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(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 = -
greenbudgie — 9 years ago(December 19, 2016 02:16 AM)
I don't think I will try to catch the porn version of 'And Then There Was None.' I saw the 1974 version of it yesterday in a UK Drama channel Agatha Christie weekend.
It was tiled 'Ten Little Indians but I notice that they use the ATTWN tile for it here on IMDb. I know that I've heard the music that they use after each murder in it somewhere before, so I'm going to check the 1965 version of it to see if the same music was used in that. -
MsELLERYqueen2 — 9 years ago(December 19, 2016 12:57 PM)
I have never been interested in seeing the 65 and 74 versions of that story. Maybe someday someone will film a faithful adaptation of the novel, with the correct ending and a horror feel to it.
Jim Hutton (1934-79) & Ellery Queen = -
MsELLERYqueen2 — 9 years ago(December 29, 2016 10:45 PM)
I was just discussing with someone else the 1934 film
The Ninth Guest
, which I really suspect was the inspiration for
And Then There Were None
. In this film, a bunch of guests are invited to a fancy penthouse suite for a partyand they start to get murdered off, one by one. I especially liked Donald Cook's performance, the way he tries to keep the guests calm, etc. Highly recommended!Jim Hutton (1934-79) & Ellery Queen = -
greenbudgie — 9 years ago(December 30, 2016 01:20 AM)
'The Ninth Guest' sounds really good. I've just read your enthusiastic thread on the message boards for that film.
I must start checking all these old movies on Youtube. I always grab any of those 1930s mysteries if I see them on budget DVD if I can, but they seem to be very rare in that medium. -
MsELLERYqueen2 — 9 years ago(December 30, 2016 11:58 AM)
Better to find them on youtube or other places online.
I really don't know why these types of whodunits are so largely forgotten!
Of course, there are a lot of retro whodunits (like the David Suchet Poirot mysteries), but somehow, the ones actually filmed in the 20s, 30s, or 40s have their own charm.Jim Hutton (1934-79) & Ellery Queen =
