Splash (1984) – Ron Howard

Splash remains a magical, enjoyable and funny experience, though some of it hasn’t aged as well as it could have. What it does have is able direction by Ron Howard, wonderful comedic turns by Tom Hanks, John Candy and Eugene Levy, and a beguiling role for Daryl Hannah. It’s a fun little love story that…

The Maid’s Secret (2025) – Nita Prose

I love checking in with Molly the Maid. After two novels and one novella, I’m quite willing to see where Nita Prose takes the character. So I dug into this one without having read a thing about it. I just wanted to see how Molly, Juan, Mr. Preston, Mr. Snow, Stark, and Angela were doing….

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939) – Sidney Lanfield

I’ll be honest, I had never seen one of Basil Rathbone’s Sherlock Holmes before. So I figured why not go back to the beginning and check out his first film, and perhaps explore more of his turn as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s iconic character – he did fourteen films. And joining him as Watson, who…

TIFF ‘ 23: Mr. Dressup – The Magic of Make-Believe

I’m not crying. You’re crying! Is there anything more Canadian to children who grew up in the 70s/80s/and early90s than Mr. Dressup? I can’t remember a time in my own life when I didn’t know about him, Casey, Finnegan and the Tickle Trunk. In fact I’m sure that at some point I had a stuffed…

The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy (2022) – Megan Bannen

I’ll be honest, The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy, available now from Orbit Books hit me like a sucker punch. I didn’t know what I expected from this whimsical, playful tale, but what I did not expect was a genre mash-up that at its heart (or Hart) riffed on the classic tale told in Shop…

The X-Files (1999) – Terms of Endearment, and The Rain King

Bruce Campbell pops up in The X-Files this week with Terms of Endearment. Written by David Amann, this story first aired on 3 January, 1999, and sees Spender (Chris Owens) blowing off a potential x-files investigation, that Mulder (David Duchovny) recovers, and heads off to Virginia to investigate. While Scully (Gillian Anderson) covers for him,…

The Mysterious Mr. Quin (1930) – Agatha Christie

Long before DC introduced us to Harley Quinn, a variation of the traditional harlequin character, Agatha Christie created her own Harley Quin, and introduced him to the world in a collection of short stories first published in 1930. This Harley Quinn is a tall mysterious man who appears at prime opportunities in the story, and…

Ladyhawke (1985) – Richard Donner

I don’t think I’ve seen Ladyhawke since it came out in 1985, and re-watching it for the blog I was struck by a couple of things. With a few tweaks, this film could have been huge! The film looks gorgeous, and has a solid cast, led by Rutger Hauer, Matthew Broderick and Michelle Pfeiffer, but…

The Secret of Chimneys (1925) – Agatha Christie

Christie’s fifth novel is a bit of a romp filled with double identities, a murder, political issues, an empty throne, a renowned criminal, a love story, a missing diamond, and a week away at a manor known as Chimneys. We are introduced to Anthony Cade when he is working as a travel guide in Africa,…

M*A*S*H (1972/1973) – Edwina, Love Story, and Tuttle

The first pair of episodes up this week have some similarities, especially when aired back to back, and I have to wonder if that was intentional, or just the way the series was made. Edwina was written by Hal Dresner and first debuted on 24 December, 1972. The story centres on a calamity-centric Edwina (Arlene…