blanche-2
Joined May 1999
Welcome to the new profile
We're still working on updating some profile features. To see the badges, ratings breakdowns, and polls for this profile, please go to the previous version.
Ratings6.4K
blanche-2's rating
Reviews6K
blanche-2's rating
A young woman, Gwenda Reed (Geraldine Alexander) falls in love with a house in England and insists that she and her new husband Giles (John Moulder-Brown) buy it.
As she stands on the stairway, she has a vision of a blond woman dead on the floor below. It doesn't make sense to her. She was sent from India to New Zealand as a child when her mother died to live with relatives. Her father remarried in England, but his wife eventually left him.
She starts renovations, which turn out to be actual features once in the house. She becomes nervous and frightened. When her Giles, who is away, calls and invites her to join him, she does.
It turns out one of his friends is Miss Marple's nephew Raymond (David McAlister) and she is visiting. That night, they all attend a performance of The Duchess of Malfi. During the monologue "Cover her face," she lets out a horrific scream and has to be taken back to the friends' home.
Gwenda confides everything to Miss Marple. Miss Marple believes she probably was in England at one point as a child and in that house. But she urges her not to delve into the past.
Nevertheless, Gwenda and her husband do, interviewing family and past suitors of her stepmother, and the people who worked in the home. Not only is there another murder, but she receives unsettling news about her father.
Excellent story and well done! As an added bonus, the husband reminded me of Brad Pitt! Beautifully photographed and much closer to the actual story than the Geraldine McEwan version with some very chilling scenes - such as the discovery of the wallpaper!
Very enjoyable, well cast, and entertaining.
As she stands on the stairway, she has a vision of a blond woman dead on the floor below. It doesn't make sense to her. She was sent from India to New Zealand as a child when her mother died to live with relatives. Her father remarried in England, but his wife eventually left him.
She starts renovations, which turn out to be actual features once in the house. She becomes nervous and frightened. When her Giles, who is away, calls and invites her to join him, she does.
It turns out one of his friends is Miss Marple's nephew Raymond (David McAlister) and she is visiting. That night, they all attend a performance of The Duchess of Malfi. During the monologue "Cover her face," she lets out a horrific scream and has to be taken back to the friends' home.
Gwenda confides everything to Miss Marple. Miss Marple believes she probably was in England at one point as a child and in that house. But she urges her not to delve into the past.
Nevertheless, Gwenda and her husband do, interviewing family and past suitors of her stepmother, and the people who worked in the home. Not only is there another murder, but she receives unsettling news about her father.
Excellent story and well done! As an added bonus, the husband reminded me of Brad Pitt! Beautifully photographed and much closer to the actual story than the Geraldine McEwan version with some very chilling scenes - such as the discovery of the wallpaper!
Very enjoyable, well cast, and entertaining.
The plot for Crash Landing from 1958 is based in the true story of a Pan Am flight, a Stratoliner that ditched with passengers and crew in 1956 with the help of a Coast Guard cutter.
It's torture to watch old plane movies. The passengers look so comfortable and the planes are nearly empty.
Anyway, Gary Merrill plays a strict pilot no one likes - and that includes his wife (Nancy Davis in her final film) and son. The plane malfunctions on a trip from Lisbon to New York, and they're not going to make it. They're going to land in the ocean and the passengers and crew will be picked up by a destroyer in the area.
We don't get a lot of passenger background- two obnoxious businessmen and a bad performance by Irene Hervey as a nervous flyer.
A little boy on the plane is told he will have to leave his dog Wilbur behind. To die. He was upset initially but calmed down pretty quickly- that would never have happened. Merrill, thinking of his own unhappy son and impressed by the father/son relationship, takes it upon himself to rescue Wilbur. And returning to his family, he's a different guy.
The scenes of the ditching were really worth the whole film, very exciting, and more so realizing that actually happened. I don't know how Sully and the crew prepared their passengers, but this was interesting.
Okay B movie with handsome Roger Smith one of the pilots.
It's torture to watch old plane movies. The passengers look so comfortable and the planes are nearly empty.
Anyway, Gary Merrill plays a strict pilot no one likes - and that includes his wife (Nancy Davis in her final film) and son. The plane malfunctions on a trip from Lisbon to New York, and they're not going to make it. They're going to land in the ocean and the passengers and crew will be picked up by a destroyer in the area.
We don't get a lot of passenger background- two obnoxious businessmen and a bad performance by Irene Hervey as a nervous flyer.
A little boy on the plane is told he will have to leave his dog Wilbur behind. To die. He was upset initially but calmed down pretty quickly- that would never have happened. Merrill, thinking of his own unhappy son and impressed by the father/son relationship, takes it upon himself to rescue Wilbur. And returning to his family, he's a different guy.
The scenes of the ditching were really worth the whole film, very exciting, and more so realizing that actually happened. I don't know how Sully and the crew prepared their passengers, but this was interesting.
Okay B movie with handsome Roger Smith one of the pilots.
From 2001, a miniseries, The Judge, based on a novel by Steve Martini, set in Baltimore and directed by Mick Garris.
Paul Madriani (Chris Noth) stands before Judge Armando Acosti (Edward James Olmos), his female client next to him. Acosti issues a harsh sentence of 20 years and no parole to the woman, who killed her husband after horrible abuse. Paul is so outraged that he winds up jailed for contempt.
Then the tables are turned. Acosti is arrested for soliciting a prostitute-undercover vice cop, Brittany Hill (Heidi Mark). Acosti denies the charges. And he wants Paul to defend him!
Then Hill is brutally murdered. Acosti again denies the charges. However, he has a compelling motive, no alibi, a bad temper, and has spent time with prostitutes. However, his work with prostitutes has consisted of getting them off the street, into schools, and joining the normal workforce. Will that help him now?
Madriani finds the going rough, thanks to corrupt police attempting to place drugs in his home, witnesses who won't cooperate, a cutthroat prosecutor (John Terry) and an ex-girlfriend (Lolita Davidovitch) of Paul's whose policeman brother (Alec McClure) may be involved.
Madriani is also up against Acosti himself, who forgets he's a defendant and aggravates the judge (Charles Durning) at his own trial.
Someone wrote that Chris Noth phoned this in. Since he was one of the producers, I doubt it. I thought the story was pretty good, though not the best courtroom drama I've seen. It held my interest. Davidovitch did not have enough to do; neither did Sonia Braga as Mrs. Acosti.
Madriani figures out whodunnit very cleverly.
Good if not great miniseries.
Paul Madriani (Chris Noth) stands before Judge Armando Acosti (Edward James Olmos), his female client next to him. Acosti issues a harsh sentence of 20 years and no parole to the woman, who killed her husband after horrible abuse. Paul is so outraged that he winds up jailed for contempt.
Then the tables are turned. Acosti is arrested for soliciting a prostitute-undercover vice cop, Brittany Hill (Heidi Mark). Acosti denies the charges. And he wants Paul to defend him!
Then Hill is brutally murdered. Acosti again denies the charges. However, he has a compelling motive, no alibi, a bad temper, and has spent time with prostitutes. However, his work with prostitutes has consisted of getting them off the street, into schools, and joining the normal workforce. Will that help him now?
Madriani finds the going rough, thanks to corrupt police attempting to place drugs in his home, witnesses who won't cooperate, a cutthroat prosecutor (John Terry) and an ex-girlfriend (Lolita Davidovitch) of Paul's whose policeman brother (Alec McClure) may be involved.
Madriani is also up against Acosti himself, who forgets he's a defendant and aggravates the judge (Charles Durning) at his own trial.
Someone wrote that Chris Noth phoned this in. Since he was one of the producers, I doubt it. I thought the story was pretty good, though not the best courtroom drama I've seen. It held my interest. Davidovitch did not have enough to do; neither did Sonia Braga as Mrs. Acosti.
Madriani figures out whodunnit very cleverly.
Good if not great miniseries.