Anchors aweigh! We're setting sail on a mystery ship! And a celebrity cruise at that, featuring famed detective Sherlock Holmes! Sound fun? Well, Pursuit to Algiers , a 1945 Holmes picture starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, never arrives at its intended destination. This Roy William Neill-directed flick is a sinking ship, if we ever saw one. Basically, Holmes and Watson are tasked with safely transporting a European princeling back to his country of origin in order to ... save democracy? Y...
May 31, 2021•57 min•Ep. 32
Let's take off with a double-feature on one of Hollywood's first plucky gal reporters! The first two films in the Torchy Blane series, Smart Blonde and Fly-Away Baby , both debuted in 1937. They focus on Torchy Blane, a journo who's sharp, beautiful, and romantically connected to one of the top detectives in the city. Glenda Farrell and Barton MacLane starred in these two Frank McDonald-directed pictures as Torchy and her stern swain Detective Steve McBride. Meanwhile, Tom Kennedy shines as the ...
May 24, 2021•53 min•Ep. 31
Burn baby, burn! Franklin W. Dixon's inferno! "Arson and Old Lace" is the 21st episode of the second season of "The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries." This one stars Shaun Cassidy and Parker Stevenson as the titular boys from Bayport on Barmet Bay. Basically, fellow-sleuth Nancy Drew has been missing for months, and the Hardy Boys sign on to take one more look at her case, before it goes cold. Things heat up quite a bit from there. Airing on April 1, 1978, this episode also marks the final appear...
May 17, 2021•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 30
Forget spandex-clad superheroes. The most ambitious crossover event in fictional history already happened, airing in two parts on November 19 and November 23 in 1986. That's right — we're talking about the two crossover episodes of Magnum, P.I. and Murder, She Wrote. Thomas Magnum, as played by Tom Selleck, is an affable private investigator living a luxurious lifestyle in Hawaii. Angela Lansbury's amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher is a mystery writer with a knack for getting involved in non-ficti...
May 10, 2021•54 min•Ep. 29
The adventure is afoot! The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a 1939 film directed by Alfred L. Werker. The picture is based somewhat loosely on a 1899 play by William Gillette, and is the second of two Holmes films unveiled by Twentieth Century Fox in the 1930s. Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce star as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's iconic duo, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson. This wouldn't be their last adventure, either! In total, they would helm 14 films in this series. In this story, Holmes and ...
May 03, 2021•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 28
One judge may be quite like another ... but this courtroom drama stands apart! Anatomy of a Murder is a 1959 courtroom drama from director Otto Preminger, starring Jimmy Stewart, Lee Remick, Eve Arden, Ben Gazzara, and Army-McCarthy hearings legal icon Joseph Welch, with a jazzy score from Duke Ellington. It's based on a real-life case that defense attorney-turned-Michigan Supreme Court Justice John D. Voelker wrote under the pen name Robert Traver. Stewart plays a humble country lawyer trying t...
Apr 26, 2021•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 27
Maybe he's Bourne with it, maybe it's his years of CIA training. The Bourne Identity is a 2002 action thriller directed by Doug Liman, starring Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Chris Cooper, and Brian Cox. Damon plays a bullet-riddled amnesiac found floating in the Mediterranean Sea. We follow Damon's character as he pieces together the clues to determine who exactly he is. And, as it turns out, he wasn't born yesterday. This character has some serious skills, and he's going to need to put those to u...
Apr 19, 2021•58 min•Ep. 26
First isn't necessarily the worst, but it's certainly not the best. Coming out just a year after Dashiell Hammett published his unforgettable novel, The Maltese Falcon is a 1931 pre-Code crime film directed by Roy Del Ruth. Ricardo Cortez plays private investigator Sam Spade, and Bebe Daniels is the femme fatale and podcast heiress Ruth Wonderly. Spade and the dame are just two rough characters mixed up in the scramble for the priceless avian statue that the film is named for. Listen to birds-of...
Apr 12, 2021•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 25
"This old man, he played three, Bert Freed first played Columbo on TV." This week on Mystery to Me, we'll be discussing the genesis of beloved fictional detective Lt. Columbo. The fictional sleuth — with his rumpled sensibilities and absent-minded charm — was most notably portrayed by Peter Falk. But Falk wasn't the first to have a go at Columbo. That honor would belong to actor Bert Freed, who portrayed the character on the Chevy Mystery Show. Columbo writers Richard Levinson and William Link f...
Apr 05, 2021•35 min•Ep. 24
Sunday's supposed to be fun-day! But this pilot episode of incredibly popular 1970s cop show "Starsky and Hutch" is anything but! Starring David Soul and Paul Michael Glaser, as well as Antonio Fargas, "Savage Sunday" debuted the mismatched cop duo in 1975. In this episode, the charisma-less and humor-free detectives must deal with the problems caused by a couple of nursing home residents who get the bright idea of protesting the bad food at their establishment by loading their car up with dynam...
Mar 29, 2021•44 min•Ep. 23
Prepare to plunge into a parable of penguins and peril! The Penguin Pool Murder is a 1932 film directed by George Archainbaud, starring Edna May Oliver and James Gleason. The pre-Code flick is based on the 1931 novel of the same name by Stuart Palmer. Oliver stars as the peerless Hildegarde Withers, a formidable schoolteacher who becomes embroiled in a icy murder mystery while on a field trip to the New York Aquarium in Coney Island. Gleason plays the snarky detective Oscar Piper, who looks to M...
Mar 22, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 22
Wake up, all you smoke dreamers! It's time to talk about the best married couple in all of film history: Nick and Nora Charles! After the Thin Man is a 1936 comedy-mystery film from director W.S. Van Dyke, starring William Powell, Myrna Loy, and Jimmy Stewart. It's the direct sequel to the wildly popular Thin Man film made two years before, which itself was based on a novel by Dashiell Hammett. In this follow-up, detectives Nick and Nora Charles arrive back home in San Francisco on New Year's Ev...
Mar 17, 2021•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 21
Want to see Nancy Drew act less like a beloved amateur sleuth and more like a villainous corrupt cop in a prestige drama? Then we've got a movie for you! Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase i s a 1939 mystery comedy film from director William Clemens, starring Bonita Granville, Frankie Thomas, and John Litel. It's based on the novel of the same name, penned by Mildred Wirt Benson for the Stratemeyer Syndicate. But boy, does this staircase twist away from the original premise! Nancy must help two...
Mar 15, 2021•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 20
There is a house in ol' Scotland They call it Drearcliffe Dùn And it's been the ruin of many a poor comrade And God, I know I'm one The House of Fear is a 1945 film directed by Roy William Neill, starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. John Watson. It's the tenth film in the series starring Rathbone and Bruce, and loosely based on Arthur Conan Doyle's short story "The Five Orange Pips." Which is to say, both tales involve nefarious parties threatening victims via discar...
Mar 10, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 19
Nancy Drew ... Detective is a 1938 comedy crime film starring Bonita Granville, Frankie Thomas, and John Litel, directed by William Clemens. Nancy is back, and this time she's doing what she does best: helping the elderly. (Seriously, like every other book in the series seemed to be about our favorite sleuth assisting some poor older person who is being conned or harassed by lowlifes). Ripping a page from the Drew book The Password to Larkspur Lane , Nancy must save a kidnapped (and wealthy) old...
Mar 08, 2021•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 18
Pack up your pipe, magnifying glass, and deerstalker cap, and refill your Metro card — we're going to Washington D.C.! Sherlock Holmes in Washington is a 1943 film starring Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Marjorie Lord, and George Zucco, and the fifth installment of the Roy William Neill series. And let's just say that, while subplots in "A Study in Scarlet" and "The Valley of Fear" do indicate that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was fascinated with America, this movie is ridiculous! The setup is simple: A...
Mar 03, 2021•1 hr 32 min•Ep. 17
"Chaos Theory" is the second episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation's second season. The show stars William Petersen as CSI's fearless leader, Gil Grissom, with Marg Helgenberger, Gary Dourdan, George Eads, Jorja Fox, and Paul Guilfoyle rounding out the rest of the investigatory ensemble. In this episode, the CSI squad hits the philosophy textbooks as part of the search for a missing college student. Paige Rycoff vanished from her dorm room just minutes before she was set to drop out and head...
Mar 01, 2021•46 min•Ep. 16
Ladies and gentlemen, the review you are about to hear is true. The names have not been changed to protect the innocent. Dragnet 1966 is a 1969 made-for-TV movie starring Jack Webb, Harry Morgan, Vic Perrin, and Virginia Gregg. This film helped bring about the Dragnet franchise's triumphant return to television, with creator and producer Webb once again starring as everyone's favorite stiff, Sergeant Joe Friday of the Los Angeles Police Department. Friday and his elderly partner Bill Gannon find...
Feb 24, 2021•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 15
Beware of ladies bearing notebooks, pens, and dramatic hats. Beware of Ladies is a 1936 film from director Irving Pichel starring Judith Allen, Donald Cook, and George Meeker. In it, Allen stars as a sly reporter tasked with helping an idealistic candidate in a DA race snag the women's vote. But this savvy journalist may end up wrecking the lawyer's chances, as they're pursued by corrupt operators looking to smear the man as a wife-stealing creep! Ladies aren't the only thing you have to worry a...
Feb 22, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 14
Stand clear of the closing doors, please! And pray that you're not too squeamish for this gritty, poignant episode of police procedural classic "Homicide: Life on the Street." Directed by series producer James Yoshimura, this seventh episode of the sixth season aired December 5, 1997 and stars Andre Braugher, Kyle Secor, Clark Johnson, and John Seda, with a memorable guest star spot from a surly Vincent D'Onofrio. D'Onofrio plays a commuter who gets trapped between the train and the platform dur...
Feb 17, 2021•48 min•Ep. 13
All aboard the murder train! Terror By Night is a 1946 mystery film by director Roy William Neil, as well as the thirteenth installment of the Sherlock Holmes movie series starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. In this penultimate episode of the Rathbone-Bruce flicks, Sherlock Holmes purchases a ticket at the train station. His destination? The land of mystery! Holmes is tasked with guarding a valuable jewel onboard, but it becomes clear that the game is afoot after bodies begin stacking up in...
Feb 15, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 12
Five Star Final is a 1931 newspaper drama directed by Mervyn LeRoy, starring Edward G. Robinson, Boris Karloff, and Aline MacMahon and based on a play by Louis Weitzenkorn. Robinson plays a grizzled tabloid editor tasked with digging into an old murder case to punch up circulation. Sound like a hot scoop? Think again! All the melodrama and moralizing left us wanting to stop the presses — permanently . Listen to Áine and Kevin discuss journalistic ethics, misogyny, and why they'd like to order a ...
Feb 10, 2021•58 min•Ep. 11
The Third Man is a 1949 film noir with a cast led by Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, and Trevor Howard. Director Carol Reed and writer Graham Greene craft an atmospheric, twisty tale set in Vienna after World War II. Cotten plays a naive pulp writer who travels to the Austrian capital in search of a job. But while Vienna waits for him, his childhood friend Harry Lime is nowhere to be found when he arrives! Heartbreak, cynicism, beautifully-shot chase scenes, and jaunty Zither music ens...
Feb 08, 2021•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 10
In the Line of Fire is a 1993 political thriller by director Wolfgang Petersen, starring Clint Eastwood, John Malkovich, and Rene Russo. Eastwood stars as a washed-up Secret Service agent best known for being the sole remaining member from the detail that failed to save President John F. Kennedy. Three decades after the greatest failure of his career, he's forced to match wits with Malkovich, who plays a chilling assassin. Listen to Áine and Kevin take a shot at this engrossing thriller, which f...
Feb 03, 2021•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 9
Nancy Drew... Trouble Shooter is a 1939 comedy mystery film directed by William Clemens, starring Bonita Granville as the titular sleuth, as well as Frankie Thomas and John Litel. The movie is the third in a series of four Nancy Drew films that kicked off just eight years after the Stratemeyer Syndicate first introduced the character into the mystery canon. Agent of chaos Nancy Drew is back, and this time she's got trouble in her sights. The bubbly teen sleuth is locked and loaded and looking to...
Feb 01, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 8
Ding-dong! Now who could that be ringing the door? Could it be a gorgeously-shot episode of the beloved eighties detective series Moonlighting , starring Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis? This series follows super model Maddie Hayes, who's forced to moonlight as a private detective with David Addison after an accountant steals all her hard-earned money. Sexual tension, snappy dialogue, and creative homages to classic films ensue. The fourth episode of the show's second season sees Shepherd and W...
Jan 27, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 7
Double Indemnity is a 1944 film noir from director Billy Wilder. The writing process for this flick proved to be quite the double-teaming, with Wilder partnering with hardboiled author Raymond Chandler to pen the thriller. The story is based on the 1943 novella by James M. Cain. The central story is a noir classic: a sultry femme fatale teams up with a dupe working as an insurance salesman to kill her husband. Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanywck as the main murderous duo. But can they get away w...
Jan 27, 2021•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 6
Nancy Drew... Reporter is a 1939 film from director William Clemens, starring Bonita Granville as the titular teen sleuth, as well as Frankie Thomas and John Litel. The movie is the second in a series of four Nancy Drew films that kicked off just eight years after the Stratemeyer Syndicate first introduced the character into the mystery canon. This screwball feature sees the eponymous girl detective taking on the role of cub reporter for a local River Heights paper. But Nancy Drew's not out to w...
Jan 27, 2021•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 5
Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon is a 1942 film by director Roy William Neill, as well as a very, very loose adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 1903 novel The Adventure of the Dancing Men . It's the fourth movie in a series of Sherlock Holmes films starring iconic duo Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, and the second picture to be set during the Second World War. The story is that Holmes must keep a key scientist — whose device could alter the course of the fight against fascism — out of t...
Jan 27, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 4
The Big Combo is a 1955 film noir by director Joseph H. Lewis starring Cornel Wilde, Richard Conte, Brian Donlevy, and Jean Wallace. And boy, is it a mixed bag! The film follows a dull detective seeking to bust Mr. Brown, the leader of an insidious crime syndicate, or "combo." Along the way, our hero obsesses over Brown's piano-loving moll, undergoes torture-by-jazz, and infringes upon the civil rights of countless besuited crooks. Listen to Áine and Kevin talk about the film's unique blend of t...
Jan 27, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 3
