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The Big Sleep was the first published Philip Marlowe stories. Marlowe is hired by General Sternwood to stop another blackmail attempt against for his youngest daughter, Carmen. Marlowe takes on the job and along the way tumbles into a blackmail racket, an illegal porn shop, a few murders, and the ever pressing question of what happened to Rusty Regan, the husband of Sternwood’s other daughter Vivian.
From there Marlowe has to navigate the corrupt world of the Sternwood girls, stop the blackmailer, and protecting the dying General Sternwood. As a mystery, the Big Sleep is top notch. The mystery grows more complex the deeper Marlowe gets into it. Marlowe’s world is packed with memorable characters that inhabit this gritty world.
And then there’s the writing, in the Big Sleep Chandler has a wonderful way with words. The book features quotes like this:
“I don’t mind if you don’t like my manners. They’re pretty bad. I grieve over them during the long winter evenings.”
“Such a lot of guns around town and so few brains. You’re the second guy I’ve met within hours who seems to think a gat in the hand means a world by the tail.”
“Neither of the two people in the room paid any attention to the way I came in, although only one of them was dead.”
“I don’t mind if you don’t like my manners. They’re pretty bad. I grieve over them during the long winter evenings.”
Fans who know Marlowe from the radio should be advised that the book is far edgier. It’s a world that includes a pornography-related plot and sexual references, though the book avoids graphic description However, the morally redeeming quality of the book is the character of Philip Marlowe, an honest detective living in a code of honor facing a corrupt world that runs from LA’s upper class to its underworld.
Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars
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The second episode of the seventh Poirot series was Lord Edgeware Dies. This is notable as it’s the first time ITV adapted a Poirot story that had been previously adapted with Peter Ustinov, though Ustinov’s adaptation was, “Thirteen at Dinner.”
The Lady Edgeware, Jane Wilkinson wants a divorce from her unhappy marriage to Lord Edgeware and asks Poirot’s help. Poirot visits Lord Edgeware and finds to his suprirse that Lord Edgeware and already agreed to the divorce. Poirot reports this back to Lady Edgeware who says she never received the letter. That night, Lord Edgeware is murdered and the servants at his home point suspicion at Lady Edgeware. However, Lady Edgeware spent the whole with twelve respectable people at a dinner. Poirot sets out to find who committed the murder and is trying to frame the beautiful Lady Edgeware.
This film works great with the requisite twists, turns, and red herrings you expect from an Agatha Christie mystery, plus a solid performance by Suchet as well as the guest stars. This clearly beats Ustinov’s much more ambiguous adaptation. My one complaint in this film is its portrayal of Poirot having a crush on Lady Edgeware. I didn’t buy that, but the rest of film is pure gold.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.0
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The fourth volume of the Father Brown Mysteries from Colonial Radio Theater collects four more G.K. Chesterton stories. More importantly, the middle two stories have been previously adapted either in the 1970s British TV series or the 1980s BBC radio series.
In the “Actor and the Alibi”, Father Brown is called in by a theater company to calm down a temperamental Italian Catholic actress and finds himself investigating the murder of the theater owner who most of the company holds to be a scoundrel. This solution as well as the distortion of reality that seems to have engulfed the situation is remarkable. Unless you have the sagacity of Father Brown, there’s little chance of solving it.
“The Worst Crime in the World” has Father Brown concerned about a young man that might marry his niece. A strange visit to the castle-home of his reclusive father does little to allay his concerns, particularly when the young man seems to have disappeared.
“The Insoluble Problem” is a classic story that finds Father Brown and Flambeau stumbling on an impossible murder after Father Brown is called the house while Flambeau is driving to a museum protect valuable jewels. Unlike all the weird murders Father Brown has solved, is this one truly insoluble? Really, this was a pretty clever concept that plays quite nicely with classic tropes of the mystery genre. I’m surprised that I haven’t seen this clever plot used more often.
“The Eye of Apollo” is a classic story which pits Father Brown against the founder of a sun-worshiping cult who has convinced a strong-headed wealthy woman to follow his way. When she dies, it appears to have been accident with the cult leader having a perfect alibi. The actual solution has a great ironic twist that’s pure Chesterton.
This is the best quality Father Brown set Colonial has put out yet. J.T. Turner has Father Brown down pat and M.J. Elliott is adept at giving listeners all the life and pleasure of the original stories. One thing I noted in this collection is how Turner would take some of Chesterton’s artful descriptive commentary and put it in the mouth of his characters.
Overall, this is a faithful and high quality adaptation that is a must for fans of Father Brown and of classic mystery.
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The Mr. Moto films have been released in two four movie box sets, though one film, Mr. Moto’s Last Warning is in the public domain and has been available for years on dozens of DVD release.
Mr. Moto was created by James Marquand in 1935 and came to film in 1937 with Peter Lorre playing the role for eight films. All Oriental Detectives played by white actors are controversial, but in many ways, Lorre’s performance is different from the portrayal of several actors of the character of Charlie Chan.
Moto speaks in far less proverbs and is also a very active character, a master of the martial and disguise. His capacity and exact reason for being a detective follow him around the world with plenty of intrigue and more than its fair share of violence with Moto killing a few of his enemies in the course of the series.
There were eight Moto films released between 1937-39. For the most part, they are quite enjoyable with well-written plots, great acting by Peter Lorre, and plenty of excitement to go around. Moto operates as a complete man of mystery in the first film with you not even knowing what he wants. The second features Moto on the trail of a treasure and establishes a far more Eastern character.
The first two films were top notch. The third film, Mr. Moto Gamble was actually originally intended as a Charlie Chan feature that was handed over to Moto. This showed up. While Moto did get to use Judo, this one was a bit of an oddball, but entertaining in its own right.
The fourth film The Mysterious Mr. Moto Takes a Chance finds Moto undercover in Thailand as an archaeologist, actually undercover under two false identities. This film would introduce the worst element of later Moto films-the idiot sidekick. Here, it’s a minor distraction but around the time of the seventh film, it’d really begin to wear.
The second half of the Moto films began with The Mysterious Mr. Moto which has Moto going undercover as a Japanese killer and escaping with another convict from Devil’s Island and this one actually has Moto dealing with Anti-Oriental prejudice, a novel twist for the time.
The sixth film, Mr. Moto’s Last Warning is a great film with the star of the original Maltese Falcon playing a villainous ventriloquist as Moto appears to have been killed off for most of the film.
The seventh film was still okay, but it Danger Island was clearly a declining effort. The stupid sidekick was more annoying and the inclusion of the gratuitous Black character afraid of “the spook” doesn’t age well for modern audiences. While the mystery is clever enough, a bad casting choice mars the solution.
The Final Lorre film Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation is proof that most mystery series of the era went one movie too long. Really, Lorre was tired, the writing was tired. As the commentary on the DVDs recounted, Lorre had felt like the studio had lied to him and instead of giving him a variety of rolls, had simply changed from casting him a murderous monster to casting him as Moto.
Speaking of the commentary, I have to give credit 20th Century Fox. They did a fine job of assembling interesting and informative commentators who knew their Moto. Each one except the last Moto film had a mini-featurette on the Moto films, the culture of the time, or Peter Lorre.
The eighth film didn’t have this. As an extra, it offered up a long lost 1965 Mr. Moto film starring Henry Silva that probably would have been better staying lost. The Moto character had changed from the original Japanese character to a Japanese American with a strong Japanese accent in the 1950s radio show to Silva’s Moto with no sign of being Japanese by any measure. Fox added as an extra, Mr. Silva providing commentary on the film. However, it became clear that the then 78 year old Silva had little real recollection of his work on the forgettable film forty years before, so instead he rambled on without any rhyme or reason for most of the film.
Putting aside, the issue with the eighth film (and it’s awful extras), the Moto series at its best was well-done, exciting, and entertaining. It’s a great showcase for Lorre, particularly if you’ve only seen him playing him the villain. Fox added some good extras and even the Silva film is of interest if you want to see anything with Moto in it.
Rating: 4.25 out of 5.0 If you enjoyed this post, you can have new posts about Detective stories and the golden age of radio and television delivered automatically to your Kindle.
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