Vautrin
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Posts posted by Vautrin
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3 hours ago, TopBilled said:
This is one of the big problems I have with the show. To me, something like Columbo is much more believable, because it's his job to be snooping around for clues. His occupation brings him to various crime scenes. Same goes for other detective shows like Cannon and Barnaby Jones. But the fact that this woman, who's just an author that happens to write murder mysteries, suddenly finds her whole life surrounded by crime-- it is just really far-fetched.
If she had been a retired copper, like a 65 year old Cagney or Lacey who couldn't get resist staying away and helping people, that would be one thing. Where she had lifelong skills in investigating, because it used to be her regular occupation, yes. But a gal in a sleepy New England hamlet, traveling the world and not being able to go one place without corpses turning up, no way. It's ludicrous and beggars belief!
Despite the wild improbability of it all, Lansbury made it work (most of the time). But I think the premise was ill-conceived.
Even Jane Marple never had so many dead bodies turning up in her presence. Agatha Christie wrote only 12 books and a few short stories featuring Jane Marple. That means the character only dealt with this sort of thing 14 or 15 times. But Jessica Fletcher dealt with this sort of thing 264 times plus four more times in the TV movies.
I don't know any amateur sleuth, especially one that age with limited police contacts overseas, who has been asked to solve a murder 268 times in her life! And she was solving cases that trained detectives couldn't figure out? Yeah, right! Plus she didn't start doing this until 1984 and she solved all these cases in a 15 year period? Oh, and she was also supposedly writing books during this time. The whole thing was implausible from the word go.
I agree that the premise of the show is pretty far-fetched, though no more so than a lot
of other TV shows and many studio era movies. I think the audience realizes that and
just goes with the flow for the most part and isn't bothered too much by the
implausibility of the whole thing, though it's fun to discuss some of the more improbable
aspects of this and other shows and movies. I think a big part of the appeal in the early
years of the program was the Maine small town setting and some of the eccentric
characters who lived there. Jessica was definitely the brains before Tupper. I'm sure he
was well meaning and tried hard, but anything more complicated than a lost dog was
beyond his abilities. Uh oh, it's Perry Mason time.
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2 hours ago, Hibi said:
I know. Even unedited the plots were complicated and it took awhile to get all the relationships worked out.
It was even worse when Perry had to solve two murders, one from years ago and the
current one. Yikes.
Of course the show was just following the demographics of Maine, which is very white.
I recall folks criticizing the lack of black people in The Andy Griffith Show, which was
set in NC, which is certainly not Maine.
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Perry Mason is on FETV twice on week nights. I'm sure they cut at least 5 minutes if not more
from the originals. But the plots are so complicated I doubt if the originals would make things
much clearer. It takes a while just to figure out how everybody is related to one another. I
always get a kick out of Paul Drake and his wandering eye. I think that up and coming TV
stars were more common on Mason than old time movie stars, though they would show up
on occasion. I recall future star Robert Redford was in one episode.
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3 hours ago, Michael Rennie said:
That might be so. The show was based on current times. Guess things were pretty nasty in Sparta. Just like Murder, She Wrote, Sparta, Mississippi was not real.
I like Matlock but never got into Perry Mason.
And Sparta, Mississippi had a lot of racial problems which Cabot Cove, Maine didn't.
ITHOTN was more graphic in its violence than MSW for sure. I've seen most of the
episodes of Matlock multiple times and enjoyed them at the time, though I don't have a
desire to see them again any time soon. I enjoy the late 1950s episodes of Perry Mason.
They are kind of down and dirty in subject matter in that special 1950s way.
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5 hours ago, Hibi said:
And you could count on the host being accused of murder! Who'd want her coming for a visit???
The first few weren't too bad but after it became a regular plot gimmick it grew kind of tiresome.
Not only did she discover the host was the murderer, but Jessica never straightened out her guest
towels.
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I don't think that In the Heat of the Night was particularly violent for a police TV show
of that era. The focus was rarely on the violence itself, though I did feel a little sorry
for the dude who was killed before he could finish his pizza.
I watched Murder She Wrote in its original run and saw most of the episodes and have
seen some of them in syndication over the years, but not recently. I too prefer the earlier
ones set in Cabot Cove. I assume the producers thought folks would get tired of Cabot Cove
and decided to extend the action outside of it. The ones where Jessica would visit her rich
friends were kind of boring.
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I always thought that Clifton Webb was the femme fatale in Laura.
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6 hours ago, misswonderly3 said:
I have to admit, I like this Dave Edmunds version better than the original. Dave is a much under-rated musician and song-writer. I figure you already know that John Lennon loved this recording when it came out in 1970.
I like the way you segued the song back to "Dead Reckoning". Yeah, nothing could stop that thug from enjoying his music while he beat Rip up. He reminded me a bit of Chester (from D.O.A.)
Those dancers are pretty lame. But then, it's not really a "dance" type song.
Half the fun of these old videos is the hair and clothing styles. Yes the dancing seems
very subdued. Maybe they didn't want to let the kids loose in a TV studio. Edmunds
seems to have gotten less exposure than Nick Lowe, who himself was never really that
popular in the U.S. The group they were in, Rockpile, made only one album but it is
quite good. Krause seemed more of the gentlemanly tough guy where Chester was just
one mean s.o.b. That's what made his death in the drugstore shootout so enjoyable, at
least to me.
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6 hours ago, misswonderly3 said:
Hmm. I hate to say it, but I do remember that one. Very catchy.
Forgive me, Noir Alley posters, for derailing this thread. This kind of pop music is about as un-noir as you can get. But I can't resist, I promise I'll go to one of the music threads if I feel the need to do this any more. But I thought maybe Vautrin, and possibly others here, might appreciate this:
I'm just happy that the "pants" of the Rollers never became a fashion item. Not even Ethel Mertz
would be caught dead in those things. Whenever Little Willy came on the radio it was hard not to
clap or stomp along. Nick Lowe was one of the masters of pure pop, along with, ahem, Dave
Edmunds. This was the song that Krause would turn way up on the radio when he was in a room
beating the you know what out of some poor unfortunate and did not want to be disturbed.
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5 hours ago, misswonderly3 said:
What ? Wait! - ...I always thought that town was named after the Bay City Rollers.
I haven't heard that one in years, though I haven't been longing to either. I doubt any musically
self-respecting community would name itself after the Bay City Rollers. I'm proud that the Rollers
were much less popular in America than in the UK and Canada, though Saturday Night is a pretty
catchy tune. I like this one from a few years earlier. Oh no.
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Not enough blood, too many guts. I saw A Yank in the RAF a few weeks ago on YT. Entertaining,
but pretty cornball. This YT upload silenced all Betty's songs, so I guess there were some
copyright issues even after all these years. Or maybe the uploader just thought there were.
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"A geek-how does a guy get that way?"
"Well, first you've got to like the taste of chicken."
Maybe I missed the sequence of events, but in Dead Reckoning Liz is being blackmailed by
Karnovsky, but she was also working for him. Doesn't sound like a very smart move on
his part.
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7 hours ago, TheCid said:
I think there actually is a Bay City in CA, but not sure. I know that it was used several times as a non-LA location in The Rockford Files.
Yes. I think one of the episodes had Bay City in the title, though I don't remember the
exact title. It was one of those places where the cops made it difficult for a PI to operate.
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Whichever actor played Philip Marlowe had to be used to being knocked out, either by a
a tough with a blackjack or by a shady doctor whose medical license had been suspended,
with some form of blackout narcotic. The latter was usually a more interesting character.
And Gulf City sounds like Bay City, a gritty coastal town with cops who aren't always honest.
And one of the characters is even named Chandler. Hmmm. An okay noir, though the plot
is kind of confusing, especially with there being two murders to think over. Rip Murdock is
okay, but I prefer his kid brother Buz, a cool cat who got his kicks on Route 66.
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8 hours ago, Det Jim McLeod said:
Lugosi was originally supposed play the part of the doctor and Karloff was going to play the professor later played by Stanley Ridges. Karloff did not want to tackle the dual role so he was given the the doctor role, Lugosi was not suitable for the professor part so he was stuck with this minor role of a gangster. The publicity department thought up a scheme where Lugosi would be hypnotized for his death scene, supposedly making him feel like he is really suffocating. He screams and cries a bit in the scene but I'm pretty sure it was all a set up.
I hope Lugosi got paid well because his part was truly a minor one. As I posted before, I think Stanley
Ridges did a good job in the dual role. It could have been pretty corny but he avoided that for the
most part.
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17 hours ago, Princess of Tap said:
Bela was a great classical actor doing Shakespeare in Budapest before he ever came to America.
When he played Dracula on Broadway he was the matinee Idol of New York City.
Due to personal problems, which I believe included drug addiction, Bela fell into disarray in the forties and played many roles that were beneath his ability.
"Black Friday" was a lot better than most of the crap that he had to do to make a living.
About the worst thing I ever saw was something called "Scared To Death". And I never got to see the end of it because I always fell asleep because it was so bad.
Watching him in that Abbott and Costello movie on Svengoolie last Saturday made me remember what he had to go through in that film. Abbott and Costello were always in it for laughs and Bela took everything seriously. They had to tone it down some because they upset him with their lack of seriousness although I suppose they were professional because they got their bits right and they made a lot of money. But I always thought that they were boring and excessive.
I've heard about his drug problems though I don't recall the details. He must have still had some
name recognition to be second billed in Black Friday when his was a small supporting role. Stanley
Ridges was really in second place having a lot more screen time and importance in the film. I guess
you could say they both got screwed.
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5 hours ago, LornaHansonForbes said:
Or not watching it.
It is THE ONE film of Boris and Bela (and Boris and Bela) that I have never been able to make it through. and i even own it on DVD as part of THE BELA LUGOSI COLLECTION.
(for perspective: I have seen all three films in Lugosi's Ed Wood Trinity, PLAN 9, in fact, many times)
Only 70 minutes, a mere hour and ten. You can do it. Lugosi did get screwed. Little screen time and
not much to do even with that. In horror films most of the time the accent works, but in this one
it sounds funny. You expect his gangster pals to think to themselves Where the hell did this guy
come from? Stanley Ridges who played the professor/gangster had a much bigger role than Bela,
but who ever heard of him? I think he did a fairly restrained job with what could have been a really
over the top role. The first fifteen minutes or so play like some kind of small town eccentrics comedy.
Maybe they should have stuck with that. Or maybe not. James Craig, who went on to bigger things,
also shows up in the small part of a reporter who receives Karloff's note book from Boris himself.
Remember kids, don't try this brain transplant stuff at home.
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Black Friday (1940) Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Stanley Ridges. Low budget, low concept
Universal horror flick with Boris and Bela. It's the old criminal brain transplant game. Karloff
is a doctor whose bff is Ridges, a mild-mannered English Lit professor at the local college.
While Ridges is minding his own business one day he is hit by a car driven by vicious bank robber
Red Cannon. Cannon is dead, Ridges is dying and the only way Boris can save him is by
transplanting Cannon's brain into Ridges skull. Before you can say Clyde Barrow, Cannon's brain starts to
take over Ridge's body, at first momentarily then more often and for longer periods. The
audience can tell the transformation is taking place because Ridges gets rid of his pince-nez
specs and his hair style changes. Karloff also wants to find the $500,000 that Cannon
has hidden so he can use the dough to expand his laboratory to "benefit" mankind through his
scientific "experiments." So off the two go to NYC hoping to find the money there. The Red
Cannon personality comes out and knocks off several folks. Boris hopes a return to the
university will get rid of the Cannon character and it does for a while. But then Cannon returns
big time and Boris is forced to kill him, handing himself a one way ticket to the electric chair.
The story is told in flashback via pages from Karloff's notebook. Lugosi gets second billing,
but he has little to do as a gangster pal of Cannon's, except to provide a few unintentionally
humorous moments with his thick accent. Not a bad film and its has some good moments,
but there's not much new here in the brain transplant genre. It only runs 70 minutes so
viewers shouldn't feel too guilty watching it.
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I'm looking forward to this as I don't think I've ever seen this movie, though for some
reason I remember seeing the cover box for it when there were still movie rental stores.
A healthy alternative to 10 Rillington Place.
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1 hour ago, Fedya said:
May 30, of course.
And all the movies should be US Civil War movies.
Or change the name back to Decoration Day. I don't recall the details of each argument,
but by now I think most people celebrate it on the Monday designated as Memorial Day.
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3 hours ago, TheCid said:
Unfortunately Trump is dumb enough to let certain members of his staff push Iran into either starting a war or doing something that they can use to justify a war. It happened under LBJ and G.W. Bush, so it can happen.
Possibly. I doubt there will be an actual war with Iran, defining war as an invasion of Iran
a la Iraq. Of course there are a lot of measures short of an invasion that the U.S. could take.
Hopefully cooler heads will prevail.
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1 hour ago, Hibi said:
Oh, I think he's dumb enough!
I admit it's a close call, but on this rare occasion I'm coming down on the Trump's not stupid
enough to do it side.
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4 hours ago, Dargo said:
Oh, I dunno, Vautrin.
That Clooney movie Three Kings and The Hurt Locker held my interest pretty well.
(...but I got your point here)
I haven't seen The Hurt Locker, but I did see Three Kings a while back. Good adventure
story wrapped into a war movie.
Speaking of Memorial Day, I remember a number of years ago there was a
local argument about the proper day to celebrate it--on Sunday or Monday.
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6 hours ago, Hibi said:
I'm sure DUMP is working on it!
As clueless as Donny is I don't think he's dumb enough to start a war with Iran, though the
"mad mullahs" would be great movie villains. Nazis with turbans.
Johnny Cash
in General Discussions
Posted
Goodbye, I'm Johnny Cash. I remember that Johnny and his wife June were guest stars on an
episode of Columbo. Sorry to say, Johnny was not a good guy. Johnny will be mainly remembered
for his music. His movies and TV appearances were of secondary importance.