Mystery

THE CLOCKS (1963)

March 21, 2021

One could say it was an academic exercise on Christie’s behalf, to pen a Poirot tale in which he solves everything from his apartment, or perhaps it started off as something else, and she opted to insert Poirot in it, just to show that Poirot could still deduce without investigating. (He is, quite literally, an armchair detective here.)

I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone but the biggest Christie fans, but there is a lot in it for those willing to pick it up: the town is lushly built out, the espionage details are deftly — albeit stodgily — handled, but most importantly: she — via Poirot, of course — opines quite a bit on the history of detective fiction, and weaves quite a bit of her favorite trappings it into the tale. While reading it, I fully realized I was missing out on about half of the neatly dropped references.

Again, only for the hardcore, but I found it both intriguing and illuminating.

I have two more Poirot novels left to read: THIRD GIRL and ELEPHANTS CAN REMEMBER, but I plan to cap this seven-year endeavor off with a re-read of the ‘final’ Poirot novel, CURTAIN.

https://www.agathachristie.com/stories/the-clocks

ELEMENTARY (2012-2019)

February 15, 2021

(Hulu/VOD) The year is 2012. A well-received modern adaptation of Sherlock Holmes — SHERLOCK — from the beloved writer/director of classic DOCTOR WHO ep -Blink- was already on its second season. CBS announced ELEMENTARY, which was squarely positioned as a CBS procedural with Johnny Lee Miller as Holmes and Lucy Liu as Watson, positioned in modern day New York City. Most folks scoffed, wondering how it could possibly compare to SHERLOCK.

Jump ahead to today, and I found ELEMENTARY to be the superior show for many reasons, but here are a few that stand out:

1) ELEMENTARY let their characters grow naturally, as opposed to solely saddling them with sensational baggage like -some- Holmes adaptations.

2) ELEMENTARY humanized Holmes without detracting from his superhuman facets. He’s an addict, he’s a brilliant asshole, but here he does care about people, especially not hurting folks in his orbit. His arc with Watson is one of the most mature partnership and friendship arcs I’ve seen portrayed on network TV.

3) Liu is the best Watson, and it’s not just because she’s so well-dressed. She has her own voice and place alongside Sherlock, although it takes a bit for the writers to get her there. She’s also one of the few Watsons shown to properly exist independently of Sherlock.

4) It provides the freshest, most interesting take on Moriarty. To say anymore would spoil matters.

While I found the show to have peaked in the second season — if you’re pressed for time, watch the first two and leave it there — all -seven- seasons are extremely watchable, partially because of the reasons listed above, but also because of the strong supporting and guest cast, which included Aidan Quinn as Holmes’ staple Captain Gregson, Steppenwolf regular Jon Michael Hill as Detective Marcus Bell, and Fringe’s John Noble as Sherlock’s father.

Lastly, the title sequence was absolutely lovely, and I would always take the time to watch it.

THE KID DETECTIVE (2020)

January 29, 2021

(Starz/VOD) I have a hard time believing this film wasn’t pitched as ‘gritty adult Encyclopedia Brown’ (and then whomever was being pitched probably replied ‘Encyclo-what?’) but even if it wasn’t, it works as a pretty succinct summary.

As I grew up reading ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWN and TWO-MINUTE MYSTERIES, and love Chandler-esque detective fiction in general, I was already on this film’s side. While it’s much more subdued, quiet, and cynical than I thought it’d be, debut feature writer/director Evan Morgan clearly loves the genre and is surprisingly unwilling to poke fun at it, or even to modernize it. (For a film that takes place in modern day, it’s surprisingly reliant on landline phones.)

While some may be turned off by the dourness of the film — there are cutting remarks and laughs to be had, but the film is soaked in melancholy — it’s a welcome surprise to see a neo-noir that isn’t peppered with flippancy.

MURDER, SHE WROTE (1984-1996)

November 14, 2020

(peacock/IMDBTV) I’m sure if you had any interest in MURDER, SHE WROTE, you’ve probably watched it already — I won’t bore anyone with a summary of the series, created by COLUMBO’s creators Richard Levinson (RIP) and William Link — but I wanted to draw your attention to one episode in particular: S03E21, entitled -The Days Dwindle Down-, one of MSW’s most experimental, most intriguing episodes that -no one- ever talks about.

-The Days Dwindle Down- is basically a sequel to the RKO film STRANGE BARGAIN (1949). The episode calls into question the results of the film’s final act, bringing back many of the original actors from the film, and utilizes footage from the film as flashbacks. At first blush, one might consider it to be born from laziness, but it was anything but, as it took considerable time and effort to reunite the cast, including veteran character actor Henry Morgan (MASH, DRAGNET).

It’s a fascinating bit of film -and- TV history, and if you want to read more about it, you can do so at my personal website where I first wrote about it http://peccaui.com/msw/strange-bargain

LAURA (1944)

September 19, 2020

(VOD) Vera Caspary’s book is fantastic, but there’s a push-in midway through Otto Preminger’s classic noir that reframes everything, complicating the narrative in a way that more artfully sets up some of the twists and turns than in the novel. If you’re watching for the cast, it’s stellar: Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney and, of course, Vincent Price.

NANCY DREW AND THE HIDDEN STAIRCASE (2019)

August 17, 2020

(VOD) Katt Shea (POISON IVY) directed and Nina Fiore (BLOOD DRIVE, one of my favorite one-season wonders) wrote this extremely winsome teen mystery that feels like a cult early naughts film. The mystery itself is pretty easy to suss out, but the inventive set pieces and Sophia Lillis’ charming performance elevate the material into something far better than it needed to be.

LADY OF BURLESQUE (1943)

August 7, 2020

(epix/Paramount+/tubi/VOD) LADY OF BURLESQUE is a delightfully self-aware adaptation of Gypsy Rose Lee’s sensationlist detective novel regarding the murder of a stripper in a burlesque stage show (the original novel was called THE G-STRING MURDERS). Barbara Stanwick leads, clearly loving the role. Honestly not sure if the Hayes code restrictions help or hurt the film.

DEATH IN HER HANDS (2020)

July 24, 2020

Finished reading Ottessa Moshfegh’s DEATH IN HER HANDS. It reminded me of David Robert Mitchell’s second film UNDER THE SILVER LAKE, but the protagonist is modeled after Miss Marple instead of a young Marlowe, and all of the clues are authors and word snippets and character studies instead of video games, and it doesn’t end with male gratification. In other words: I loved it.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/612693/death-in-her-hands-by-ottessa-moshfegh/