Tag: murder
Growing up I wanted to be Nancy Drew…instead I was Donna Parker. Both outrageously ignored repeated and dire warnings while being fiercely loyal, generous, and independent. Both wore, gasp, dungarees.
Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries
I have a new addiction and how!
It’s Australian.
It’s sassy.
Capricious.
Stylish.
Witty.
Sexy.
Murderous.
The Australia Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) has a hit in the fearless and funny Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries. This Whodunit from Down Under is a beaut.
I love a good murder mystery and if you think the private detective genre had seen it all, it’s never seen anything like Miss Phryne Fisher (Essie Davis). Independent, open-minded, of a certain age, caring, compassionate, rollin’ in the dough, swanky, and a private detective to boot!
I have to praise the costume designer, Marion Boyce. This won’t happen often, you may notice a lack of fashion in my writings, but I practically drool over the Roaring Twenties costumes in this series; they’re exquisite, almost like a character unto themselves. If I ever became rich, I would probably dress as if I was in the 1920s all the time.
If you’re a fan of murder mysteries this show is the real McCoy. I don’t want to be spoon-fed killers or their motives; I want to get there myself. Thankfully Deb Cox and Fiona Eagger using Kerry Greenwood’s Phryne Fisher novels as a guide let their audience be clever and find out who did what to whom.
Miss Fisher collects people as she collects adventure and clothes.
Her long-suffering and invaluable companion Dorothy “Dot” Williams (Ashleigh Cummings).
The handsome, intrigued and exasperated Detective Inspector John “Jack” Robinson (Nathan Page).
The boyishly eager Constable Hugh Collins (Hugo Johnstone-Burt).
The always handy and never ask too many questions Bert and Cec (Travis McMahon and Anthony Sharpe).
The prudish heart-of-gold Aunt Prudence (Miriam Margoyles).
The sharp as a tack and streetwise ward Jane (Ruby Rees-Wemyss).
The spirited and always drinking spirits doctor Dr. Elizabeth “Mac” Macmillan (Tammy MacIntosh).
The enigmatic and undaunted Mr. Butler (Richard Bligh) – he’s delightful.
Plus a host of amazing guest stars.
Together they roam the jazz clubs, mansions, and back alleys of Melbourne, finding adventure and trouble.
Series 1 & 2 were the bee’s knees, now we just have to wait for Series 3.
I went through a phase in my teens and early 20s when I was Australia crazy. I’m clearly still continuing my love affair with Australia; I hope they like me back at least a little so it’s not too stalkery. There were times I may have lapsed into an Australian accent, when I wasn’t belting out Men At Work songs, er, again, most likely in an Australian accent. Books, TV, movies, I just couldn’t get enough of Australia. Seriously, my The Man from Snowy River addiction almost required an intervention. Even typing the words Phar Lap makes me want to cry. Muriel’s Wedding https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/11/16/muriels-wedding/, don’t even get me started.
I had this cerulean blue (insert X-Files Pusher reference here) Australia sweatshirt that I wore so much it eventually turned to rags. The only picture I could find of it is in black and white and for some reason I’m leaning against a big dirty hoe. I’m sure there’s a story to that if I could remember it; I’m guessing it was a fun weekend. When I wore that shirt I was inevitably asked, Have you ever been to Australia? I would answer, Someday. Someday has yet to arrive, but it’s on my rather rusty bucket list.
I got through the whole post without saying G’day…D’oh!
Heathers
As dark satire goes, Heathers is in a league all its own. Easily dismissed as a teen angst flick, its depths are much darker and deeper.
Heathers is about how easily you can fall and still think you’re standing.
- “You were nothing before you met me. You were playing Barbies with Betty Finn. You were a Bluebird. You were a Brownie. You were a Girl Scout Cookie.”~Heather Chandler
This sinister comedy spotlights issues of bullying, teen suicide, and the dangers of peer pressure.
Underlying theme? How completely self-absorbed people can be. How spoiled and narcissistic. Where they see their own world and issues, but have no wider vision of how other people are feeling, or suffering, or what they need.
Slater and Ryder are beyond compare and repair.
Severe, jagged, funny, pathetic, edgy.
Hard to believe it’s been 25 years.
ARSENIC AND OLD LACE
One of my fav Halloween flicks. Madcap and macabre, it gives laughs, groans, and an appreciation that some of the best movies were made long before you were born.
Released in 1944 (although filmed in 1941 due to Cary Grant’s availability) this film has withstood the test of time. Based on Joseph Kesselring‘s play; both the play and movie are ghastly joys, in their own ways.
Cary Grant as Mortimer Brewster gives a stunningly awkward and charmingly frenetic performance.
Josephine Hull and Jean Adair portray Abby and Martha Brewster, Mortimer’s darling Aunts who also happen to be serial killers for a good cause, “It’s one of our charities”. They’re like the Dexter of their day. Their explanation of their murderous ways? They stop the suffering of lonely old bachelors by poisoning them with arsenic, strychnine and “just a pinch of cyanide” disguised in elderberry wine.
Uncle Teddy (John Alexander) who believes he’s Teddy Roosevelt unwittingly aids the Aunts by digging graves in the basement, thinking he is digging locks for the Panama Canal and burying yellow fever victims. Hull, Adair, and Alexander reprise their 1941 stage production roles.
Mortimer, whose ultimate dysfunctional family causes no end of headaches explains to his hapless new bride – “Insanity runs in my family, practically gallops!”
Peter Lorre and Raymond Massey are so sublimely creepy they really are Halloween.
POLTERGEIST
Over 30 years later and I wondered if I still would like Poltergeist.
I did.
I still got chills.
I know there have been creepier, more gruesome and violence horrors films since, but nothing will replace this spooky classic.
The reboot of this film series is set to come out in 2014 or 2015. I can’t see how or why they would redo this.
After all, Family Guy did such a fantastic parody in 2006 (Season 4, episode 26) with Petergeist, it was almost difficult to watch the real Poltergeist without giggling. I’ll never look at clowns the same way again.
The plot is like any good fairy tale, a young girl is the unwitting cause her family’s trauma and they do anything to help her; showing that love conquers all.
Does anyone remember the Poltergeist curse? Fuelled by real skeletons being used in the climatic scene, as well as Dominique Dunne’s murder, Heather O’Rourke’s death, and several other incidents the legend of the curse grew, which equals great publicity.
There were 2 more in this series.
2nd was bad, the 3rd horrible.
So the only real curse was trying to milk a series, gee, not like Spielberg’s ever done that …cough, Indiana Jones, cough, Jurassic Park, cough, cough.
Note, no one died in this movie, not one character, even the family dog, E-Buzz survived (I don’t think we can count the canary at the beginning).
And they still scared us silly.
They’rrrre heeeerrre!!!
Goodbye Dexter
Dexter is sort of the Jiminy Cricket of this millennium.
yadadarcyyada 