Mystery

Murder, She Wrote – Tough Guys Don’t Die

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Murder, She Wrote – Tough Guys Don’t Die
  • wiki: link

Murder Mystery Monday takes us back to the most famous mystery writer of Cabot Cove. “Tough Guys Don’t Die” introduced hardboiled private detective Harry McGraw (Jerry Orbach) as the partner of the PI Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) hired to look into an unsolved case. Although the pair don’t initially hit it off (with Harry unnecessarily breaking into her house and, like so many others, offering Jessica advice to stay out of a real criminal investigations), eventually McGraw accepts Jessica’s help and would become a recurring character on the show and even earn his own (short-lived) spin-off.

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Evil Under the Sun

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Evil Under the Sun
  • IMDb: link

The second Agatha Christie adaptation to star Peter Ustinov as master detective Hercule Poirot works better than the first, even if the awkward opening (necessary to wrap-up the case nearly two-hours later) feels completely out of place until the end of the film. While looking into an insurance matter, Poirot travels to an isolated hotel on an island in the Adriatic Sea where the focus of his inquiry, an egotistical gold digging actress (Diana Rigg) who makes more enemies than movies, turns up dead on a secluded beach.

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Death on the Nile

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Death on the Nile (1978)
  • IMDb: link

I have many of the same issues with the 1978 adaptation of Agatha Christie‘s Death on the Nile as I did with Kenneth Branagh‘s version nearly half a century later. The first film to feature Peter Ustinov as renown detective Hercule Poirot is a dreadful bore that takes more than an hour to get going attempting to rely on beautiful shots of Egypt and overheard snippets conversations to build tepid tension as it treads water until the murder aboard the paddle steamer finally takes place.

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Will Trent – Studio 4B

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Will Trent – Studio 4B
  • IMDb: link

Everything appears back to normal in “Studio 4B” with no apparent aftereffects following Will’s (Ramón Rodríguez) kidnapping. The murder of he week involves a model killed in an empty apartment by her photographer, but the most interesting aspect of the case involves the return of Julia Chan as Ava Green who gets hot-and-heavy with Will before leaving on a trip to London. However, the show does leave the door open to explore a possible relationship later in the season, and she also helps Will on the case both in eliminating their creepiest suspect and developing the film of the killer.

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Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials
  • IMDb: link

Breaking up the Agatha Christie novel into a three-episode series, Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials casts Mia McKenna-Bruce as Lady Eileen Brent, Bundle to her friends, who takes it upon herself to solve a murder others are all too willing to sweep under the rug. Over the course of her investigation, Bundle will uncover a plot to steal a formula to strengthen metal and the existence of a secret society both of which appear linked to the sudden death of Bundle’s friend.

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