon, Hulk vs the Leader, Iron Man vs the Crimson Dynamo, plus the very first appearance of Agatha Harkness as the Fantastic Four take on the Frightful Four. Click 
A CHRISTMAS CAROL – A GHOST STORY FOR CHRISTMAS (1995) – Remember Orson Welles’ Mercury Theater? Switch it to another name for that deity and you get Quicksilver Radio Theater. QRT went to great pains to treat listeners to as authentic a simulation of old-time radio dramas as possible. 
BUGS BUNNY’S CHRISTMAS CAROL (1979) – When is an adaptation of A Christmas Carol NOT an adaptation of A Christmas Carol? When it features Warner Brothers cartoon characters. Nearly thirty years later WB would inflict on the world another version of the Carol that was just as soulless and joyless as this 1979 effort. 
This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at some of the early stories during the time when Daredevil and the Black Widow were a team, like 
DAREDEVIL & THE BLACK WIDOW Vol 1 #92 (October 1972) 
THE CASSANDRA CROSSING (1976) – My review of this hilariously bad disaster movie starring Sophia Loren, Richard Harris, Ava Gardner, Burt Lancaster, Martin Sheen and O.J. Simpson. Passengers on a train are exposed to a deadly virus because of terrorists. Click 
GRIPS: ONE OF THE MOST CONTROVERSIAL SUPERHEROES EVER – From 1986-1992 Grips, a combination of Wolverine and the Punisher, had ultra-violent and otherwise adult adventures in Kris Silver’s independent publications. Only Faust exceeded Grips in the 80s and 90s, and artist Tim Vigil worked on both series. Must be read to be believed. Click 
A VERY MISSING PERSON (1972) – Eve Arden starred as amateur sleuth Hildegarde Withers from a series of mystery novels. Hildegarde solves a murder involving high-level figures in New York City. Also includes my review of the 1930s movies about the character. Click 
MOMMA THE DETECTIVE (1981) – A Mother’s Day look at this made for tv movie about Esther Rolle as an amateur detective who solves a high society murder. Think of shows like McMillan and Wife, The Snoop Sisters, etc. Click 
A VHS CHRISTMAS CAROL LIVE – I was going to save my review of this 45-minute StarKid musical adaptation of the Dickens classic for Christmas Day itself, but I changed my mind. 
The cast members perform their roles in costumes which make each of them pastiches AND composites of recognizable 1980s pop singers. They don’t stoop to doing impressions of those singers, they stay in character and stay true to the musical vibe of the score. But you can’t help but smile at the 80s pop culture mainstays they put you in mind of. 
For overseas readers, let me be clear that the title of this blog post is no joke. Abraham Lincoln also caused Democrats to froth at the mouth with hatred even more than they usually do and he was removed from multiple state ballots in the 1860 election, which he went on to win. 
I’ll have more to say on this in the days ahead, but holiday preparations limit my time today. Here are items written by others about this latest anti-Trump travesty: 
These are the legends about Charlemagne and his Paladins, not the actual history, so there will be dragons, monsters and magic. 
Ruggiero (at left) was hoping that Logestilla would use her own magic to cure the Paladin Astolpho of the spell that Alcina had cast – a spell that had trapped Astolpho in the form of a tree. The hippogriff – the large, winged horse/ eagle hybrid which had flown Ruggiero to the island last time around – refused to accompany the warrior any further, so our hero walked on alone. 
GOLEM (1980) – My review of this Polish science fiction film that is sort of a blend of Eraserhead and Patrick McGoohan’s series The Prisoner. An authoritarian dictatorship has risen in the aftermath of a global nuclear war. Click 
CANADIAN-MADE SUPERHEROES 1941-1950 – From well-known names like the superheroine Nelvana of the Northern Lights (at left) and the superhero Thunderfist to less celebrated figures like Freelance, Nitro, the Blue Raven and Commander Steel. Plus superheroines like the Wing, Ghost Woman and many more. Thirty-eight characters in all. Click 
PATHFINDERS IN SPACE (1960) – The neglected British sci-fi television series. Includes my review of its sequels, Pathfinders to Mars and Pathfinders to Venus. Click 
JUSTICE SOCIETY/ JUSTICE LEAGUE TEAM-UPS – 1975-1979 
