Most of the time it’s easy to kick back and enjoy an old movie for its story, its performances, and – as often happens in the case of film noir – its distinctive look. But sometimes, like when you’ve been sitting isolated for over fourteen months and you’ve been forced to watch one major political party do … Continue reading UN VOYAGE DANS LES TENEBRES: Week 8 – Mid(century) Evil Woman
UN VOYAGE DANS LES TENEBRES: Week 7 – Battle Noir Didactica
If you sit down to watch a film noir, you can expect to be both shaken and stirred. You might have to turn your head away a few times at the violence (or you might find yourself staring agog at the screen, baffled by what this sub-genre of film got away with in the mid-20th century.) You’ll certainly feel … Continue reading UN VOYAGE DANS LES TENEBRES: Week 7 – Battle Noir Didactica
BOOK REPORT #6: Macho Macho Couturier
I am neither lying nor exaggerating: it happened exactly like this . . . I had just settled settled down with my pipe and post-prandial glass of port when the telephone rang. I sighed and rose to answer it. It was Dr. John Curran, the foremost authority on Dame Agatha Christie. Well, at least, the authority on … Continue reading BOOK REPORT #6: Macho Macho Couturier
UN VOYAGE DANS LES TENEBRES: Week 6 – The Champagne of Noir
The French didn’t so much invent film noir as identify and elevate it. They took genre more seriously than the American film industry, which saw golden financial returns for movies that were cheaply made. The studios were all about the almighty dollar. When Hitler was on the rise, Hollywood was reticent about taking a stand for an … Continue reading UN VOYAGE DANS LES TENEBRES: Week 6 – The Champagne of Noir
UN VOYAGE DANS LES TENEBRES: Week 5 – Do Lang Do Lang Do Lang
We’re halfway through my film noir class with instructor Elliot Lavine. This week’s trio of films gave me the chance to revisit four old friends: Joan Bennett with Jonathan Frid Meet Joan . . . I first met Joan Bennett in the drawing room of Collinwood, a stately but troubled mansion on the hills overlooking the Maine … Continue reading UN VOYAGE DANS LES TENEBRES: Week 5 – Do Lang Do Lang Do Lang
MORE PODCAST FUN (Plus, the Wit and Wisdom of Ariadne Oliver)
In what I hope will be a quarterly appointment for the next 75 years, JJ “The Invisible Event” McBloke has hosted Moira “Clothes in Books” Traychic and Yours “Ah Sweet Mystery” Truly for another deep, spoiler-filled, dive into an Agatha Christie novel! This time it was Cards on the Table, the third book Christie published in … Continue reading MORE PODCAST FUN (Plus, the Wit and Wisdom of Ariadne Oliver)
UN VOYAGE DANS LES TENEBRES: Week 4 – Woe is Woolrich
Cornell Woolrich is like one of those old friends from school who you run into on the street after thirty years and you stop for coffee and he looks like he hasn’t washed thoroughly in a year and there’s something horribly wrong with his leg and he tends to mutter and he literally creeps you … Continue reading UN VOYAGE DANS LES TENEBRES: Week 4 – Woe is Woolrich
KRIMES FOR KIDS: Two Series of Unfortunate Events!
Everyone loves serials these days. You might blame this on television, what with so many of us stuck inside with Netflix, bleary-eyed from binge-watching the latest imported telenovela (sapopera if you’re watching Scandi-noir; merodorama if it’s a nice juicy anime series). But TV series deserve no credit for inventing series characters. Back in the 16th century, traveling theatre troupes performed commedia dell’arte for … Continue reading KRIMES FOR KIDS: Two Series of Unfortunate Events!
UN VOYAGE DANS LES TENEBRES: Week 3 – The Wide Swath of Warner Brothers
Mystery is my genre of choice, but my first love was the musical. Picture a kid of seven, reclining on his tummy in front of my parents’ enormous wi-fi stereo console. There I wore down the few cast albums we owned: Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza in South Pacific, Judy Holliday and Sydney Chaplin in Bells Are … Continue reading UN VOYAGE DANS LES TENEBRES: Week 3 – The Wide Swath of Warner Brothers
BOOK REPORT #5: The Flynn Dilemma
“Let me admit, first of all, that I am a perfectly rotten hand at telling a story.” Truer words have never been stated. Dr. Michael Bannerman, the narrator of Brian Flynn’s 11th (or is it 12th) Anthony Bathurst myustery, The Edge of Terror, is a terrible narrator. He uses twelve words where one would suffice. He out … Continue reading BOOK REPORT #5: The Flynn Dilemma
Ah Sweet Mystery! 