Category Archives: Tuesday’s Overlooked Film

The Prisoner – volume 2

Posted on 12 December 2017 by Cavershamragu

Following the deserved success of the first volume of this intelligent re-imagening for audio of the classic TV show of the 1960s, now comes its sequel – and it is even better than the first. Mark Elstob is our hero, … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio Review, Big Finish, Espionage, Nicholas Briggs, Patrick McGoohan, Tuesday's Overlooked Film | 8 Comments

Dressed to Kill (1946)

Posted on 5 December 2017 by Cavershamragu

The Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce series of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson mysteries came to an end with this, their 14th entry, in which the Baker Street duo battle suave criminals searching London for the secret hidden within three … Continue reading →

Posted in Arthur Conan Doyle, London, Scotland, Sherlock Holmes, Tuesday's Overlooked Film | Tagged , | 32 Comments

Torture Garden (1967)

Posted on 21 November 2017 by Cavershamragu

The great Robert Bloch (1917-1994) supplied stories and screenplays for six films made by Amicus Film, the only serious rival to Hammer in the 1960s and 70s when it came to horror cinema. The first three – The Skull (1965), … Continue reading →

Posted in Amicus, England, Robert Bloch, Tuesday's Overlooked Film | Tagged , | 32 Comments

Terror by Night (1946)

Posted on 18 September 2017 by Cavershamragu

The Holmes and Watson series picked itself right up again with this train-bound adventure that comes as very welcome after the disappointment of Pursuit to Algiers. It was also the swansong for Dennis Hoey’s Lestrade. Holmes: The Inspector’s going to … Continue reading →

Posted in Arthur Conan Doyle, London, Scotland, Sherlock Holmes, Tuesday's Overlooked Film | Tagged , | 20 Comments

TILL DEATH DO US PART (1944) by John Dickson Carr

Posted on 5 September 2017 by Cavershamragu

This classic Golden Age detective story tends to get a little lost among the multitude of enthralling mysteries that John Dickson Carr was producing at such a prodigious rate at that time. It begins with a superb set piece in … Continue reading →

Posted in 2017 Golden Age Vintage Mystery Scavenger Hunt, Audio Review, England, Five Star review, Gideon Fell, John Dickson Carr, Locked Room Mystery, London, Tuesday's Overlooked Film | 66 Comments

Pursuit to Algiers (1945)

Posted on 1 August 2017 by Cavershamragu

It’s a shame, I know, but as we say in Italy, not every ring doughnut comes out with a hole in the middle. And the tenth entry in Universal Studios’ Holmes and Watson series, is by common consent considered the … Continue reading →

Posted in Arthur Conan Doyle, London, Sherlock Holmes, Tuesday's Overlooked Film | Tagged , | 17 Comments

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (2017 Blu-ray)

Posted on 20 June 2017 by Cavershamragu

Finally available (it was released yesterday) in a restored and high def format that preserves the original 2.35:1 aspect ratio, this visually audacious whodunit lands on Blu-ray in a gorgeous looking edition from Arrow Films. Starring Tony Musante and Suzy … Continue reading →

Posted in Dario Argento, Fredric Brown, Giallo, Rome, Scene of the crime, Tuesday's Overlooked Film | 28 Comments

Quincy, M.E (1976-83)

Posted on 13 June 2017 by Cavershamragu

“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

THE RIDDLE OF THE THIRD MILE (1983) by Colin Dexter

Posted on 16 May 2017 by Cavershamragu

This book in the Inspector Morse series generally sees little love from either critics or fans – and was changed greatly when adapted for TV (even the title, to ‘The Last Enemy’). Is this a book that is worth reclaiming? … Continue reading →

Posted in 2017 Silver Age Vintage Mystery Scavenger Hunt, Colin Dexter, England, Inspector Morse, London, Oxford, Tuesday's Overlooked Film | 16 Comments

The Woman in Green (1945)

Posted on 2 May 2017 by Cavershamragu

This film marked the final (re) appearance of Professor Moriarty (or, rather, as credited, ‘Moriarity’) in the Universal Holmes and Watson series, this time in the chilly, smooth-tongued form of Henry Daniell (who was said to be Rathbone’s favourite). And this … Continue reading →

Posted in Arthur Conan Doyle, London, Sherlock Holmes, Tuesday's Overlooked Film | Tagged , | 30 Comments

THE SILENT WORLD OF NICHOLAS QUINN (1977) by Colin Dexter

Posted on 25 April 2017 by Cavershamragu

This was the third book in the Inspector Morse series, and is perhaps my favourite of them all (well, it is either this one or Service of All the Dead, I always struggle a bit between the two). Not only is the … Continue reading →

Posted in 2017 Silver Age Vintage Mystery Scavenger Hunt, Colin Dexter, Crime of the Century, England, Five Star review, Inspector Morse, Oxford, Tuesday's Overlooked Film | 38 Comments

The Marseille Contract (1974)

Posted on 18 April 2017 by Cavershamragu

This unpretentious thriller, running just under 90 minutes and released in the US as The Destructors, was shot on location in France and features Michael Caine as a professional assassin, Anthony Quinn as a US intelligence agent and James Mason … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Noir, France, Noir on Tuesday, Paris, Tuesday's Overlooked Film | 28 Comments

The House of Fear (1945)

Posted on 11 April 2017 by Cavershamragu

Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson are off to a remote part of Scotland to investigate the peculiar goings on at Drearcliff House, a gloomy old mansion where its inhabitants are all starting to receive mysterious threats before dying. Has their … Continue reading →

Posted in Arthur Conan Doyle, London, Scotland, Sherlock Holmes, Tuesday's Overlooked Film | Tagged , | 48 Comments

The House that Dripped Blood (1971)

Posted on 4 April 2017 by Cavershamragu

Robert Bloch (1917-1994) is one of my favourite writers. I discovered him at a very early age and I doubt I’ll ever be able to let him go – but how can you not love an author who once quipped, … Continue reading →

Posted in Amicus, England, Robert Bloch, Tuesday's Overlooked Film | Tagged , , | 52 Comments

DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1943) by James M. Cain

Posted on 28 February 2017 by Cavershamragu

It is possible that the public conception of Noir owes more to the success of this book than any other. On the face of it, author James M. Cain just rewrote The Postman Always Rings Twice (click here for my review … Continue reading →

Posted in 2017 Golden Age Vintage Mystery Scavenger Hunt, Billy Wilder, Film Noir, James M. Cain, Noir on Tuesday, Raymond Chandler, Tuesday's Overlooked Film | 35 Comments

THE GETAWAY (1959) by Jim Thompson

Posted on 31 January 2017 by Cavershamragu

This tale of thieves falling out is lifted out of the ordinary by  Thompson’s uncanny ability to create chillingly credible portraits of criminals, misfits, felons and psychopaths at the extremes of human behaviour. He then caps it all with a … Continue reading →

Posted in 2017 Golden Age Vintage Mystery Scavenger Hunt, Jim Thompson, Texas, Tuesday's Overlooked Film | 56 Comments

Justified (Season 1)

Posted on 13 December 2016 by Cavershamragu

While we now live in the era of binge viewing with ‘box sets’ available from Netflix, Prime etc, I have been watching this show steadily in weekly episodes when I go visit my folks. Its mixture of a modern-day Western … Continue reading →

Posted in Elmore Leonard, Film Noir, Kentucky, Noir on Tuesday, Scene of the crime, Tuesday's Overlooked Film | Tagged , | 26 Comments

No Way Out (1987) is now on Blu-ray!

Posted on 15 November 2016 by Cavershamragu

No Way Out, adapted from Kenneth Fearing’s classic suspense novel, The Big Clock (which I previously reviewed here), is a terrific thriller starring a young Kevin Costner and quirky and beautiful Sean Young as young lovers who get caught in a … Continue reading →

Posted in Cold War, Espionage, Film Noir, Kenneth Fearing, Noir on Tuesday, Tuesday's Overlooked Film, Washington DC | Tagged , , , | 36 Comments

THE SECRET AGENT (1907) by Joseph Conrad

Posted on 30 October 2016 by Cavershamragu

Subtitled ‘A Simple Tale’ and dedicated to HG Wells, Conrad’s novel of anarchists, spies, treachery and a terror campaign gone wrong was based on the Greenwich bombing of 1894, though it is actually set eight years before that. Recently adapted for … Continue reading →

Posted in 2016 Golden Age Vintage Mystery Scavenger Hunt, Alfred Hitchcock, Crime of the Century, Joseph Conrad, London, Tuesday's Overlooked Film | 28 Comments

DANGEROUS DAVIES: THE LAST DETECTIVE (1976) by Leslie Thomas

Posted on 11 October 2016 by Cavershamragu

Today I thought I would post something on the lighter side of the mystery genre, a potentially grim story of a cold case told with bawdy humour and plenty of vim and vigour. Leslie Thomas (1931–2014) came to prominence in … Continue reading →

Posted in 2016 Silver Vintage Scavenger Hunt, London, Tuesday's Overlooked Film, Val Guest | Tagged | 24 Comments

The romance of Brian De Palma

Posted on 13 September 2016 by Cavershamragu

The following revisit of a favourite film and director is offered for the Brian De Palma Blogathon being hosted by Ratnakar Sadasyula at his site, Seetimaar – Diary of a Movie Lover from 11 to 21 September to celebrate the great filmmaker’s birthday … Continue reading →

Posted in 'In praise of ...', Brian de Palma, Chicago, Cuba, Florida, France, Germany, Hollywood, Italy, London, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York, Paris, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Tuesday's Overlooked Film, Vietnam, Washington DC | 37 Comments

Julieta – film & book review

Posted on 6 September 2016 by Cavershamragu

The great Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar has adapted part of Runaway, the 2004 book by the great Canadian author Alice Munro, as Julieta. The  results are really intriguing, providing a movie experience that is full of mystery and both very faithful … Continue reading →

Posted in Canada, Film Noir, Spain, Tuesday's Overlooked Film | Tagged , | 22 Comments

Scream and Scream Again (1969) – Tuesday’s Overlooked Film

Posted on 29 August 2016 by Cavershamragu

The big selling point for this movie was the presence of Vincent Price, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, though in fact the three never appear on-screen at the same time. And despite the title it’s not much of a horror … Continue reading →

Posted in Amicus, Christopher Lee, England, London, Peter Cushing, Science Fiction, Tuesday's Overlooked Film | Tagged , , | 34 Comments

The Pearl of Death (1944)

Posted on 23 August 2016 by Cavershamragu

After the rousing success of The Scarlet Claw, could Universal’s Holmes and Watson series continue at the same fever pitch? Well, no, not quite, but this breezy thriller, kicking off the next trio of Holmesian adventures for Basil Rathbone and … Continue reading →

Posted in Arthur Conan Doyle, London, Sherlock Holmes, Tuesday's Overlooked Film | Tagged , | 31 Comments

What Have You Done to Solange? (1972) – Tuesday’s Overlooked Film

Posted on 16 August 2016 by Cavershamragu

In the 1960s two film companies made a long series of films using the Edgar Wallace byline – the UK thrillers were made for Anglo Amalgamated (my microsite devoted to these is here), while Rialto filmed their own in Germany, though … Continue reading →

Posted in Edgar Wallace, Giallo, London, Tuesday's Overlooked Film | 28 Comments

And Soon the Darkness (1970) – Tuesday’s Overlooked Movie

Posted on 9 August 2016 by Cavershamragu

Made on location in the  Loire Valley in France, this 99-minute thriller takes a simple, stripped down  concept – two people on a biking holiday become isolated and fear they are being stalked by a killer –  and then stretches … Continue reading →

Posted in Brian Clemens, France, Tuesday's Overlooked Film | Tagged , , | 42 Comments

Jason Bourne – cinema review

Posted on 2 August 2016 by Cavershamragu

Regular Fedora visitors will know that I love spy movies and am a sucker for stories about amnesia, so the Bourne saga – about a spy who forgets who he is and searches for answers from his old employers at the … Continue reading →

Posted in Espionage, Greece, Las Vegas, London, Reykjavik, Rome, Spy movies, Tuesday's Overlooked Film, Washington DC | 84 Comments

The Thrilling Film Scores of Bernard Herrmann

Posted on 29 June 2016 by Cavershamragu

This small detour is dedicated to the great Bernard Herrmann (1911-1975). He is the composer who, when I was a pre-teen, first got me into serious music via the movies, along with the likes of Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Dmitri Shostakovich … Continue reading →

Posted in Alfred Hitchcock, Film Noir, Noir on Tuesday, Tuesday's Overlooked Film | Tagged | 18 Comments

POLICE AT THE FUNERAL (1931) by Margery Allingham

Posted on 21 June 2016 by Cavershamragu

This is the book that many see as being the breakthrough for Margery Allingham in her series featuring Albert Campion, who after three comparatively ‘light’ adventures finally appeared in a darker, more substantial work that showed something like the true … Continue reading →

Posted in 2016 Golden Age Vintage Mystery Scavenger Hunt, Albert Campion, Cambridge, England, Margery Allingham, Tuesday's Overlooked Film | 46 Comments

Blind Terror (1971) – Tuesday’s Overlooked Film

Posted on 7 June 2016 by Cavershamragu

News of a possible remake (see here) made me to look again at this suspenser in which Mia Farrow plays the resourceful heroine on the run from a killer. Released in the US as See No Evil, this underrated thriller benefits from … Continue reading →

Posted in Brian Clemens, Richard Fleischer, Tuesday's Overlooked Film | Tagged | 47 Comments