It's high time I got the whodunit threads going again. It's been nearly two years since I've started one.
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MsELLERYqueen2 — 9 years ago(January 27, 2017 12:49 AM)
There are two other versions of this film. All three are remakes of a German film which I'd love to see. I'm sure the German film is very spooky!
Anyhow, here are my thoughts:
The Missing Guest
(1938): a reporter is sent to the house where the Blue Room is located, because this reported is expected to do a write-up on the 20 year old mystery which took place there. The story itself is very good, but the film is a bit ruined by some pretty annoying humor, especially in the first 5 to 10 minutes (or so). Otherwise, it's recommended.
Murder in the Blue Room
(1944): this one's a nice musical, in which three silly but talented female performers are trying to solve the mystery of the Blue Room. The performances are great, and the behaviour of those three singers makes me think of the mystery-comedy
The Mad Miss Manton
(also recommended).
Neither movie is as scary as
Secret of the Blue Room
. Also, the plot of this film is a bit different than the plots of
The Missing Guest
and
Murder in the Blue Room
(those two have very similar plots).
My ranking of the three films:
1.
Secret of the Blue Room- perfection (story, acting, pacing, mood).
Murder in the Blue Room
- almost perfect, but not nearly dark enough for my liking.
The Missing Guest
- good, but weakened by the type of "humor" which some scriptwriters back then thought was necessary for whodunits. I've seen other 1930s and 1940s whodunits ruined by this "humor" (which I call
The Thin Man
-style humor).
Now if I could only see the original German film..
Jim Hutton (1934-79) & Ellery Queen = -
MsELLERYqueen2 — 9 years ago(November 20, 2016 02:29 PM)
I can't believe that I forgot to mention this film.
Murder at the Vanities- what a wonderful musical-mystery! The mystery is maybe a bit on the weak side, but the musical performances are terrific, especially leading actor Carl Brisson performing "Cocktails for Two" (a lovely post-Prohibition piece).
For those who want to see women wearing next to nothing, this is the film for you. This pre-Code film had scantily-clad women in a couple of the numbers.
Be on the lookout for Duke Ellington and his Orchestra in one performance. (By the way, this band went on to record "Cocktails for Two", although they didn't have anything to do with that song in this movie.)
Jim Hutton (1934-79) & Ellery Queen = - what a wonderful musical-mystery! The mystery is maybe a bit on the weak side, but the musical performances are terrific, especially leading actor Carl Brisson performing "Cocktails for Two" (a lovely post-Prohibition piece).
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MsELLERYqueen2 — 9 years ago(November 20, 2016 02:33 PM)
Two early Charlie Chan films, both based on the novels:
The Black Camel:
set in Hawaii, Charlie Chan tries to figure out who murdered an actress who was there to film a movie. He also tries to link this with a murder which had taken place a few years earlier.
Eran Trece:
This is the Spanish language version of
Charlie Chan Carries On
. A man is murdered on a cruise ship. Soon after, it's discovered that the murder was a mistake, and more murders take place. I wish that more of these Spanish language films had been made, and I sure wish that the English language version of the story (starring Warner Oland) would turn up somewhere!Jim Hutton (1934-79) & Ellery Queen = -
MsELLERYqueen2 — 9 years ago(November 21, 2016 09:45 PM)
Green for Danger
(1946): an old favourite of mine.
A murder takes place at a hospital during WWII in Britain. One of the nurses announces to the other doctors and nurses that she knows who committed the crime and how it was done. Shortly after, she is found murdered as well. An inspector (Alastair Sim) is called in to investigate the crimes committed. Great film with an excellent ending.Jim Hutton (1934-79) & Ellery Queen = -
MsELLERYqueen2 — 9 years ago(November 22, 2016 11:03 AM)
An Inspector Calls
is fantastic. Very sad and powerful story. I heard that the play is even darker, since the young woman gets pregnant through rape. Not sure if this is true, because I haven't read the play.
Alastair Sim had a great supporting role in the 1930s mystery
The Terror
. Very overlooked mystery. He only has a small part in this movie, but I think that he steals the show.Jim Hutton (1934-79) & Ellery Queen = -
greenbudgie — 9 years ago(November 24, 2016 02:23 AM)
I can remember seeing 'The Terror' where Alastair Sim is very animated but he controlled himself better in later roles. I think that he developed a chuckle similar to Sydney Greenstreet in some of his movies.
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MsELLERYqueen2 — 9 years ago(November 24, 2016 04:03 PM)
Alastair Sim animated in
The Terror
? Well, he did
pretend to be a minister in order to be admitted to the house
. I've never thought of him as animated in those scenes. Maybe it's one way of looking at it. Personally, I love what he did there.Jim Hutton (1934-79) & Ellery Queen = -
MsELLERYqueen2 — 9 years ago(November 22, 2016 09:15 PM)
I'm watching two whodunit-thrillers tonight which I've seen before (both from the thirties):
The Mystery of Mr. X:
a serial killer is on the loose, killing police officers. One of them is killed at the same time and at the same spot as where a thief is stealing a diamond. Soon after, the story in the news is that the man who has the diamond is the killer. The thief must do what it takes to save his own skin (it's shown near the start that he isn't the killer), and this includes proving that a suspect (the future son-in-law of a high-ranking police officer) is not guilty. Great film with a lot of interesting twists and turns.
The Ghost Camera:
a man happens to wind up with someone else's camera. He develops the pictures and sees some surprising shots, including a picture of a murdered man. He decides to make it his business to solve the mystery by using the pictures to help him out. Very interesting film!Jim Hutton (1934-79) & Ellery Queen = -
MsELLERYqueen2 — 9 years ago(November 23, 2016 08:44 PM)
Two 1930s British mysteries:
The Terror:
a couple of fellows are committing crimes (theft) for some leader whose face they've never seen. The leader betrays them and they're thrown into jail for a number of years. Once they're released, they vow to seek revenge on this faceless leader. All they know is that the leader is connected to the people living in an isolated country house. The film starts out as a gangster movie (first 10-15 minutes or so) and ends up as an isolated country house mystery. Alastair Sim steals the show here, as one of the two assistants.
The Shadow:
someone calling him/herself "The Shadow" is blackmailing people, causing many of them to commit suicide. The story is set in an isolated country house where a head cop lives. He's trying to solve this case, and he has to deal with his family, plus some red herrings.
See these films if you like the British 1930s isolated country house setting (blackmail, secret passages, red herrings, etc.) for mysteries. When I watch these, I keep wishing that more of the early Agatha Christie mysteries had been filmed in the thirties.oh well. Maybe someday
Lord Edgware Dies
(1934) will pop up somewhere! Wishful thinking.Jim Hutton (1934-79) & Ellery Queen = -
greenbudgie — 9 years ago(November 24, 2016 02:26 AM)
I think that it's a shame that Agatha Christie's creepy house whodunits weren't filmed for the big screen more often. For some reason producers have thought her stories more suitable for British TV where her Miss Marple and Poirot mysteries are very popular.
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MsELLERYqueen2 — 9 years ago(November 24, 2016 04:11 PM)
A lot of classic mysteries were done as TV series in the 1970s, 80s, 90s, and on. The TV series make sense because the same actors and sets can be used. Also, they can film a lot of the stories, or come up with their own storylines for those characters. They'd face a lot of restrictions if they tried to film all those stories for the big screen. I doubt that they'd be allowed to release several Agatha Christie adaptations each year for a number of years. They'd have to limit themselves to just the occasional film (for example,
Murder on the Orient Express
and
Death on the Nile
in the seventies).
It was different in the 30s and 40s when a lot of these mysteries were done as one-hour B-movies, aired after the main feature. At that time, there were a lot of Charlie Chan films done (each about an hour to 75 minutes long), with the same leading actors doing a number of the films. Same goes for detectives such as Philo Vance (1920s and 1930s), Ellery Queen (1930s and 1940s), Perry Mason (1930s), teacher Hildegarde Withers (1930s), Torchy Blane (1930s, if memory serves me right), etc. There is a series of film for each of those detectives. I just wish that more of the Agatha Christie mysteries had been filmed during that time. By the time many of them were being filmed (after her death), the filmmakers started with nonsense like transporting the characters to the 1980s, etc. Ugh.Jim Hutton (1934-79) & Ellery Queen = -
greenbudgie — 9 years ago(November 25, 2016 02:18 AM)
That's good reasoning for Agatha Christie adaptations going missing on the big screen for such a long time. The 'Poirot' TV series with David Suchet seems to evoke an authentic 1930s atmosphere in them.
I still haven't seen the Agatha Christie story 'And Then There Were None' (1945) which is supposed to be the only real good big screen adaptation of hers. I have the 1965 version of it called 'Ten Little Indians' on DVD. -
MsELLERYqueen2 — 9 years ago(November 25, 2016 10:56 AM)
The 1980s Russian version of
And Then There Were None
captures the overall mood, atmosphere, and they come close to getting the ending right. To me, the 1945 film is too lighthearted and they used what I think is the incorrect ending. In my opinion, the book's ending is the only REAL ending.Jim Hutton (1934-79) & Ellery Queen = -
MsELLERYqueen2 — 9 years ago(November 26, 2016 09:32 AM)
Apparently there's also a modern version of the story, done as a miniseries. I've heard all sorts of contradictory reviews of that film. Someday I'll see it myself. Maybe.
Jim Hutton (1934-79) & Ellery Queen =
