In 1984, a suicidally depressed former B-movie actor and professional weisenheimer Syms Thorley holes himself up in a Baltimore hotel to spill all the secrets surrounding his oddest gig of his career: being hired in 1945 by the American government to put on a Godzilla-like suit to shoot some monster-attacking-city footage they hoped would scare the Japanese into submission.
So goes James Morrow’s Hollywood-meets-World War II satire SHAMBLING TOWARDS HIROSHIMA, a novella that utilizes the author’s usual blend of outlandish fantasy and wild humor. Essentially, SHAMBLING is a one-gag deal — which may explain why it’s only 170 pages — but it’s a pretty good gag.
Thorley is in the middle of shooting a cheap vampire sequel called REVENGE OF CORPUSCULA with producer Sam Katzman and director William Beaudine when the Navy recruits the flat-footed star to don a rubber “Gorgantis” suit and destroy a miniature city, to be directed by James Whale and scored by Franz Waxman, with effects work performed by Willis O’Brien. He’s chosen for being a “consummate shambler,” based upon his monster-laden filmography.
This “Operation Fortune Cookie” isn’t actually the Navy’s first idea in hoping to end the war without nuclear weapons. That was growing actual sea monsters — which they did, and named after characters in the Blondie comic strip — that were able to breathe fire. (“Of course they breathe fire. Why do you think they cost the taxpayers five hundred million dollars?”) But what if the beasts went toward our coastline instead of Japan’s? Thus, Plan B.
After the last-act disappointment of Morrow’s most recent novel, THE PHILOSOPHER’S APPRENTICE, it’s nice to see him working his wit into a killer premise he’s able to see through to its entirety. As a fan of old movies, it’s also fun to see real-life filmmakers like Roger Corman and Edgar G. Ulmer be weaved in and out of the tale (or is it tail?). But even with the blast the B-movie backdrop offers, the best scene is a present-day encounter between Thorley and a hooker that plays awfully bittersweet — a reminder that for all the shenanigans in his plots, he’s first and foremost just a great writer. —Rod Lott
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• THE LAST WITCHFINDER by James Morrow
• THE PHILOSOPHER’S APPRENTICE by James Morrow
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