skjam: (gasgun)
Dressed to Kill (1946) dir. Roy William Neill

Three seemingly-identical music boxes have come up for auction. The first is purchased by music box collector Julian "Stinky" Emery (Edmund Breon), the second by toy shop owner Evelyn Clifford (Patricia Cameron) (though she doesn't leave her name) and the third by Mr. Kilgour (Harry Allen), a transplanted Scotsman, as an inexpensive present for his daughter (Topsy Glyn). They all got what seemed like bargain prices. An hour later, another man arrives at the auction house eager to buy music boxes, and is frustrated to learn they're already gone.

Stinky, as it happens, is an old school chum of Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce), partner of Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone). Stinky mentions that he was coshed and one of his music boxes stolen, a cheap French one. Holmes is immediately intrigued. Stinky's collection includes at least one piece worth thousands of pounds, no self-respecting thief would have walked off with a lesser box. As it turns out, the French box looked very similar to the one Stinky recently purchased at auction. One with a rather peculiar melody. Interesting, but nothing Holmes can act on at the moment.

The boxes were created in Dartmoor Prison as part of a fundraising effort. The inmate who made them, Davison (Cyril Delevanti), intended that they fall into the hands of his outside confederates to reveal the location of some especially juicy loot. The gang is led by Mrs. Hilda Courtney (Patricia Morison), an attractive woman with impressive acting skills. Her accomplices are Colonel Cavanaugh (Frederick Worlock) a "gentleman" burglar, and Hamid (Harry Cording), a chauffeur/hitman who reads poetry and has unrequited feelings for Mrs. Courtney. (It's never mentioned what happened to Mr. Courtney, if he ever actually existed.)

When Stinky is murdered (Hamid got impatient and jealous while Mrs. Courtney was trying to get the music box through seduction) and the first music box goes missing, Holmes and Watson take up the case, attempting to bring the killers to justice and solve the three-box riddle.

This was the last of the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movies. Unfortunately at some point the original print was lost and it had to be reconstructed from television cuts, thus the end credits are missing. It's an okay story, referencing "A Scandal in Bohemia" while very much not being the same. Mrs. Courtney is clever and Holmes enjoys their spar, but she's no Irene Adler.

My favorite part of this movie is the use of music. The music box tune is "The Swagman" though usually slightly "off" due to the plot. Holmes plays "Danny Boy" on the violin. And while of course Holmes can memorize any tune he hears if he wants to, he doesn't have an encyclopedic knowledge of popular music, so consults ace busker (and former murder suspect) Joe Cisto (Wallace Scott) at an actor's pub, which allows us to enjoy the music hall number "You Never Know Who You'll Meet."

Hamid's interest in love poetry was an interesting touch, and I'd have liked to have more emphasis on that as part of his character.

Watson is again depicted as rather dim, but his ramblings do inspire a couple of Holmes' epiphanies.

Content note: Murder (no blood), mild peril to a child, an oblique reference to the Holocaust. Elementary schoolers on up should be fine.

At about an hour, this is one of the lesser Holmes movies, but still quite watchable thanks to Rathbone and Bruce. A good choice for family movie night or a rainy afternoon.
skjam: (gasgun)
Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace (1962) dir. Terence Fisher

What comes from Benghazi?

Early in the morning, a group of children and a fisherman find a body floating in the Thames, prominently displaying the name of a recently docked ship, the Thyasia. As the passengers disembark from the ship, one of them bumps into a waiting Professor Moriarty (Hans Söhnker). This is observed by two loafers, one wearing an eyepatch. He directs the other to follow Moriarty's automobile.

At 221b Baker Street, Doctor Watson (Thorley Walters) and Mrs. Hudson (Edith Schultze-Westrum) banter while waiting for Sherlock Holmes (Christopher Lee) to return for dinner. The one-eyed man from earlier is in distress in the street, so Watson brings him in for medical aid, only to discover it's actually Holmes. Holmes chides Watson for falling for this, only to have another man be in distress in the same street. This is the fellow Holmes had sent to follow Moriarty. He's dying of an odd hiltless dagger in his back, and manages to utter a cryptic word and make a strange gesture before passing on.

Holmes brings in Inspector Cooper (Hans Nielsen) of Scotland Yard, who reminds Holmes that as a civilian, he should not be meddling in police business unless invited to do so. He also doesn't believe in Holmes' wild theories that respected archaeologist Moriarty is a criminal mastermind. Holmes and Watson are forced to follow up the investigation on their own.

At the Hare and Eagle public house, our detectives overhear just enough of the conversation between Moriarty and one of his henchmen to learn that a man named Peter Blackburn (Wolfgang Lukschy) who lives in Hertfordshire is the target.

At Mr. Blackburn's house, he's become increasingly paranoid, but won't explain why to his wife Ellen (Senta Berger) or friend Paul King (Ivan Desny). Can Holmes arrive in time to save him? (No.)

It seems that some six years before the story starts, Moriarty was on an Egyptian expedition that found a tomb alleged to be that of Queen Cleopatra. He'd engaged three men to steal a fabulous necklace that was part of the treasure in the tomb. Two were caught and sentenced to prison, while Blackburn rabbited back to England with the necklace. Moriarty has decided that now is the time to reclaim his prize, so had the prisoners broken out--only for the two to quarrel on the ship back, resulting in that first body.

This 1962 movie was a German production, though it had a British star and director, and was largely shot on location in London and Ireland. Evidently, the Doyle estate interfered greatly with the production, causing at least some of the issues with the screenplay. It was dubbed into German, then re-dubbed into English for international release, but without asking Christopher Lee to reprise his voice.

Good: Christopher Lee makes an imposing Sherlock Holmes and his physical acting is impressive. He gets to do a couple of disguises--watch how his body language changes.

There's some witty dialogue, and a couple of nice set pieces--one of the murders is an actual mystery that requires actual thought from Sherlock, and a heist plan looks nifty. Leon Askin puts in a creepy but sometimes pathetic performance as Charles, chauffeur and hitman for the professor.

Watson is a bit dim, but is shown to be able to follow basic clues to reach a mostly correct conclusion.

Less good: The dubbing is often mismatched in volume and tone, and Mr. Lee's actual voice is much missed. The plotting and flow is choppy in places.

Political: It's briefly suggested that Cleopatra's necklace be returned to the Egyptian government (after all it was illegally removed from that country), but this is immediately dismissed by the police in favor of auctioning it off to the highest bidder, with a nice finder's fee going to Holmes.

The "Many Lives of Sherlock Holmes" DVD I watched this on had a poor print of the movie, but did also have some remarks by Christopher Lee as himself on his love of the Sherlock Holmes books.

Overall: This is low-quality Holmes, the sort of thing that in my youth non-network TV stations would show on weekend afternoons while the network channels had sports events. It's not actively bad, but I'd mostly recommend it to people filling in their Sherlock Holmes or Christopher Lee movie checklists.
skjam: (gasgun)
Terror by Night (1946) dir. Roy William Neill

The Star of Rhodesia, a large diamond, has long been associated with blood and death, bringing woe to its owners and those around them ever since it was dug up. The current owner is Lady Margaret Carstairs (Mary Forbes), a formidable dowager. Her son Roland Carstairs (Geoffrey Steele), fearing that the diamond is the target of thieves (a recent robbery attempt was made) has engaged consulting detective Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) to protect the diamond on the overnight train from London to Edinburgh. Naturally, where Holmes goes, Dr. John H. Watson (Nigel Bruce) follows. Inspector Lestrade (Dennis Hoey) is also on board, ostensibly going fishing up North.

A few hours later, Roland is dead, and the Star of Rhodesia is missing. Holmes and his friends must sort out the matter. Since they're on a train, the possible suspects are limited, but there's a high percentage of shady characters. There's a hard-faced young woman who's escorting her mother's coffin, a mathematics professor who objects strenuously to being questioned, one of Watson's military acquaintances who has a gambling habit, an elderly couple who are visibly nervous about Scotland Yard being present, and Lady Carstairs herself seems more upset about the diamond theft than her son's murder! Even the baggage car guard takes on a sinister aspect.

This was one of the last Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes films; the writing team was running thin on ideas, and Mr. Rathbone wanted to do other things. (Nigel Bruce was already typecast so stayed on as Watson for the radio show.) It's also set in "the present day" to save money on costuming and sets. It's a short film, just under an hour, but doesn't feel rushed.

Holmes is, as always, the smartest man on the train, well ahead of everyone except the murderer, and even then catches up quickly. Once he breaks the alibi problem, the movie just goes ahead and shows us the baddie, though the characters in the story have to wait for Holmes' reveal. Poor Watson is particularly dim, engaging in an affable argument about whether the rice or the spice blend is most important in a good rice curry with his fellow veteran of India rather than observe his surroundings. (Holmes himself does not like curry, preferring steak and kidney pie.) Lestrade isn't much smarter, but does get a moment when he grasps Holmes' plan and gets to triumph for a change.

The movie's title is a bit of an exaggeration, though there is a tense sequence where Holmes finds himself on the outside of the train, and not by choice.

My copy of the movie came with a short film of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle late in his life talking about the origins of Sherlock Holmes and (much more enthusiastically) his interest in psychic phenomena.

It's not top-rate, but this is a pleasant enough movie, and due to its shortness would pair well as a double feature with another old-fashioned mystery or movie set on a train.
skjam: Man in blue suit and fedora, wearing an eyeless mask emblazoned with the scales of justice (Default)
Hi folks!

I've enjoyed the last couple of weeks while recovering from the summer session of Rasmussen. Fall quarter starts Monday, bringing me classes in Finance, Economics, (more) Accounting and something called Business Capstone. Ouch.

Today, we look at a list of books recommended to me by Goodreads based on my anthology shelf. An anthology combines the pleasure of holding a good thick book in your hands with the convenience of a quick reading experience. And if you don't like one story, another will soon be along.

As always, let me know if you've read a book on this list, heard buzz about it, or have an anthology you'd plug.


Approaching Oblivion by Harlan Ellison
Axiomatic by Greg Egan

Bewere the Night by Ekaterina Sedia
Beyond Armageddon by Martin H. Greenberg
Blood and Smoke by Stephen King
Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia E. Butler
The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
Book of the Dead by John Skipp
Bulfinch's Mythology by Thomas Bulfinch

A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson
A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings by Charles Dickens
The Complete Fairy Tales by Oscar Wilde
The Complete Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen
The Complete Stories and Poems by Lewis Carroll
The Complete Tales by Beatrix Potter

Essays and Poems by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Essential Tales and Poems by Edgar Allen Poe

Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology by James Patrick Kelly
Filter House by Nisi Shawl

Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree, Jr.

The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by John Joseph Adams
In a Glass Darkly by Joseph Sheridan LeFanu
The Innocence of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton
Interfictions: An Anthology of Interstital Writing by Delia Sherman
Irish Fairy and Folk Tales by W. B. Yeats

The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories by Washington Irving
Leviathan Wept and Other Stories by Daniel Abraham
Looking for Jake by China Mieville
The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson

The Mammoth Book of New Sherlock Holmes Adventures by Mike Ashley
Mapping the World of Harry Potter: Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Explore the Bestselling Series of All Time by Mercedes Lackey
Mothers & Other Monsters: Stories by Maureen F. McHugh

The Necklace and Other Short Stories by Guy de Maupassant

The Past through Tomorrow by Robert A. Heinlein
Perrault's Fairy Tales by Charles Perrault
Persistence of Vision by John Varley
Pump Six and Other Stories by Paolo Bacigalupi

The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume 1 by Robert Silverberg
Shadows Over Baker Street by Michael Reaves
Sherlock Holmes in America by Martin H. Greenberg
Sherlock Holmes in Orbit by Mike Resnick
A Study in Lavender: Queering Sherlock Holmes by Joseph R.G. DeMarco

The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories by H.P. Lovecraft

The Way of the Wizard by John Joseph Adams
What I Didn't See: Stories by Karen Joy Fowler
When the Hero Comes Home by Gabrielle Harbowy
The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories by Connie Willis
Wireless by Charles Stross
Worlds that Weren't by Harry Turtledove

You know, other than the overemphasis on Sherlockania, this would make a really good bookshelf for someone shut off from the world for a few years.

Your thoughts and comments?
SKJAM!
skjam: Man in blue suit and fedora, wearing an eyeless mask emblazoned with the scales of justice (Default)
As mentioned last time, the family gathering was postponed, so I opened the presents that came by mail in the morning.

[personal profile] hepburnesque I got a postcard, Austrian candy and a CD of an Austrian singer.

As expected, the package from [personal profile] celeria was a copy of "The Mermaid Chair", but the embossed gift card was a nice bonus.

And two DVDs, "Serenity" from [profile] greenhawk and "Star Trek" (the reboot movie) from my Hero Games Secret Santa.

Thanks, everyone!

In the afternoon, I headed out to the movie theater. The temperature had gone up considerably, so the heavy snowfall of the previous night had turned into inch-thick sludge on the sidewalks, and meltoff ponds at every street corner. My feet were soaked through by the time I got to Block E.

It's been quite a while since I was stuck in the cities for Christmas, and I was a bit disappointed to discover that absolutely everything in Block E was closed except the theater itself. I'd hoped to get dinner in before the show. Instead I wound up hanging in the lobby for an hour--and the Kerasotes no longer has video games as a distraction.

The Sherlock Holmes movie itself was a fun film. I could have done without the flatulence, and some of the fight scenes were unnecessarily confusing, but overall quite good.

Afterwards, I found that Gameworks (the actual video arcade) had opened, but only had bar food. Didn't matter, I just wanted something warm.

I waited on the bus rather than slog the eight or so blocks back to my apartment, though this didn't keep my feet from getting soaked again on the last block taken on foot.

This morning, the temperature had dropped again, turning the sludge and melt into a lovely layer of ice. Slick in spots, yes, but far less annoying.

At the post office, another card had arrived from [personal profile] fushiforever, a handmade card that says "Merry Christmas from California!" and by golly depicts the state of California topped by a Santa hat. Also included was a mix CD, no tracklist so everything's a surprise. Thanks to you also!

Did a little post-Christmas shopping, then headed home.

Profile

skjam: Man in blue suit and fedora, wearing an eyeless mask emblazoned with the scales of justice (Default)
skjam

June 2025

S M T W T F S
1234567
891011121314
151617181920 21
222324252627 28
2930     

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 1st, 2025 09:51 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios