I first watched 12 Angry Men (1957) some 20-odd years ago and was delighted, as a callow teenager, to find it more than living up to its reputation. So, 20-odd years on, does it stand up to a second viewing?
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In GAD We Trust – Episode 25: Fair Play and the Nomenclature of Golden Age Detective Fiction [w’ Scott K. Ratner]
Gutsy of me to suggest, on my site dedicated to the discussion of Golden Age detective fiction, that a lot of the terminology used to talk about these stories is incorrect, eh? Well, thankfully I’m not the one trying to convince you; that job falls to Mr. Scott K. Ratner.
Continue reading#807: “As baffling a mystery as any in the annals of crime” – Unravelled Knots [ss] (1925) by Baroness Orczy
Having thoroughly enjoyed the first two collections of Baroness Orczy’s stories about the Old Man in the Corner, I was anticipating a similarly enjoyable time with the third and final collection, Unravelled Knots (1925). The third and final collection had other plans…
Continue reading#799: Minor Felonies/Little Fictions – ‘The Glass Bridge’ (1957) and ‘Change of Address’ (1951) by Robert Arthur
Another week, another brace of stories from Mystery and More Mystery (1966) by Robert Arthur.
Continue reading#763: Little Fictions – Death and the Professor [ss] (1961) by E. & M.A. Radford
A surgeon, a policeman, a psychiatrist, a mathematician, and a pathologist walk into a club — the foundation not of some esoteric wit but instead the Dilettante’s Club, a dinner-and-discussion group who meet fortnightly for their own entertainment. And when Professor Marcus Stubbs joins their number, those discussions take a frequent turn into the realm of the impossible crime.
Continue reading#757: Little Fictions – The Nine Mile Walk and Other Stories [ss] (1968) by Harry Kemelman
A little while back, I decided that short story collections don’t really merit an overall star rating since the stories should be considered individually. Thus, I stopped reviewing them on Thursdays and moved them to weekends. The upshot of this is that I now have a lot of unreviewed short story collections, so I’m going to pick out four single-author bundles to look at on Tuesdays in February. And first up is this collection recommended to me by Christian of Mysteries, Short and Sweet.
Continue reading#747: “A murder which at first seems absolutely purposeless always reveals an interesting trait in human nature…” – The Case of Miss Elliott [ss] (1905) by Baroness Orczy
There’s so much depth in Golden Age detective fiction — it was a golden age, after all, irrespective of how narrow you make the window of admissible dates — that one could never read everything. Instead, we must find 60 or so authors who interest us, and hope to get a good coverage elsewhere. Well, if you’ve yet to read Baroness Emmuska Orczy’s Old Man in the Corner stories, I urge you to start as soon as possible.
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