Nobody could figure out how Kettering had shot
his realistic scenes on Mars. His movie was
just too good to be true--and much too gruesome!
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy
August 1958
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
I remember it all so clearly. "Get the information and you can have
anything you want," Myron Ferdinand told me. He stuffed his heavy
pipe with five-dollar-an-ounce tobacco and blew a heavy cloud around
his heavy face. "Fail to get it, and I'll wash you out of the whole
industry."
Myron meant what he said. "I'll get it," I said with beautifully faked
confidence.
"Renn Kettering will be glad to see you at his party tonight," Myron
grinned. "I planted a rumor that you want to leave me and go to work
for him. Maneuver a private talk, get him on the subject of how he made
that damned movie. Maybe he'll let something slip."
"Great idea," I said. Movie magnates always have great ideas.
"Talk to his cast. And slip off alone if you can and look his
house over. I don't care what you do, but come back here with the
information. And don't get big ideas on selling out to Kettering. He'd
hire you to get you away from Stupendous and then dust-bin you because
he couldn't trust you. You understand that, of course."
"Of course," I said. Movie magnates are always right.
"One thing more, Manny. I want you to see those steals again."
"I've seen those scenes of his about seven thousand times, Myron."
"So have I--so has the whole country--and between you and me I don't
think they're as hot as they're cracked up to be. I'd have done it
different. But I want you to see them just before you go to Kettering's
party, to have 'em fresh in your mind. Get it?"
"Terrif idea!" I bellowed. "I didn't think of that!"
"That's why I'm president of Stupendous," said Myron.
Modest guy, Myron Ferdinand. "Right," I said, sliding toward the door.
"Remember," said Myron. "Anything you want--or on the other hand, the
end of you in Hollywood."
On the way to the preview room I mulled it over. Nice simple
assignment. Find out how Renn Kettering of PGP Studios had shot those
startling sequences _Mars Hazard_, an international hit. It was super
realism--the critics were calling it "Art's answer to the newsreel" and
stuff like that. The scenes had been shot on Mars. Renn had fabulous
influence. In this case he must have paid off the government itself,
because the crew of the third ship to touch the new planet had been
mostly his own actors and technicians and Renn himself was along. These
factors were known to every hipster. But how had he managed to shoot
those....
I was at the view room. I signaled the joker in the projection booth
and sat down as the first famous sequences came on the screen.
The space crew had left the ship and were in a little ravine when a
bunch of tawnies came down on them. There were liver-freezing shots of
the tawnies--close-ups--those could have been done with a telephoto
lens. The space crew got behind some rocks, and Vance Hubbard, the
film's heavy, stood up and cut loose with a blaster. The blue sparks
burst and showered around the big tawny that was coming for Vance,
and it howled but didn't stop. Vance hurled the gun at its big sticky
mouth, and then the thing grabbed him with its front mandibles, or
whatever you call them.
There was a closeup of Vance's face, scrambled with terror, about the
best acting I have ever seen from Vance. And, the tawny got those
yellow choppers going and minced him into little hunks.
It was all close to the camera, and about the most real thing I ever
saw outside of a newsreel. Superb realism.
If I hadn't seen so many murder films and pirate films and
space-monster films I suppose I couldn't have kept watching. But me
and John Q. Public were just alike--calloused. Calloused or not, I
still felt a cold chill or two. If the public wanted horror, this film
delivered it.
There were some more hair-raising shots as the crew tried to beat off
the tawnies. There was a guy who got in the way of a blaster. I wanted
to think he was a rubber dummy or some kind of robot, but I couldn't
convince myself. Anyway, the tawnies cleaned up. The only one who made
it back to the ship was Arden Montgomery, and her legs were ripped and
slashed like ragged cloth.
Then the clips were over. I sat and thought a moment. Maybe Myron had
a point, watching the steals again. I had picked up an idea. It was
crazy, but I needed any idea I could get hold of.
Maybe those scenes were just as real as they looked. Maybe Renn was
using doubles here on Earth, and the real cast was scattered in hunks
around the bleak sands of the red planet. Renn was unscrupulous enough
for something like that. But could he patch up convincing doubles?
I was pretty sure doubles hadn't been used in the film, though. I knew
Vance and Arden. It was them.
I kept worrying at it all the way to Renn's house party. I came up with
one more idea--one I liked. Arden Montgomery was the only one in the
film that escaped. If those scenes were real, she'd have scars on her
legs the rest of her life. They'd be too severe to disguise completely.
Arden and I had once been what they call "good friends," and tonight I
would find a chance to give her legs a good, thorough lookover.
* * * * *
Renn met me at the door in person. On the front of his phony grin, and
in the back of his mind was the possibility he might get me away from
Myron. The grin didn't change the fact that Kettering has eyes like dry
ice, and that the true lines of his face are about as jovial as a shock
trooper's.
"Greetings, Gabe!" I chortled.
"Greetings, Gabe!"
I was about to shake hands when I yelled and jumped back about ten
feet. Just behind Renn was a snarling tawny.
Renn laughed. "Little watchdog I brought back. He's a runt, you'll
notice. Only about five feet high. Weighs about fifteen hundred pounds.
He keeps prowlers off the grounds at night--so many people are curious
these days. But don't worry, he can't get at you."
The runt was tied with steel cables about two inches thick. He was
giving the cables a hard time.
"Come on in," laughed Kettering. "Those cables would hold an elephant."
"I don't see what that has to do with holding a tawny," I wheezed, "but
if the rest of your guests got through, I guess I can make it."
Kettering took my arm and sort of guided me down the hall, and when
we passed the tawny all those eyes or whatever they are, all over its
body, glared through the fur and it leaped at me. The big choppers
clacked a half inch from my ear and I felt a mandible graze my coat.
Renn guffawed. "I measured his exact reach," he said chummily. "Sorry
if he scared you. A good watchdog--so many people curious these days."
That made the second time he'd said that.
I gulped a drink before I began to talk to anybody. Practically all the
Important Crowd was present.... Dick Lutz, the critic; Sally Flours;
Johnny Lambeck of Lambeck & Bowe, and what looked like the whole cast
of "Mars Hazard." I was in luck--Arden Montgomery was there with them.
I noticed she didn't have a drink, so I brought her one. "Greetings,
Gabe," I smirked charmingly, and she gave me the big hello. So far, so
good--she was glad to see me.
"What's new, Manny?"
"Nothing," I said, "Except I'm in love with you."
"Wonderful," she said. "I love having people in love with me."
I slid my eyes up her legs, which were exhibited considerably. No sign
of scars.
"How was Mars? I hear it's dry and full of itchy green sand and the sky
is a pink that'd turn your stomach. And--horrors--no bars!"
"I kinda liked the damned place. Wouldn't mind staying there."