Favorite Whodunit/Mystery Films
Mar 26, 2017 3:28:20 GMT
Doghouse6, spiderwort, and 1 more like this
Post by Salzmank on Mar 26, 2017 3:28:20 GMT
teleadm
No, no, you weren't being an angry jerk. (Really, it was just one line!) But some good choices: Les Diaboliques is of course a classic, though not as Hitchcockian as it's sometimes made out to be (not a criticism, just an observation), and the Bulldog Drummond movies are joys (at least the first two, with Ronald Colman; I'm not as fond of the later ones-- which are, I believe the ones with Barrymore?). They didn't make my list because they don't fit my (admittedly subjective) criteria, but they're great movies all the same. Of course, The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep are also classics. I hope you get to see Murder, My Sweet one day--really one of the best PI movies, with Dick Powell truly capturing many disparate aspects of Marlowe's character. (I prefer Bogie, maybe because I saw the movie first, but I know many fans, who read the books first, who prefer Powell.) I'm not all that fond, unfortunately, of Murder, She Said, but I've always liked Margaret Rutherford's hearty, amusingly un-Marplelike performances in those movies (I prefer Murder on the Gallop and Murder Most Foul, both of which were ironically based on Poirot, not Marple, novels!).
movielover
I've never seen the '74 Ten Little Indians (just the '45 and '65 versions), but thanks for putting it on there. I must say that I find Murder on the Orient Express overrated: well-done, elaborate, and grand, perhaps, with great performances making up for the lack of characterizations, but ultimately cold and really quite dull. I much prefer the less baroque but more fun Death on the Nile, though I do find Finney's Poirot superior to Ustinov's, which is really more of a caricature than a character.
shield
I haven't seen Ne le dis à personne, but, especially since French is the only language (besides English, of course!) in which I'm fluent, je serai sûr de chercher le film!
manfromplanetx
I've never seen either of these, unfortunately, but Lake of the Dead looks particularly interesting (rather like early '60s B&W psychological thriller Hammer movies, in fact, from the brief clip I saw of it). I will try one of these days to hunt down La mort de Belle as well.
Doghouse6
Elementary? I say, Doghouse, what an amazing deduction! Comedy and detection do seem to go together--perhaps because of the very fact that, without comedy, the litany of murders would become too much to bear, similar with horror? One could probably write a whole paper on this theme. Be that as it may, great choices, though I haven't seen all that many of them--that cast alone of 5 Card Stud makes me want to take a look at it! There are a few Chans I prefer to The Black Camel, though I recognize the picture's virtues. And Mr. and Mrs. North--is that the one where the husband-and-wife sleuths go to the hotel and the murderer is
Thanks, guys!
No, no, you weren't being an angry jerk. (Really, it was just one line!) But some good choices: Les Diaboliques is of course a classic, though not as Hitchcockian as it's sometimes made out to be (not a criticism, just an observation), and the Bulldog Drummond movies are joys (at least the first two, with Ronald Colman; I'm not as fond of the later ones-- which are, I believe the ones with Barrymore?). They didn't make my list because they don't fit my (admittedly subjective) criteria, but they're great movies all the same. Of course, The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep are also classics. I hope you get to see Murder, My Sweet one day--really one of the best PI movies, with Dick Powell truly capturing many disparate aspects of Marlowe's character. (I prefer Bogie, maybe because I saw the movie first, but I know many fans, who read the books first, who prefer Powell.) I'm not all that fond, unfortunately, of Murder, She Said, but I've always liked Margaret Rutherford's hearty, amusingly un-Marplelike performances in those movies (I prefer Murder on the Gallop and Murder Most Foul, both of which were ironically based on Poirot, not Marple, novels!).
movielover
I've never seen the '74 Ten Little Indians (just the '45 and '65 versions), but thanks for putting it on there. I must say that I find Murder on the Orient Express overrated: well-done, elaborate, and grand, perhaps, with great performances making up for the lack of characterizations, but ultimately cold and really quite dull. I much prefer the less baroque but more fun Death on the Nile, though I do find Finney's Poirot superior to Ustinov's, which is really more of a caricature than a character.
shield
I haven't seen Ne le dis à personne, but, especially since French is the only language (besides English, of course!) in which I'm fluent, je serai sûr de chercher le film!
manfromplanetx
I've never seen either of these, unfortunately, but Lake of the Dead looks particularly interesting (rather like early '60s B&W psychological thriller Hammer movies, in fact, from the brief clip I saw of it). I will try one of these days to hunt down La mort de Belle as well.
Doghouse6
Elementary? I say, Doghouse, what an amazing deduction! Comedy and detection do seem to go together--perhaps because of the very fact that, without comedy, the litany of murders would become too much to bear, similar with horror? One could probably write a whole paper on this theme. Be that as it may, great choices, though I haven't seen all that many of them--that cast alone of 5 Card Stud makes me want to take a look at it! There are a few Chans I prefer to The Black Camel, though I recognize the picture's virtues. And Mr. and Mrs. North--is that the one where the husband-and-wife sleuths go to the hotel and the murderer is
the manager
? No, that can't be it; I don't think Gracie Allen was in that one. Lord, what can that be? I remember seeing it years ago and enjoying it then. The husband was tied up by the bad guy in a chest, or something, and thrown into the lake? Anyone know that one?Thanks, guys!