Teresa reviews “The Moving Finger” (1985) and found the lack of subtitles an obstacle to enjoying the show. Fidelity to text: 3 and 1/2 poison bottles. The most significant change is that in the novel, Miss Marple doesn’t appear until the last few chapters. In this adaptation, she shows up within the first fifteen minutes. […]
Fidelity to text: 1 knife. The novel was eviscerated. Miss Marple was shoved in against her will as evidenced by her remaining defiantly offstage for long stretches. The central murder remains as does the séance, the escaped prisoner, and a few names. Characters are added, dropped, and altered beyond recognition. The murderer changes completely and […]
Last night’s cheese plate with Agatha was “The Sittaford Mystery” (2006). Some lovely moments, but boy did they try to jam ten pounds of plot in a five-pound episode. Timothy Dalton aged well since his Bond days, and he played the villain so wonderfully in “Hot Fuzz” that I was looking forward to this. It […]
Fidelity to text: 4 and 1/2 garrotes. There are minor changes, the most important of which is probably the addition of the village idiot (Malcolm) who discovers the burned-out car with the body in it. They also changed the date to about 1950 or so, instead of 1942 when the novel was published. Otherwise, this […]
After a long delay, we return to “The Adventures of Shylock Homes,” written in 10 parts by John Kendrick Bangs during 1903. Episodes one through five were published a few years ago. Number 6 — “Mr. Homes Solves a Question of Authorship” — was published in the first volume of Edwardian-era pastiches. Number 7 was […]
Fidelity to text: 2 poison bottles. Miss Marple was added to a Tommy and Tuppence novel. The overall arc of the original novel remains. There are numerous changes to time period, the main plot, subplots, minor characters, names, locations, …. It’s a long list. Quality of movie on its own: 4 poison bottles. I didn’t […]
The Age of Wood: Our Most Useful Material and the Construction of Civilization by Roland Ennos Three stars: nonfiction, history, wood, things you never considered about the infrastructure of the world around you. This was a nice little book that was less interesting (to me) than it should have been. It’s very readable. I finished […]
After a long delay, we return to “The Adventures of Shylock Homes,” written in 10 parts by John Kendrick Bangs during 1903. Episodes one through five were published a few years ago. Number 6 — “Mr. Homes Solves a Question of Authorship” — was published in the first volume of Edwardian-era pastiches. Number 7 was […]
Teresa reviews “The Moving Finger” (2006) and thought it an improvement over the 1985 episode starring Joan Hickson. Fidelity to text: 3 poison bottles. The overall story arc remains the same. The changes range from condensing and removing characters (minor) to adding Miss Marple at the very start (major) and everything in between. The time […]
The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World by Virginia Postrel Four and 1/2 Stars: nonfiction, aspects of life you never considered before I loved this book. Virginia Postrel covers a piece of civilization that affects us every day yet we rarely think about: textiles. Or fabric, to use a more common term. It’s […]