Category Archives: Screwball

THE RETURN OF THE THIN MAN by Dashiell Hammett

Posted on 28 October 2014 by

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

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 | 23 Comments

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

Posted on 26 December 2012 by

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 | 33 Comments

The Blake Edwards mysteries

Posted on 6 November 2012 by

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

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

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 | 20 Comments

J is for … Jonathan Latimer

Posted on 26 July 2012 by

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 | 20 Comments