Month: February 2014

EP1195: Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Kranesburg Matter, Part Four and Five

Bob Bailey

With Smiley Prell dead, Johnny has to look elsewhere in the case of $50,000 in missing jewels.

Original Air Date: August 30 and 31, 1956

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EP1194: Nick Carter: Murder Goes to College

Lon Clark
Nick Carter investigates the death of a college student at a all-woman college that was classed as suicide. Nick quickly discovers its murder and sets out to find the killer.

Original Air Date: December 24, 1944

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EP1193: Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Kranesburg Matter, Parts Two and Three

Bob Bailey

With the jewel thief getting nervous, Johnny investigates the mysterious Krane Family.

Original Air Dates: August 28 and 29, 1956

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EP1192: Casebook of Gregory Hood: South of the Border

Gale Gordon

Gregory Hood arrives in Mexico City to purchase jade and is mistaken for a wayward king.

Original Air Date: July 15, 1946

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EP1191: Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Kranesburg Matter, Parts 1 and 1A

Bob Bailey

Johnny goes to make a deal with a jewel thief who has stolen from a family with old money.

Original Air Dates: August 24 and 27, 1956

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Book Review: The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes

This book is the proverbial mixed bag. There are some stories in the book that are essential reading for Holmes fans (The Problem at Thor Bridge and the Sussex Vampire), and then there are some of the weakest stories in the Canon (The Lion’s Mane, the Blanched Soldier, and the Veiled Lodger), and then others that range between average to fairly good.

“The Problem at Thor Bridge” is simply one of Holmes best cases. There’s so much in the story and the solution is classic. The same thing goes for the Sussex Vampire which presents Holmes a problem that’s evocative of the supernatural but with a surprising natural solution that is pretty emotional in its own right.

Most of the worst stories came towards the end of the book. Both “The Blanched Soldier” and “The Lion’s Mane”  were attempts to tell Holmes’ adventures from Holmes own perspective. While “The Blanched Soldier” was slightly better of the two, both stories were somewhat dry and uninteresting tales that it was hard to care about. “The Veiled Lodgers” biggest failing is that Holmes really does nothing. He describes a mystery and then has one of the perpetrators tell him what happened. While Holmes did say something very wise in response to that, it wasn’t really a detective story.

Looking at the rest of the series:

“The Mazarin Stone”: Told in third person, I actually thought it was a pretty fun story showing Holmes cleverness. It was a similar story to the Dying Detective, but I liked this story better.

“The Creeping Man”: This is a bizarre story and I know some people really don’t like it because it’s almost into the realm of speculative fiction, but I thought it was carried off fine and is a classic mix of horror and the detective genre, though good luck trying to guess as to what’s happening.

“The Three Garidebs”: This is once again a story that calls to mind previous adventures. In it, a man with an unusual last name stands to make a fortune just for having his last name, but he brings in Holmes to discern the truth of the business. This story is not as good as “The Red Headed League” but is actually better than “The Stockbroker’s Clerk.”

“The Illustrious Client”: This isn’t a whodunit but a challenge for Holmes to stop the marriage of a naive woman to a scoundrel. This is a very well-executed story where Holmes is put to the test against a clever adversary who is a master at manipulating the sympathy of women.

“The Three Gables”: This story of a bereaved mother receiving mysterious offers to buy her house is a very good and enjoyable story with a satisfying solution.

“The Retired Colourman”: This is actually a pretty enjoyable story though Holmes doesn’t seem as warm towards Watson in a few places. The solution is a good change of pace, if perhaps a bit melodramatic.

“Shoscombe Old Place”: The last Holmes story by Doyle and its solid. Its clearly not at the high quality of Doyle’s prime but Holmes gets a pretty engaging case with a clever and unexpected solution revolving around a race horse and the odd behavior of the lady of the manor.

Overall, this is a must for mystery fans even if Doyle is clearly past his prime as a writer in this one.

Let me add that this Oxford edition I read really was splendid and added to the reading experience. The explanatory notes section was helpful to me reading this as an American in the 21st century, as it gave meaning to so many phrases that I’d have just glossed over or imagined what they meant otherwise. There’s also a copious amount of introductory information that provides some great background on the book and is a great resource if you can get a hold of it.

Rating 4.0 out of 5.0

EP1190s: Rocky Jordan: Man from Damascus

Jack Moyles

Rocky receives money and a command to appear from a mysterious bandaged man from Damascus.

Original Air Date: June 12, 1949

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EP1190: The Line Up: Cowardly Castro

William Johnstone

Two crooks from Indiana move to town and a business is held up and it was employed by another man from Indiana who was in prison with the two thugs.

Rehearsal of Program that Aired January 2, 1953

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EP1189: Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Crystal Lake Matter, Part Five and Manhunt: The Clue of the Red Thread

Bob Bailey
With the cab driver dead, Johnny’s best lead is gone. Will he discovered who killed Russell?

Original Air Date: August 17, 1956

Andrew Stephens investigates a case where a gangster has made a murder look like an accident.

Original Air Date: January 8, 1944

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EP1188: Nick Carter: Death Plays the Lead

Lon Clark

Nick Carter investigates the violent death of an actress backstage at a show for soldiers.

Original Air Date: December 3, 1944

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EP1187: Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Crystal Lake Matter, Parts Three and Four

Bob Bailey

With the insured dead, Johnny looks for an elusive cabbie and a certain man named Bill.

Original Air Dates: August 15 and 16, 1956

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EP1186: Casebook of Gregory Hood: The Derringer Society

Gale Gordon

A woman visits the Derringer Society and the members start dying as she predicted.

Original Air Date: July 8, 1946

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EP1185: Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Crystal Lake Matter, Parts One and Two

Bob Bailey

Johnny looks for a missing insured man who went to a small town searching for someone named Bill.

Original Air Dates: August 13 and 14, 1956

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DVD Review: Poirot Series 10

Some things are very hard to mess up or turn to something catastrophically bad. Agatha Christie’s Poirot stories combined with the acting of David Suchet are one such combination. It’s a recipe for success.

Any joy or success that the tenth series of Poirot had was due to this combination, but the result was a mediocre series of feature length telefilms.  When you had someone a recipe for Prime Rib and you end up with something that tastes more like Hamburger steak, you have to ask why.

The answer is a creative team who decided to change some of Christie’s stories. I’ve been clear in the past that I can stomach or even enjoy some revisions. I’m a huge fan of the Series 11 episode Appointment with Death which arguably is the most radical departure from Christie’s original story in the entire first twelve series.

The difference between Appointment with Death and the episodes in Series 10 is that the telefilm of Appointment with Death was actually a well-thought out story and its revisions held in a very cohesive narrative and there was an actual point in mind

The addition in Series 10 stories on the other hand seemed to randomly insert revision with names changed and characters motivation being different for no particular reason whatsoever.  These were obvious hack elements inserted into a much better story.

To be fair, Mystery of the Blue Train was not one of Christie’s favorite stories, but the additional changes such as having a rich man (Elliot Gould) having locked his disturbed wife in a convent or giving the idiot husband of Lady Tamplin a major role in the denouement of the story made the telefilm vision worse.

However, Cards on the Table should have been one of the best stories of the entire program’s history. The premise was brilliant: four different  invited by the mysterious Mr Shaitana to dine with four sleuths and four potential murderers invited to dinner and the host is murdered. And arguably it was looking that way for the first seventy percent of the film as we saw the detective interact. It continued until the writers felt the need to insert some Jerry Sprnger-appropriate sexual situations including one of the detectives having hired the very creepy Mr. Shaitana to take compromising photos of him.

The best episode of the season was After the Funeral which was the most logical and consistent story the whole season and didn’t tamper too much with Christie’s original plot except for the addition of another Jerry Springer sex situation.

Finally, we had Taken at the Flood which has two problems. One, the villain is too obvious and second is more central to the essence of the story.  The title of the book comes from Julius Caesar, ” “There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood leads on to fortune…” which is about taking advantage of an unexpected situation that comes to you. In the book, the villain takes advantage of an accident that occurs to gain power and wealth. In the telefilm, the incident has been changed so it’s no longer an accident and thus title Taken at the Flood no longer makes any sense. Bravo.

This isn’t to say Series 10 wasn’t without its good moments, but these were often undermined by horrible production decisions and writers who haphazardly rewrote Christie’s stories in ways that just didn’t work. Series 10 adds gratuitous sex but  loses a lot of intelligence.

Having seen all the Series 11 episodes, the good news is that Poirot films did get better. Thus Series 10  marked a dip in series quality rather than a legendary and irredeemable “Jumping the shark” season

Rating: 3.0 out of 5.0

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EP1184: The Line Up: Two Tough Thugs

William Johnstone

Guthrie and Karger find fresh clues in a year old case of robbery and murder.

Original Air Date: December 19, 1952

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