Maxwell Smart (Don Adams) teams up with Hawaiian detective Harry Hoo (Joey Forman) to track down his old enemy, The Claw (Leonard Strong) in The Amazing Harry Hoo. Written by Gerald Gardner and Dee Caruso, this episode was first broadcast on 12 March, 1966. The episode is a little problematic in that you have a…
Tag: detective
The House of Fear (1945) – Roy William Neill
Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Watson (Nigel Bruce) are back for their tenth outing together in The House of Fear. Based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Five Orange Pips, this one leans into using the Universal Monsters sets and, consequently has a very gothic feel to it. When a gathering of gentlemen, known as the…
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939) – Alfred L. Werker
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is the second Basil Rathbone Holmes film, and I ended up being more into this one than The Hound of the Baskervilles. Rathbone brings Arthur Conan Doyle’s character to wonderful life, making it his own, with Nigel Bruce’s Watson a perfect foil for him. This one feels like a bit…
Along Came a Spider (1993) – James Patterson
So the idea of digging into the Alex Cross series has been nagging at me for awhile. But it seemed like there were so many, thirty-two at last count. Then I reminded myself I’ve been reading Star Trek books in order for awhile, and there’s a lot more than those. So… I’d seen the film…
The Hidden (1987) – Jack Sholder
It’s been a couple of decades since I last watched this cult classic. I remember enjoying it at the time, but I never got around to watching it again, or enjoying if for the blog. Until now. Kyle MacLachlan coming off Blue Velvet, and just about to dig into Twin Peaks (coincidentally his character in…
The Bone Collector (1999) – Phillip Noyce
Denzel Washington brings Jeffrey Deaver’s brilliant detective Lincoln Rhymes to life in Phillip Noyce’s big-screen version of The Bone Collector. Haunted by the moment he became a quadriplegic, Rhymes is an ex-homicide detective who is planning for his final transition, an assisted suicide, much against the wishes of his caregiver, Thelma (Queen Latifah). When one…
The Return of Ellie Black (2024) – Emiko Jean
To call The Return of Ellie Black a jaw-dropping page-turner doesn’t do the book, the story, or the author, Emiko Jean, justice. It was nothing short of a compulsive read, one that I stayed up late to finish, something that doesn’t happen often for me. I had to know how the story played out, I…
The Long Goodbye (1973) – Robert Altman
I’m probably stepping into a minefield here, but I’m not the biggest Robert Altman fan. Who doesn’t love The Player? And as great as M*A*S*H is, I came to it by way of the television series, so it never resonated with me as much as I would have liked. That being said, I really liked…
Magnum P.I. – The Complete Series
After five seasons, the reimagined Magnum P.I. series has come to an end. Like I said a number of times, it wasn’t the original, it was its own thing, but tried to include nods, and tried to honor the 1980s original, but it was fun. Jay Hernandez made a great Thomas Magnum, and while some…
A Haunting in Venice (2023) – Kenneth Branagh
Branagh delivers a third Agatha Christie adaption, and like the previous films, Branagh brings in a great cast and delivers a lush-looking production with some gorgeous production design and location work. Branagh directs and stars, again, as Hercule Poirot the great detective who has now retired to Venice. He is approached by an old friend,…
The Mind Reels 