During the year 2021, I want to get back into the habit of publishing a Sherlock Holmes parody that could have made it into the 223B Casebook series if I had found it sooner. This time, thanks to the Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia website, I’ll provide a few notes to “Herlock On The War,” a […]
Fidelity to text: 1/2 gun. There are similar incidents, particularly a young boy being shot by another young boy with a bow and arrow. Otherwise, nothing, zip, nada, not even the names match and for good reason, too. Quality of movie on its own: 1/2 gun. The house looks great! It’s a piece of Modernist […]
Fidelity to text: One gun. As in the previous Partners in Crime adaptation (The Secret Adversary), the names matched. Everything else, large and small, was altered and nearly always for the worse. Quality of movie on its own: One and 1/2 guns. The sets were outstanding as were the wardrobes. We laughed often, sometimes when […]
A Murder is Announced Geraldine McEwan January 2005 review Fidelity to text: 3 guns. You’ll get both major and minor changes, the biggest being complete rewrites of three separate relationships along with discarding the Vicar, his wife, and their cat. That forced the screenwriter to come up with a different, less plausible reason for Miss […]
(Note: You may also see this titled What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw! That’s the title used in the American market since the British publishers believed that Americans wouldn’t recognize the railway reference in the title.) Fidelity to text: 2 1/2 garottes The screenwriter made a lot of changes. The largest, without a doubt, is reworking the […]
Fidelity to text: 3 guns. The overall storyline is there. However, the scriptwriters chose to insert an unnecessary, even egregious backstory for Miss Marple. Um, no. Just no. There were other issues as well, some relating to changing the date from 1930 (when the novel was published) to 1951. Quality of movie on its own: […]
Fidelity to text 3 and 1/2 garrots (the murderer was radically altered although crimes and motivation still fit perfectly within Agatha’s own text). There were some other minor modifications. The other most important change is the date. The novel took place in 1942. This filmed version was set around 1950. Quality of movie 4 garrots. […]
The island of Juan Fernández lost its only citizen on this day when Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk waved goodbye to it from the deck of the British privateering vessel Duke. Selkirk’s account of his four years on the island, 400 miles off the coast of Chile, would provide the inspiration a decade later for Daniel […]
Fidelity to text: one gun. The names match. Jane Finn remains a woman of mystery. The secret adversary of the title remains. Virtually everything else was altered from a little to a lot. Quality of movie on its own: one & 1/2 guns but only because it started off well and I like ’50s clothes […]
Fidelity to text: The original story is there but it’s been expanded far beyond what Agatha sketched out, especially considering how minimalist the source material is. Quality of movie: It’s good on its own merits and it’s a more interesting story than the original short story. Only purists will carp. This was our third watched […]