[gregjh]

It appears I owe the late Ms Christie an apology. After a little reminiscing with my sister prompted by this thread, it transpires the show that scarred my childhood (jk) was Maelstrom, a 1985 TV series in English but set in Norway. It has an Agatha type vibe but, to my knowledge, is not one of her works.

https://youtu.be/0nnuaWY3Pfw

The only other memory of Agatha Christie I have is one of the TV adaptions of her books where guests at a country house kept asking why it was so warm or cold (I forget which). Even as a child I remember thinking it was a very obvious set up to whatever was about to happen.

[The Australian Panther]

Well, this must be some kind of Record. 2 references to Paul Darrow in the same thread.
This was a mini-series. and what we have here is one episode. Despite being,

the show that scarred my childhood 

It looks interesting.

David Maloney who directed this also directed
Doctor Who: Planet of the Daleks and the wonderful Dr Who Arc,
The Talons of Weng-Chiang.

And yes, Prof, this thread has gone in several different directions from the first post. It happens some times.

Cheers!


Cheers!

[SuperScrounge]

What about Brett Spiner's turn as Sherlock Holmes?

Okay, he was playing Data pretending to be Holmes, but I found it amusing watching him spoil A Scandal In Bohemia in his opening scene in the NextGen episode Elementary Dear Data. 

I've read a few Christie books and generally enjoyed them. Admittedly if you want a more rough and tumble style of detective story I can see why you'd find Christie's "Cozy*" style of detective novel boring.

*I believe the term refers to a tea cozy.

And tying this back into comics we have Ariadne Arachne author of the Achilles Pylate stories, an homage author whom I believe was first mentioned in the Robin story of Batman Family #5.

[profh0011]

And yes, Prof, this thread has gone in several different directions from the first post. It happens some times.   Cheers! 

I'm not complaining, just joking.  (I'm not Stephen Bissette-- heeheehee.)

My mind often does random "word association", especially online.   

[The Australian Panther]

I'm not complaining, just joking 

Oh, I got that, the stage laugher gave it away!

we have Ariadne Arachne author of the Achilles Pylate stories, an homage author 

   

If we get into Holmes Homages we really will need a new thread!

Cheers!

[Andrew999]

Just thought I'd chip in here to say, thanks gregjh - this looks pretty good and I intend to watch it. Apparently, it was a Norwegian-made production - but made in English, perhaps with an eye on bigger markets.

[Andrew999]

Paul Darrow - the man who shaped my life (I'm talking about Blake's Seven of course - long overdue for a revival). Kerr Avon makes Mr Spock look like an over-emotional whimpering fool.

"I've never understood why it's necessary to become irrational to prove that you care"

Dayna: Do we fight?
Avon: Certainly not. We run

I saw Paul live in theatre once - even there, he had great presence - the audience was in his grip within a moment of his entry

[Andrew999]

I remember that episode - it was pretty good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LgwAD-IioY

[Andrew999]

Ah - The Talons of Weng-Chiang - quite possibly the best of all the Dr Who serials with it's intricate mix of Holmes, Fu Manchu and the mysterious magician Chung Ling Soo - not to mention Leela, the Jungle Girl.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Talons_of_Weng-Chiang

Such bliss whenever I watch it.

[Captain Audio]

Ah - The Talons of Weng-Chiang - quite possibly the best of all the Dr Who serials with it's intricate mix of Holmes, Fu Manchu and the mysterious magician Chung Ling Soo - not to mention Leela, the Jungle Girl.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Talons_of_Weng-Chiang

Such bliss whenever I watch it.

My favorite as well with the Horror of Fang Rock not far behind it.

[profh0011]

There are actually people who find that story "offensive".  (I think they need to get a life.)

I wish they'd continued with the "Eliza Doolittle" thing of dressing Leela up in local costumes and "educating" her.  Over the years, Leela has steadily CONTINUED to grow in my heart.  It's not her looks or costumes that do it for me!  Leela may not be educatied, but she is often more intelligent than those around her who are, and it greatly amuses me that for a "savage" she speaks better English than most characters. And while she's tough and very capable, she also has a very warm, caring heart.

I think it's John Bennett as Lee Hsen Chang who really steals the story, though.  I'd seen him in other things (notably as the police inspector in "THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD"), but it was his Chang that really caught my attention.  I especially love the scene where he first meets the Doctor...

"Excuse me, haven't I seen you before?"
"I understands-- we ALL-- look alike."

Then The Doctor remembers the poster...

"GOT it!  Lee Hsen Chang, magician extraordinaire!  Do us a trick!"

The Tong member DROPS dead, as if on command.

"Oh, that's very good.  How did you do it?"
"I did-- NOTHING!"

He lies.  He gave the guy the instant death poison pill to swallow.

[Andrew999]

So who is the best Miss Marple?

There are the Brit TV Pack: Joan Hickson, Geraldine McEwan and Julia MacKenzie
Then there were the movie/Tv movie trio of : Margaret Rutherford, Helen Hayes and Angela Lansbury

From the east, there's  Kim Yunjin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Xn2x0scS9A

and the voice of Kaoru Yachigusa in Japan:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRpfJ2hc0Ro

Germany's Inga Langen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_Uh1H6rqOE

I'm sure I must have missed some....

[paw broon]

June Whitfield as Miss Marple in the radio adaptations does a great job.

[profh0011]

I think Angela Landsbury / Peter Ustinov is comparable to Joan Hickson / David Suchet.

One pair are without question the most "authentic".  The other pair are just plain FUN to watch!

It's hard to describe just how much I love the David Suchet POIROT series.  I still need to see the later ones.  I've heard some questionable things about them, but I'd like to make up my own mind.

The Joan Hicksons took me DECADES to really appreciate, mainly because they were so damned DIFFICULT to follow and understand.  It took until a year or so back before I FINALLY got to really like them, because I finally understood what the heck was going on in each story.  To do that, I had to watch each story TWICE back-to-back, before moving on to the next one.

I also need to get ahold of a few of the later ones.


But meanwhile... 3 (of the 4) films produced by John Brabourne & Richard Goodwin remain my top all-time favorites...

DEATH ON THE NILE  (1978)
THE MIRROR CRACK'D  (1980)
EVIL UNDER THE SUN  (1982)

Those are my top 2 Poirots and my #1 Miss Marple film!  Guy Hamilton directed the 2nd & 3rd of those, and those films TOTALLY blow 75% of his JAMES BOND films out of the water. (He did 4 of those-- 1 great one, and 3 that were TOTAL CRAP.  Not his fault of course...)



The shame is that Ustinov's other 4 Poirot films don't measure up to his first 2 in any way.  3, 4, & 5 were all done for CBS-TV, updated to the modern day, and, well, the casting choices pretty much gave away who the killers were before the murders even took place.  (And Jean Stapleton was ANNOYING AS HELL in the one she was in.)  His 6th-- another theatrical film, directed by Michael Winner-- is terribly flawed in ways it's difficult to even describe.  Apparently, the fact it was produced by Cannon Films was THE major problem.....  I remember being thrilled to go see it in a theatre when it came out, and after, wondering... "WHY isn't this so much better than it is?"

[SuperScrounge]

I like Suchet's Poirot, although translation from text story to weekly TV series has problems.

If the story is too short for the allotted time, you have to pad.

If the story is just longer, but not enough to make a two-parter, you have to cut.

Also the show casts actors who will appear in all or most of the episodes for a series/season, so I think there was a secretary who appeared in TV versions of stories she wasn't in originally. 

[profh0011]

I read 25 of Leslie Charteris' "SAINT" books-- half novels, half short story collections.  MANY of the short stories I read were adapted into films, especially the Roger Moore TV series.

When I saw those-- mostly, the B&W seasons--  I was reminded of how the hour-long SHERLOCK HOLMES tv series also tends to pad stories out.  There might be just enough for 30 minutes, but they need 50.

Still, that's way better than when some IDIOT at RKO tried to adapt the novel "ANGELS OF DOOM" (my #1 favorite novel) into a 60-MINUTE movie, when, by rights, it should have been 3 hours, or at least 2.

Looking back, I wish they'd continued on with THE SAINT in the early 70s, adapting the NOVELS, just as the later POIROTs did.  There are so many incredibly-good stories that have NEVER been filmed, it's a shame. 

"SAINT AT THE THIEVES' PICNIC" was my 2nd-favorite.  It has Simon and his half-wit American ex-thug sidekick Hoppy Uniatz involved in one long con game with some crooks, where Simon repeatedly tells 90% of the truth to cover ther 10% of when he's lying.  And then the whole game is given away by the stupidest accident... someone sees an American movie magazine with Simon's photo on the cover.  He just smiles and shrugs when they find him out.  "Oh well!"

[Andrew999]

Has anyone seen the 2017 Saint TV movie with Adam Rayner?

I haven't seen it but would be interested to know what you think.

[profh0011]

The other year I FINALLY saw the 9th SAINT movie... "THE SAINT'S GIRL FRIDAY" (alias "THE SAINT RETURNS"), in which an older and sadder Louis Hayward returns.  I was shocked.  It's DIRE.  it's SO dark, serious, sombre, and I don't think Simon smiles once. 

I mean, from the first time I ever saw "THE SAINT IN NEW YORK", Louis Hayward instantly became my FAVORITE Simon Templar.  When I read the books, he was the ONLY actor I could picture in my head!  He's the only one (barring the odd early Moore episode) where anyone plays Templar as he was in the books... and Simon's CRAZY.  It's a good way.

I've heard stories (and I'm sure this happened to more people than most would like to think about) that when he came back from WW2, it had a very detrimental effect on him.  I recently re-watched "AND THEN THERE WERE NONE", and for the first time, I finally noticed, he looks like he aged a LOT more than the time that passed between those 2 movies.  I bet it probably even had something to do with his DIVORCE.  It's sad to think about.

Anyway... when I saw that, I thought, I'd finally tracked down EVERY version of THE SAINT seen on film.  But, come to think of it, there may be at least 2 (more recent ones) I haven't seen yet.


You know... when I look back on the 1997 movie with Val Kilmer, I still like it.  It's just... "WRONG".  Like "CONAN", "THE SAINT" did not need a freakin' "origin" story.  And the hints we got over the decades are completely at odds with every single thing in that film.  That film... like "KISS ME DEADLY"... would have been a LOT better, if they'd just changed the names of the main characters.  (It's a good movie, but no matrter how I look at it, Ralph Meeker was NOT playing "Mike Hammer"... even if that's what they called him in the film.  NO-- F***ING-- WAY. That film is an INSULT to Hammer, and to Spillane.  And their fans.)

[Andrew999]

Here's something that looks like it might be fun - Little Agatha Christie:

https://publikart.net/little-agatha-christie-une-bd-humoristique-et-pedagogique-pour-petits-et-grands-a-paraitre-le-9-juin-2020-aux-editions-la-boite-a-bulles/

Who was the real villain in Snow White?
Was Goldilocks all a plot by Little Bear to get more porridge?
Who was the real Miss Marple - and where does Mr Kipling fit into all this?

I can see this is a new series that might run-and-run. I'm already looking forward to Little Hercule Poirot

[Captain Audio]

Here's something that looks like it might be fun - Little Agatha Christie:

https://publikart.net/little-agatha-christie-une-bd-humoristique-et-pedagogique-pour-petits-et-grands-a-paraitre-le-9-juin-2020-aux-editions-la-boite-a-bulles/

Who was the real villain in Snow White?
Was Goldilocks all a plot by Little Bear to get more porridge?
Who was the real Miss Marple - and where does Mr Kipling fit into all this?

I can see this is a new series that might run-and-run. I'm already looking forward to Little Hercule Poirot

The moral of Goldilocks is simply that "Bears don't share".
Bears don't recognize the concept of Manifest Destiny.