jonfrum2000 Reviews

The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes: The Mysterious Death on the Underground Railway (1973) Season 2, Episode 1

Pretty good, but a couple of quibbles

[6/10 · 12 December 2012]

The episode is based on a story from The Old Man in the Corner series by Baroness Orczy, who also wrote The Scarlet Pimpernel. If you like period mysteries, it's worth a watch, so I give it a moderate recommendation. However, I do have two quibbles. The first is that in taking the story to television, the writers/director saw fit to eliminate the Old Man character, and replace him with Polly's old uncle, barrister Sir Somethingorother. This allows them to present a trial drama, but subtracts the charm of the Old Man character. It's not so different from doing a Sherlock Holmes story without Holmes. I appreciate that when literature is turned into drama, it may need to be modified, but I don't understand how it is that random television writers and directors think they can tell a story better than authors whose work has stood the test of time.

Second, I'll flirt with a spoiler here. The ending of the story is of the shake-your-head variety. It involves the scene in which the killer is 'caught,' and just makes no sense. I really don't like spoiler reviews, so I won't give details, but the set-up and the outcome are both beyond implausible. And after sitting through the entire episode, which was reasonably well done, considering, such endings are a real disappointment.

For anyone interested in the Old Man in the Corner stories, I highly recommend the BBC radio versions, which can be heard on BBC4 Extra online on a rotating basis. I actually found them better than the stories themselves, which I put down after reading just two or three. Check this link to see if they are available at the current time: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4extra/programmes/genres/drama/current

The 9th Guest (1934)

Pretty good in its genre

[6/10 · 15 July 2012]

This movie just became available on YouTube. This is an adaptation of the book The Invisible Guest, and follows a similar plot to Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians, while predating it by almost ten years. The plot is simple - people have been invited to a party by an unknown host, and are being killed off for their 'crimes.' In an interesting twist on the genre, this story is set in a modern penthouse apartment rather than a dark old house. And while the 'second butler' is introduced for laughs, he is on the screen for a mercifully short time.

Don't expect a lot here - I gave it a '6', thinking it's just above neutral. I did watch it to the end, but I wasn't always engaged, and the clunky romance element didn't help it much. Also in its favor, in a negative sense, there was no bumbling police to spoil what there is of drama. Worth a watch for those who like the genre, but not something you'll watch a second time.

The Spanish Cape Mystery (1935)

Couldn't get past 27 minutes

[3/10 · 5 July 2012]

I gave this movie a try on YouTube, which is a real test. After all, I can always hit Pause and surf the web for something else. I finally gave up on this one at about 27 minutes, when the shouting, buffoonish detective drove me away.

Let's have a look at it. The lead character, Ellery Queen, is on vacation and doesn't want to get involved. Now there's a cliché that was old when the movie was made. Unfortunately, I never find any reason to like Queen. He's just not played in an engaging manner. The fact that he - a young man - has gone on vacation for weeks with a guy who looks older than his father, just made me scratch my head. Was there really no other way to get him to the scene of the crime? Then comes the police detective, who needs to shout every line the script has given him. At half an hour in, I just wasn't hooked on the story, and I'm perfectly willing to write that time off to save myself from wasting even more.

Marple: The Sittaford Mystery (2006) Season 2, Episode 4

Follow the money

[1/10 · 30 June 2012]

In Christie's stories, the detectives frequently ask after a murder "Who benefits?" Here, we have The Case of the Mutilated Christie Story, and I ask myself, who benefits from this terrible mess? Obviously not the viewers. It's all about the money, folks. The producers paid for the rights to the Christie/Marple name, and they're going to milk it to death.

I wouldn't particularly care if they produced a Christie/Marple pastiche that worked. I watched all the Hickson Marples and Suchet Poirots before reading any of the stories, and I never considered whether the television version accurately tracked the books. In this case, I have read the Sitteford Mystery, so I know that the damage that's been done is double.

First, it's just not a particularly engrossing story. In fact, I didn't bother finishing watching the entire episode - I found it that bad. On top of that, of course, I now know that the television dramatization had nothing to do with the book. Nothing.

I could understand the effort to shoehorn Miss Marple into this story - because I understand greed. They have a popular franchise, and they want to squeeze every possible drop of blood from that rock. What I don't understand is doing it so incompetently. Not only does the story have nothing to do with the book, but the woman playing Miss Marple has nothing to do with Miss Marple.

I was totally puzzled by the 6.5 rating on this episode - particularly because the fist two pages of reviews I looked at were all 1s or 2s. So I checked back to the earliest review and found 9s and 10s. Can I be the only one who finds this suspicious?

Strangers of the Evening (1932)

I lost interest

[4/10 · 17 May 2012]

I'm a fan of Zasu Pitts, so then this came up on YouTube, I jumped. Zasu doesn't show up until the second half of the film - I call that false advertising. Today's audience should not expect comedy. There are scenes that hint at mild amusement, but don't expect more. It seems as if the writers came up with scenes with comic potential, but didn't know how to pay it off. 1932 was early in the talkie era, and they just hadn't worked out timing yet. There's a lot of the talk-pause acting that made the earliest talkies stiff to later audiences. I just didn't find this movie worth finishing - even when Zasu finally made her entrance.

Murder at Midnight (1931)

Barely watchable

[5/10 · 6 May 2012]

I'm a fan of this genre, and even I had trouble watching this film through to the end. After quite a bit of pausing on YouTube to do other things, eventually I did. This is an early talkie, and it shows. The plot drags, and much of the dialog is stilted. Some scenes come right off the stage, with that 'stand around and talk' feeling you get from plays of the era. There are multiple murders, but I found it difficult to care as each suspect was killed. I think the biggest problem was the lack of charismatic characters, either detectives or villains. Imagine an early Charlie Chan film without Charlie. There wasn't even the Dark Old House element to keep this one interesting. I think if it had been made three years later, it would have been significantly better.

As I said, I did watch this one, and if you're a fan of the 1930s murder mystery genre, it's worth a look. Some other reviewers clearly think more of it than I do, so you may find it more appealing than me. I just find it a big step down from The Kennel Murder Case and The Dark Hour.

The Body Vanished (1939)

Fun little murder mystery

[7/10 · 7 April 2012]

While this film clocks in at a brief 46 minutes, that fact shouldn't be held against it. There's certainly no padding here - it moves along quite well. A Scotland Yard inspector and a newspaper reporter are traveling on vacation, and come upon a murder without a corpse. A bumbling local bobby provides comic relief that's not too overdone, and a lovely young woman floats in and out of the plot. Don't expect Christie quality in the story line, but by 1939, they had learned to keep the plot moving, and avoid the talkie-ness of the early 1930s movies. You won't find a lot or red herrings to keep you wondering, but if you let the story come to you, you may find it quite enjoying. I watched it on Youtube, and consider it a well spent hour.

Death at a Broadcast (1934)

Not great, but not bad

[6/10 · 7 April 2012]

I always give early-1930s movies the benefit of the doubt, and I'm doing so here. An actor working alone in a radio studio room is murdered while reading his lines (in which his character is murdered). Someone in the studio building at the time killed him, but whom? There are only a few possible culprits, and most aren't very well defined characters. A few years later, this probably could have been a very good movie, but it's barely passable here. I suspect much of the appeal of this film when it was released came from the behind-the-scenes look at a working radio studio, with actors in multiple rooms, and orchestra in another, and crew in still others. You even get a song and a dance number, although the appeal of a dance number on radio, including dancers in full costume, escapes me.

If you enjoy 1930s crime/mysteries, then this is worth a watch. The detective doesn't define himself particularly well, but the genre plays out reasonably true to form. I gave it a 6 for slightly better than average.

Foyle's War: Fifty Ships (2003) Season 2, Episode 1

Quite good

[7/10 · 5 April 2012]

I've given this episode a seven out of ten, which I consider a well-spent night's entertainment, if not great drama. Foyle's son doesn't show up here, but the stolid Foyle does meet an old flame, with predictable results. The first reviewer complained about the American accent attempted by one of the actors. This seems a minor criticism to me, considering that American actors must surely mangle British accents in the same way. It's a British production, made with British actors for a British audience, and I see no need for perfection in foreign accents. I'm far more concerned when I see, whether in books or television, Americans portrayed as characters I don't recognize. One would wonder, based on such portrayals, how Americans manage to tie their shoes in the morning, much less run a modern industrial nation. In this case, the character is a perfectly reasonable one.

Of particular note to me was the pairing as husband and wife of Clive Merrison and Janine Duvitski, both familiar to me in single roles - Merrison in BBC4's series as Sherlock Holmes, and Duvitski as the always-abused assistant to the manager of an old age home in Waiting for God. Now there's an interesting combination.

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher: The Suspicions of Mr Whicher: The Murder at Road Hill House (2011) Season 1, Episode 1

Why the negativity?

[7/10 · 31 March 2012]

I'm surprised by the generally negative reviews for this production. Some reviewers seem to want the writers to re-write history to replicate an Agatha Christie story. The fact is, this story was based on reality, not on Christie's tropes and formulas. The fact is, sometimes crimes work out as this one did, with an unsatisfying ending. The detective doesn't call all the suspects to a meeting where he reveals his genius at deduction, or cause the suspect to reveal him/herself in dramatic fashion.

I found this well acted and well written. Not great, but quite good, and well worth the watching. Maybe if Captain Hastings' grandfather had showed up for comic relief, more people would have liked it. Personally, I found the straight drama well done and satisfying.

One Frightened Night (1935)

Starts slow, picks up

[7/10 · 18 March 2012]

This movie is almost two different films in one. The first half sets up the plot, and is a bit stiff. Something curious happens in the opening dinner scene. There's a lightning strike, and the lights go out. Then they go back on. Then in the next shot, they're out again. And then on. it's never clear what's going on with the lights, but they come back on for the rest of the movie. Odd.

The movie is about a rich, crotchety old man and the dispersal of his fortune. Once the premise is set up and the murder occurs, a bumbling detective (Fred Kelsey, from multiple Three Stooges shorts) shows up and the film gradually shifts into an old house/mystery/comedy, with strange, masked figures chased through the house, screaming women and dramatic music. The change certainly wakes up the film, and is quite entertaining.

If you like this genre and you stick with it, the movie pays off pretty good. It's not great cinema, but worth watching after the lights go out.

The Midnight Warning (1932)

Hard to sum up

[6/10 · 18 March 2012]

Reviewing this movie is a bit tricky. First, it was made in 1932, and we can't expect too much. The acting is stilted, and the dialogue.... is sometimes.... a bit stiff. Then, part of the detective's success depends on his super-duper binocular-glasses, which is more than a bit goofy. They look like something out of the back of a comic book, circa 1955. Between the set-up and the climax scene at the end, it drags, and I found myself pausing it and browsing web sites for a while.

The end of the action, as mentioned in some other reviews, is actually pretty harrowing, if you imagine watching it in a dark movie theatre in 1932. The scene seems to come out of nowhere in this otherwise standard genre film. If the rest of the film had been up to that standard, it would have been a much better production.

Finally, the denouement is a surprising twist - it doesn't work out anything like you'd expect in the genre. Let's just say it's far more ambiguous than Hollywood usually produced. I'd say it's worth watching if you're a fan of the genre and films of the early talkie era. Just don't expect too much - I don't know how another reviewer gave this nine stars. Different strokes, I guess.

The Moonstone (1934)

Moonstone in name only

[5/10 · 17 March 2012]

Those who have read the classic book by Wilkie Collins should not expect anything similar. Other than a jewel called the Moonstone, that is. The 1933-34 years saw movies that still suffered from the silent film hangover, and some that showed more naturalistic acting. This has some of both, leaning towards the stiffness of the silents. As noted by others, the actress playing the lead is so foolish that it's difficult to care that she's had her jewel stolen. And then there's the scene where she refuses to have her belongings searched for the jewel, which is never explained. And the reveal comes out of nowhere, with no 'detecting' at all. Watch 1933's The Kennel Murder Case for far superior acting and plotting. This movie just doesn't have the right pieces in the right places. It tries, but never really pays off. Still, I did watch it to the fast-arriving end, so I can't complain too much. Worth watching as long as you don't expect too much. Watch it on a dark and stormy night when you have nothing else to do.

The Kennel Murder Case (1933)

Way under-rated here

[9/10 · 16 March 2012]

After just watching The Kennel Murder Case for the second time, I can't believe that it only rates a 6.8 here. First, it's a very well scripted mystery. Second, there are no foolish 'comic relief' character, and the police sergeant, while not particularly bright, at least isn't the cartoon character policemen often were in the 1930s films. Third, given the year this was made - 1933 - the acting is surprisingly modern and naturalistic. There are other movies from the same year that sound like the actors just came from a silent film set - stagey and stilted, with the stiff, posed acting that had been so common. The acting in this film would fit right into a late-30s Charlie Chan film.

William Powell has already worked out his persona here - the same we'd see later in the Thin Man series, if on the more serious side here. And Mary Astor and those fabulous hats! The world went to hell when people stopped wearing hats. I gave this nine start in context - for the time it was made, it was a very special production. Many similar films suffer from an excess of comic relief, or cartoonish characters. The Kennel Murder Case set a standard for others to follow.

Father Brown: The Three Tools of Death (1974) Season 1, Episode 5

Where did they find these actors?

[4/10 · 9 March 2012]

I'm working my way through this series, and I've been enjoying them so far. Unfortunately, this episode is a stinker. The policeman recites his lines like a cartoon character - literally - and the accent on the secretary is laughable. I don't know what they were thinking, and I'll go on trying the later episodes, but I can't finish this one - the acting is just too bad to enjoy. May I suggest the BBC radio version of the Father Brown stories with Andrew Sachs as Father Brown? Sachs plays the role very differently than More. Sachs' Father Brown seems to fall into crime solving without wanting to be there - he has is thrust on him. BBC radio 4 repeats the series occasionally, and I'm downloading them now.

Jonathan Creek (1997–2016)

Is there another Jonathan Creek?

[7/10 · 8 March 2012]

I imagine the people most likely to write out a review are fans, but the adulation for this series here is far over the top. The series - at least the first season of it - is nice entertainment. I am currently working my way through them, and I've enjoyed them enough to keep at it. That being said, the series is not brilliant, or excellent or the best TV mystery ever. The plots and solutions are full of holes, to the point where obvious errors and implausible events can't be ignored. And the 'sexual tension' business between the two main characters? 'Will they or won't they' got old twenty years ago in such series. Apparently it appeals to women, so I'm not the intended audience for that trope, but it weighs down the series every time they pull it out of the hat. The idea of an illusion designer as crime solver is a perfectly good one, but actually writing locked room mysteries that work is an art that these television writers have not mastered. Example: in The House of Monkeys, the solution to the mystery involves the habit of a gorilla who lives in a house with his owner(!) to chew up envelopes. C'mon now!

This series is more along the lines of Angela Lansbury's Murder She Wrote. Perfectly entertaining for some, as long as you don't take it seriously. And very far from good mysteries, like the Chrisite series like Miss Marple and Poirot.

Father Brown (1974)

Quite a good series

[7/10 · 7 March 2012]

I've been listening to the BBC radio adaptations of the Father Brown stories with Andrew Sachs in the lead role. I have to say I much prefer Sachs' version of Father Brown, but this series is perfectly good with Kenneth More in the role. Considering when the series was made, the production is reasonably good, and the acting, while occasionally stiff, is fine overall. Some changes are made from the stories, which I have no problem with. Of the episodes I've seen so far, none have been damaged by the changes. It is important that Father Brown is a Catholic priest, and not just another amateur detective, and in this sense some of the religious reference seem to have been taken out of the stories. This subtracts from the distinctive flavor of the stories, but it plays fine on television.

You won't get the production values or the acting found in the later Christie series, but these are well worth trying if you favor British detective/mystery series. I'm certainly happy I found them, and I'll be watching them one per night until I've through the lot.

Secret of the Blue Room (1933)

Early talkie mystery

[6/10 · 28 February 2012]

Considering it's age, a pretty good old dark house/castle movie The acting is a bit stilted, as one would expect for the year it was made This is a locked room mystery, in which multiple people have been/are killed in the castle 'blue room' The film starts out slow with a love quadrangle (!) and a full length song, but gets going after that, The earlier mystery that the plot is based on is never explained, and leaves us wondering at the end, Paul Lukas plays with a strange Bela Lugosi accent, which i found annoying, but i got used to it eventually, Worth watching for genre fans, but it would have been better if they waited a few years to make it

The Scarlet Claw (1944)

Rathbone/Bruce at/near their best

[8/10 · 26 February 2012]

I put The Scarlet Claw together with The House of Fear in the Rathbone/Bruce Holmes series. The pair of films both bring Holmes and Watson into the 20th Century, yet isolate them in a setting that may as well have been Victorian England. Neither film is burdened with the war propaganda plots that mar later entries in the series. And like The House of Fear, Bruce's Watson is rarely played as a fool in this entry.

The Scarlet Claw does steal a basic plot element, 'the monster' from The Hound of the Baskervilles, which is odd, considering The Hound had been made only five years earlier. But then again, I'm sure that viewers in the movie theatres of 1944 weren't thinking back to The Hound when they watched this film.

Another interesting connection with The House of Fear is the almost total absence of women in this film. Hollywood loved to squeeze a love interest in every movie they could, but it doesn't arise here. And the humor is kept to a minimum - again, rare, considering the regular inclusion of a comic relief character in the Charlie Chan series, for instance. Nigel Bruce does have one such scene, but it plays well within the story.

I consider this film every bit as good as The Hound of the Baskervilles. Perhaps that's because the movie failed the book in many ways. The Scarlet Claw certainly isn't great movie-making, but the story unfolds nicely from start to finish.

The House of Fear (1945)

One of the better Rathbone/Bruce films

[8/10 · 25 February 2012]

I've just watched the Rathbone/Bruce Hound of the Baskervilles, and I have to say I far prefer this story. It spares us the war propaganda story lines of other films in the series, and in spite of its contemporary setting, its old dark house atmosphere puts us right back in Victorian times. Nigel Bruce and Dennis Hoey play their standard roles, and Rathbone is his masterful self. This is one film in the series without the usual love interest or femme fatale, and does fine without them.

I was thinking while watching this movie that I wish the production had been in the hands of the mid-era Charlie Chan crew. The lighting in those films was far superior. The old stone mansion seen here is a fine setting, but some atmospheric lighting would have done wonders for the story.

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)

Sadly, not as good as I remembered

[6/10 · 25 February 2012]

I'm a huge Holmes fan, having read all the stories decades ago, seen this movie, watched the Jeremey Brett series multiple times and listened to every radio episode available, whether part of the canon or pastiche. It's been years since i watched this version, and i looked forward to it when I saw it available on youtube. Unfotunately, I was quite disappointed.

I'm actually in favor of dramatizations being changed somewhat from their literary sources, but in this case I can't think of a single change that was neutral, much less an improvement. The change of the Barrymores to Barryman was silly - the most famous story from probably the English speaking world's most famous character is already locked in our minds. To change a character's name - for any reason - just serves to take us out of the suspension of disbelief. The role of the Barrymores to Selden is a fundamental part of the story - minimizing it took away from the drama.

Apparently, Hollywood didn't think audiences could deal with Beryl Stapleton having any part whatsoever in the plot, so she's no longer the wife. And Sir Henry asking her to marry him after we've seen them meet just once again follows an unfortunate Hollywood convention and destroys the suspension of disbelief.

And of course how it was that Stapleton lived in the district all his life and no one knew he was related to the Baskervilles is one of those jarring puzzles that Hollywood would typically drop on people just before the film ended and the lights went on. It works until they get outside and start thinking about it.

Nigel Bruce certainly wasn't the bumbling clown he later played in this series, but he's no Watson if you've read the stories. As likable as he was in this role, he was never asked to play Watson and he never did. Bruce was more Jimmie Chan than Dr Watson.

At least this was better than the later Hammer version, which went even further re-writing the story. It was a failure at the box office, with good reason.

Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson (1980)

Adequate Holmes, but don't expect too much

[6/10 · 5 February 2012]

Sheldon Reynolds remade his 1954 television series, this time with Polish and Italian staff behind the cameras. This series is played with less humor and more earnestness, but I find it less appealing. I generally prefer my Holmes played straight, but the earlier version with Ronald Howard grew on me. Some of the episodes in that series went over the top with the humor, but for the most part they were charming in their own way. Howard was an interesting Holmes, more personable than the character is usually played, with an impish humor. In any case, I quickly accepted and identified Howard as Holmes and his Howard Marion- Crawford as his partner Watcon. In this series, however, even though it sticks to my preferred dramatic reading, the actors just don't fill out the parts for me. Watson's role as a straight man can be filled fairly easily, but Geoffrey Whitehead just never convinces me that he's Holmes. I'm four episodes into the series, and there is still nothing to the role that sticks in my mind as Holmes. I've also listened to the BBC4 radio plays featuring Clive Merrison, and I immediately accepted Merrison's voice as Holmes. Writing these words, I barely remember what Whitehead sounds like.

To understand my disappointment with this series, I would recommend watching the original 1954 version of The Case of Harry Crooker and this version. In the original, the escape artist is a whirlwind of anarchic amusement. In the 1980 version, which is a direct copy, not so much. The copy seems bloodless in comparison.

For all my disappointment with the series, I still am watching the episodes. mediocre Holmes is better than no Holmes at all. So if you love Holmes, look for these on Youtube.

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)

Curious production

[4/10 · 15 January 2012]

I see the glowing reviews here, and I wonder if I saw the same movie. First of all, Hammer was not known for their quality productions. Their products are seen more as camp now than as quality drama by all but the fanboys. Let's see where to begin. This movie assumes you already know the story down cold. If not, you'd be puzzled by the parts of the story that are left out. Actors suddenly appear at locations without explanation - but of course we know why they are there, because we've read the book and seen Basil Rathbone's version. Now I happen to favor movie-makers making changes to book plots rather than following them slavishly, but there are some strange changes here that seem to have been made for the sake of change. For instance, Sir Henry comes from South Africa, rather than Canada - what's up with that? It didn't change anything or add anything to the plot. The pathos of the Selden/Mrs Barrymore plot line is really lost here, and the love interest for Sir Henry is kicked senseless. Worst of all, Cushing is a wooden Holmes. Cushing worked for Hammer for a reason - he was a 'B' actor at best, and he's not even at his best here. His Holmes is totally without charm. There is no warmth, no humor no wit. And Andre Morell as Watson is so entirely forgettable that I had to look up his name just now, and I have no memory of what he looked like. So let's see - the acting was weak, the characters were uninteresting, and the changes to the story made it much worse. Other than that, it was fine.

Vampyros Lesbos (1971)

What a stinker

[23 October 2011]

It's hard for me to imagine anyone praising this turkey. Essentially, it exists entirely to show a little faux lesbo action. In this day of internet porn access, the lesbo value falls to virtually nothing, and all you're left with is a pretty good exploito-psych soundtrack. Now I happen to be an exploito-psych fan, so I can't give this one star out of ten, and the women are definitely hot, so that adds another star, but the movie itself is a big nothing.

Time does not improve low/no-quality crap. Thank God this didn't cost me anything to watch. And all of you who recommended this one - thanks for nothing. There's a difference between so-bad-it's-good and just plain no redeeming value.

Philip Marlowe, Private Eye: Smart Aleck Kill (1983) Season 1, Episode 5

Meh - nothing special

[15 August 2011]

Before I got this DVD from the library, I saw a review on Amazon.com that claimed 'best Marlowe ever!' Well, I wasn't expecting that, but I can't imagine where the enthusiasm came from. It's pretty well what you'd expect out of a television series versus a feature length film. The characters are thin, the dialogue a little stagey in places, and the sense of danger superficial. The whole thing has the air of inferior writers and directors attempting to carry off a classic style that's beyond their abilities.

That's not to say this episode is bad - it's just a copy of a copy. The DVD set still may entertain you for several nights, and there's nothing wrong with that. This just isn't in the class of the Suchet Poirot series. It's closer to the Stacy Keach Mike Hammer series in quality. There's something about hard boiled that's just hard to do with a straight face - so many get it a little wrong so often that it seems impossible these days.