Sleeping Murder

Another Marple Mystery, this one with my favorite Marple actress, Geraldine McEwan every thing from her heart shaped magnifying glass to her knitting habits make her look like the sweetest old lady in existence. You just want to give her a hug. But beneath that cute exterior lies a superior mind with excellent investigative skills and the ability to answer one of life's important questions -- Who done it? The only question that can't be answered here, is why the hell don't i own these?

Newly engaged Gwenda Halliday travels to Britain for the first time in her life to find a home and get settled before her fiancee Charles joins her for their wedding. Charles sends Hugh Hornbeam, a man who works for him to Shepperd her around England and handle anything she needs. They travel to a small town called Dillmouth where Gwenda sees, falls in love with and buys a lovely house with a view of the sea and then sees the memory of a corpse at the body of her stairs. She comes to realize this memory is of the murder of her father's fiancee Helen, before she "disappeared" and he died and she was shipped back off to India. Gwenda, along with Hornbeam and his acquaintance Miss Jane Marple set off to find out who killed Helen.

This is one of my favorite Marple movies. Hugh Hornbeam is adorable, Gwenda is enchanting and Miss Marple ingeniously solves the murder once again. I'll recommend any Marple but especially this one, watch it.

Murder is Easy

With the end of the week i settled down for a nice Marple Marathon, some of which i shall review for you today. In Murder is Easy Miss Marple meets a lady who tells her she suspects several people in her town have been murdered and she's on her way to Scotland Yard to report it. Unfortunately before she can reach the police she falls to her death. This sets Miss Marple's spidey sense a tingling and she travels to the small town of Witchwood to investigate.

I think more people die, in various ingenious ways, in this Marple than in any other. An old woman eats mushrooms, the vicar breathes in poison, a woman falls down the stairs, the doctor gets an infection and so on. In addition to this there are several cute boys and a great story that makes this movie worth watching - and yes re-watching.

Julia McKenzie is not my favorite Marple, not that i dislike her, but Geraldine McEwan is a hard act to follow. That being said i think Ms. McKenzie did quite well meandering about town, asking questions and spending time with the previously mentioned good looking young men.

If you enjoy a good murder or two a Marple is a great solution for your mood.

It Happened One Night

I considered doing my Parent Trap comparison but the thirties were calling me so we'll start with It Happened One Night. Basics: Ellen Andrews (Claudette Colbert) a rich heiress is running away from her father to try and get back to her new husband Westley King, who her father doesn't approve of. Along the way she meets Peter Warne (Clark Gable) a newspaper writer just out of a job and he agrees to help her get there in return for the story.

Memorable characters, starting with characters Shapely an obnoxious fellow bus rider who hits on Ellen then later tries to blackmail the couple. And Westley King Ellen's slimy husband.

Scenes The Wall of Jericho, a string with a blanket over it separating their beds, this and the fact Clark Gable partially undresses in front of Claudette Colbert was considered scandalous at the time.
Also to be remembered is the hitchhiking scene, as Gable makes every attempt to stop a car telling his companion its all in the thumb, and proceeds to fail miserably only to have Colbert walk right out and stop the first car that passes, with her leg instead of his thumb.
And the two pretending to be an arguing married couple to cover who they really are, first talking about fake relatives then having Gable shout at Colbert and reduce her to "tears" and the audience to laughter.

Trivia. Bugs Bunny was supposedly based on Clark Gable in this film when he sits on a fence and eats raw carrots, Gable was often drawn with an emphasis on his large ears which eventually led to Bugs.
This movie won 5 oscars

Thoughts: I love this movie, but then who who has seen it doesn't it's funny, romantic and a good time. Recommended as it's another rewatch. PLease comment on either my writings or the movie itself!

My Favorite Wife

OK, OK so it's a re-watch but can you blame me? 1940, Irene Dunne and Carey Grant? It's a classic and i love it. Basic plot, Nicholas Arden(Carey Grant) has his wife Ellen pronounced legally dead and marries again. That very day Ellen arrives back at the house to find Nick has gone off to the very hotel where they had their honeymoon and rushes off to try and stop things from progressing in the natural way. As Nick runs around helplessly trying to juggle two wives, two kids and the mysterious man Ellen was on an island with for the last 7 years Ellen works to reclaim her family.

Interesting note The Parent Trap (1998 version) uses almost the exact same shot when Nick sees Ellen and he's in the elevator and she's in the lobby, only in the parent trap Nick(character also named Nick) is kissing his fiance and Gary Grant is tamely standing next to his new bride ( it was the forties after all. They also used a similar scene with Nick (in Parent Trap) falling into the pool as Ellen does in My Favorite Wife, in the original parent trap (1961) the father Mitch falls into a lake.I'll probably have a post on comparing the parent traps later on.

Anyways back to my favorite wife, I love this movie there's romance, comedy and I enjoy it immensely. I recommend it to everyone who likes classic comedies. Actually you'll probably find I'll be recommending most of these movies unless there's something i hate and must rant about. So that's my first post i hope you found it helpful in your movie choices.