Mad Holiday: Movies about Writing

In this 1936 who done it, an actor pigeonholed into playing Selby, a popular detective from a series of novels, has declared that he quits until an actual murder takes place on his vacation.

Phillip Trent (Edmund Lowe), the actor, is onboard a cruise ship when he runs into a over-excited blonde and a dead body. This encounter turns out to be a publicity stunt planned by his studio alongside the author of the Selby books, Peter Dean. Trent is ready to give Dean a piece of his mind as he finds the books as low-quality cash grabs, only to find that Dean is actually an attractive woman (Elissa Landi) who uses her grandfather’s picture on the back of the books. As she has a good laugh over the fake murder, the pair stumbles over a real murder. A wealthy man in possession of the priceless “dragon” diamond is found stabbed in Trent’s estate room.

And so a rather silly investigation begins. Donovan (Edgar Kennedy), the police sergeant on board, is fed up with Trent, Dean, and a cast of slapstick characters getting in his way. The party includes Williams, the dead man’s valet played by Edmund Gwenn - you know, Santa Claus, Morgan, a studio yes man onboard to build up publicity for the next Selby movie played by Ted Healy, Mrs. Kinney, a ridiculous fan of Trent’s played by Zasu Pitts who is often in the background with her dog and husband, and Li Tai, a Chinese heiress and wife of an Asian actor whose family used to own the diamond. And Li Tai is played by Soo Young, an actual Chinese American actress. Just don’t look too hard at her servant or you’ll be upset with Hollywood once again. Also, a very painful scene where the two leads attempt to do Asian accents.

I’m not going to give away the ending, but Dean as the author living out her books alongside the actor who brought them to life is pretty funny. She can’t help giggling every time the killer says something cheesy that' she’s used in a book. She and Trent escape from danger by using one of the actions sequences she wrote. Throughout the movie, Dean takes notes so she can turn the real-life adventure into one of her novels. She also takes offense when everyone calls them “trash”.

Murder by Death: JUST BECAUSE!

This is written by Neil Simon NOT Truman Capote, but I love it and I’m writing about it because it’s my blog. Also, understand this is no where near as fantastic as Clue, but still fun.

Murder by Death is a parody of the popular detective genre of the 1920s. Six sleuths who each make-fun of a popular character are invited to a dinner and death at the house of Lionel Twain (played by Truman Capote). The cast is huge and the jokes are silly. Peter Sellers plays Sidney Wang, a version of Charlie Chan. Peter Falk practices his later Columbo character as Sam Diamond, not Spade. Nick and Nora Charles become Dick and Dora Charleston played by David Niven and Maggie Smith respectively. Milo Perrier takes Hercule Poirot’s place and portrayed by James Coco. Lastly, Ms. Marple . . . I mean, Jessica Marbles is acted out by one of my favorites, Elsa Lanchester. Eileen Brennan, Estelle Winwood, James Cromwell, and Richard Narita play the detectives’ various companions. The cast is rounded out by Alec Guinness and Nancy Walker as Twain’s unusual servants.

Twain promises a substantial sum to the detective who solves the evening’s murder first. I don’t want to give away the mystery or many of the jokes. Here are a few specifics I want to gush about.

1. Diamond’s “doll” creates a dossier on Twain before they arrive. He asks her where she got the information and she said, “I called him up and asked him.”

2. Wang (who is played by a white guy which I think was meant to be a joke at all the white guys who played Charlie Chan . . . But I really wish there had been more jokes about him not actually being Chinese) has an adopted son who he makes do everything including standing in the way of danger.

3. The Charlestons have a dog named Myron and Dora is always carrying a martini glass, even when she’s in a car.

4. Perrier has a chauffeur that appears to be his boyfriend, but he treats him terribly. Every time something happens to the chauffeur, Perrier says to ignore him. “He just wants attention.” There is also a running gag about Perrier’s relationship to food. For example, he spits out wine and the others think it was poisoned. “Bad year,” he explains.

5. Mrs. Marbles pushes around her nurse in a wheelchair and has a long standing friendship with Diamond. It’s funny to think of a world where the very English small town Miss Marple hung out with the quick tempered, fowl mouth Spade.

6. All of the detectives try to out-detect each other.

7. The screaming doorbell was a soundbite of Fay Wray.

8. Twain’s insistence that Wang use proper articles and pronouns. “It. IT is confusing!”

9. Twain’s monologue about mystery books: “You've tricked and fooled your readers for years. You've tortured us all with surprise endings that made no sense. You've introduced characters in the last five pages that were never in the book before. You've withheld clues and information that made it impossible for us to guess who did it. But now, the tables are turned. Millions of angry mystery readers are now getting their revenge. When the world learns I've outsmarted you, they'll be selling your $1.95 books for twelve cents.You've tricked and fooled your readers for years. You've tortured us all with surprise endings that made no sense. You've introduced characters in the last five pages that were never in the book before. You've withheld clues and information that made it impossible for us to guess who did it. But now, the tables are turned. Millions of angry mystery readers are now getting their revenge. When the world learns I've outsmarted you, they'll be selling your $1.95 books for twelve cents.”

Miss Scarlet and the Duke (Quarter to Midnight): Movies about Writing

I have an addiction to PBS. There. I said it. Now on with the blog.

If you’ve never seen “Miss Scarlet and the Duke”, here’s a quick premise: Miss Scarlet (Kate Phillips) is an Edwardian private detective constantly trying make it in a male driven society. Inspector Wellington aka “the Duke” (Stuart Martin) is a member of Scotland Yard she’s know since youth and therefore acts as antagonist, partner, competition, and love interest all in one.

The pair are investigating a case together of a finical advisor whose death mimics the famous scene in a novel by an author named Samuel Bedborough (yes, this plot again) who also happened to be one of the dead man’s clients. They find Bedborough at a book reading in a small shop run by an obsessive lady who is rather rude to customers, in my opinion. The author is also signing the books and now I’m on a research rampage to find out how early English author started doing mass signings. Seriously, is that historical inaccuracy? If you know, please comment. Thanks.

Back to the story, Bedborough and his sister Anna listen to the accounts of the murder as he is pompous and she is polite. Bedborough boasts that he can write anywhere, at any time, without “the muse” striking.

Screw you, Bedborough! Everyone has their process! Stop being ass! Some of us need youtube playlists and fifteen minutes of cat snuggles before the writing can be successful!

Sorry. Sorry. Back to the episode. The book that the murder came from is about writing. A struggling author murders his two best friends when he goes mad trying to meet a novel deadline. Understandable.

The episode deals in fame, publishing companies, a writer’s tools, a writer’s personality, and depression. I won’t give away the ending, but I will confess you’ll figure out the twist pretty quickly - but maybe not the murderer.

The Ex-Mrs. Bradford: Movies about Writing

The Ex-Mrs. Bradford is a 1936 where Jean Arthur plays a mystery writer named Paula whose trying to convince Dr. Lawrence “Brad” Bradford (William Powell) to marry her again instead of making his alimony payments to her. It’s a comedy. During their “wedded bliss” Paula would convince Brad to consult on murders so she could research them for her novels. But Brad insists that he likes his life now where he can read the paper and “enjoy a murder” without her buzzing in his ear. He didn’t object to her writing mysteries. He objected to her “living them”. He has a point there as she is paranoid that every surprise is a gangster with a gun ready to bump the both off.

Of course, because this is a movie, a case falls into their lap about a murdered jockey. What follows is intrigue and screwball antics. Paula uses their budding retry at domesticity to play detective. She tries drugging them, bashing them, and all sorts of other problems in order to solve the case. However, events lead to suspicious against Brad and now he has to play the detective while Paula distracts the police on his tail.

I enjoy how Paula’s brain is always on the case like how most writers would be distracted. Of course, since she writes mysteries, it causes her to forget her manners. I appreciate this about her character. So many old movies make authors charming and sociable. It’s more realistic in my opinion for her to be distracted and a little “dizzy” as they say in 30s lingo. She also has a big box of props for developing murder stories which is a fantastic detail!