Mystery

1974 – Murder on the Orient Express

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
  • IMDb: link

Murder Mystery Monday takes us back to the 1930s and another case for the famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express is one of the rare instances where I prefer the Kenneth Branagh version than the classic telling we received in 1974. Director Sidney Lumet assembles a well-known cast who all board a train for murder. However, from the very beginning of the film I have issues with how Lumet chose to frame the story revealing the importance of the Armstrong tragedy in several scenes and newspaper front pages that go on ad nauseam.

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The Sheep Detectives

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Sheep Detectives
  • IMDb: link

When a lovable shepherd (Hugh Jackman) dies who will solve his murder? Why, his sheep of course! Based on Leonie Swann’s novel, a flock of sheep (who have been raised on murder mysteries) set out to solve the death of their beloved owner. As Lily (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), the smartest of our GCI woolly investigators, knows, there are rules to every investigation which, believe it or not, with the unlikely help of a buffoonish local police officer (Nicholas Braun), are destined to lead to the truth.

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Poirot – Appointment with Death

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Poirot – Appointment with Death
  • IMDb: link

Murder Mystery Monday takes us back to early 20th Century London and another case for the famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. “Appointment with Death” is a curious adaptation of the Agathe Christie novel of the same name involving the murder of a sadistic matriarch with an iron grip over her family. The adaption for Poirot makes a number of curious changes to the story including keeping the matriarch’s husband alive (his death, and the will left behind is the catalyst of all that comes afterwards) and changes the woman from being the family’s stepmother into one of two adoptive parents for all the various grown children.

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Poirot – Death on the Nile

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Poirot – Death on the Nile
  • IMDb: link

Murder Mystery Monday takes us back to early 20th Century London and another case for the famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. Despite a tighter budget than either of the feature film adaptations, Poirot‘s adaptation of Death on the Nile is the best of the bunch. Introducing, then quickly dispensing with, the the superfluous early bits of the story, the double-sized episode gets us to Egypt in less than 6 minutes, gets us on the boat in less than 20, and gets us to the fateful night where murder and shenanigans start occurring prior to the halfway-point of the episode allowing the majority of time to be set aside for Poirot (David Suchet) to solve a case where the two most obvious suspects have iron-clad alibis for the crime.

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Northwestward

/ / Books & Magazines
  • Title: Northwestward
  • wiki: link

Throwback Thursday takes us back to the Milano restaurant located in Midtown Manhattan where a group of six friends, a waiter, and one guest, would gather once a month for an exclusive dinner and a mystery to be solved. Originally published in the anthology The Further Adventures of Batman as one of 14 short stories from various authors to commemorate the hero’s 50th Anniversary, “Northwestward” provides a tale where the Widowers helped the world’s greatest detective solve a mystery.

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