James Stewart, Alfred Hitchcock Movie: Vertigo

 John Ferguson was traumatized by a police case where he almost fell off a building, and another officer did fall.  He now has fear of heights and vertigo which forced him to retire early from the police force.  A friend, Galvin Elster (Tom Helmore) contacts him out of the blue, and hires him to follow his wife (Kim Novak), who he says may be possessed by an ancestor.  Ferguson follows her, and saves her from an aparent suicide attempt when she throws herself into San Francisco Bay.  They soon become an item.  They travel to San Juan Bautista south of San Francisco.  They kiss and profess their love when she runs off.   It appears that the wife commits suicide by going into the mission and up the bell tower, throwing herself off.  (There actually is no bell tower at San Juan Bautista.  It was added cinematically.)

Ferguson goes into a melancholy depression, and ends up in a psychiatric hospital for about a year.  After he is out he discovers a woman who looks like the diseased wife.  He dresses her up as the deceased wife, but she wears a familiar necklace and then he realizes he was duped as part of a murder plot with him as the witness it was a suicide, not a murder.  

This is a very good movie, and very good portrayal by Jimmy Stewart.  Ferguson has an admirer, Marjorie (Barbara Bel Geddes) who is always available for him but they never make the connection.  

Alfred Hitchcock Movie: ****Murder (1930)

 Diana Baring (Nora Baring) is accused of murder.  She does not remember what happened; but her defense in court of being in a fugue state does not go with the jury.  But one juror, Sir John Menier (Herbert Marshall) still has his doubts.  He was convinced to vote guilty, but he still believes the woman.  She doesn't remember what happened.  He wants to find out.  

So he begins his own investigation.  She was the only one in the room.  He interviews the owners of the apartment Doucie and Ted Markham (Phyllis Konstam and Edward Chapman).  They do not give much information, but Ted decides to investigate with him.  Miss Mitcham (Marie Wright) isn't much help either.

They go to the theater where they work and find more clues there.  Here are people who are on the edge of society--circus performers.  Also people who can get into tight spaces, one being an acrobat.  Baring has been hiding the identity of a man in the room.  But she does mention he is half caste (bi racial).  At the circus Menier discovers Handel Fane (Esme Percy).  He is suppose to be biracial, and the murder victim had discovered this so he kills her to keep her silent.  It was taboo to be biracial during this period and would have reuined his career.  The victim and Baring were in deep conversation so he was able to sneak in the window, go past them and strike a blow with the poker.  

Menier traps him through the guise of reading a script for a theater production.  The script has the last page blank, and Menier recruits him to finish it, which he does describing how he completed the murder before killing himself.  

Fane is a male performing a trapeze act dressed as a woman.  He also hides his identity, as well as his involvement in the murder.  When this all comes out it is more than his psychic can take and he hangs himself from the trapeze bar.  

Movie Review: ***^ The Last of Sheila (1973)

 The Last of Sheila script was written by Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins.  It starts as a bunch of friends having a week long party aboard a yaht, but turns into a murder mystery.  The host is Clinton Greene (James Coburn), a movie producer.  The guests include Alice Wood (Raquel Welch) and her manager husband, Anthony (Ian McShane); screenwriter Tom Parkman (Richard Benjamin) and his wife Lee (Joan Hackett); Christine (Dyan Cannon) who is a talent agent; and director Phillip Dexter (James Mason).  A year earlier at a similar party, Greene's wife was killed by a hit and run driver.  He has devised a game in her honor in which he divulges secrets of members of the party.  This gets him killed on the second night.  He had distributed cards with a secret to be revealed to each of the party, "You are a shoplifter, you are a homosexual, you are an ex-convict, you are an informer, you are a little child molester, you are a hit and run driver."  But it turns our one of the company had changed his card from "you are an alcoholic" to "you are a hit and run driver,"  Lee admits she was the hit and run driver.  She had been drinking.  She also admits to killing Greene.  She ends up dead from apparent suicide the next day, having cut her wrists.  

The case is apparently resolved, but to Dexter something does not seem right.  Greene had said the slues were available without leaving the boat.  He notices a picture taken the first day.  each person is below a letter of the boat name, Sheila.  Except the card, hit and run driver does not match.  That person is under the A, for alcoholic.   He presents his information to Parkman, accusing him of changing the card, and being responsible for the two murders.  He had framed his wife for the murder of Greene, as he was already dead when she accidently struck him.  He admits to doing it as he was unhappy in marriage and was to inherit her $5,000,000.  Christine overheard this, and she and Dexter agree to keep quiet if he uses the inheritance to fund their next picture.  

This movie is very entertaining.  He has a very good cast.  However the story was a bit confusing with the murderer not being the murderer.  There is a book based on the movie, but I noticed it is very expensive as a collector's item.

Movie Review: ***^Murder on the Orient Express (2017)

This movie represents a fascinating look at the Agatha Christie classic.  The cast of character is also very interesting.  Kenneth Branagh plays our detective hero, Hercule Poirot.  Bouc, his traveling companion is played by Tom Bateman.  And then the other passengers on the train, who all become the subject of an investigation as Poirot is called upon to solve a murder where a passenger is stabbed a dozen times and killed.  Other actors include: Penelope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, Josh Gad, Derek Jacobi, Leslie Odom Jr., Michelle Pfeiffer and Daisy Ridley.  Kenneth Branagh also directed.  Each of these characters comes together with the other is a most peculiar way, which is what makes for the twist at the end of the movie.  I can't say I enjoyed this version better than the original from the 1970s.  However it does see true to the story, and the mystery.

TV Review: Columbo

Columbo is Peter Falk at his best.  His bumbling character, who is not bumbling but more hounding is a delight to watch.  Crime films in his day are much different than they are now.  Now they focus on the blood, and on Columbo the blood was not a part of the scene at all.  It is incredible how little the victims bleed. There is no blood splatter.  There is no DNA testing, no swabbing.  None of that stuff.  However there is Columbo, who has a sense about who the murderer is, and then has to go about proving it with the murderer doing everything to not leave evidence.  However there is always something that makes Columbo think, and feel ill at ease, and so he pursues things like a hound dog.  This is now available on instant Netflix.  There are many high powered guests.  Steven Bochco is usually writing the screenplay.  Columbo first came out in 1971 for NBC and was a staple for many years with the final production in 2003, although it was not a continuous run.  It ran for about 7 years, and then came back 10 years later for a 10+year run.  

Book Review: Coyote Waits: Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman writes mystery novels against the background of the Navajo Indian Reservation and the Navajo Tribal Police.  Coyote Waits was published in 1990.  Chee and Joe Leaphorn both work for the Navajo police in different departments.  The become involved in the same investigation for different reasons.  Chee for Janet Pete, who is a public defender for an old medicine man, accused of murdering a policeman when he was drunk on whiskey.  Joe Leaphorn as a favor to his departed wife.
It is interesting how each of the detectives play into the unraveling of the mystery, while conducting separate investigations.  This novel involves murder and greed.  It also involves the history of Butch Cassidy, and whether or not he actually returned form Bolivia, and also the ancient lore and legends of the Navajo people.  It is neat the way Hillerman weaves these things into his story.