New Movie, Old Movie (and Absent Friend), Streaming Series, Old Book

As a great man once said, "In the area of critical commentary...."

"What Happens Later"

Everybody loved Meg Ryan in what were perhaps the three greatest romantic comedies ever, "When Harry Met Sally", "Sleepless in Seattle", and "You've Got Mail", each of which bore the imprint of the late great Nora Ephron.  Well, Ryan has been off of the grid for it seems like the last twenty or so years, and in this movie, which she co-wrote and directed, Ryan tries to channel the magic of Ephron and recreate a classic RomCom.  In fact, the dedication of the entire film is "For Nora".  Sad to say, this one doesn't come close to anything that Nora Ephron ever did.

Two long ago lovers, played by Ryan and David Duchovny run into each other in some unnamed podunk airport where all flights have been canceled or delayed by one of those annual snowstorms of the century.  After having not seen each other for over twenty-five years, Willa and Bill (they are both named "W. Davis"; cute, huh?) are forced to talk and talk and talk about what happened then, what's going on now, and, of course, what happens later.

It wasn't very romantic, and it wasn't very comedic, and I was distracted throughout by the uncanny resemblance between Duchovny and the late, great Pittsburgh sports broadcaster, Stan Savran:

One Star from The Grandstander.

"Shaft" and Absent Friend, Richard Roundtree

Richard Roundtree

1942-2023

When actor Richard Roundtree passed away last month at the age of 81, I was not inclined to write an Absent Friends post about him, until, that is, I read what Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wrote about him in his biweekly Substack column.  Rather that trying to paraphrase, let me just turn it over to Kareem...

Richard Roundtree died last week, and I felt his passing deeply. In 1971, I was sitting in a dark movie theater watching in awe and excitement as Roundtree, playing Black private detective John Shaft, swaggered, fought, sneered, and romanced his way through Shaft. Even as a 24-year-old, I knew then that this was pop culture history in the making: A new era had arrived in which Black men didn’t have to be polite, non-threatening “Good Negroes.” They could be badass muthas who stood their ground no matter who was pushing against them: White cop or Black gangster.

It was the beginning of the Black action hero trend known as Blaxploitation (though Roundtree and Shaft director Gordon Parks didn’t like that term). Watching Shaft for the first time gave me an injection of pride, and I walked out of the theater with a bit of Shaft’s swagger. Soon Black women action heroes were featured, including Foxy Brown, Coffy, and Cleopatra Jones. Interestingly, Black women became action heroes before White women did, probably because White women were still seen as physically passive gatherers (see above article). Black women, on the other hand, were seen as closer to the jungle, to the sensually primitive. Looking back, the whole trend was pretty sexist, but it was one small step for a Black man, one giant leap for Black culture.

Isaac Hayes created one of the best theme songs in movie history. I hear the first guitar-chainsaw notes and I’m right back on the crowded streets of New York City, black leather jacket and carefully groomed ‘fro, strolling confidently but with purpose. Knowing I “won’t cop out when there’s danger all about.”

So, reading Abdul-Jabbar caused me to seek out, find, and watch the movie for which Roundtree is most famous, 1971's "Shaft", a movie that I had never seen.  It is out there on Amazon Prime ($2.99 rental fee), and I got around to seeing it yesterday.  All that I can say is that it is a movie that is "of it's time."   It is a bit cheesy and dated, but Roundtree is quite charismatic in the role.  In fact, the best part of the movie might have been the opening credits that show Roundtree/Shaft walking the streets of New York City in his leather coat while Isaac Hayes' classic theme music plays.

Oh, and for you sports fans out there one of the "badass muthas" who Shaft must battle is played by none other than Drew Bundini Brown, one time cornerman and chief hanger-on to Muhammed Ali.

Two Stars from The Grandstander.

"Only Murders In The Building"

We know that we are late to the party here, but over the last couple of months, Linda and I have caught up with the delightful streaming series from Hulu, "Only Murders In The Building".  Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez play neighbors in an old and stately New York City apartment building.  Martin plays a washed up television actor, Short plays a washed up never was Broadway director, and Gomez plays a late twenties young woman still trying to figure out where her life is going.  By accident, they learn that they are fans of the same true crime podcast, and they are then thrust into investigate a murder that has taken place in their apartment building.

Both Martin and Short are fabulous as they ham it up as the old show biz hands thrust into detective work, which, by the way, they are turning into a true crime podcast of their own, and Gomez is similarly delightful as she tries to cope with these two old guys who barely know how to operate a cell phone.  While all three are great in the roles, it is Short who is the first among equals in the cast.  And did I mention all of the oddball peripheral characters that they have to encounter as they pursue their investigations?

It all adds up to a funny and delightfully entertaining series, which is teed up for  fourth season sometime in 2024.

Four Stars from The Grandstander.

"The Mysterious Affair at Styles"

A Kindle special price deal prompted me to spend $1.99 to purchase and then reread this Agatha Christie classic.  Fans of Dame Agatha know that this book was her very first novel, published in 1920, and it introduced to the world her famous sleuth, Hercule Poirot.

Agatha Christie published over sixty novels in her career, and I once tallied and discovered that I have read over fifty of them in my lifetime.  It was Agatha Christie who introduced me to the genre of mystery and detective fiction, and for almost sixty years reading such works has been one of my favorite ways to spend my leisure time.  I will maintain to anyone willing to listen that her novel "And Then There Were None" is perhaps the most perfect mystery ever written.

All of this is why it pains me to say that I found, upon rereading this one, that it was staid and just not all that good.  One needs keep in mind, I suppose, that this book was written over 100 years ago and was certainly unique and almost revolutionary for its time.  Times, however, have changed, and this one, for me at least, just doesn't quite hold up.

Two Stars from The Grandstander.

"The Mystery of Mrs. Christie" by Marie Benedict

Fans of mystery writer Agatha Christie are no doubt familiar with the mystery in her own life:  her  disappearance in 1926 that created a sensation in the British press and led to massive manhunts in search of her.  She was discovered after eleven days in a spa registered under the name of her husband's mistress.   She claimed that she had suffered a bout of amnesia, but, really, she never did give a satisfactory explanation  to the whole affair.  In her own autobiography, Mrs. Christie mentioned not a single word about it.

Local Pittsburgh area author Marie Benedict (from Sewickley, to be precise) has taken a crack at it in  this story and posits her own theory as to how, what, and why this whole disappearing act took place.

The novel is told in alternating chapters and points of view.  One point is told in first person by Agatha herself and it traces from the time she met the dashing RAF pilot Archibald Christie at a fancy-schmancy upper crust English dance, how she was swept off her feet, proposed to, and ultimately married Christie.  It also tells the story of Archie Christie's domineering, narcissistic personalty which led to the unravelling of the marriage.

The alternating chapters are told in the third person and focus on Archie Christie as he becomes aware of his wife's disappearance, his dealing with the police, the press, and general public opinion, and becomes a suspect in the possible foul play disappearance of his wife.

Benedict ties the two points of view together over the last quarter of the book and presents her theory as to just what happened back in 1926.  It is a work of fiction, to be sure, but it's as plausible as any other theory that has ever been put out there.  Marie Benedict has specialized in writing historical fiction about real women.  Her subjects have included Albert Einstein's first wife, Andrew Carnegie's maid, Clementine Churchill, and Hedy Lamarr.  I have read the Lamarr book and found it most interesting (https://grandstander.blogspot.com/2019/07/what-have-i-read-lately.html).  I didn't find this one quite as good, but it held my interest nonetheless.  I finished it in less than three days.

It earns Two-and-One-Half Stars from The Grandstander and a recommendation to all fans of Agatha Christie to read it, if only to gain another perspective on the author who has sold more books than anyone in history, save William Shakespeare.

Old Movie Time - "Evil Under The Sun" (1982)

I have just spent a deolightful 1 hour and 57 minutes watching this 1982 movie version of Agatha Christie's whodunit of the same title.  It had everything you would want in an Agatha Christie story....a murder of someone in a confined setting....a limited number of suspects, each of whom had a motive to kill the victim and each of whom had an alibi.  Unfortunately, for the killer, Christie's most famous sleuth, Hercule Poirot also happened to be on the scene.

And as far as a movie goes, it had Peter Ustinov, once again playing Poirot brilliantly, a beautiful  setting, an exclusive resort hotel on an island in the Adriatic Sea, gorgeous costumes, music by Cole Porter, and an all-star cast including James Mason, Roddy McDowell, Sylvia Miles, Jane Birkin, and best of all...Maggie Smith and Diana Rigg.

The movie is worth seeing just to watch Smith and Rigg chew up the scenery as two old stage rivals. Rigg's character made it big time, and Smith's is now forced to running the hotel on the island.  Their meeting once again on the island gives them both some wonderfully bitchy dialog such as this between Smith as Daphne and Rigg as Arlena:

Daphne:  Arlena and I were in the chorus of a show together, not that I could ever compete. Even in those days, she could always throw her legs up in the air higher than any of us... and wider. 

and this:

Arlena : Oh, dear! I'm the last to arrive. 

Daphne: Have a sausage. You must be starving having to wait all that time in your room.

As you can see, Maggie Smith was great at delivering bitchy wisecracks long before "Downton Abbey."

There is also a great scene where Rigg hogs the attention of guests by singing Porter's "You're the Top" while Smith tries to horn in on her.  

Speaking of dialog, the screenplay for this one was written by Anthony Shaffer, who also wrote the screenplay for Hitchcock's "Frenzy", which I wrote about in this space a few days ago.  A look at his credits in IMDB includes other goodies like "Sleuth", "Death On The Nile", and "Murder on the Orient Express."  Quite a resume.

"Evil Under the Sun" will go on nobody's list of all-time great movies, but it was beautiful to look at, fun to watch, and very entertaining.  What more would you want in a movie?

Some photos of Miss Smith and Miss Rigg from the movie....

See what I mean about the costumes?

Quickie Critical Commentaries

On this, our 19th day of self-isolation (with the exception of doctor visits and trips to the grocery store), I offer for your consideration, three movies and a novel......

"Snowpiercer" (2013).  This movie was directed by  Korean filmmaker  Bong Joon Ho.  After he swept the Oscars this year with his movie "Parasite" (which I enjoyed, btw), and upon the high recommendation of my pal Alan, I sought this one out on Amazon Prime, and watched it last night.  

After a cataclysmic event causes the earth to freeze and all life to become extinct, only a handful of humans survive and do so while residing on some sort of super train that endlessly circles the now frozen earth.  While I can appreciate the filmmaking - depiction of the train and the apocalyptic remains of Planet Earth are pretty neat - this just isn't my kind of movie.  I watched it on our downstairs TV while Mrs. Grandstander remained upstairs.  When it was over and I came back upstairs, she said "From what I could hear that sounded awful."  Pretty much so, I had to agree.

There were some names in the cast - Octavia Spencer and Ed Harris to name two, and the star was Chris Evans, who has gone on to make a name for himself in all those Captain America / Avengers movies.  In this one, he seemed to be trying to do nothing more than make himself a look-alike for U2's The Edge.

Two Stars from The Grandstander.

The next two movies are oldies and came to me courtesy of Turner Classic Movies and my DVR.

Based on and Agatha Christie play and novelette, "Witness for the Prosecution" (1957) was directed by the great Billy Wilder and starred Charles Laughton, Marlene Dietrich, Tyrone Power, and Elsa Lanchester.  Laughton plays distinguished English barrister Sir Wilfred Roberts who is being urged to retire for health reasons. Lanchester is the nurse who is constantly nagging him to slow down, take a nap, get his shots, and stop smoking cigars and drinking brandy, all of which Laughton delightfully ignores.  He is drawn into one last case defending American ex-GI Power against a murder charge, and Dietrich plays his wife, who may or may not be devoted to him.  It's a terrific courtroom drama with a fabulous Christie twist.  Its as nominated for six Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director (Wilder), Best Actor (Laughton), and Best Sporting Actress (Lanchester).  It did not win any Oscars, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable and fun to watch.

Three and One-Half Stars from The Grandstander.

Based on a novel by John Godey, "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" (1974) was directed by Joseph Sargent and starred Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam, Hector Elizondo, and Jerry Stiller.  It is the story of a ruthless gang of four bandits, led by Shaw, who hijack a New York City subway train and hold it and seventeen passengers for $1 million ransom, and, oh yeah, if the money isn't delivered in one hour, they're going to start killing the hostages.   Matthau is great as the Transit Authority police lieutenant  who must negotiate with head hijacker Shaw.  Matthau plays the dramatic tough guy cop while still being, well, Walter Matthau, and he's great.  He even wears an Irish tweed hat similar to the one I bought for myself when we were in Ireland last year!  Also great in small parts of this movie were actors Lee Wallace, Doris Roberts, and Tony Roberts as the Mayor of New York, his wife, and the Deputy Mayor.

This is always a movie that is brought up when the subject of Remakes of Movies is discussed.  In 2009, someone in Hollywood thought that this movie should be redone, and it was, with Denzel Washington and John Travolta in the Matthau and Shaw roles.  Some remakes of movies are good ("Murder on the Orient Express" comes to mind), some put a different twist on a story that makes it delightful ("His Girl Friday" and "The Front Page), and others are flat out awful.  The 2009 version of Pelham One Two Three was one of them.  My own memory of the remake was the constant and incessant cursing that took place it.  It was terrible.

Stick with the 1974 Walter Matthau version.  It gets Four Stars from The Grandstander.

And for you readers out there....

Alison Thomas is the gorgeous, somewhat snotty, and affluent 18 year old daughter of a Westchester, NY family on a Christmas vacation on the Caribbean island of Saint X (a fictional place for the purposes of this recently released novel).  On the last night of the trip, Alison goes missing, and a few days later, her dead body is recovered.  Two Saint X natives who worked for the high end resort where the Thomases stayed are held and then released for lack of evidence.  

How does such an event affect the lives of those upon whom it touches?  That is the story of this novel. 

The story quickly flashes forward eighteen years, when Claire Thomas, the younger sister who was seven years old when Alison was killed, is now 25, lives and works in New York, and goes by her middle name, Emily, hops into a NYC cab and sees that her driver is Clive, one of the then young men who was arrested for and then released after the death of Alison.  Thus begins the crux of the story as Emily tracks down and develops a relationship of sorts with Clive in an effort to find out THE TRUTH behind her older sister's death.  She also needs to learn just exactly who her sister Alison was, and why her death has shaped who she, Emily, has become.

The story is then told through both Emily's and, to a lesser extent, Clive's point of view, and author Alexis Schaitkin also offers snippets of points of view from some of the people who are a part of this story....the Saint X police chief, a news reporter, other vacationers at the resort at the time of the death,  and a host of others.  It's as really clever device, I thought.  I also thought that the opening chapters, where Schaitkin describes the island and the people who inhabit it, both natives and vacationers, and what lies just below the shiny veneers of these tropical paradises, we're brilliant.  It was what hooked me from the get-go on this book.

The story also touches upon other topics - white privilege and  tabloid journalism, among others - but the most intriguing is the existential question of timing of little events in a person's life when a seemingly minor decision can effect the entire course not only of that person's life, but the lives of countless others with whom they come in contact.  It was those little moments that caused this book to stay with me after I finished it.

There were parts of the story that dragged on a bit too long for me, and might have been a bit superfluous, but I still liked the book and would recommend "Saint X"  to anyone.

Three Stars from The Grandstander.

A Couple of Christie Classics (No Spoilers)

I cut my teeth as a fan of mystery, detective, and thriller novels back when I was in high school and began reading the books and stories of Agatha Christie.  It began, as I have said many times, a lifetime hobby for me and it has given me endless amounts of leisure time reading pleasure over the past fifty or so years.

Recent events have prompted me to re-read a couple of Dame Agatha's classics, both of which featured her most famous creation - Detective Hercule Poirot.

First on my list....

"The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" takes place in the small English country village (surprise!) of King's Abbot, where an older Poirot has gone to spend his leisure retirement years growing and experimenting with vegetable marrows (are you kidding me?).  When one of the more prominent residents, Roger Ackroyd, gets bumped off, Poirot's neighbor, Dr. Sheppard, who also narrates the story, and the local coppers enlist Poirot's aid in determining who was the nasty bit of goods that done in the old bloke.  Before he's through and unmasks the killer, we are made aware of poisonings, blackmail, hidden romances, and the value of village gossip in assisting Poirot in his work.

This novel was published in 1926 and was quite controversial at the time.  Why?  Well, the denouement  of this story offers a kind of a twist that had never before been used or seen in detective fiction up until then.  Critics accused Christie of "not playing fair", a charge at which Christie scoffed, and because of this twist, "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" is considered one of Christie's most important and famous works.  Many critics consider it one of the top crime/detective novels of all time.  I can remember reading it for the first time when I was in college and actually figuring our who the villain of the story was before it was actually revealed to the reader, and as much as I read these stories, that doesn't often happen.

And the "twist" in the story that caused such an uproar?  Well, I said that the top "no spoilers" so you're going to have to read it yourself to find out.

I was prompted to re-read this one after watching the awful mini-series that Amazon Prime Video produced based upon it last month (you may recall that The Grandstander gave that series a Zero Star review!).   I am happy to say that this book, which I read while still in high school, and was one of the first Christie novels I ever read, remains a terrific read.   

In this story, published in 1936, Poirot receives a series of letters signed only "A B C" that tell of  forthcoming murders that will take place in a given locations.  The locations and the victims are presented in alphabetical order.  None of the victims appear to be related to the other, the locations are spread out along the countryside, no one has a clue as to who is doing these foul deeds or why.  Oh, and a book,  an "ABC Railroad Guide", has been left with the bodies of each victim.  It can only be the work of a mad man!!!  The story is narrated by Poirot's long time "Watson", the bumbling Capt. Hastings, and, of course, the Scotland Yard detectives investigating the series of murders merely tolerate Poirot's presence.  They think that old Hercule is long past his prime and may even now be slightly gaga (I love some of those early twentieth century British terms Christie uses), but guess who solves the whole thing in the end?

Like I said, stay away from that mini-series adaptation of "The A.B.C. Murders" now available on Amazon, but do make it a point to read this one.  It really is a classic.

Agatha Christie and her vast catalog of novels, plays and stories are sometimes criticized in this day and age as being too cozy and sterile, and not realistic.  However, when you read past the staid features of some of the characters, you realize that the crimes about which Christie writes are often quite brutal and violent.  And if much of the violence takes place "off camera", if you will, the perpetrators are no less evil than anyone you would find in a story by Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Mickey Spillane, or current writers like John Sandford or Michael Connelly.  I have also read critics who will tell you that if social historians want to get a true glimpse of what life was like in England and Great Britain at certain points in history (in the case of these two novels, the time between the World Wars), they can get a perfect picture of it by reading the novels of Agatha Christie.

Yes, sometimes the pace of the stories may seem too leisurely, and sometimes Poirot's use of his little gray cells seem to produce conclusions that he pulls out of thin air, I maintain that if you want to spend a couple of hours with a "crackling good yarn" (as one of her characters might put it) involving an intriguing mystery, an Agatha Christie novel is a good place to start.

And re-reading "Roger Ackroyd" and "A.B.C." will no doubt prompt me to reread this one very soon...

This was the every first Christie novel that I ever read back in 1968 or so, and it is one that I have re-read every four or five years.  "And Then There Were None" was published in 1939, and it may well be the most perfect mystery story ever written.

A Week in The Arts

In the past week, I have taken in two movies, a musical play, and a streaming series.  Some quickie thoughts on each....

Oscar winning director Peter Jackson was commissioned by Britain's Imperial War Museum to take over 100 hours of film footage from the first world war, and "make something of it".  Jackson painstakingly restored film that was faded, blackened, and otherwise damaged from sitting in their canisters for over 100 years, colorized it, and turned it onto an astonishing documentary that tells of the horrors of war and its aftermath.  At the conclusion of the film itself, Jackson provides an additional film (think of it as an "extra" that comes on a movie's DVD release) that explains exactly how he and his team did what they did in creating this movie.  If you go to see the movie, please stay to see this additional feature.

Four Stars from The Grandstander.

Watching last week's Super Bowl prompted me to seek out and find this 1977 thriller from director John Frankenheimer.  In this one, the Palestinian terrorist group Black September decides to launch a terrorist attack on America by loading down the Goodyear blimp with explosives and attacking Miami's Orange Bowl during the Super Bowl.  Marthe Keller plays the Black September terrorist who is spearheading the plan, Bruce Dern plays a whacko American veteran who feels like he has been shit upon by "the system" who will pilot the blimp, and Robert Shaw is the Israeli intelligence officer who has to ferret out the plan and stop it.

One of the attractions of this movie was that parts of it were filmed on location in the Orange Bowl while the actual  Super Bowl, number X, between the Steelers and Cowboys, was being played.  So you get to see real plays from the actual game.  It also serves as a time capsule of sorts for a time before the Super Bowl became, for all intents and purposes, a national holiday.  At one point, Israeli agent Shaw looks at his FBI counterpart and says "What is this super bowl?"  Can you imagine such a thing?

Anyway, I had not seen this movie since it was new in theaters forty-three years ago, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but it holds up surprisingly well as a thriller, a football time capsule, and, sadly, a preview of just what exactly terrorism was to become in our world.

Three and one-half Stars from The Grandstander.

"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" the musical adaption of the Roald Dahl children's book and the Willy Wonka movie, was the fifth show in this season's Broadway Pittsburgh Series.  Honestly, of the shows in the series, this was the one for which I had the lowest expectations, and through the first act, I wasn't thrilled.  However, the second act, when the characters actually went inside Willy's chocolate factory, was terrific, and it turned the show into a most pleasant evening at the theater.  The performance of the Oompa Loompas alone, during the show and at the curtain call, was almost worth the price of admission, as was the performance of eleven year old Rueby Wood in the role of Charlie.

Three Stars from The Grandstander.

I have always been a fan of Agatha Christie, and Amazon has shown some very good adaptations of Christie stories over the years, so I  was really looking forward to seeing this three part adaptation of "The A.B.C. Murders", a genuine Christie classic.

All I can say is that this proved to be three hours of my life that I will never get back.  The movie was so dark in tone and spirit as to be almost unwatchable.  John Malkovich, a very capable actor, played Hercule Poirot, and he would have been fine, i suppose, but whoever came up with this version - producers, writers, director? - gave him a version of the famous fictional detective that was nothing like you would expect.  They also gave Poirot a back story that was unconnected to anything that Agatha Christie devised to the point that the sound that you heard in the background was no doubt Dame Agatha spinning in her grave.

I have read that the Christie Estate is constantly commissioning these series and movies (the remake of "Murder on the Orient Express" of two years ago, for example) based upon her works in order to keep the name of Agatha Christie before the public, introduce younger generations to her works, and, not incidentally, keep her books moving off of bookshelves across the world.  I cannot imagine that the Estate was happy with this version of one of Christie's most famous works.

ZERO Stars from The Grandstander.

Movie Review: "Muder On The Orient Express" (no spoilers)

One of the big movies of the season opening today is a new version of Agatha Christie's classic mystery thriller, "Murder On The Orient Express".  This version was was directed by and stars Kenneth Branagh as detective Hercule Poirot.

Before getting into the subject of remakes, let me concentrate on this movie.  As indicated in the title, there will be no spoilers.

The story, and there may be some of you out there who are not familiar is this:  Poirot finds himself boarding, at the last minute, the Istanbul-to-Calais Orient Express for a three day train ride across Europe.  Because of the last minute nature of his boarding, he is squeezed in among an assortment of passengers all brought together, seemingly at random, for this particular train ride.  During the second night of the trip two things occur.  An avalanche takes place and stalls the train in the somewhere middle of the Balkans, and one of the passengers is brutally murdered.  A railroad official implores Poirot to investigate and solve this mystery before the tracks are cleared so that the police officials can be presented both a victim and a perpetrator.  The killer had to be someone on the Calais Coach, but who  among them could have wanted this guy, Mr. Ratchett, dead? 

Such is the tale of one of Christie's most renowned novels, and Branagh tells the story in a stylish and very entertaining manner.  I'm not going to say any more about the mystery and its solution.  See the movie yourself and enjoy it.

Like the Sidney Lumet version of the story from 1974, this one has the requisite all-star cast that includes in addition to Branagh, Michelle Pfeiffer, Johnny Depp, Daisy Ridley, Judi Dench, Penelope Cruz, Josh Gad, Leslie Odom, Jr., Willem Dafoe and others.  Going in, I wasn't sure that I was going to like Branagh as Poirot, but he was quite good as it turned out.  Also good in their roles were Depp (is he ever not good?) and Pfeiffer.  The movie is also beautifully filmed and  gorgeous to look at.  A very entertaining hour and fifty-four minutes, and it gets a solid Three Stars from The Grandstander.

Now, when I checked in on Facebook that I was seeing this movie today, I got a number of comments along the lines of "I saw the Albert Finney version in 1974, so I'm not going to bother with this one" or "Why bother remaking this one" or "Why should I see this one when I saw the other one. Isn't it the same story?"

The subject of remakes is one that I have written about before 

http://grandstander.blogspot.com/search?q=Magnificent+Seven

and there is no one-size-fits-all answer.  In the case of MOTOE, I had read that the Agatha Christie estate was in full support of the making of this movie because it might expose new generations of readers to Christie's works, generations of moviegoers and readers who would have no inclination to look up and watch a forty year old movie. Fair enough.

I grant you that a lot of remakes have been ill-advised and just plain bad (see what I had to say about that in the post linked above), but some of them can be quite good and can stand on their on merits alongside and even improve upon the originals.  As far as "Murder On The Orient Express" is concerned, I can say that I liked both this one and Lumet's 1974 version equally.  It's a good story, and the studios and the film makers did not skimp in making sure that they gave the public a quality production.  And isn't conversations of who was better, Albert Finney or Kenneth Branagh, Lauren Bacall or Michelle Pfeiffer, Richard Widmark or Johnny Depp, Ingrid Bergman or Penelope Cruz (for the record, I'll vote for Branagh, Depp and Bergman and call it a draw between Bacall and Pfeiffer) all part of the fun, kind of like arguing about Willie, Mickey, and The Duke?

Movie goers can decide how they want to spend their money, of course, but I hope that you not rule this version of "Murder On The Orient Express" out simply because you saw the same story done forty-three years ago.  That was a good movie, but so is this one. 

Oh, true Christie-philes will have noted that the door was left open just a crack at the end of this one for additional Branagh-as-Poirot films.  Not sure if that is what Branagh wants, but the opportunity is certainly there.

Again, Three Stars from The Grandstander.

A New "And Then There Were None" Movie

Several years ago, I we rote in this space about me rereading the classic Agatha Christie mystery novel, "And Then There Were None". In case you forgot, here it is:

http://grandstander.blogspot.com/2011/07/and-then-there-were-none-by-agatha.html

Well, the news is that this past week, I have just re-read this book AGAIN.  Why did I do this?  In part, I did so because it is just a terrific and fun book to read, but more to the point, I read it in anticipation of the upcoming presentation of yet another movie version of this classic story.

This production was done as a TV mini-series in Great Britain last December, and it will air on American television in two parts on March 13-14 on the Lifetime Network.  This version features a lot of British actors, the only one with whom I am familiar is Sam Neill.

There have been at least four feature film versions of this story, the best being director Rene Clair's 1945 version that starred Barry Fitzgerald and Walter Huston.  A mid-sixties version that starred Hugh O'Brien and Shirley Eaton was pretty good.  Two other versions produced after that were so critically savaged, that they are almost impossible to find and watch.  I've never seen them. 

So I am very anxious to watch this new production.  Without giving things away to those who have either read the book, watched a movie version, or both, knows that the ending of the movies (there is also a stage play version) differs from the end of the book.  I am hoping that this version does what the book does.

Plus, with the ending of "Downton Abbey" tonight, we need to see another highly polished (we hope) British television production.

Revisiting A Classic

Any list of all-time great mystery novels will probably include Agatha Christie's 1933 novel,"Murder on the Orient Express".  The novel was written when Agatha Christie was at her prime and it featured her famous fictional detective, Hercule Poirot.

Most people, I would suppose, are more familiar with this story as a result of the 1974 movie version of this story.  This movie was directed by Sidney Lumet, and it starred Albert Finney as Poirot, a role for which he was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar, and an all-star cast that included Ingrid Bergman, who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in this movie.

In the story, Poirot finds himself a passenger on a filled to capacity passenger coach on the Istanbul-to-Calais Orient Express on a three day trip across Europe.  On the first might out, two significant events take place.  The train hits a snowdrift and and is stranded somewhere in the middle of the Balkans, and one of the passengers is brutally murdered in his compartment, which is right next to Poirot's compartment.

The murdered man's compartment is locked from the inside, the victim's watch is broken so the time of death can be firmly established, a pipe cleaner is found on the floor of the compartment, as is a conductor's uniform button, but no one on the Calais Coach had any motive or reason to murder the dead man.  Or did they?  A railroad official also traveling on the train asks Poirot to take on the case and determine a solution before the tracks are cleared and the local police can reach the train.

The solution to the mystery is what has made this one of Christie's most famous books and why it occupies so many "Best Mysteries" lists. However, this may be one case where the movie that was made from this novel actually outshines the book.  I have read this book several times over the years, but it has probably been at least thirty-five or so years since I last read it, and what I read this time did not hold up to my memory of my enjoyment of the book the first time that I read (which I did well before the movie was produced).  How Poirot reached his conclusions involved some seemingly incomprehensible leaps of reasoning at times.  I also thought that the phrasing sometimes seemed arcane, and Poirot's frequent use of French phrases was a bit annoying.

If you have neither read this book nor seen the movie, I would highly recommend that you do both, but read the book first.  For someone who knows only the 1974 film version of this story, the book might prove to be a disappointment.

Book Review: "A Murder Is Announced" by Agatha Christie

Regular readers may know that I am big fan of mystery novels, and cut my teeth on the genre by reading Agatha Christie novels and short stories.  When the book "A Murder Is Announced" showed up on my Kindle Daily Deals email recently for $1.99, I figured what the heck, I know I have read this at some point in my life, but let's download it on the Kindle and take a trip down memory lane.

"A Murder Is Announced" was published in 1950, and was Agatha Christie's fiftieth published novel.  This was about the time when Dame Agatha was starting to lose a bit off of her fastball, but Christie critics and enthusiasts still consider this to be, if not on the top tier of the Christie Cannon, still a pretty good example of her brilliance.

This is a Miss Jane Marple novel, and I have to confess that the Miss Marple stories are not my first choice of stories when I want to read a Christie novel.  I much prefer the Hercule Poirot stories or some of her stand-alone novels.  For example, 1939's "And Then There Were None" may very well be the most perfect mystery story ever written.

All that said, "A Murder Is Announced" deals with a life in a small English village called Chipping Cleghorn (don't you love it?) in the post World War II era.  A classified ad in the local village newspaper announces that a murder is to take place in a certain home at a certain time, the villagers read the ad, show up at the cottage in question, and lo and behold, a murder does indeed occur.  It is a classic Christie set up.   And even more perfectly, it just so happens that Jane Marple is visiting the home of an old friend who currently resides in Chipping Cleghorn and was at the cottage in question at the time the murder occurred, although Miss Marple was not.

Miss Marple, of course, solves the mystery and uncovers the killer and the motive, although many of her suppositions were, in my opinion, a bit of a reach, but what the heck, it was a fun read.

More that the mystery itself, though, was the picture that Christie painted about life in a small English village in the years immediately after WW II.  A Christie reference book that I have makes reference to how Christe's novels can be read by social historians to get an accurate reading of what life was like in England during the time periods in which they take place.  In 1950, the British were dealing with such societal upheavals as food shortages, housing scarcities, the difficulties in hiring and retaining servants (so difficult to cut back to only a kitchen maid, and even then only for a few days a week, you know), the influx of "strangers" to villages, and the general mistrust of "foreigners".  This made "A Murder Is Announced" almost, if not more, interesting than the actual mystery itself.

So, long before Julian Fellows was producing "Downton Abbey" to let us know what life in England was like for the fading British landed aristocracy in the 1920's, Agatha Christie was doing the same thing for the eras in which Miss Christie set her stories.

It was also amusing to learn that apparently, in mid-twentieth century England, it was common usage to refer to spinsterish old women by a five letter word that is synonymous with a house cat that begins with the letter "P".   I'll not spell it out here since the word has also developed into a somewhat vulgar term in today's society.  Kind of funny to read the staid Scotland Yard Inspector in the story referring to the elderly lady characters, including Miss Marple herself, as "a bunch of old p------" (and that is a direct quote, and it is stated more than once in this book).  I suppose it touched the 14 year old school boy that still resides in me, and, be honest, in YOU, too!

Dame Agatha obviously did not have the foresight to see how that term would evolve over the course of the years.

Anyway, the bottom line is that you can always go back to the book shelf and pull out a vintage Agatha Christie book, and be assured of a good read, or as the Christie characters might put it, "a smashing good read".

On Cutch, The Big Break, Scorsese, and Christie

Random Comments.....

The Page 1 story in the Post-Gazette this morning about the possible enhancement of Andrew McCutchen's "brand" should he be named the National League's Most Valuable Player today had the following interesting fact about the endorsement income of a couple of contemporary athletes.  The NBA's LeBron James earns between $40 and $50 million a year in endorsements.  Peyton Manning is the NFL's biggest endorsement earner with $15+ million per year.  Baseball's highest such earner is the Yankees' Derek Jeter who pulls in about $9 million a year.  I would not have guessed that baseball's highest such earner would be pulling in so much less than his hoops and gridiron colleagues.  The story didn't mention who the NHL's biggest earner is.

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Are you watching the current edition of Golf Channel's "The Big Break"?  This season is called the "Big Break - NFL" and it features six three person teams consisting of a male and female golfer and captained by a retired NFL star (Jerry Rice, Al Del Greco, Chris Doleman, Mark Bulger, Tim Brown, and Mark Rypian).  One team each week earns a loss, and when you accumulate two losses, the entire three person team is eliminated.  Anyway, it took until the seventh week of the season before one team finally got two losses and were sent packing.  I won't spoil anything by saying which NFL star was the first to go.  I will say that the biggest jagoff  among the NFL'ers is turning out to be Chris Doleman.  Sorry about that, Pitt Panther fans, but there you are.  Interestingly enough, Doleman's team remains undefeated.

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Took a look at the holiday movies that were featured in the Post-Gazette this morning.  Nothing jumping out at me as something I ABSOLUTELY HAVE to see.  One interesting one is Martin Scorsese's "The Wolf of Wall Street" starring Leonardo DiCaprio.  Saw a trailer for it awhile back, and it looks interesting.  

I do not plan on seeing anything about hobbits, bows and arrows, or super heroes.

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I read an oldie this week - "Hercule Poirot's Christmas" by Agatha Christie, written in 1938. This one was vintage Christie: a miserly, wealthy old curmudgeon summons his four sons, three daughters-in-law, and a granddaughter to his English country manor house for Christmas. Throw in another unexpected visitor, and a couple of suspicious servants.  On Christmas Eve, the old man is murdered quite violently and his body is found in a room that is, you guessed it, locked from the inside.  And it just so happens that Hercule Poirot is spending the Holiday with his old friend, the local police superintendent.

Most Christie scholars will tell you that she produced her greatest works in the 1930's, when she produced 17 novels and numerous short stories.  They will also tell you that THIS particular novel does not fall within the scope of those great works, and I would happen to agree with them.  Although, it is still a lot if fun to read.  And almost "Downton Abbey"-like in it's depiction of life in the Manor House.