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: **** Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025)

 Daniel Craig again stars as detective Benoit Blanc.  He shows up at a murder scene at a Catholic Church.  He is brought in at the request of the chief of police, Chief Geraldine Scott (Mila Kunis).  The priest, Monsignor Wicks (Josh Brolin) has been murdered, and the new assistant priest, Father Duplenticy (Josh O'Connor) is set up to take the fall.  But there are many suspects.  Wicks had made enemies of most the parish; or driven them off.  This includes Martha Delacroix (Glen Close) who has been with the church since being a child, DR. Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner) the local doctor.  Vera Draven (Kerry Washington) a local lawyer.  Cy Draven (Daryl McCormack) who turns out to be the Monsignor's illegitimate son.  The Monsignor was murdered in a closet off of the chapel where he was drinking some alcohol before delivering his sermon.  He collapses and is found with a "devil's blade" in his back.  The father was the first to him, and the doctor the second.  After they leave, the father returns and removes the Monsignor's flask.  This was a vital clue.  He removes it to prevent embarrassment for the head priest now that he is dead.  The twist in the plot is when the Monsignor resurrects and the priest chases after him, to wake up with the gardner murdered, by him.  Duplenticy is about to confess, when Blanc steps in the divulge the truth of what happened.  Too much to tell here, and not wanting to divulge the murdered, this movie is a good mystery thriller with a couple of twists.  

In Theaters: ***** The Sheep Detectives (2026)

The Sheep Detectives is an excellent movie.  I wanted to clap and the end and did a little, but others did not.

How they can make the sheep work with humans, especially since the sheep only talk to themselves and not with people.  But in this case they are the brains as well.

George Hardy (Hugh Jackman) loves his sheep.  He would not think of butchering them, but just sells their wool.  However he has leased some land to his neighbor, Caleb Merrow (Tosin Cole) who does butcher his sheep.  Needless to say, Hardy does not like him.  Hardy also does not like the butcher, Ham Gilyard (Conleth Hill).  Hardy reads to his sheep; detective stories which they very much like, and the most clever of them, Lilly (Julia Luis Dreyfuss) seems to be able to solve the mysteries before Hardy reads the end.  

There are two newcomers in town.  One is the daughter of Hardy, who he has not seen for many years as she was adopted, Rebecca (Molly Gordon).  Hardy has been seeking reunification with her and to introduce her to his sheep.  She was adopted and the local priest, Reverend Hillcoate (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith).   The other is a reporter in town to cover a cultural event which is put together by Beth Pennock (Hong Chau).  It is pretty lame.  She has feelings for Hardy, and steals a letter to her.  

One morning Darby does not feed the sheep like usual, nor give them his medication.  The sheep find him dead.  Merrow bad been trying to get him to sell his sheep.  He discovers the body.  Officer Tim Derry (Nicholas Braun) takes over the investigation.  He is not very bright and concludes it is a heart attack.  

Other sheep who play in the story are Sebastian (Bryan Cranston) who is a mysterious ram who worked in a carnival fighting in a ring against dogs and was rescued by Hardy; the winter lamb (Tommy Birchall) who is ostracized being born at the wrong time of the year; Sir Ritchfield (Patrick Stewart) who is always regal; Mopple (Chris O'Dowd) who helps with the investigation, and accidentally gets his face covered with a cloth and knocks things over in the house during the reading of the will

Lastly also new in town is Lydia Harbottle (Emma Thompson), the lawyer for Hardy and there to read the will.  The will leaves most everything to Rebecca and she becomes the primary suspect.  It also divulges there is another brother in South Africa.  Harbottle talks to him on the phone.  

This movie is very fun with sheep doing crazy sheep things, and their coaching Derry with the investigation.