Let’s talk about the public domain. Because, frankly, I’m confused. “Every year when the clock strikes midnight on January 1, while most people are singing Auld Lang Syne and partying with their loved ones, copyright lawyers and librarians celebrate a different occasion: the annual expansion of the public domain, AKA Public Domain Day. All copyrights … Continue reading SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE PROBLEM OF THE PUBLIC DOMAIN
Sherlock Holmes
SLEUTH DRAFT #1: The Twenty Greatest Literary Detectives of All Time
Back in January, I promised you that this spring the Three Amigos – Mystery Scholar and Film Noirist Extraordinaire Sergio Angelini, actor and Holmes Pasticher Nick Cardillo, and stagestruck Agathologist Yours Truly – would gather together and draft a list of the Twenty Best Literary Detectives of All Time!!! Well, my friends, the Game is … Continue reading SLEUTH DRAFT #1: The Twenty Greatest Literary Detectives of All Time
“Double, double, Doyle and trouble” – The Case of the Baker Street Irregulars
“In a way the orange seeds helped. They were the final touch of unreality. No one could feel the actual tragedy of death in a world where people drew dancing men for murder threats and sent dried orange seeds by special messenger.” The closest Agatha Christie came to writing a Hollywood mystery was 1962’s The Mirror … Continue reading “Double, double, Doyle and trouble” – The Case of the Baker Street Irregulars
THE “GREATEST MYSTERY FILMS OF ALL TIME” DRAFT!!!
On Sunday, I met with my buddies Sergio Angelini and Nick Cardillo for our latest game of list-drafting. After tackling Christie, Hitchcock, Sherlock Holmes and Charlie Chan, we decided to broaden our focus on a more general look at the mystery genre in film. Each of us did our research and came together armed with … Continue reading THE “GREATEST MYSTERY FILMS OF ALL TIME” DRAFT!!!
KRIMES FOR KIDS: The Improbable Tales of Baskerville Hall
Is there any fictional character who has been showered with parodies, pastiches, homages and adaptations as much as Sherlock Holmes? Has anyone even tried to keep track of all the stories, novels, plays, movies, and games that have gotten their inspiration from the most famous detective of all time? I am no Holmesian scholar. In my lifetime, … Continue reading KRIMES FOR KIDS: The Improbable Tales of Baskerville Hall
THE RATHBONE/BRUCE SHERLOCK HOLMES SUPER DRAFT
I can count three days among my favorites of 2023. There was April 23, when my buddies Nick Cardillo and Sergio Angelini competitively collaborated with me to put together our list of The Thirteen Best Alfred Hitchcock Movies of all time. Nobody came to blows – it helps to put several thousand miles between you … Continue reading THE RATHBONE/BRUCE SHERLOCK HOLMES SUPER DRAFT
THE CASE OF THE BODACIOUS BOOK COVERS
Mystery publishers have long adhered to the well-known adage – and I’m not talking about “Crime Doesn’t Pay! here” The concept that sex sells applies to books as well as anything else. This is all well and good; in fact, it leans right into the world of pulp fiction where the best of hard-boiled detectives … Continue reading THE CASE OF THE BODACIOUS BOOK COVERS
FROM PAGE TO (SOUND)STAGE: Classic Mysteries on the Radio
Here’s what it feels like to grow old: A few years ago, I had to acknowledge the fact that I had not owned a record player for a decade and that the hundreds of albums I owned had caused the top shelf of my upstairs closet to buckle and that I had replaced all that … Continue reading FROM PAGE TO (SOUND)STAGE: Classic Mysteries on the Radio
SO LONG, SHERLOCK: Elementary, Season 7
Early last spring, at one of our Zoom-togethers with my pals Jim and Sergio, we talked TV as we often do, and Sergio said, not for the first time, “You guys really should watch Elementary.” Now I like Sherlock Holmes as much as the next nerd, the show was available to binge on Hulu, and it’s … Continue reading SO LONG, SHERLOCK: Elementary, Season 7
FINALE FAKE-OUT: Elementary, Season Six
Five seasons and 120 episodes into Elementary, we are in a good place, following a solid foursome of series regulars through quirky cases, some of them inspired by Doyle’s canon, and a variety of longer arcs, the success of which depend upon your own taste in plotlines, a particular season’s guest star, and how the whole thing … Continue reading FINALE FAKE-OUT: Elementary, Season Six
Ah Sweet Mystery! 