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Gang Roundup – February 2018

 

Flapper Fashion

Fellow writer Sherilyn Decter, who’s getting ready to launch her new 1920s mystery series, has just lauched her blog and there are already some wery interesting articles to read there.
I like this one in particular because… well, you know my interested for the flapper movement and what it meant on a social level. Sharilyn addresses these same issues here.

The Trunk Murders and ‘Sausage Ghost’ of 1920s New Orleans

A true crime which happened in New Orleans in late 1927. We often think that our world is getting increasingly violent and grim. Well, reading this, doesn’t seem as this is the case. This is a story of jelously, supposed or true betrayal and vengeance. The very violent kind.

The 369th Infantry Regiment, formerly known as the 15th New York National Guard Regiment, was an infantry regiment of the New York Army National Guard during World War I and World War II. The Regiment consisted mainly of African Americans, though it also included a number of Puerto Rican Americans during World War II

Our Great National Shame

To honor Black History Month, author Jeffrey K. Walker writes about the 369th U.S. Infantry Regiment, an all African American regiment who fought on the French frontline of WWI and was best known by their German enemies as the Hell Fighters.
The history of these men is particularly poignant. War heroes, trieted as equal by the French soldiers, they went back to a segregated America who had a very hard time to recognise their valor.
Still it is widely acknowledge that this experience was at the heart of the battle for equality of the 1950s and 1960s.

 Decopunk was once considered a declination of Dieselpunk, but it's gaining so much popularity that it's almost becoming its own genre

Dieselpunk: A New Cookbook Part 3: Decopunk

Since the beginning, Dieselpunk has manifested itself in two main, very different forms. A dark one heavily inspired by film noir, and a more hopeful one, heavily inspired by Art Deco and its aesthetics.
While the dark version became popular in the community stright away (what with the focus on both World Wars and gangland setting), the light version, Decopunk as it was later termed, is becoming more and more popular now.
This article addresses wht it is all about.


A SONG UNHEARD (Roseanna M. White) Willa Forsythe is both a violin prodigy and top-notch thief, which make her the perfect choice for a crucial task at the outset of World War I—to steal a cypher from a famous violinist currently in Wales.A Song Unheard by Roseanna M. White

Willa Forsythe is both a violin prodigy and top-notch thief, which make her the perfect choice for a crucial task at the outset of World War I—to steal a cypher from a famous violinist currently in Wales.

Lukas De Wilde has enjoyed the life of fame he’s won—until now, when being recognized nearly gets him killed. Everyone wants the key to his father’s work as a cryptologist. And Lukas fears that his mother and sister, who have vanished in the wake of the German invasion of Belgium, will pay the price. The only light he finds is in meeting the intriguing Willa Forsythe.

But danger presses in from every side, and Willa knows what Lukas doesn’t—that she must betray him and find that cypher, or her own family will pay the price as surely as his has.

 


Journey’s End Official Trailer #1 (2018)

Set in a dugout in Aisne in 1918, it is the story of a group of British officers, led by the mentally disintegrating young officer Stanhope, as they await their fate.

I stumbled upon this trailer on FB by mere chance. I’ve never heard of it before. But goodness, it does look awesome!

Babylon Berlin tv show - A mystery seriesl set in Weimar Berlin, the centre of the world in the 1920sNew Roaring Twenties TV Shows Coming Out in 2018

Very nice roundup of tv shows, all set in the 1920s. Some new ones – like Babylon Berlin – and some known ones – like Miss Fisher Murder Mysteries. There are quite a few of them.
I suppose that, as we approach the Twenties once again, stories set in this time period will become more common. Can’t say I’m sorry.

M (Fritz Lang, 1931)

I haven’t seen this film, but I have heard all kinds of awesome things about it. Considered one of Lang’s masterpieces and greatly influential on the rise of American film noir, this sounds like a very tense film and not very easy to take (which is why I haven’t seen it yet).
This is a very good review, which goes to some in-depth consideration of the film both on a technical, artistic and narrative level.

"M" is one of Fritz Lang's most influential films. It's the story of the hunt to a child serial killer

Gang Roundup - February 2018 - History and period tv shows set int he 1920s are the meat of this month's roundup

6 Comments

  • Megan
    Posted February 8, 2018 at 19:45

    You haven’t seen M????!!!! Then you’re in for a real treat! A lot of it is excruciatingly slow by modern standards, but Lorre’s acting is EXCELLENT, and the ending is amazing and it’s got Peter Lorre and really you should go see it immediately!!! 🙂

    Also, thanks for the link! Much appreciated 🙂

    • Post Author
      jazzfeathers
      Posted February 8, 2018 at 22:49

      Mhm… I suppose I should do just that 🙂
      I’ve seen Lorre in The Maltese Falcon and I really liked him. He has a very very personal way of acting.

  • Margot Kinberg
    Posted February 8, 2018 at 21:21

    You have a great roundup here, as ever! The 1920s were such a complex time, weren’t they? It’s easy to just think of those years as flappers, drinking, jazz, and so on. But there were major changes afoot, and the times were more complicated than it seems on the surface.

    • Post Author
      jazzfeathers
      Posted February 8, 2018 at 22:51

      Absolutely true. That’s why I love that time so much.
      Now that I’m researching 1920s Europe, it seems even more complex to the point of being contradictory. But history is often like this.

  • Carrie-Anne
    Posted February 12, 2018 at 18:45

    M is an awesome film! I was so lucky to get to see it on the big screen at one of the local indie theatres in 2016 (not the first time I’d seen it). Peter Lorre’s speech in his own defence really made me re-examine my attitudes towards people like his character. It’s definitely not a film with the message, “This person committed vile acts and is 100%, one-dimensionally evil.”

    • Post Author
      jazzfeathers
      Posted February 13, 2018 at 14:36

      I know I need to watch it. I’ve only just heard good things about it. You might just have talked me into it 😉

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