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Category Archives: California
THE WENCH IS WICKED / BLONDE VERDICT / DELILAH WAS DEADLY by Carter Brown
This omnibus by ultra-prolific paperback writer ‘Carter Brown’ (in private life Alan Geoffrey Yates) – courtesy of those very nice people at Stark House Press – features the first three cases of Al Wheeler, the unorthodox and wise-cracking Lieutenant working in the California … Continue reading
Quincy, M.E (1976-83)
“You are about to enter the most fascinating sphere of police work, the world of forensic medicine” Jack Klugman, one of the best actors who ever worked on American film and TV, was already a 25-year veteran, and star of … Continue reading
Posted in California, Tuesday's Overlooked Film, TV Cops
32 Comments
Death Valley (2011)
At least in popular culture, one might think that zombies really have inherited the earth. At least this hybrid cop show has a sense of humour and doesn’t get too bogged down in the morbidity of it all. Indeed this … Continue reading
Posted in California, Police procedural, Postmodern
10 Comments
Smile Jenny, You’re Dead (1974)
This is was the second of two feature-length TV Movies that ultimately served to launch the short-lived private eye series Harry O (1974-76) starring David Janssen, which in its first season may have got as good as this genre ever … Continue reading
WOMAN ON THE ROOF (1954) by Helen Nielsen
This books starts off with a premise reminiscent of the Hitchcock movie Rear Window (or rather, the short story on which it was based, ‘It Had to Be Murder’ by Cornell Woolwich / William Irish): looking through a window a … Continue reading
2016 Vintage Mystery Scavenger Hunt
For as long as I’ve been hosting this blog, I’ve participated in Bev Hankins’ irresistible vintage mystery reading challenges. The rules have been amended over the years, but the basic criteria is the same – review a mystery from two … Continue reading
Posted in 2016 Golden Age Vintage Mystery Scavenger Hunt, 2016 Silver Vintage Scavenger Hunt, 87th Precinct, Albert Campion, Bill Pronzini, California, Canada, Catherine Aird, Chicago, Cosy Cozy, David Callan, Don DeLillo, Dorothy L. Sayers, Edgar Wallace, Ellery Queen, England, Fletcher Fliora, Florida, Germany, Gideon Fell, Inspector Wexford, Italy, James Hadley Chase, James Mitchell, John Dickson Carr, John le Carre, Kansas City, London, Louisiana, Margery Allingham, Middle East, Montana, New York, Noir, Ostara Publishing, Patricia Moyes, Police procedural, Private Eye, Radio, Ruth Rendell, San Francisco, Stark House Press, Vintage Mystery Cover Scavenger Hunt 2016
18 Comments
And your favourite Hitchcock movies are …
Drum roll please … Having gone through a week of voting for the favourite films directed by Alfred Hitchcock on a decade by decade basis, this was meant to lead to a top 10, though we ended up with a … Continue reading
1950s Hitchcock – vote for the best
This was the decade when Hitchcock truly became a superstar – along with a string of critically acclaimed and commercially successful films he became the host of his own TV shows Alfred Hitchcock Presents (and later, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour), … Continue reading
Hitchcock in the 1940s – vote now!
With the success of The Lady Vanishes, Hitchcock got a contract with producer David O Selznick and headed to Hollywood to make the Oscar-winning Rebecca – and never looked back. This period saw the director blossom as he got to … Continue reading
Posted in 'In praise of ...', Alfred Hitchcock, Amnesia, Anthony Berkeley, Australia, California, Cold War, Courtroom, Daphne Du Maurier, England, Espionage, Film Poll, Francis Beeding, London, Los Angeles, New York, Noir, Patrick Hamilton, Philip MacDonald, Screwball, Spy movies, The Netherlands, World War II
59 Comments
Top 25 Courtroom Movies
As I have blogged before, I love legal drama on the screen. Maybe it’s because I trained to be a lawyer (in the interests of full disclosure, my legal background informs the work I do in education in terms of … Continue reading
Posted in 'Best of' lists, Australia, California, England, France, India, Scott Turow, Tuesday's Overlooked Film
Tagged Billy Wilder, George Clooney, Glenn Close, Gregory Peck, Henry Fonda, James Stewart, John Travolta, Julia Roberts, Katharine Hepburn, Kirk Douglas, Lee Remick, Merlene Dietrich, Meryl Streep, Nigel Hawthorne, Orson Welles, Paul Newman, Tilda Swinton
73 Comments
CLEAN BREAK (1955) by Lionel White
I’d not read anything by Lionel White (1905-1985) before but was really looking forward to it, being a huge fan of the movie adaptation. This story of a racecourse heist that (of course) goes wrong was filmed very shortly after … Continue reading
THE DROWNING POOL (1950) by Ross Macdonald
This is the second of eighteen books featuring Lew Archer, the California PI created by Kenneth Millar, first published under his soon to be shortened pen-name, ‘John Ross Macdonald.’ It was also the first of the series that I read, … Continue reading