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The Sinister Monk (1965)
Filmmaker(s): Harald Reinl
Crime
Mystery
Thriller
Horror

A hooded serial killer finds a novel way to murder his victims--he lashes them to death with a whip. The police try to track him down before any more murders occur.

13 May

Posted at 22:11h in IMDB Comments, Ones by
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4 Conspiracies the heyday of mystery writing, we had Sayers, Christie, Chesterton and a dozen others who were artists of narrative curves. The game was to create a world, but us in it and only later let us know how wrong we were. And then we...


Published May 13, 2022
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Jim Hanvey Detective (1937)
Sly but not slick - Jim Hanvey tops them all! Guy Kibbee ....his most loveable role!
Filmmaker(s): Phil Rosen
Mystery
Action
Crime
Romance

Jim Hanvey is a genial but top-notch detective who has retired to his country home. An insurance company hires him to find a missing emerald so they won't have to pay out the $100,000 for which the jewel is insured. It doesn't take him long to find the emerald, but he discovers that finding it was the easy part; the difficult part is getting it back to its rightful owner, and he winds up involved in a murder in which an innocent man is framed.

13 May

Posted at 22:05h in New Comments, Ones by
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Straw Dogs can do better than watching most current movies by noodling around with old detective movies from the 30’s. They are generally not very good, but collectively they defined the base for our most common idiom. This one, thankfully, has no racist comedy player....


Published May 13, 2022
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Double Door (1934)
The Female of the Species is More Deadly Than the Male!
Filmmaker(s): Charles Vidor
Drama
Horror
Mystery

A domineering money-bags' suppressed incestuous urges go into overdrive when her half-brother brings a new bride home to the family’s gloomy Fifth Avenue mansion. The title refers to a secret soundproofed chamber that the villainess uses to entrap her enemies.

13 May

Posted at 22:04h in IMDB Comments, Ones by
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Panic Room the last depression, moviegoers were obsessed with the wealthy. As with the aristocrats in Europe, these folks neither created nor managed wealth. They just had it and wanted more. Here we have a domineering woman who believes she deserves it all, taking from...


Published May 13, 2022
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Black Magic (1944)
Chan stalks a fiendish murderer!
Filmmaker(s): Phil Rosen
Comedy
Crime
Mystery
Thriller

Chinese detective Charlie Chan solves a murder linked to the occult. This movie had an alternative title: Meeting at Midnight.

17 Jan

Posted at 21:29h in IMDB Comments, Ones by
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Spooked original intent of the Chan series, I suppose, was to introduce the “oriental” mind to the mystery genre. As with the equally strange notion of Belgian logic with Poirot, we would be charmed by novel synaptic paths. By the time of this film, indeed...


Published January 17, 2024
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Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase (2019)
Mystery...has met its match
Filmmaker(s): Katt Shea
Crime
Family
Mystery

Nancy Drew, a smart high schooler with a penchant for keen observation and deduction, stumbles upon the haunting of a local home. A bit of an outsider struggling to fit into her new surroundings, Nancy and her pals set out to solve the mystery, make new friends, and establish their place in the community

18 Jan

Posted at 16:24h in IMDB Comments, Twos by
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Embraced Balusters watched this version and the one with the same title from the thirties back to back. Originally it was in the service of my history of mysteries, but neither qualify. Only this one is worthy of comment, because of the apparent excellence of...


Published January 18, 2024
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Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? (1980)
Filmmaker(s): John Davies, Tony Wharmby
Thriller
TV Movie
Mystery

This intriguing story is set in the 1930s at a country house, where two amateur sleuths, Bobby Jones and Lady Frankie Derwent, try to unravel the mystery behind a tale of murder, suspense and false identities. And the only clues the two have to go on are the puzzling last words of a dying man. Featuring characters created by Agatha Christie, Why Didn't They Ask Evans is a classic crime thriller sure to please murder-mystery fans.

19 Jan

Posted at 15:02h in IMDB Comments, Ones by
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The Boomerang Clue make a habit out of examining film adaptations of classic mystery novels for clues. I’m looking for clues about why the narrative works. There is a reason Christie is the best selling writer in history, even now as print runs are huge. I...


Published January 19, 2024
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Invisible (2007)
Life, death and something in between.
Filmmaker(s): David S. Goyer
Fantasy
Thriller
Mystery

After an attack leaves him in limbo -- invisible to the living and also near death -- a teenager discovers the only person who might be able help him is his attacker.

19 Jan

Posted at 15:05h in IMDB Comments, Twos by
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Disembodied Eye of these teen movies have to distinguish themselves by leveraging narrative tricks. That’s because the market restricts the story so much that it is impossible to stand out. The narrative device that interests me is when the viewer is deliberately placed in the...


Published January 19, 2024
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Blindness (2008)
Your vision of the world will change forever.
Filmmaker(s): Fernando Meirelles
Drama
Mystery
Science Fiction
Thriller

When a sudden plague of blindness devastates a city, a small group of the afflicted band together to triumphantly overcome the horrific conditions of their imposed quarantine.

20 Jan

Posted at 18:44h in IMDB Comments, Threes by
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Tosca I wonder. At times, it seems that we all have some shared cinematic values — that some art can reach us all. Sure, we usually sacrifice depth in the process, but that's a small enough occasional price for the joy of laughing with a...


Published January 20, 2024
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The Case of the Bloody Iris (1972)
The killer slices without mercy!
Filmmaker(s): Giuliano Carnimeo
Thriller
Mystery
Horror

A high-rise apartment populated by models, nightclub dancers and call girls becomes the focus of a mysterious serial killer. When a young model named Jennifer and her friend Marilyn move into one of the victims' former apartments, Jennifer becomes the next target and the pair try to identify the killer.

23 Jan

Posted at 19:59h in IMDB Comments, Threes by
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The Stamps I’m blue, the movies I look for aren’t comedies. Film comedies work too hard, follow too many script formulas and when I am blue it is because I have worked to hard following similar internal scripts. What I need and what you might like...


Published January 23, 2024
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Miss Marple: The Body in the Library (1984)
Filmmaker(s): Giorgi Ovashvili
Crime
Drama
Mystery

Amateur detective Miss Jane Marple investigates the murder of a young woman whose body is found in the library at Gossington Hall, home of Colonel and Mrs. Arthur Bantry.

01 Feb

Posted at 20:35h in IMDB Comments, Threes by
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The Switch mysteries are one of the most lavishly adventuresome experiences in literature, if one is interested in how narratives are constructed. The contract between reader and writer is rather complex, often involving virtual contracts with some of the characters as well. Christie is a...


Published February 1, 2024
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