So, what's everyone else watching?

You must be watching something!

One of the advantages of the Board is getting viewing ideas and feedback from other members. I have found out about countless films from entries by Board members...but not lately.

Even if it's films we've discussed before (like the Whistler series), it can serve as a reminder that a particular film is "due" for another viewing.

Bruce R

I've seen 2 comedy/murder mystery movies recently that I found were OK.

"Mad Holiday" (1936) stars Edmund Lowe as an actor who becomes typecast playing a famous movie detective. So he leaves Hollywood for a cruise ... that turns out to be a real "murder cruise".

"the Crime that Nobody Saw" is based on a story co-written by Ellery Queen. (ps. I found a reference to this movie while googling "Ellery Queen". The screenplay is by Bertram Millhauser who wrote a lot of those Basil Rathbone/ Nigel Bruce Sherlock Holmes movies).
It's about 3 writers (played by Lew Ayres, Eugene Palette plus ??) who need to come up with an idea for a mystery/crime stage play quickly (they've already spent their advance). A neighbour happens to stumble into their apartment and pass out. Lots of cash falls out of the man's pockets and they find a notebook containing phone numbers with dollar amounts next to each entry that they speculate to be those of the man's Blackmail victims. So they contact the victims and pretend to be the police, hoping that the victims' "true confessions" will give them inspiration for their play. Of course, things get out of control ....

Thanks, Gary. Two new ones that I have not only not seen, but don't even have.

How's the quality of the recordings?

Bruce R

I recorded MAD HOLIDAY off TCM (the Australian version) so it's a reasonable quality print but not restoration quality. TCM had some silly theme for that night's schedule of movies ... crime and romance while on vacation ??? (the other movies shown were VACATION FROM LOVE and FAST AND LOOSE (or was it THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS ???). I have to say that Edmund Lowe and Elissa Landi were like understudies for Nick and Nora even though they did try hard.

THE CRIME NOBODY SAW came from BlackHangMan (aka Bob Connors). The picture and sound are OK, maybe the picture is a little on the dark side (??). I think it must have come from a film print transfer ... a couple of times the recording goes blank for a second or two when the projectionist is supposed to change reels (???).

We're binge-watching TV shows at the moment. Just finished the second season of Penny Dreadful and started The Brink.

-- John

We only got Netflix recently so we are watching many shows on there. For mysteries the one we started watching lately is Wallandar with Kenneth Branagh as the Swedish detective. We also finished watching all the Miss Fisher Mysteries and Avengers with Diana Rigg as Mrs. Peel and several of the Sherlock Holmes films with Rathbone on DVD sets. Chris.

Wow, all these series I haven't even heard of.

Just curious, are these well known, in general, or are you just good at discovering these series?

Bruce R

Wallander is British (BBC) and is based on a Swedish TV series. Miss Fisher Mysteries is Australian ... probably shown on PBS in America ? Penny Dreadful is from Showtime. The Brink is from HBO.

So if you are watching these shows on Netflix, the chances are you only found out about them from someone else's recommendation or you happen to catch the odd episode while channel surfing the satellite/cable channels. There's lots of American TV shows that I only find out about once they've been cancelled and have long been "off the airwaves", especially ones from American cable/satellite TV. I guess my favourite shows are ones that couldn't maintain a minimum number of viewers (at least 3 million ?? or viewers in the 18 to 49 age demographic). Not that there's anything wrong with "the Flash" or "I Zombie" (which I happen to like even though I'm not in their target audience).

Yes there was a previous Swedish TV version of Wallander I saw several years ago but I discovered this English BBC version as someone posted an article listing their favourite shows on the Netflix Canadian version and it was one of them. I got the Miss Fisher mysteries DVD set as a gift but they have been shown in the USA on PBS and I see are available on Netflix Canada too. Chris

Thanks Gary & Chris.

Of all mentioned, and considering I'm a big mystery/film noir fan, which one should I watch first?

Bruce R

You can't go wrong with either the Avengers or Basil Rathbone.

Sorry ... out of ignorance I can't say I've watched any episodes of either Miss Fisher or Wallander even though they are on every day on one of my Mystery Pay TV channels. I'm more likely to watch a rerun of Castle or Veronica Mars.

Wallandar fits the noir mood better. Miss Fisher is a bit lighter fare although some of the crimes she gets involved with are horrendous. I forgot to mention we also watched The Bletchley Circle BBC series about former female code breakers who postwar turn their skills to solving crimes. Liked that short series very much. Chris.

Thanks Gary & Chris.

I very much enjoyed The Bletchley Circle series too. Wish there were more of them.

I think Wallandar and Avengers should be on the top of the list.

Bruce R

The Best episodes of "the Avengers" are the ones with Patrick MacNee and Diana Rigg as "Mrs Peel" ... her actual name is "Emma Peel", a play on the words "M-appeal" or "Man appeal". Her first 2 years were filmed in B/W and her last year was filmed in colour even though the UK hadn't switched over at the time (I guess they were anticipating that the series would be "picked up" by one of the American TV networks). Colour was an excuse to make the stories crazier (with supernatural / scifi storylines) however the episodes usually ended with a more "common sense" explanation.

Before Diana Rigg, there was Honor Blackman but those episodes were shot on video tape and were very studio bound ... it shows in the limitations in the storylines and action sequences.

After Diana Rigg, there was Linda Thorsen but by that stage the stories became really silly ... well even more so than the silliest of the Diana Rigg episodes.

There was also a revival series made in the 1970s (??) called "the New Avengers" ... still with Patrick MacNee but with a younger pair of companions to do the action stuff. That's another story altogether. Actually, I liked the episode about the "suspended animation" Soviet sleeper soldiers who are reactivated and attack "military targets" in Europe that are 20 years out of date.

I'm currently rewatching my DVDs of "the Adventures of Superman". According to the audio commentary, Season 1 was originally shown as late as 8.30pm (in Los Angeles ?) so it wasn't always classified as a kids show ... rather it was labelled as "Mystery" or "Crime/Detective" and followed the radio show's format. Pretty violent stuff as Superman lets baddies plunge to their deaths or he doesn't pull his punches like he does in later Seasons. Actually I think I prefer Season 2 when the body count isn't as high and when Superman gets to save us from "otherworldly" dangers like an asteroid or a runaway atomic pile in addition to those Foreign Agents and Crime Syndicates.

It's interesting that you categorize the action as "pretty violent stuff" because I never thought of it that way...at the time.

I don't remember at what time Superman came on, but 8:30PM is indeed late for a kid's show.

Also, I was only 4 when the first season aired, so for all I know, I might have missed the first season completely. But with all the reruns, odds are I did see it at some point.

Thanks for your insights, Gary.  It got me to thinking about it.

Bruce R

When I described Season 1 as "pretty violent stuff" it's only in comparison to episodes from later years ... it's still very tame by today's standards. Even so, when Kellogs became their National Sponsor, they had to make extensive edits to one particular episode ("Crime Wave") which featured "crime spree" footage lifted from B-movies.

Season 1 had some strange scenes that I didn't expect to see in a show like Superman, eg.

Inspector Henderson rolls up his sleeve and threatens to "get tough" with an informant unless he talks. I guess it was OK to "rough up' suspects in those days. At least in the imagination of young viewers or radio listeners.

In another, the baddie pushes a woman in a wheel chair down some stairs and the camera shows a close up of her screaming as she comes hurtling towards Jimmy and Perry White.

Also, in Season 1 it doesn't pay to find out Superman's true identity ... most who do end up dead.

Thanks for the clarifications.

You're making it sound better and better!

Bruce R

I would recommend a strange little update of a very famous story called "Zero Effect" starring Bill Pullman and Ben Stiller, and featuring a creepy Ryan O'Neal. Scandalous how little-know this is. Available via DVD or cloud.

You're right, karlpov, I've never even heard of ZERO EFFECT. Will have to hunt that down.

Bruce R

According to IMDB, NBC tried to turn "the Zero Effect" into a TV series in 2002 so the original 1998 movie must have generated some interest at the time. I happen to watch some of the movie when it was shown on my "Thriller/Crime" Movie channel but it's one of those movies that I record but somehow never got to finish ... having a hero who isn't very likeable and plays bad music takes some effort to warm up to ... nowadays such heroes are more commonplace (eg. House, M.D. except for the music part ... like Holmes, House can play).

I take it you didn't watch enough of the movie to realize that it was based on that very famous short story. I dropped a big hint in one word of my original message.

I could also say that Zero Effect would be competing with two currently running television series.

Actually I must have watched enough of it to want to record / keep it but I probably didn't see enough of it to recognise the "Scandal". It was many years ago when it was shown ... I still have my copy somewhere. These days I tend to watch "less demanding stuff" first (like Scorpion, Castle, Limitless).