There’s a moment early in Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) when a car driver (Albert Brooks) and a hitchhiker (Dan Ackroyd) are discussing which TZ television episode was the scariest. It’s a great intro to the movie, and it ends with Ackroyd saying to Brooks, “Do you want to see something really scary?” He then turns away from the … Continue reading THE TWILIGHT ZONE, PART FOUR: Classic Chills
Author: Brad
FOR MY DAD
Today I sit beside my father as he lies in hospice, and I think about baseball. In the spring of 1964, we lived in Phoenix where my dad was trying to earn a living on a real estate boom that didn’t really boom until after we had returned to California a year later. At school, … Continue reading FOR MY DAD
THE TWILIGHT ZONE, PART 3: The Evil That Men Do
Rod Serling’s moralism ran high in the many parables he wrote to illustrate how rotten mankind can be. Sometimes, frankly, it could be unwatchable, like his 1964 TV-movie, A Carol for Another Christmas, a modern retelling of Dicken’s classic tale. Commissioned to promote the United Nations. Serling replaces the heart and charm of the original with … Continue reading THE TWILIGHT ZONE, PART 3: The Evil That Men Do
BOOK CLUB TURNS IMPIOUS: Villainy at Vespers
I’ve only just finished re-reading The Murder at the Vicarage, and – wouldn’t you know it? – now I want every village to be just like St. Mary Mead. But that’s not what we get in Trevelley, the not-so-bucolic den of iniquity nestled on the coast of Cornwall, in Joan Cockin’s Villainy at Vespers (1949). This is the second of … Continue reading BOOK CLUB TURNS IMPIOUS: Villainy at Vespers
THE TWILIGHT ZONE, PART 2: “A Land of Things and Ideas”
Audiences could relate to The Twilight Zone because it was essentially about the search for happiness. Granted, these searches were highly unusual, and the results were mixed. TZ is a highly moral show, and those who achieve a happy ending are people who earn it, through their general decency and kindness. I argued last week that Mr. … Continue reading THE TWILIGHT ZONE, PART 2: “A Land of Things and Ideas”
RANKING MARPLE #1: The Murder at the Vicarage
“Murder at the Vicarage was published in 1930, but I cannot remember where, when or how I wrote it, why I came to write it, or even what suggested to me that I should select a new character – Miss Marple – to act as the sleuth in the story. Certainly at the time I had … Continue reading RANKING MARPLE #1: The Murder at the Vicarage
RE-BRANDING (ENTR’ACTE): The Spotted Cat and Other Mysteries
Welcome back to our revisit of the glorious and all-too-brief canon of mysteries by the wonderful Christianna Brand. Last year, we covered the first five novels, and in 2023, we will tackle the final five – including the one novel I have never read and another I have absolutely no memory of whatsoever. All in … Continue reading RE-BRANDING (ENTR’ACTE): The Spotted Cat and Other Mysteries
“. . . a land of both shadow and substance . . . ” THE TWILIGHT ZONE
Art mirrors life. And, like many a Boomer, I have found my parallels in books, movies and TV. Take the last six year – please! (Bah dah BUMP!) I have felt trapped in a cross between a Stephen King thriller (both The Stand and The Dead Zone come to mind) and Game of Thrones. Overshadowing it all, there has been … Continue reading “. . . a land of both shadow and substance . . . ” THE TWILIGHT ZONE
RANKING MARPLE: A YEAR-LONG PROJECT
You can feel it in the air: 2023 is the Year of Marple. Whether it’s the start of a New Age, or merely continuing the joyous celebration that began when a story called “The Tuesday Night Club” appeared in The Royal Magazine in December 1927, is a matter up for discussion. What’s true is that the name … Continue reading RANKING MARPLE: A YEAR-LONG PROJECT
AIM (NOT SO) STRAIGHT AND TRUE: My Resolutions for 2023
A few weeks ago, my pal (and Book Club Arch Nemesis!) the Puzzle Doctor reached his 2000th post on In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel. Not bad for a man who’s only been blogging since 1954. I hit my 500th post last August (it was a dreary review of a dreary book, Dorothy L. Sayers’ The Documents in … Continue reading AIM (NOT SO) STRAIGHT AND TRUE: My Resolutions for 2023
Ah Sweet Mystery! 