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Reviews
23 Paces to Baker Street (1956)
Awesome Dark and Rainy Night Mystery
My mother was a mystery buff and that rubbed off on me big time. She and I often watched late night mysteries. 23 Paces to Baker Street was one of my all-time favorites. This mystery, based upon the book "Warrant for X" by the great Philip MacDonald (who also authored The List of Adrian Messenger, among other great stories). The film version contains some rewritten material but the mystery is delivered intact. Performances by Miles and Johnson are a bit hammy, Cecil Parker more than makes up for this by his brilliant portrayal of Bob, Hammon's long-suffering man-servant. I have very fond memories of Mama, and every time I see this film, I am transported back in time to that rainy, late night, when we watched it together, trying to guess whodunit.
Partners in Crime: N or M?: Part 1 (2015)
Simply awful Very slight spoilers
Story rewrite- horrible. Instead of looking for WWII spies, the Beresfords are on the trail of a stolen atomic bomb and a Russian agent. Albert is a certifiable genius instead of a hapless doorman, Tommy is a bumbling fool who is lucky not to be dead; Tuppence is an irritating, silly woman who pushes Tommy around; Derek and Doreen? Gone.. MIA. Instead there's "George" age unknown. Betty Sprot has been forgot and her mother is a flirtatious dimwit instead of devoted mother. No Goosey Goosey Gander, either. Mrs. Perella and her daughter have evidently been merged; Carl is an adolescent biker. Story DULL as DISHWATER...despite frequent and unexplained attacks on the protagonists. UGH!
Casting: PUHLEEZE. Neither of the principle actors bears any semblance at all to the original characters. Tommy doesn't even have red hair! Roy Marsden's is the only credible performance.
Setting: The 50s were dull and so are these sets. The Beresford wallpaper is god awful. The 40s were a much more glamorous setting.
Seriously, Christie stories work best when they follow the story she wrote. The adaptation of N or M? is even worse than the many unspeakably bad Marple rewrites. AC must be rolling in her grave.
Vera: Telling Tales (2011)
Vera's Ordeal By Innocence
The vote is for the performances and setting, all wonderful. However, this episode is quite similar in plot to Agatha Christie's Ordeal By Innocence, wherein a stranger appears at the door of the family home of a man whom he had picked up hitchhiking a year before. The stranger had been away and for the year prior, had not known that the very hitchhiker he'd picked up had been convicted of murder. The stranger, having now learned of the hiker's fate, returns to provide the alibi that would prove the convicted man innocent.
Blethyn is terrific in her role and her sidekick Leon plays extremely well off her character. The filming is lovely and the acting top notch.