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.