Mystery to Me

"Remember, dear listeners, you heard it here first, off the record, on the Q.T. and very Hush-Hush ." L.A. Confidential is a 1997 film from director Curtis Hanson, based on the novel by James Ellroy. It stars Guy Pearce, Russell Crowe, Kevin Spacey, Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito, James Cromwell, and David Strathairn. This well-acclaimed neo-noir centers around a trio of Los Angeles Police Department...

Beam us up, Hardys. "The Disappearing Floor" aired on March 6, 1977. It's the twelfth episode of the second season of the  The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries . It also takes its name from a book pumped out by the Stratemeyer Syndicate published in 1940, although its predecessor focuses on a more grounded case featuring earthbound criminals. In this episode, the Hardy Boys take on a case that...

Sherlock Holmes will be the death of us! Hey, it's a cool title. But the movie itself is at death's doorstep, so to speak. Sherlock Holmes Faces Death is a 1943 film starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce and directed by Roy William Neil. Set during World War II, this film is at least slightly based on the 1893 story from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual." In the...

Listen up, pupils! It's time for another lesson from Ms. Hildegarde Withers! Murder on the Blackboard  is a 1934 Pre-Code mystery film from director George Archainbaud. The picture stars Edna May Oliver as a strict teacher-slash-amateur-sleuth Hildegarde Withers, along with James Gleason as Police Inspector Oscar Piper. It's also based on the 1932 novel of the same name by Stuart Palmer. This...

Night and you and blue Hawaii ... and Tom Selleck, of course!  "Laura" is the seventeenth episode of Magnum, P.I. 's seventh season. Airing on February 25, 1987, this episode stars Tom Selleck as everyone's favorite Hawaii-based private-eye. It also features a swingin' guest star, and a depressing but effective storyline! So the summer wind came blowing in from across the sea, and it brought...

Forget the little town of Bethlehem. This flick will drag you to the little town of boredom. A Christmas Mystery is a 2014 made-for-television film directed by Peter Sullivan starring Esmé Bianco, Ryan Bittle, John Colton and, of course, TV's John Ratzenberger. The story follows a feisty reporter who lost her dad at a young age. When she finds mysterious Christmas cards in her late mother's attic,...

Drew you hear what I hear? It's another Mystery to Me episode about Nancy Drew, just in time for the holiday season!  "Will the Real Santa Claus...?" aired just shy of Christmas Eve, on December 18, 1977. It's the twelfth episode of the second season of the The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries . But there are no twelve drummers drumming in sight! No, just Pamela Sue Martin playing our favorite...

Let every Hart to Hart prepare Him room! And television and nature sing! Hart to Hart is a mystery television show featuring Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers as the titular crime-solving power couple."'Tis the Season to Be Murdered" is the fifth episode of the program's second season. It originally aired on December 16, 1980. In this episode, the Harts must go undercover in order to unravel a toy...

No, no, not that Friday the 13th! Friday the 13th: The Series was a fantasy horror television series about cousins named Ryan and Micki who inherited an antique shop filled with demonic, jinxed items. Together with their friend Jack, they've got to track down all the infernal inventory that's out in the world wreaking havoc and claiming lives.  The episode "Tales of the Undead" is the tenth i...

More like Doomtown, am I right? Boomtown was an earnest police drama set in Los Angeles that aired in the early 2000s. With Band of Brothers alumnus Graham Yost at the helm, the show initially attempted to employ an innovative non-linear approach to storytelling. Then network executives swooped in during the second season, and changed it into a flavorless police procedural. Season two premiered on...

In this show, the only end zone you’ll find yourself caring about is the end credits. “The Mystery of the Solid Gold Kicker” aired May 22, 1977, as the fourteenth episode of the first season of The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries. This episode featured Pamela Sue Martin as Nancy Drew, along with William Schallert, Jean Rasey, Michael Pataki, Martin Kove, Terry Kiser, and Jillian Kesner.  Oh,...

The FBI Story ? More like The Boring Story: Special Agent Jimmy Stewart Harangues Drowsy Quantico Recruits .  The FBI Story is a 1959 film from director Mervyn LeRoy starring James Stewart, Vera Miles, Murray Hamilton, Larry Pennell, Nick Adams, Diane Jergens, Jean Willes, Joyce Taylor, and Victor Millan. Oh, and let's not forget, this film introduces a sharp newcomer named J. Edgar Hoover, a...

If you've ever wondered what it'd be like to see the Little Rascals go up against two vicious murderers ... then seek psychiatric help immediately! Mystery to Me returns this week with a double-feature of two short films from the Our Gang series— alias The Little Rascals or Hal Roach's Rascals. Both shorts play with the detective genre. One is your average silly Our Gang fare. The other has a...

So ... about Last Night in Soho ... Last Night in Soho is a psychological thriller from director Edgar Wright, released on October 29, 2021 in the United Kingdom. The film stars Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Matt Smith, Diana Rigg, Terence Stamp, Michael Ajao, Rita Tushingham, Margaret Nolan, and Synnøve Karlsen. McKenzie plays Eloise, a fragile, daydream-believing fashionista from Cornwall...

Happy Halloween! To celebrate the spookiest day of the year, we watched two films centered around everyone's favorite crime-fighting, ghost-unmasking canine: Scooby Dooby Doo! Scooby-Doo! and the Reluctant Werewolf is an animated television film that came out on November 13, 1988. In this picture, Scooby Doo's best friend Shaggy Rogers is forcibly transformed into a werewolf so he can drive in Dra...

Slip into your rainbow hoodies and let's get to sleuthing! Only Murders in the Building is a mystery-comedy series on Hulu that premiered on August 31, 2021 and wrapped up its first season on October 19, 2021. It stars series co-creator Steve Martin, along with Martin Short and Selena Gomez. There's also plenty of celebrity cameos sprinkles throughout its 10 episodes. The series is the brainchild...

So you're telling me ... radio killed the British war effort star? Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror is a 1942 wartime mystery from director John Rawlins. The story is based somewhat on "His Last Bow" by Arthur Conan Doyle, a 1917 Sherlock Holmes story hyping World War I. Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce star as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson. They're tasked with tracking down an evil pod...

You have the right to rock out in the middle of your police procedural. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a television critic's review. You have a right to composer Randy Newman. If you cannot afford memorable songs, just stuff your episodes with boring tunes. Cop Rock is the unholy union of a police procedural and a musical, from the twisted mind of Steven Bocho, the creator be...

Caution! This review has a license to spoil. If you haven’t seen the latest James Bond film yet, hold off on listening, as we’ll be talking about major plot points and the ending in-depth. No Time to Die is the twenty-fifth film in the James Bond series. Directed by Cary Fukunaga, it stars Daniel Craig as the famed spy, along with Léa Seydoux, Rami Malek, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Lashana Lynch,...

Adam-12 is a police procedural from the mind of Dragnet creator Jack Webb. The series stars Martin Milner as seasoned LAPD officer Pete Malloy and Kent McCord as the promising rookie Jim Reed. This particular episode — "Log 174: Loan Sharks" — takes a bite out of the issue of organized crime employing violent debt collection methods. It's the first episode of the show's third season, and aired on...

SVU is back! Airing on September 23, 2021, "And the Empire Strikes Back" and "Never Turn Your Back on Them" make up the two-part premiere for the twenty-third season of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Mariska Hargitay stars as the just, empathetic Captain Olivia Benson, with Ice-T, Kelli Giddish, Peter Scanavino, Jamie Gray Hyder, and Demore Barnes rounding out the cast. This confusingly-pl...

It was the best of Grimes, it was the worst of Grimes.  Perry Mason  was a popular legal drama-mystery series centered around the exploits of its titular character, an ingenious criminal defense lawyer played by Raymond Burr. Author Erle Stanley Gardner initially dreamed up the character, who has inspired movies, radio serials, a CBS show, and a recent HBO series...

Barney Miller rang in its seventh season with a few assorted homicides. The long-running police sitcom starred Hal Linden as the titular captain, along with Max Gail, Ron Glass, James Gregory, and Steve Landesburg. In "Homicide: Part One" and "Homicide: Part Two" — episodes that ran on October 30 and November 6 of 1980 — the entire station gets overhauled into the NYPD's new homicide bureau....

Arg, matey, contrary to what the title suggests, this ain't a pirate flick! Tell No Tales is a 1939 mystery film from director Leslie Fenton, starring Melvyn Douglas, Louise Platt, Gene Lockhart, and Douglass Dumbrille. Douglas plays Michael Cassidy, the civic-minded editor of The Evening Guardian newspaper. When a competitor threatens to shut down his beloved paper forever, Cassidy sets out to so...

Gather round, ace Boomtown-booms! Boomtown was a police drama set in Los Angeles that premiered on September 29, 2002. Created by Band of Brothers alumnus Graham Yost, the show employs an innovative non-linear approach to storytelling. Episodes are divided between the perspective of Donnie Wahlberg's LAPD Detective Joel Stevens, Mykelti Williamson's LAPD Detective Bobby "Fearless" Smith, Neal McDo...