Category Archives: Screwball

1950s Hitchcock – vote for the best

Posted on 19 April 2016 by Cavershamragu

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 →

Posted in 'In praise of ...', Alfred Hitchcock, Boileau-Narcejac, California, Canada, Cornell Woolrich, Edmund Crispin, Espionage, Film Noir, Film Poll, France, London, Los Angeles, New England, New York, Noir, Patricia Highsmith, Ray Milland, San Francisco, Screwball, Spy movies | 65 Comments

Hitchcock in the 1940s – vote now!

Posted on 18 April 2016 by Cavershamragu

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

The Notorious Landlady (1962)

Posted on 15 December 2015 by Cavershamragu

Kim Novak is the beautiful landlady accused of killing her nasty husband and Jack Lemmon is the new lodger who falls madly in love with her in this quirky thriller-cum-farce. Recently transferred to London, his State Department career may very well … Continue reading →

Posted in Blake Edwards, London, Richard Quine, Scene of the crime, Screwball, Tuesday's Overlooked Film | 24 Comments

THE RETURN OF THE THIN MAN by Dashiell Hammett

Posted on 28 October 2014 by Cavershamragu

Absurd as it may seem, there are those who don’t think the delightful screwball mysteries featuring Nick and Nora Charles really belong in the oeuvre of hardboiled master, Dashiell Hammett. This has been exacerbated by the perceived devaluation of his … Continue reading →

Posted in 2014 Book to Movie Challenge, 2014 Vintage Mystery Challenge Bingo, Dashiell Hammett, New York, San Francisco, Screwball, The Thin Man | Tagged , | 44 Comments

Douglas Slocombe – 100 years old today

Posted on 10 February 2013 by Cavershamragu

OK movie buffs, here’s a fun pop quiz for you: what do Raiders of the Lost Ark, Sean Connery’s last Bond movie, Michael Caine in The Italian Job, Montgomery Clift’s turn as Sigmund Freud and several classic Ealing comedies such … Continue reading →

Posted in 'In praise of ...', Basil Dearden, Douglas Slocombe, Film Noir, George Baxt, Gothic, Hammer Studios, Jimmy Sangster, Joseph Losey, London, New York, Paris, Scene of the crime, Screwball | 26 Comments

THE G-STRING MURDERS (1941) by Gypsy Rose Lee

Posted on 26 December 2012 by Cavershamragu

Rose Louise Hovick (1914-70), better known under her stage name, ‘Gypsy Rose Lee’, had a brief but notable career. Her autobiography, Gypsy, detailing her rise to become the ‘Queen of Burlesque’ was a Broadway hit and was later filmed with … Continue reading →

Posted in 2012 Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge, Craig Rice, Friday's Forgotten Book, Golden Age Girls, New York, Scene of the crime, Screwball | 34 Comments

The Blake Edwards mysteries

Posted on 6 November 2012 by Cavershamragu

In a career spanning six decades, writer-director Blake Edwards (1922-2010) really mixed it up, making almost every conceivable type of film. There were westerns (Panhandle and Wild Rovers), musicals (Darling Lili and Victor Victoria), dark drama (Days of Wine and … Continue reading →

Posted in Blake Edwards, Cold War, Espionage, Evelyn Anthony, Hollywood, London, Michael Crichton, Mickey Spillane, Mike Hammer, Paris, Police procedural, Private Eye, Robert Bloch, Rome, San Francisco, Scene of the crime, Screwball, Tuesday's Overlooked Film, TV Cops | 45 Comments

The Mad Miss Manton (1938)

Posted on 16 October 2012 by Cavershamragu

The screwball mystery stands as the unlikely historical and genre nexus between the pre-code movies of the early thirties and the Film Noir movement of the 40s and 50s. Don’t believe me? Well, just consider the iconic crossover presence of … Continue reading →

Posted in Dashiell Hammett, New York, Scene of the crime, Screwball, The Thin Man, Tuesday's Overlooked Film | Tagged | 42 Comments

MURDER ON THE BLACKBOARD (1932) by Stuart Palmer

Posted on 17 August 2012 by Cavershamragu

This book features one of the first, and funniest, examples of that mystery mainstay, the spinster sleuth. From Mary Roberts Rinehart’s plucky one-off heroines to the more professional investigating of Agatha Christie’s Jane Marple and Patricia Wentworth’s Maud Silver (both first … Continue reading →

Posted in 2012 Alphabet of Crime, 2012 Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge, Campus Crime, Craig Rice, Crime Fiction Alphabet, Hildegarde Withers, New York, Partners in Crime, Scene of the crime, Screwball, Stuart Palmer | 22 Comments

J is for … Jonathan Latimer

Posted on 25 July 2012 by Cavershamragu

Kerrie’s 2012 Alphabet of Crime community meme over at her Mysteries in Paradise blog continues this week and has reached the letter J. As part of my contribution, I offer a look at the work of Jonathan Latimer, one of … Continue reading →

Posted in 'In praise of ...', 2012 Alphabet of Crime, Columbo, Cornell Woolrich, Crime Fiction Alphabet, Dashiell Hammett, Erle Stanley Gardner, Film Noir, Jonathan Latimer, Los Angeles, Perry Mason, Private Eye, Raymond Chandler, Scene of the crime, Screwball, The Thin Man | 21 Comments