Posts

Showing posts from 2022

Murder, She Said

Image
When I started watching the TV series Miss Marple , I found myself very confused. Joan Hickson was a much smaller and frailer Miss Marple than I had in mind. I eventually realized this belief was because of Margaret Rutherford. She was the first Miss Marple I recalled seeing and is taller and stockier than Joan Hickson. Because of this, the appearance of Margaret Rutherford is forever how Miss Marple should be in my mind. Ms. Rutherford played Miss Marple in four films. Five if you count the cameo in The Alphabet Murders . Her first Miss Marple was Murder, She Said . For years the only place I could watch any of these films was on Turner Classic Movies . I always looked forward to them being on, which wasn’t often. Now, thanks to a library sale, I have all four movies and can watch when I want. Let’s start with Murder, She Said . Murder, She Said A murder happens Miss Marple (Margaret Rutherford) is certain she witnessed a murder. She saw it through the window of her moving tr...

Scream

Image
One of my friends is a substitute teacher. Recently she had a conversation with a group of students about classic movies. The movies the students mentioned as classics were from the early 2000s. This sounded very strange to me as I see classic movies as being from the 1960s and before. Okay, I’ll add in the 70s and 80s too. But the early 2000s? That sounds too recent to me. This conversation was what I had in mind while I watched Scream . First released in 1996, it would certainly be a horror classic in some people’s minds. Again, an odd thought to me because I would see House on Haunted Hill , the 1959 film starring Vincent Price, as classic, not a movie from the 90s, but anyway . . . I decided to watch Scream because of the release of the fifth movie in the series. My thought was that before I watched the new movie, I should start from the beginning and work my way up to it. At the time I was not sure if I had seen all the movies in the series. I may have, but possibly not all t...

Grantchester

Image
Season 7: Episode 6 Do you remember the case from episode three about vagrants being murdered? It’s back. Development Kate Dorsey A solved case unsolved Another vagrant has been found killed in a doorway. With someone already in the asylum for the other three dead vagrant men, DI Geordie Keating (Robson Green) has to wonder if he has a copycat on his hands or if they have charged the wrong man with the crime. Some of the details of the first deaths were left out of the press, yet they are present with this most recent murder. Geordie believes they have punished the wrong man. The situation becomes worse when the man held responsible for the first three murders, Robin Fellows (Jeremy Ang Jones), kills himself. He does this after a visit from his horribly cold professor, Rowena King (Edith Larson), which makes Geordie wonder what happened in that meeting. Professor King barely bats an eye when Geordie and Reverend Will Davenport (Tom Brittney) tell her about Robin’s suicide....

Grantchester

Image
Season 7: Episode 5 Sense has finally arrived! Follow the Trail Kate Dorsey Seniors on the run Life in a nursing home cannot be easy. It must be especially hard when you have a matron running around who belittles, embarrasses, and prevents anyone from having any fun. Reverend Will Davenport (Tom Brittney) doesn’t like seeing the residents of a local nursing home treated this way. But when he confronts Matron Fletcher (Caroline Faber), she makes it out that he is the one in the wrong for objecting to the poor treatment. Is it any wonder this woman ends up dead? Along with the death, two residents, Clem Preston (Bruce Alexander) and Ida Merryman (Anna Calder-Marshall), go missing. The body and moonshine are found in Clem’s bedroom. They are the residents who got in trouble during Will’s visit. With their disappearance, Clem and Ida become the prime suspects. Clem and Ida’s problems get worse when it is reported they have stolen a car and held someone up at gunpoint. Thanks to...

The Bodyguard

Image
I started reading The Bodyguard  by Katherine Center at a very memorable moment. The power had just gone out for my street only. At that time of night, without any light, my two options were to go to bed early or read by flashlight. I opted to read by flashlight. One would think during this time I would go for a scary book. I chose a romance. While I worried about when the lights would come back on and if everything in the refrigerator and freezer was going to spoil, a light, fun romance was exactly what I needed. The Bodyguard Katherine Center Hannah Brooks needs a change of scenery Hannah Brooks’s life is not going well. Her mother has died. She has been taken off an assignment she was looking forward to. Plus, her boyfriend has broken up with her. With all this going on, Hannah needs to get out of town. Which is why she is not at all happy when her new assignment keeps her exactly where she lives. Guarding Jack Stapleton What are these assignments I am talking about?...

Inherit the Wind

Image
It’s funny how a movie from 1960 set in the 1920s can so resemble today. The fight for the freedom to think and learn remains strong. With it, we are fighting people who believe their own religious beliefs are the right beliefs and should supersede all others. It is a war being waged on so many levels, topics, and rights today. Which leads me to asking, as some feel they should be allowed to ban books, hinder reproductive rights, and stop marriage rights because of their own personal religious beliefs, do we really want to go back to the same thoughts and mentalities from one hundred years ago? Inherit the Wind Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, Dick York, Donna Anderson Cates is arrested for his beliefs Bertram T. Cates (Dick York) has been arrested. He was not only arrested, but an entire production was made of it. Led by Reverend Jeremiah Brown (Claude Akins), a group of townsmen arrived in Cates’s classroom with a photojournalist. They interrupted his lesson, planted the camera ...

Grantchester

Image
Season 7: Episode 4 Will knows better again. Or so he thinks. Thought Bubbles Kate Dorsey Will creates enough problems on his own Everyone loves telling Reverend Will Davenport (Tom Brittney) all their petty squabbles and concerns after his church services. It’s to the point Will hears so many concerns that he starts to tune them out. Which is why when Bonnie Evans (Charlotte Ritchie) shows up one morning after service, he is all too happy to turn his attention to someone who was not at church that day. Bonnie is at the church to talk about Cathy Keating (Kacey Ainsworth). Cathy is separated from her husband, DI Geordie Keating (Robson Green), and Bonnie is worried about how poorly Cathy is doing despite the front she puts on. Geordie is staying at the vicarage with Will, which gives Will direct access to see Geordie is not doing well with the separation either. Will and Bonnie hatch a plan to get the two of them together again. Except the plan goes terribly wrong. Both Geord...

Grantchester

Image
Season 7: Episode 3 Ready for more of Will acting like a self-absorbed idiot? Here we go! Geordie takes a stand For a while now, DI Geordie Keating (Robson Green) has been wondering about a series of vagrant deaths. His boss, DCI Elliott Wallace (Michael D. Xavier), wants to dismiss these cases with the belief that no one cares these people have died, nor should they. Geordie rightfully disagrees. When he and former curate Leonard Finch (Al Weaver) discover a dead homeless man in the doorway of Leonard’s café, Geordie refuses to let the case go. Still, others he works with disagree, but Geordie will not dismiss this case. DC Larry Peters (Bradley Hall) is one of the ones who says the man in the café doorway is not worth looking into. The disgusted look Geordie gives Larry is absolutely perfect. Usually, Geordie investigates his cases with Reverend Will Davenport (Tom Brittney), only Wallace no longer wants Will working on cases. He does not see why a clergyman would be involved...