The Last Detective (TV)

(2004-2007)
Created by Leslie Thomas
Written by Richard Harris
Starring Peter Davison, Sean Hughes, Emma Amos, Tob Spendlove, Elizabeth Bennett
IMDB Entry

The British love their mysteries. I keep coming up with programming that feature a detective -- professional or amateur -- who solves crimes, usually murders.  Since I'm a big fan of Doctor Who, I definitely wanted to see Peter Davison in The Last Detective.

"Dangerous" Davies (Peter Davison) is a police detective who is scorned for being a nice guy, unwilling to be cruel to the people he arrests.* After the events of the first episode, he's even more scorned by the police, who make him the low man in the office, only assigned to the crimes that no one else thinks are important. But Davies is a dogged investigated underneath his mild exterior, letting him discover crimes that are more complicated than first thought.

His personal life is messy. His wife Julie (Emma Amos) is divorcing him, but is only separated and still seems close, even if she does sleep with other men.** The other detectives treat him like a joke, and his boss, Ray Aspinal (Rob Spendlove) shows his contempt. His one friend in Mod Lewis (Sean Hughes), a pseudointellectual and overall flake who can't seem to hold a job.  Also of note in the early shows is his landlady, Mrs. Fulljames (Elizabeth Bennett***), who has a great and annoying fondness for Rogers and Hammerstein.

Davies suffers from contempt from all quarters, but soldiers on. Davison is excellent as a man too mild-mannered to object to the abuse and jokes, but who still goes about solving the crimes.

I was delighted to spot Sian Phillips -- Livia from I, Claudius -- in one of the episodes.

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*The name is ironic.  His actual first name was never revealed.

**In the first episode, one comes to her house when he leaving, which leads to a mildly awkward conversation.

***Best known to me for her role in The Sandbaggers.

The Emperor Jones

 (1933)
Directed by Dudley Murphy
Written by DuBose Heyward, based on the play by Eugene O'Neill
Starring Paul Robeson, Dudley Diggs, Frank H. Wilson
IMDB Entry

Some actors are legends, and in some cases, this is because few have seen them. Paul Robeson was certainly the best Black actor of the 1930s and 40s,* but Hollywood of that era being what it was, he didn't get many opportunities to star. The Emperor Jones, while technically not a Hollywood film, is one of those few, and he shows how spectacular an actor he could be.

Brutus Jones (Paul Robeson) is hired to be a Pullman porter, but he quickly goes onto the wrong path, gambling and carrying on with various women. During a crap game, he accidently kills Jeff (Frank H. Wilson) and is sent to work on a chain gang.  He strikes and kills a guard who is beating another prisoner, and goes on the run, getting a job as a stoker on a steamship. When it passes a Caribbean island, he jumps ship and joins up with the trader Smithers (Dudley Digges) who helps him to become ruler of the Island. Power goes to his head, until he is deposed and his descends into madness.

The movie is a classical tragedy of a man destroyed by his hubris. Robeson is definitely impressive and you get the impression he would have made a great heroic actor if times were different. Digges is also impressive and the scheming trader who realizes that Jones has gone too far -- but can't convince him of that.

Despite its origin as a play by one of America's greatest playwrights, Hollywood wasn't interested in filming it due to the all-Black cast,** so a couple of independent producers took it up. The movie flopped, though, probably because it wouldn't play in Southern theaters. There is also some scenes and words that are problematic these days.

On a larger level, there is a lot on condescension and clear racial attitudes of the time that wouldn't fly today (and shouldn't have flown even back then), so it can be difficult to watch these days.***  But Robson is a compelling presence throughout and it was worth it to see him in a leading role.

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*He also was an All-American football player.

**Smithers is the only white character of note.

***Though not even in the same ballpark as Wonder Bar.

The Yesterday Machine

 

(1963)
Written and Directed by Russ Marker
Starring Tim Holt, James Britton, Ann Pellegrino, Linda Jenkins, Jack Herman, Jay Ramsey, Olga Powell
IMDB Entry

Hollywood is cruel. It's the "what have you done lately?" attitude: if you had a few flops, or if you're growing older, you can end up forgotten. Tim Holt was a successful cowboy actor in the 30s and 40s, and appeared in four legitimate classics, but by the 50s, his star had faded.** He ended up taking roles in low-budget films and one of his final appearances was in The Yesterday Machine.

Howie Ellison (Jay Ramsey) and cheerleader*** Sandy Del Mar (Ann Pellegrino) have their car break down on the way to a football game. Looking for help, they are shot at by a pair of Confederate soldiers. Howie gets help, but Sandy remains missing.  Reporter Jim Crandell (James Britton), aided to Police lieutenant Fred Partane (Tim Holt) track them down to a secluded farmhouse, the headquarters of ex-Nazi scientist Professor Ernst von Hauser.**** Von Hauser has invented a time machine and it planning to go back to save Hitler.*****

The movie is pretty pedestrian and the acting no more than serviceable.  Of note is Olga Powell as Didiyama, an Egyptian slave of the pharaohs, who von Hauser has brought back.

Holt only appears in a handful of scenes, lending his name to be the only recognizable star. The movie was a local production, where small studios would make a film for small theaters far from the big cities and most of the actors appeared in nothing else. The film is certainly not a classic, but still manages to be entertaining.

As for Tim Holt, this was pretty much the end of the line. He had a guest spot a few years later on The Virginian, and appeared in one more film before his death. 

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*Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine, The Magnificent Ambersons, and  The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

**Despite the fact that Westerns were a big thing.

***The film begins with a pre-credit sequence of her twirling a baton for no particular reason.

****The fall of the Third Reich created vast unemployment among mad scientists.

*****Of course.

Mrs. Sidhu Investigates

 

(2013)
Created by Suk Pannu
Starring Meera Syal, Craig Parkenson, Naana Agyei Ampadu, Gurjeet Singh, Gordon Kennedy
IMDB Entry

My local library includes a subscription to Hoopla, which lets you read books online. It also has some television show, mostly British mysteries, and that's where I discovered Mrs. Sidhu Investigates.

Mrs. Sidhu (Meera Syal) is a widow and runs a catering company. She is a woman in her 50s, of Bengali descent, and turns out to be an excellent chef, finding jobs all over Slough and its environs. And when she shows up, there's usually a murder.

Mrs. Sidhu is smart and very observant, and uses he cooking skills to give goodies to witnesses to get them to open up to her. She then reports to DCI Burton (Craig Parkinson), who finds her meddling annoying, but is willing to listen to her findings even as he tells her to get off the case.  Burton is aided by Sergeant Mint (Naana Agyei Ampadu) and is pushed by his boss Superintendent De Vries (Gordon Kennedy). Mrs. Sidhu is aided (reluctantly) by her feckless son Tez (Gurjeet Singh).

The stories are well constructed, but for any mystery these days, it's the personalities that make it work. Mrs. Sidhu is bright, bubbly, and relentless in solving the crime. DCI Burton is morose, more so because he's just divorced and recently blew an important case. The contrast between the characters makes the show more interesting.

There's some very good writing. Mrs. Sidhu is introduced as planning a catering for a wedding. The bride and groom are there. The bride refuses one of her dishes, saying she doesn't like fish. When urged to eat it, she finds it delicious. Mr.s Sidhu also observes that she doesn't love her husband and wishes the marriage wouldn't happen. Very quickly we learn she's a great cook, and that she's a shrew judge of people.

Meera Syal is a successful UK actress. She originated the role in a series of radio dramas, and is sometimes credited as a consultant/writer for the episodes. Her role is full of charm. Craig Parkinson was one of the social workers in Misfits and is a very similar character here. Naana Agyei Ampadu shows a lot of quiet wisdom as Mint; she can see how useful Mrs. Sidhu can be, but also understand Burton. Gurjeet Singh makes a great slacker.

There has only been one season of four episodes. I hope they do more.

Murder in Suburbia (TV)

 

(2004-05)
Created by Nick Collins
Starring  Caroline Catz, Lisa Faulkner, Jeremy Sheffield
IMDB Entry

I've been watching a lot of British mysteries of late and recently I stumbled onto Murder in Suburbia, a short-lived series about crimes in suburban settings.

It follows the adventures of detectives Kate "Ash" Ashurst (Caroline Catz) and Emma "Scribbs" Scribbins (Lisa Faulkner), who investigate murders that show up the dark side of the suburban scene: wife swapping, adultery, noisy neighbors, dog lovers, school administration, and old-age homes.

The mysteries are well plotted, but the strength of the series is in the two leads, whose banter is alway a pleasure to listen to. There's also a minor thread about them wondering about the background of their boss, Jeremy Sullivan (Jeremy Sheffield), who keeps his private life a secret.

You can spot a young Olivia Coleman in one of the later episodes, but there aren't a lot of big names in it (though Catz did seem to make a mark later in Doc Martin.

Condemned to Live

 

(1935)
Directed by Frank R. Strayer
Written by Karen DeWolf
Starring Ralph Morgan, Maxine Doyle, Mischa Auer, Pedro de Cordoba
IMDB Entry

One of the charms of vampire stories are that they are so mutable. You can take the basic idea of a human that drinks blood in the night and add and remove whatever elements you like. Condemned to Live is an early film example of a vampire legend that strays from the common tropes.

The film starts out with a short scene of a couple of explorers, including a pregnant woman, in South America hiding in a cave from the natives and a mention of the vampire bats. Then we go forward to a small village where young women are being murdered. They blame bats, but Professor Kristan (Ralph Morgan) pooh poohs the idea saying that there is a reasonable explanation. The people stay indoors at night, with plenty of candles. Still, the murders continues and we learn that the professor turns into a killer at night, and wakes up with no memory of the events. His faithful assistant, the hunchback Zan (Mischa Auer) knows of the transformation, and makes sure that all evidence is removed. He confesses his affliction to Dr. Bizet (Pedro de Cordoba), who speculates it was because his mother was bitten by a vampire while in South America. Kristan fears for the safety of his fiance Marguerite (Maxine Doyle), but events conspire to have her outside in the dark when Kristan is hunting.

The story is slow-paced, but is interesting in that Kristan doesn't revel in the killing and, once he discovers what's happening, tries to do his best to fight against it. Most of the elements of vampire films are missing -- no drinking of blood, no turning into a bat -- but the result is still interesting, especially as it shows Kristan as a man tormented by what he turns into, usually the theme of werewolf movies.

None of the actors are known to me other that Mischa Auer, which is a strange casting.  Auer was a tall man (6'2"), so seeing him as a hunchback is more than out of character, though, to be fair, he does a good job of scrunching down.

Director Frank Strayer had a long career as director of B pictures, most notably the Blondie series.

The film was produced by the delightfully named "Invincible Pictures," which turned out to be very vincible and was absorbed soon after into Republic Pictures, a purveyor of cheap programmers.

My Man Godfrey

 

(1936)
Directed by Gregory La Cava
Written by Morrie Ryskind, Eric Hatch
Starring William Powell, Carole Lombard, Alice Brady, Gail Patrick, Jean Dixon, Eugene Pallette, Alan Mowbray, Mischa Auer
IMDB Entry

I've been a fan of William Powell for a long time. He had a nice ironic sense of humor and plenty of suave charm. Of course, he's best known for his turn as Nick Charles in the Thin Man series, but there were plenty of other opportunities to enjoy his performance.  My Man Godfrey,  while very successful in its day, seems to have taken a back seat, but he's as good in this as in anything else.

Godfrey Smith (Powell) is living in the city dump, the refuge for a large contingent of homeless men. He is approached by Cornelia Bullock (Gail Patrick) as part of a scavenger hunt, where rich people amuse themselves by gathering odd items, in this case, a forgotten man.* When he's offered $5, he refuses. Cornelia's sister, Irene (Carole Lombard) is amused and glad that her spoiled older sister isn't getting what she wants. Godfrey decides to help Irene get some petty revenge of Cornelia by agreeing to be the forgotten man.**

Irene takes her home and hired him to be their new butler. Godfrey meets the family: exasperated father Alexander (Eugene Pallette), scatterbrained mother Angela (Alice Brady), Cornelia, Irene, and Angela's protege Carlo (Mischa Auer), who's biggest talent is his appetitive.

Godfrey is the perfect butler, keeping calm and quiet as the family goes about its madness.*** Meanwhile, Irene falls in love, Cornelia tried to discredit him, and, it turns out, Godfrey is not telling the truth about his past.

There are a lot of similarities between Godfrey and Nick Charles, and Powell definitely carries the movie. Lombard is especially good, too: ditzy without being stupid, and extremely charming. It's too bad her life was cut short; she could be become a icon of comedy.

Movies of the 30s often cast people according to stereotypes, and this was no exception. Alice Brady is fine as the ever more scatterbrained mother of Irene, and Eugene Pallett -- of the raspy voice -- makes a great icon of comic frustration. Mischa Auer was known for playing the wild-eyed Russian. Franklin Pangborn and Grady Sutton were foils to W.C. Fields in The Bank Dick.

Gail Patrick had the most interesting career. She grew tired of playing second-fiddle roles and left acting to go into producing. Years after the film, she became producer of Perry Mason (as Gail Patrick Jackson).

The movie is a classic of the screwball comedy genre.

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*A 1930s designation for people unemployed due to the Depression.

** Irene's description is comic gold:  "Well, a scavenger hunt is exactly like a treasure hunt, except in a treasure hunt you try to find something you want, and in a scavenger hunt you try to find something that nobody wants.... and the one who wins gets a prize, only there really isn't a prize. It's just the honor of winning, because all the money goes to charity, that is, if there is any money left over, but there never is."

***The family reminds me of the Vanderhoff's in You Can't Take it With You. The movie came out a couple of months before the play opened, so it's possible Kauffman and Hart used it as an influence. Interestingly, the movie version also featured Mischa Auer.

I Was a Shoplifter

 (1950)
Directed by Charles Lamont
Written by Irwin Gielgud
Starring Scott Brady, Mona Freeman, Andrea King, Tony Curtis
IMDB Entry

The title I Was a Shoplifter is an odd one. The structure portends some sort of big event, but when you get to the final word, it disappoints.* Shoplifting is usually a pretty minor crime.** Still, the movie ends up being quite good despite it.

It starts with a narrator talking about the crime of shoplifting, then we see Faye Burton (Mona Freeman) moving suspiciously through a department stores, gaining the attention of store security and Jeff Andrews (Scott Brady), who warns her she's being watched. When she leaves, she is picked up, and Andrews is, too.  Faye is daughter of a judge and doesn't want the incident known. She signs a confession, which the store will keep on file and use against her if she's caught again, and she is let go. 

Once she leaves,  Jeff comes out. He's an undercover cop pretending to shoplift. There has been a ring working the city, recruiting young shoplifters -- usually woman -- who get caught, and then manipulate them into shoplifting for them, promising to steal the confession.  Jeff wants to break of the ring.

Ina Purdue (Andrea King) approaches Faye and brings her into the gang and Jeff, who has been keeping an eye on her, volunteers to also join the gang. 

The movie becomes a tutorial for shoplifting tricks, and soon Faye is set up to do her first job.  But things go wrong. There's a chase scene that doesn't go the way you would predict, and a search to find the real mastermind of the ring. And, of course, Jeff and Faye fall in love.

The most notable performance is that of Andrea King. Ina is a very smart woman -- probably smarter than Jeff. You can't put much over on her, and there is a particularly good scene where she explains that they have no way of escaping the police, so their smart move is to just surrender.

Tony Curtis has a small role as Pepe, one of the gang's thugs. It was his fifth credited role.  Larry Keating, who plays the store owner, later became familiar as Wilbur Post's neighbor in Mister Ed.

The movie is surprisingly good and Andrea King probably should have become a bigger star than she was.

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*Compare it to I was a Teenage Werewolf of I was a Communist for the FBI.

**Yes, I'm aware of the big shoplifting rings that are in operation today, but most shoplifters tend to pick up a couple of items.

The Chase

 
(1946)
Directed by Arthur Ripley
Written by Philip Yordan
Starring Robert Cummings, Michele Morgan, Steve Cochran, Peter Lorre, Jack Holt
IMDB Entry

Sometimes you can see when a movie goes off the rails. What seems like an excellent film falls apart in just one scene. The Chase is obscure, but could have been much better if it weren't for a cliche that even beginning writers are told not to do.  Which is too bad, because it could have been a great one.

Chuck Scott (Robert Cummings) is a down-on-his-luck veteran who stumbles upon a wallet with a considerable amount of money in it. Starving, he buys a meal, and, finding a name inside, he decides to bring it back to its owner, Eddie Roman (Steve Cochran). Roman is impressed by his honesty (Scott admitted he did buy a meal with the money) and hires him on as a chauffeur. We learn that Roman is a ruthless gangster who, aided by his henchman Gino (Peter Lorre), murders a competitor by locking him up with his vicious dog. Scott doesn't know about it, but begins to suspect that Roman is no good. Scott begins to drive Roman's wife Lorna (Michele Morgan), who tells him of her bitterness and her desire to visit Havana. 

They make plans to leave that night, and soon find themselves in Cuba. But Lorna is murdered and Scott is framed to be the killer. Gino is there, and goes all out in the frame.  It's a tense and fascinating situation.  

And then, Scott wakes up. The trip to Havana was all a dream. They hadn't left yet.

This is what I meant by a cliche.  "It was all a dream" was hackneyed years before the movie came out, and is one of the first things they tell beginning writers to avoid. It destroys the first-class tension and sense of paranoia the movie had built up.

They try to rationalize it. Scott calls his psychiatrist (Jack Holt) who's been treating him for PTSD* and the many nightmares he's been having. But Scott realizes there is still time to get Lorna and escape.

I also found the ending too much of a deus ex machina. It doesn't come out of the blue, but it is too convenient.

Robert Cummings is best known as light comedian, but before TV, he played a similar role in Hitchcock's classic Saboteur. He makes Scott an everyman who is caught up in a sinister web. 

Peter Lorre is Peter Lorre, though he plays the role with quiet sinisterism. Steve Cochran was often cast as a gangster, including roles in Danny Kaye vehicles and in White Heat. Writer Philip Yordan was a pretty busy man and acted as a front for several blacklisted writers in the 50s.

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*Not that they called it that back then.,

Foyle's War (TV)

 

2002-2015
Created and Written by Anthony Horowitz
Starring Michael Kitchen, Honeysuckle Weeks, Anthony Howell
IMDB Entry

I've been watching a lot of TV now that I'm retired, and a big part of it are British mysteries. The BBC and the other channels have a menu of top-notch mysteries, often cozy that turn out to be excellent. I came upon Foyle's War and am loving it.

The show follows Christopher Foyle (Michael Kitchen), the chief detective of the police in Hastings in the UK. The show is set during World War II. Foyle would prefer to be fighting, but is not called up. Instead, he solves mysteries and murders with the background of the war creating roadblocks. The show is praised for its accurate portray of life during that time -- the fear during the Blitz, the profiteering, the rationing, and the conflict of the investigations with the needs of the war effort.  Foyle is assisted by his driver, Samantha Stewart (Honeysuckle Weeks*) and Sgt. Paul Milner (Anthony Howell), who lost a leg at Dunkirk and this cannot serve again.

The episodes were each set in a specific month during the war and shows what life on the home front actually was. 

The war adds an extra dimension to the stories but the show is carried by Kitchen's performance. Foyle is motivated in finding justice, and doesn't give up even when it carries him into places where the military doesn't want him. He had a nicely sardonic streak when he tears apart people's excuses with a quiet sarcastic comment, but he's never afraid to show compassion when it's warranted.

Honeysuckle Weeks plays Sam as a fairly independent woman, who does more than drive, and discovers things to help Foyle figure things out.  Anthony Howell is an able assistant, but loses some of his personality as the show progresses and he adapts to his prosthetic.

The show was created by Anthony Horowitz, the same guy who created the most successful of British mystery shows, Midsomer Murders, and has many of the same qualities.  Various guest stars appeared, including two future Doctor Whos.  

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* I love that name.

The Road to Ruin

(1934)
Directed by Melville Shyer, Mrs. Wallace Reid (Dorothy Davenport)
Written by Mrs. Wallace Reid (Dorothy Davenport)
Starring Helen Foster, Neil Monroe, Glen Boles, Virginia True Boardman, Richard Tucker
IMDB Entry

Dorothy Davenport was a woman with a mission. She was an actress and married Wallace Reid, who was became a major silent film star in the last teens. Sadly, Reid developed an addiction to morphine after an injury and died in 1923, shocking Hollywood* Davenport, who had dropped out of acting to raise her children, started directing and producing message films, beginning with one on morphine addiction and billed herself as "Mrs. Wallace Reid" to get authenticity. One of these was The Road to Ruin.**

Ann Dixon (Helen Foster) is a high school girl who starts to hang out with her friend Eve Monroe (Nell O'Day). Evel is wild, hanging out with boys, smoking cigarettes, and drinking and Ann gets drawn into it all. She starts to date Tommy (Glen Boles) and, one night when they go to a lake to party, she loses her virginity to him.*** Ann becomes further mixed up with the bad eggs, and one night, Ralph Bennett (Paul Page), a man in his twenties, seduces her away from Tommy. There is another wild party, where the women are enticed to play a form of strip dice and swim in a pool. The cops arrive. Taken to the hospital, they discover that Eve has syphilis and Ann is pregnant. Ann goes to an abortionist,**** but the surgery is botched and she dies.

One odd thing is the three musical numbers in the movie. Very strange, given the downbeat tone of the film, but in 1934, musicals were expected.

The move is not crazily sensationalist like Reefer Madness and the code makes it oblique and tame, but it's an interesting document of how the keepers of morality saw young women at the time.

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*News of the addiction was kept under wraps.

**There are three versions of it -- a silent one in 1928, a reissue with dialog in 1929, and a full sound version in 1934. I'll be talking about the latter.

***I think. Since the film was post-code, and Davenport wanted it to be seen by conservative audiences, it's a bit vague on exactly what went on. But Ann is clearly regretful and Tommy tries to console her.

****They dance around what's going on, and never mention the word.

Seventh Heaven

 

(1937)
Directed by Henry King
Written by Melville Baker, from a play by Austin Strong
Starring Simone Simon, James Stewart, Jean Hersholt, Gale Sondergaard
IMDB Entry

Sometimes old time Hollywood did casting that seems nonsensical to modern audiences, after we get used to a particular actor's type of performance. Seventh Heaven is a perfect example of this, but still manages to be a very good movie.

Chico (Jimmy Stewart) is a sewer cleaner in 1914 Paris, who hopes to be promoted to be a street washer. But one day he sees Diane (Simone Simon) being beaten by her sister Nana (Gale Sondergaard). He jumps in to save her and learns she has nowhere to go.* Chico takes her to his apartment. He is a gentleman towards her and sleeps the night at a friends. Chico is very opinionated and declares himself an atheist and Diane asks him to visit Father Chevillon (Jean Hersholt), who indulges him. The relationship between Chico and Diane deepens, and, when he is drafted, the proposes and they marry. But going into the trenches makes it all uncertain.

First of all, it's pretty hard to think of Stewart as a Frenchman named Chico. He has all the mannerisms that made him a star, and it's too much of a jump to see him as anything other but James Stewart. Still, he handles the full-on romantic role well

Simone Simon, is more believable as a Frenchwoman, mostly because she was French. Here she plays a wounded little bird character, who has suffered and strives to be happy, unable to believe her good luck in finding Chico. She had been brought to the US, but her career never took off, partly because she developed the reputation of being temperamental. She said it had to do with her adjustment to American society, but she never became a major star, though she did make an impression in Cat People, playing a similar troubled character.

Gale Sondergaard won an early Best Supporting Actress Oscar, and is best known for playing sultry and intimidating woman. She is far from sultry here -- the madam of a bordello who beats Diane for not acquiescing to her clients' desires. 

A couple of familiar names have bit parts. Sig Ruman -- the Marx Brothers' foil in A Night at the Opera and other films -- shows up as a customer of the bordello who gets upset when Diane rejects his advances. John Hamilton -- Perry White from The Adventures of Superman -- plays a gendarme, but it's easy to miss him.

The movie is a remake of a very early talkie (or, rather, a silent film with sound added), which won Oscars for Best Actress, Director, and Screenplay.

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*Her sister runs what is probably a bordello, though since this is after the Hayes Code, that's kept vague.

The Locked Door

 (1929)
Directed by George Fitzmaurice
Written by George Scarborough, Earl Brown, screenplay by C. Gardner Sullivan from the play The Sign on the Door by Channing Pollock.
Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Rod La Rocque, William "Stage" Boyd, Betty Bronson
IMDB Entry

The early days of talkies were a bonanza for playwrights. Hollywood needed screenplays, and what better way than to buy an already successful play and adapt it for the screen? The Locked Door is a prime example.

During Prohibition, the young and inexperienced Ann Carter (Barbara Stanwyck) accepts an invitation by Frank Devereux (Rod La Roque) for a dinner aboard a ship just outside the twelve-mile limit, so alcohol can be served. Devereaux tries to seduce her, locking her in the room with him, but the police have a pilot who surreptitiously takes the ship into US waters. It's raided and Ann and Devereaux are arrested, but jump bail.

A year and a half later, Ann is happily married to Lawrence Reagan (William "Stage" Boyd*). Reagan's sister Helen (Betty Bronson) introduces her new boyfriend -- Devereaux.** Ann warns her to stay away from him, but doesn't dare explain why. Helen plans to run away with Devereaux, and Ann goes to him to beg him to call it off. Cad that he is, he refuses. But Lawrence shows up to try to convince him otherwise.

The plot doesn't hide its stage origins -- why should it?  Most of the movie takes place in Devereaux's apartment, and I will say the ending is a bit inconvenient and out of character. 

This was Barbara Stanwyck's first credited role and she handles it quite well. She hadn't quite formed her hard-as-nails persona, though there are signs of it. Rod La Rocque was a busy leading man of the time and has the right touch of smarmy smoothness to make him an excellent cad.  William "Stage" Boyd is OK, if a bit wooden.

Two important figures have small parts. The great Zasu Pitts appears as a hotel telephone operator. She isn't given a lot to do, though she does have some amusing lines. Mack Swain was a silent film heavy, best known as Charlie Chaplin's partner in The Gold Rush.*** Adjacent to stardom was George Bunny, brother of John Bunny, one of Hollywood's first silent film comedians.

The film holds up pretty well overall and is still entertaining.

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*No connection to the actor known for playing Hopalong Cassidy. But when he was arrested for drugs, it affected the other Boyd when the photo of him was mixed up. Hoppy couldn't get work for awhile, but managed to overcome it when he took on the role that he is famous for.

**A similar plot to Indiscreet, filmed a year later.

***Snowed in, he goes mad with hunger and thinks Chaplin is a chicken.

It Happened Tomorrow

(1944)
Directed by René Clair
Written by Dudley Nicholds, René Clair, from a story by Lord Dunsany
Starring Dick Powell, Linda Darnell, Jack Oakie, Edgar Kennedy, John Philber
IMDB Entry

René Clair was in some ways ahead of his time. Nowadays, fantasy rules the movie roost, but it was very unusual to see in silent days and in early talkies.  Clair, however, had a penchant for fantasy and, in 1944, he directed a fantasy that is still a common theme today.

It starts at the 50th wedding anniversary of Lawrence and Sylvia Stevens (Dick Powell and Linda Darnell), where they reminisce about how the first met.  Lawrence is an obit writer for a newspaper who hopes to be a reporter some day. His fellow obit writer, Pop Benson (John Philber) tell him that time is an illusion and hands him a newspaper. He puts it in his pocket without reading it and goes to a vaudeville act featuring the Great Sigolini* (Jack Oakie), a mind reader, and his daughter Sylvia (Linda Darnell), who has a clairvoyance act. Lawrence is fascinated and asks Sylvia out.  She turns him down.

The next day, he realizes he has an advance copy of today's evening paper.* The headline indicates there will be a robbery. As he argues with his editor to cover the opera, Sylvia shows up. Lawrence takes her, and, sure enough, there's a robbery.

Police Inspector Mulrooney (Edgar Kennedy) thinks Lawrence is part of the gang. He's thrown in jail, and Pop Benson shows up to give him another newspaper that clears him. But when he asks for one more in order to bet on the races, things go bad.

The situation has been used before and has been used since, but this is a charming example. The final situation is handled cleverly with a twist that is quite logical. There's also a subtle nod to Sylvia's supposed clairvoyance at the end.

Dick Powell made a career out of being charming and is excellent here.  Linda Darnell was a former child star who was a moderate success once she grew up, but who never made it to being a major star. Still, she's quite good here. Jack Oakie always plays the same time: a brash and wisecracking midwesterner*** and doesn't fail to amuse. Edgar "slow burn" Kennedy is hard to recognize in his Keystone Kop makeup. Marx Brothers foil Sig Ruman has a small part as a promoter.

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*Real name Oscar Smith

**A little explanation for the younger readers. For many years, there were morning and evening newspapers. In New York, for instance, the Times was a morning paper and the Post was an evening one.  Evening papers had the breaking news of the day, including the late sports scores. Once TV news became a thing, evening papers started struggling: TV would be even more up to date. Some papers converted to morning papers; others failed. I'd be surprised if there were any in operation nowadays.

***Even when he's the head of Bacteria.

The Decameron (TV)

 

(2024)
Created by Kathleen Jordan
Starring  Amar Chadga-Patel, Zosia Mamet, Saoirse-Monica Jacktion, Tony Hale, Douggle McMeekin, Tanya Reynolds, Amar Chadha-Patel, Lou Gala, Karan Gil, Leila Farzad
IMDB Entry

There's always room for drama during a pandemic. The Decameron makes good use of that -- and also room for comedy.

The premise is simple. In 1348, a group of nobles and their servants hole up in a country villa to get away from the Black Death ravaging Florence, Italy. Filomena (Jessica Plummer) is there with her servant Misia (Saoirse-Monica Jackson) to meet and marry her betrothed, who she has never met. Tindaro (Douggie McMeekin) is a hypochondriac with delusions of grandeur and is attended by his doctor Dionero (Amar Chadha-Patel). Panfilo (Karan Gil), there to curry favor with the owner of the villa, is with his overly pious wife Neifile (Lou Gala). Filomena (Jessica Plummer) has come to escape Florence after her father died of the plague, attended by Licisca (Tanya Reynolds). And the steward, Sirisco (Tony Hale), tries to keep things running smoothly.

It would take too long to summarize the plot, which is twisty and with the characters' stories intertwined. Misia, for instance, has smuggled her lover into the villa, where she dies of plague. The owner of the villa is also dead, but Sirisco keeps the information secret and Filomena insists that she's married him.  Panfilo is gay, but that doesn't bother Neifile, who has made a vow of chastity. Licisca impersonates Filomena, who she thinks is dead -- until the shows up. And that barely scratches the surface.

There's sex and passion throughout as the characters go through twists and turns in order to live their luxurious lives amid the death.

Saorisa-Monica Jackson made her mark as the lead in Derry Girls,* whereas Tanya Reynolds impressed as Lily, the writer of alien erotica, in Sex Education.  The actors are uniformly excellent throughout.

The show is funny, bawdy, and often quite touching. Worth taking a look.

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*This was the third actress from the show who I spotted in other works, including Louisa Harland (Renegade Nell) and Nicola Coughlan (Bridgerton, Big Mood).

Deathtrap

 (1977)
Directed by Sidney Lumet
Written by Jay Presson Allen, based on a play by Ira Levin
Star5ring Michael Caine, Christopher Reeve, Dyan Cannon
IMDB Entry

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Sleuth, a twisty mystery starring Michael Caine and Lawrence Olivier. Deathtrap is very similar, with further twists and with Caine also in the middle of them.

Sidney Bruhl (Michael Caine) is a successful playwright who is having big trouble coming up with a new play. He confides to his wife Myra (Dyan Cannon) that he had received a manuscript from one of his students, Clifford Anderson (Christopher Reeve), that is a surefire hit.* Sidney comes up with the plan to invite Anderson to their house in the Hamptons and then murder him, claiming the play as his own. Myra is appalled, but soon Clifford is at their house and Sidney puts his plan into motion.

I can talk more about something like this, whose joy is in the twists of the plot. Let's just say that nothing is what it seems. Twist follows twist and the result is very entertaining.

Michael Caine is his usual first-class self. Christopher Reeve** -- just after becoming a star with Superman -- uses this opportunity to stretch his acting abilities in a role that is far different from the Man of Steel.

Like Sleuth, the movie keeps you guessing and nothing is what it seems.

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*A common plot in fiction about writers, but it never happens in real life.

**Completely irrelevant, but a friend of my wife acted in college opposite Reeve and shared a stage kiss.

Four Faces West

 

(1948)
Directed by Alfred E. Green
Written by C. Graham Baker, Teddi Sherman, William Brent, Milarde Brent from a novel by Eugene Manlove Rhodes
Starring Joel McCrea, Frances Dee, Charles Bickford, Joseph Calleia, William Conrad, Martin Garralaga
IMDB Entry

Though I was growing up in the heydey of the TV western, I wasn't all that interested in the genre. Science fiction was more my thing. But I grew to be more interested in it and have picked up on westerns that I had missed. One such film was Four Faces West, which is quite unusual.

While the new sheriff in town, the illustrious Pat Garrett (Charles Bickford) is being welcome, Ross McEwen (Joel McCrea) asks the town banker for a loan -- at gunpoint. He takes $2000 and writes out an IOU and leaves town. The banker insists on having him arrested and Garrett forms a posse.  McEwen gets aboard a train, where he meets the nurse Fay Hollister (Frances Dee*) and a romance develops. A gambler Monte Marquez (Joseph Calleia) suspects that McEwen is the robber, but doesn't mention the fact despite the large reward for his capture.

They reach Alamogordo and McEwen gets a job.  But Garrett is looking for him.  Marquez leads them off on a wild goose chase and tells McEwen to get out of town. He heads toward Mexico and might have made it, except he comes across a Mexican rancher, whose two children are very sick. McEwen sends a signal to alert Garrett.  He arrives with both Fay and Marquez, who pretend they don't know McEwen. 

The film is unusual in that no gun is ever fired. Things are settled without violence and it's more a movie about compassion than anything else.

McCrea has an interesting role. He may have robbed the bank, but he's polite and honest and starts sending back the money he stole even before the sheriff closes in.  He's clearly a decent man who was forced into the crime due to circumstances, and is really only borrowing the money he took. Frances Dee is quite good as the love interest.

Joseph Calleia is impressive as Marquez, who clearly knows the real situation, but who understands that McEwen is not an outlaw. William Conrad is among the cast as a sheriff, but isn't given a lot to do.

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*McCrea's wife.

Shanghai Express

Shanghai Express(1932)

Directed by Joseph von Sternberg
Written by Jules Furthman, Harry Hervey (Story)
Starring Marlene Dietrich, Clive Brook, Anna May Wong, Warner Oland, Lawrence Grant, Eugene Pallette, Louise Closser Hale
IMDB Entry

Back when I was in college, I stumbled upon Andrew Sarris's The American Cinema, his critical listing of  film directors*. He put them into categories and the top group were called "Pantheon Directors." Of the directors, the one I saw the least of was Joseph von Sternberg, so I decided to check him out with Shanghai Express.

A varied group of people get onto the train that gives the film its name. Shanghai Lily (Marlene Detrich) and Hui Fei (Anna May Wong) are prostitutes, and Lily -- real name Madeline -- had a past love affair with another passenger Captain Donald Harvey (Clive Brook). Also on the train is the mysterious Chinese merchant Henry Chang (Warner Oland); the Reverend Carmichael (Lawrence Grant), who strongly disproves of Lily and Hui Fei; Sam Salt (Eugene Pallette), and American gambler; and the fussy Mrs. Hagerty (Louise Closser Hale).

The movie introduces the character with typical 30s efficiency -- a few lines of dialog, a reaction and after a few snags, the train is stopped by revolutionaries, who demand the return of one of their own. The leader threatens to kill Captain Harvey and Lily is forced to bend to his demands.

Prostitution is front and center in the story, a sure sign this was pre-code.

Dietrich is superb. Hard on the outside, but soft inside, especially where Harvey is concerned. You can see her vaunted sex appeal in every frame.  Clive Brook is fine, though clearly doesn't have the star quality of Dietrich. Eugene Pallette had the most recognizable voice of the era and Louise Closser Hale is great comic relief as someone who never really grasps they're not in the US any more. Werner Oland is, of course, best known for his Charlie Chan film, but it's interesting that the fact he is not Chinese is explained by saying he is half a westerner. Anna May Wong cornered the market on playing Chinese women in this era**

Writer Jules Furthman was a very successful Hollywood screenwriter, with credits for Bogart films To Have and Have Not and The Big Sleep, as well as Only Angels Have Wings.

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*Sarris was known for furthering the auteur theory -- that the director is the creative force behind a film. People often oversimplify what he was saying and don't really get what he meant by it. They often criticize The American Cinema by its categorizing various European directors as "Fringe Benefits," supposedly implying they aren't all that important. But Sarris was clear that since the book was about the American cinema, these directors -- who mad a few Hollywood films, but not as their primary output -- were outside the scope of the book.

**She was Chinese-American.

Sleuth

 Yes, I've been away for awhile. I've been busy running programming for the Buffalo North American Science Fiction Convention, which took up most of my time. Now that I've recovered, I will go back to my regular posts.

(1972)
Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz 
Written by Anthony Shaffer from his play.
Starring Lawrence Olivier, Michael Caine, Alec Cawthorne, John Matthews, Eve Channing
IMDB Entry

Everyone loves a good plot twist, and Sleuth has more than enough to satisfy anyone looking for one.

Andrew Wyke (Lawrence Olivier), a lover of puzzles and games, invites Milo Tindle (Michael Caine) to his manor house. Milo is having an affair with Wyke's wife Marguerite (Eve Channing) and Wyke, knowing about it, tells him that that he can have her and comes up with a scheme to fake a robbery so that he can treat her in the style she is used to. It leads to serious consequences as Inspector Doppler (Alec Cawthorne) investigates Milo's murder. Wyke insists there never was a murder.

Things get complicated.

It is impossible to summarize the plot further without giving out major spoilers. Since the movie (based on a play) is chock full of twists, it's best not to mention them.

Olivier is, of course, quite good. This was when he still was at the top of his acting career, and perfectly handles the complications of character to make the plot twists work. Michael Caine is also great as Milo, a man who has more depth that it seems as first.  

The film was a big hit, and both lead actors got Oscar nominations. There was a remake a few years ago where Caine played the part of Wyke and Jude Law place Milo. I haven't seen it, but the movie was rewritten to make it a new story.

Black and White in Color

 (1976)
Directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud
Written by Jean-Jacques Annaud (story), Georges Conchon (screenplay)
Starring Jean Carnet, Jacques Dufilho, Jacques Spiesser, Catherine Rouvel
IMDB Entry

There are plenty of antiwar films but none as charming as Black and White in Color.*

It's set in a small village in French Equatorial Africa near the border of the German colony of Kameron in 1915. Life is idyllic if a bit boring, with the genial Germans often crossing the border for supplies. Hubert Fresnoy (Jacques Spiesser) is a geographer observing the country and missing what's going on back in Paris. He finally gets a shipment of newspapers and one of the villagers spots one that tells that France is at war with Germany.  He decides that they should attack. Fresnoy warns against it, but patriotic fervor takes over and they quickly (far too quickly) put up a force to attack the Germans.

It's a fiasco. The Germans are trained soldiers with a Gatling gun and the French solders have to retreat. They ask Fresnoy to take care of things and he reluctantly starts to train an army.**

The movie is less about war as it is about the quirky characters of the village. Still, it satirizes both war fever and colonialism.

The movie was produced by and shot in the Ivory Coast and won the Oscar for Best Foreign film. First-time director Jean-Jacques Annaud had several successes, including Quest for Fire, The Name of the Rose, and Enemy at the Gates.  

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*The original French title was La Victoire en chantant, the first lines of a French military song. The title was changed for the US market, since no one would get the reference. Strangely, when it was reissued, the title changed to a French translation:  Noir et Blancs en couleur to match the US title. That turned it into a pun, since it sounds like Noir et Blancs en colère -- Blacks and Whites angry.

**Nothing to with the story, but I was reminded of German general Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, who commanded the forces in German East Africa (present day Tanzania). He knew that nothing he could do would change the course of the war and decided his role was to harass British troops in Kenya to keep them away from the trenches. He was possibly the most successful Commander of World War I.

Arrowsmith

Directed by John Ford
Written by Sidney Howard from the novel by Sinclair Lewis
Starring Ronald Colman, Helen Hayes, A. E, Anson, Myrna Loy
IMDB Entry

For various reasons, I've been writing about pre-code films a lot lately. Nearly all of them were B-pictures or programmers. Arrowsmith is different:  an A picture with a big name cast (for the time), based upon a best-selling novel and directed by one of old Hollywood's greatest directors. But it doesn't seem to get the mention it deserves.

Martin Arrowsmith (Ronald Colman) is a medical student who is interested in doing research and approaches Dr. Max Gottlieb (A.E. Anson). Gottlieb is impressed, but insists that Arrowsmith finish his course of study, and then hires him to be his research assistant. In the interim, however, Arrowsmith fallls in love with Leora (Helen Hayes) and they marry. Arrowsmith can't support himself as a research assistant, so he moves to Leora's home town and set up a shingle.  When cattle are dying, though, he acts as a veterinarian and develops a vaccine for the disease. At that point, he joins Gottlieb at he McGirk Institute.  Eventually, he stumbles on an antibiotic.*  Before it is fully tested, he is sent to and island in the West Indies, where an outbreak of the bubonic plague is broken out.

Colman plays Arrowsmith with the right amount of idealism and passion and Hayes gives Leora a personality more than just the faithful wife. The main issue with the film is that Arrowsmith never really faces any major challenges. Whatever he attempts works out and, though there is some tragedy toward the end, it is quickly balanced out by his successes.  It looks like the subplot about an affair with Joyce Lanyon (Myrna Loy) was cut out of the movie version; it would have helped add some darkness to Arrowsmith's story.

Author Sinclair Lewis was a major name during the 20s and 30s, and Arrowsmith was a best-selling book. It lacks the bite of his other works, which were more satirical in tone. His literary reputation has diminished over the years, but one of his novels, It Can't Happen Here seems even more relevant today.

John Ford, of course, needs no introduction to movie buffs, and Colman and Hayes both won Oscars. The movie was nominated for four Academy Awards, but didn't win anything.**

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*The term is not used in the movie, since the word wasn't coined until several years after it was filmed, but it's the same effect.

**The Oscars at that point were controlled by the studios. MGM's Grand Hotel was selected that year.

The Bowery

 (1933)

Directed by Raoul Walsh
Written by Howard Estabrook, James Gleason from a novel by Michael.L. Simmons and Besse Roth Solomon
Staring Wallace Beery, George Raft, Jackie Cooper, Fay Wray
IMDB Entry

Wallace Beery is an unlikely leading man -- not what anyone would consider handsome -- but he was one of the biggest names in Hollywood in the early30s. He specialized in playing men who were gruff on the outside but who had a heart of gold.  The Bowery is a good example of his work.

Chuck Connors* (Wallace Beery) is the king of the Bowery** in the 1890s. His tavern is always packed and he led his own fire brigade.*** He also has taken in Swipes McGurk (Jackie Cooper) a street kid who is on his own. Connors is challenged by the debonair Steve Brodie (George Raft), who has his own fire brigade and competes with him to be king. 

Connors comes upon Lucy Calhoun, a new girl in town, as a couple of pimps try to recruit her. He chases them off, and later, Lucy asks him for help. He takes pity on her and takes her in as a housekeeper. Brodie gets wind of it and thinks at first she's Connors's mistress, but, when he learns the truth, the starts to go out with her -- keeping it secret from Connors. 

In order to make himself better known, Brodie decided to jump off the Brooklynn Bridge.****  A bet with Connors makes him owner of Connors's saloon. Connors fights back.

Beery is delightful. Definitely his gruff personality with a heart of gold fits him perfectly, and the heart of gold part is never obtrusive. Cooper was a big star at the time after graduating from the Our Gang comedies. He was successful as an actor after growing up, playing the lead in the sitcoms The People's Choice and Hennessey, and appearing as Perry White in the Christopher Reeve Superman movies.

George Raft is best known for gangster movies. His schtick was to be constantly flipping a coin, something he originated in Scarface, and which became iconic. Unfortunately, he made a series of bad choices, including rejecting the roles that made Humphrey Bogart a star.

Of course, and film buff worth his salt recognizes Fay Wray. What I've been discovering that she was a busy lead actress before that.

Director Raoul Walsh was extremely successful, directing films into the 60s, including The Roaring Twenties, They Drive by Night, They Died with Their Boots On, Bogart's High Sierra, and the classic James Cagney film, White Heat.

The movie is charming, if slightly melodramatic for modern tastes, but it never stops being interesting.

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*No relation

**A lower class section of New York city, known at the time for its taverns and rowdy doings.

***Accurate for the time. There were many small fire brigades in New York who competed to put out fires. They often fought each other at the scene, as portrayed in the movie.

****Based on the real Steve Brody, who gained fame doing it.

Murders in the Rue Morgue

(1932)

Directed by Robert Florey
Written by Tom Reed, Dale Van Every,  "based" on a story by Edgar Allen Poe
Starring Bela Lugosi, Sidney Fox, Leon Waycoff (Leon Ames), Bert Roach. 
IMDB Entry

I mentioned last week that Edgar Allen Poe rarely had his works translated to film faithfully. Part of that was the Poe worked in short stories, which need to be expanded to movie length, so writers would take a title and a few elements of the original and do what they pleased with it. Murders in the Rue Morgue is an early example.

It's set in Paris in 1845. Dr, Mirakle (Bela Lugosi) is kidnapping young women and injecting them with the blood of his sideshow ape Erik because reasons. It fails miserably, of course, and the bodies are dumped naked in the Seine.  Pierre Dupin (Leon Waycoff) and his fiancee Camille (Sidney Fox) visit the sideshow where Mirakle is showing off his ape.  The doctor becomes attracted to Camille and ends up visiting her. She is leery, so he has his minion kidnap her. Meanwhile, Dupin performs tests on the body of a dead prostitute and finds ape blood mixed in. Dupin becomes a suspect and they go in search of Mirakle before it's too late.

The movie is stagy and bears little resemblance to Poe's tale, other than the fact that Camille's mother is stuffed into a chimney. Again, Dupin's first name is changed for some reason to "Pierre." This attempts to ramp up the horror, but Poe's story is basically a mystery tale.

Bela Lugosi plays Mirakle in typical Lugosi fashion. Leon Waycoff does a good job with Dupin, though he's nothing like the character in the story, but rather an absent-minded student who keeps getting distracted by the search for the killer.``Bert Roach is notable as Dupin's friend and comic relief.

Director Robert Florey is best remembered today, if at all, as the director of The Coconuts, the Marx Brothers first film. He shot this with a nod to German expressionism. The job was given to him after he had been taken off shooting Frankenstein.

Aside from Lugosi, the most durable career was that as Leon Waycoff. A few years after the movie, he changed his name to Leon Ames and had roles in major films, most notable as Judy Garland's father in Meet Me in St. Louis.

The Mystery of Marie Roget

 

(1942)
Directed by Phil Rosen
Written by Michael Jacoby, from a story by Edgar Allen Poe (Ha!)
Starring Patrick Knowles, Maria Montez, Maria Ouspenskaya, John Littel, Marcel Vigneaux, Nell O'Day, Lloyd Corrigan, Edward Norris
IMDB Entry

Edgar Allan Poe was probably the author whose works were rarely made into films by Hollywood. Oh, his titles were used in quite a few films but the stories often had nothing in common with the movie. Faithfulness was not a consideration. An example of this was The Mystery of Marie Roget, based on one of his C. August Dupin detective stories, credited as being the beginning of the genre,

Marie Roget (Maria Montez), a famous stage starin Paris, disappears. Inspector Gobelin (Lloyd Corrigan) depends on the police medical officer Pierre Dupin (Patrick Knowles) to try solve the case, trying to deal with pressure from her grandmother Cecile Roget (Maria Ouspenskaya).  Dupin also meets Marie's sister Camille (Nell O'Day), who is engaged to Marcel Vigneauz (Edward Norris).  When a body is found -- her face mutilated as though clawed by a big cat -- it is identified as Marie.  Soon after, though, Marie returns, none the worse for wear.

The story isn't bad, though it gives away the murder plot far too soon. But it has little to do with Poe,* who was writing about an actual murder case and used Dupin to point out a solution that the police of the time hadn't discovered.

Patrick Knowles was a successful Hollywood actor, thought not often as a leading man. He actually makes a good detective here.  Maria Montez was a major star of technicolor costume epics of the era.  Lloyd Corrigan sounds like the name of an action star, but he certainly didn't look like one and never played one.  He was active throughout early television.

Director Phil Rosen had a long career directing B pictures after a start with silents.

The title, of course, used Poe as a marketing ploy. It wasn't a good one, since people had associate Poe with horror more than mystery.

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*That was obvious when they changed C. August Dupin to Pierre Dupin, and made him a police medical officer insted of a detective.

Judge Dee's Mystery

 

2024-
Directed by Yunliang Li
Starring Yiwel Zhou, Elane Zhong, Wang Li kun , Jia-yi Zhang, Ruoyun Zhang, Ling Zi, Li Chen

IMDB Entry

I've been spending a lot of time watching detective shows on Netflix and elsewhere and just discovered a very different take on it. Judge Dee's Mystery is now on Netflix, and shows a Chinese detective who lives in 7th Century China.

Di Renjie (Yiwel Zhou) is appointed by the empress to be a magistrate in a border area of China. Di is a Sherlock Holmes figure, able to put together clues to solve murders and other elaborate crimes. He also develops a relationship with the singer Cao An (Wang Li Kun). He is assisted by his assistant Hou Yu (Li Chen) and a pair of semi-reformed con artists Qiao Tai (Ji Ta) and Ma Rong (Ling Zi).

The mysteries are complex and Di has to put his talents to the utmost to solve them. Yiwel Zhou is quite good as the enigmatic Magistrate. I also liked Ling Zi, who is willful and able to help Di in unusual ways, though he disapproves of her penchant for petty theft.

The mysteries take several episodes to solve, allowing for a more complex story, In one early case, they solve one three-quarters of the way through the episode and start to embark on another.

A big feature of the film are the locations. This was a Chinese production and the made use of sumptuous Chinese locations and costumes.* 

The show is an excellent mystery, with the Chinese milieu adding much to make it visually impressive.

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*Though not everything looked good. There is a shot of a ship that's traveling directly into the wind, something no sailboat could ever do, even now, and given how the ship was rigged, could not even come close (also, the sales were limp). Similarly, when Cao An plays, her fingering doesn't even try to come close to matching the notes.

Zulu Dawn

 

(1979)
Directed by Douglas Hickox
Written by Cy Enfield & Anthony Story
Starring Burt Lancaster, Peter O'Toole, Simon Ward, Denholm Elliott, John Mills, Michael Jaystrom, Bob Hoskins, David Bradley Ron Lacey, Freddie Jones, Simon Sabela
IMDB Entry

I generally don't like prequels.They are most often a way to cash in on a successful film and add nothing to it. But Zulu Dawn is an exception.

Zulu, from 1964, was the dramatization of the Battle of Roark's Drift, where a small garrison of British soldiers held off attacks by an entire army of Zulu soldiers (called impi). Zulu Dawn dramatized the battler of Isandlwana earlier the same day. While Roark's Drift showed the heroism of the British soldiers, Isandlwana showed the incompetence of their leaders.

The movie is set in 1879. The army in the Cape Colony in South Africa is eager to conquer the Zulu nation, led by the king Cetshwayo (Simon Sabela). Sir Henry Bartle Frere (John Mills), a British diplomat, wanted to annex Zululand into the Cape Colony, despite the fact that the powers in London forbid it. With the connivance of the head of the armed forces in South Africa, Lord Chelmsford (Peter O'Toole), he gives Cetshwayo an arrogant ultimatum that was designed to be rejected. When it is, he does, he declares war and Chelmsford leads the army to disaster.

The British didn't take the Zulu army seriously, Frere calling them "a bunch of savages armed with sticks." The description failed to account for the fact that they were well trained in battle and capable of tactical planning the equal of any European force. 

They stopped at Isandlwana, a large South African kopje.* Despite being urged to do so, Chelmsford refused to circle the wagons for protection. He later broke a cardinal rule of military strategy and split his forces to go look for the Zulu army.

It turned out, they were massed outside of Isandlwana and ready to attack. They charged. Though armed only with spears, the thousands of impis quickly overwhelmed the British troops. 

Ammunition was poorly distributed Soldiers were issued only a limited number of rounds of ammunition.  The rest were in locked boxes, that had been screwed shut and there were very few screwdrivers to open them -- and they had a rule that you could only open one box of ammunition at once, and only for your own unit.

The result was perhaps the worst defeat of a British army during the Victorian era.**

The performances are good, though none really have a chance to develop characters except for Peter O'Toole, who plays his General Chelmsford with perfect arrogance.

The movie is long on spectacle. There were thousands of extras, making an impressive sight when the finally appear. The downside is that it is slow moving, especially in the beginning, when they are setting everything up. Still, it's a good dramatization of a major event in UK history. 

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*A steep hill that stands above the surrounding plain. They are common in the area.

**The movie left out one of the most interesting aspects of the battles:  while it was raging, there was an eclipse of the sun.  The Zulus were not fazed by it, though.

Renegade Nell

(2024)
Created by Sally Wainwright
Starring Louise Harland, Adrian Lester, Nick Mohammed, Enyi Okoronkwo, Frank Dilland, Alice Kremelberg, Jake Dunn,
IMDB Entry

My cable company gave us Disney+ for free. I wasn't all that interested -- I'm not big on Star Wars and would much rather watch Aardman or Laika for animation. But free is free and I started looking around. After someone mentioned it, I started on Renegade Nell, which is superb.

The show is set in the early years of the 18th century.  Nell Jackson (Louise Harland) is returning home after her husband has been killed in a war. She stumbles upon robbery by the notorious highwayman Isambard Tully (Frank Dillane). When he tries to rob her, something miraculous happens: a tiny light goes into her mouth, and Nell can now stop bullets in the air and turn invisible.  Tully is forced to let her go.

Her home village is terrorized by Thomas Blanchford (Jake Dunn), the son of the local lord,  who goes around raising hell in the village. When a prank goes wrong, Nell's father is killed and she goes to Thomas's father for justice. Thomas pulls out a pistol and kills his father, making him lord, and then loudly blames Nell for the murder. His sister Sofia (Alice Kremelberg) witnesses it, but backs up Thomas's story. Nell grabs her two sisters and goes on the run, turning to robbery to survive and are helped by Blancheford's groom, a former slave names Rassalas (Enyi Okoronkwo).

Meanwhile, the Earl of Poynton (Adrian Lester), who urged Thomas to kill his father, starts using occult means to plot against Queen Ann. And Nell discovers the source of her own powers:  a sprite named Billy Blind (Nick Mohammad), who was sent to help her, but doesn't know by whom.

This is a tour de force by Louise Harland. Nell is excellent -- funny, heroic, and principled. I had seen her before as the ditzy cousin Orla in Derry Girls. There's no sign of that here, and she handles the role with aplomb.

Adrian Lester, who came to my attention as the head of the con men on Hustle*, makes an excellent villain, with dangerous magical powers. Frank Dillane makes Tully a charming and attractive rogue, fully capable of surprising you at every step.

The show was created and written by Sally Wainwright, whose won several British Academy Television Awards.

One season is on Disney+ and there's talk of another.** It should be great viewing.***

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*Having recently been rewatching Hustle, it was a surprise to recognize him.

**The final shot, which shouldn't be a surprise, makes it possible.

***The original title of the show was The Ballad of Renegade Nell. I find that quite reminiscent of "The Ballad of Eskimo Nell," a poem that is the very antithesis of the Disney image and may have been a factor in the change.

Bad Sister

 (1931)
Directed by Hobart Henley
Written by Raymond L. Schrock, Tom Reed, Edwin H. Knopf from a novel by Booth Tarkenton
Starring Conrad Nagel, Sidney Fox, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Zasu Pitts, Charles Winninger, Slim Summerville, David Durant
IMDB Entry

It's often fun to see the early efforts of big name movie stars. Bad Sister shows two of the best.

Marianne Madison (Sidney Fox) is the bad girl of the title, a wild young woman who is out for a good time. She sees several men, most notably, the physician Dr. Lindley (Conrad Nagel), who asks her to marry him. But she puts it off when the charming Valentine Corliss (Humphrey Bogart) comes to town, promising much. He says he's a businessman planning to build a factory in their town. He flatters Marianne's father (Charles Winninger) into investing, and he convinces others to join him as soon as he gets a letter from back East confirming Corliss's bona fides. Meanwhile, Marianne's sister Laura (Bette Davis) is secretly in love with Lindley. Corliss sweet talks Marianne into forging a letter from her father approving of the deal, and several businessmen invest. Then Corliss convinces Marianne to elope with him and quickly abandons her. It's discovered that he was a con man.

This was Bette Davis's film debut. She  hated her performance and thought at first it would kill her career before it started. The role is pretty bland and the production company criticized her "plain" appearance. Luckily, she kept working until she had a break with Of Human Bondage a few years later.

Bogart's role was his third. He makes a good villain; modern audiences can probably see his true colors early on, but he comes off as smooth and trustworthy, just like a con man has to be. 

This was also Sidney Fox's first film. She was the mistress of studio head Carl Laemmle Jr., which probably had something to do with her casting. However, she does a respectable job overall. Sadly, she only appeared in a handful of films after this and died in 1942 after an overdose of sleeping pills. Lead actor Conrad Nagle had started out in the silent days and continued to act regularly into the late 50s.

The great ZaSu Pitts provides comic relief as Minnie, the family's servant and cook and Charles Winninger and Slim Summerville also had long careers.

Hustle (TV)

 

(2004-2012)
Created by Tony Jordan
Starring Adrian Lester, Marc Warren, Robert Vaughn, Robert Glenister, Jaime Murray, Rob Jarvis
IMDB Entry

Confidence men can be fascinating. And the UK TV series Hustle shows them at their best.

It shows a group of people who are experts at the long con.* Mikey "Mickey Bricks" Stone (Adrian Lester) is the leader. Danny Blue (Marc Warren) is an expert on the short con** who wants to get in on the more lucrative long con. Albert Stroller (Robert Vaughn) is the roper/outside man, who entices the victim into the con, while the fixer, Ash Morgan (Robert Glenister), takes care of the technical aspects. Finally, Stacie Monroe (Jaime Murray) provides sex appeal as needed. There's also Eddie (Rob Jarvis), whose bar is a meeting place for the rest and who often ends up scammed by them -- though they do consider him family if anyone else tries it.

The gang goes after people who are greedy and unpleasant*** and Mickey has a rule against pulling a con against a decent person. He is the mastermind, planning every step and contingency.  Danny is more free form, brash and overconfident, making things up as they go along. Albert is smoother than silk and perfectly charming throughout.

The cons rarely go completely smoothly, and there are even cases where Mickey and the rest are conned themselves. What makes the show so interesting are the plot twists which you don't see coming,**** but which are perfectly set up. Sometimes a random scene turns out to be vital to the plot. The characters will also occasionally break the fourth wall to address the audience about some of the finer points of their plan.

It's currently on TubiTV.  Check it out.

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*There are several variations of these, the most famous example being in The Sting. The movie shows a real-life con -- the Wire -- that was used for many years and portrayed in the classic account of con men, Davide Maurer's The Big Con, The plot is based entirely on the description of the Wire in the book. Maurer sued over the similarities -- which were considerable -- but the screenwriter insists he wrote it on his own.

**Small-time cons like car sharping, 3-card monte, the badger game, the pigeon drop, or the Spanish prisoner. These take a mark for a quick, but usually small, score. Long cons can take people for thousands.

***One, for instance, kills a cat to buy up its owner's property.

****I remember seeing one and saying "They're not conning him! They're conning someone else!"