Mystery to Me

The great detective takes on the Great White North! The Scarlet Claw is a 1944 Sherlock Holmes picture in the series starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. Once again, Roy William Neill is back to direct. Holmes and Watson find themselves in Canada for a paranormal convention. But things take a darker turn when one of the occult expert's wife is found murdered, her throat slashed by a claw. When...

Airing on May 8, 1952, "The Big September Man" is the eleventh episode of Dragnet's first season. And this isn't the jolly, strange colorized Dragnet that you may be used to. This is a drab, black-and-white, barely-out-of-radio program! Starring creator Jack Webb as Sergeant Joe Friday, this episode also features Barney Phillips, Stacy Harris, George Sawaya, Eddie Firestone, and Jonathan Hole. In...

"Fire Island" is the twenty-third episode of Naked City's first season. Directed by Disney veteran Norman Tokar, this procedural first aired on March 3, 1959, and stars John McIntire, James Franciscus, Henry Hull, Harry Bellaver, George Maharis, Michael Conrad, and Guy Raymond. Tensions smolder as a gang of moonshiners hunker down for the winter in a little Fire Island shack. But the sociopath of...

Won't you take me to Freaktown? Boomtown was a short-lived police drama set in Los Angeles that came out in 2002 to critical acclaim. It's artsy claim-to-fame was its non-linear approach to storytelling, with episodes featuring different points of view, including the perspectives of detectives, patrol cops, lawyers, reporters, paramedics, victims, and criminals. Airing on November 3, 2002, "The Fr...

Good morning, angels! Airing September 22, 1976, "Hellride" is the first episode of the heavenly seventies TV staple Charlie's Angels. Farrah Fawcett, Jaclyn Smith, and Kate Jackson star as a trio of beautiful badasses who ditch a sexist police department to join the Townsend Agency and get to work solving real cases. The outfit is run by the eponymous, mysterious, and faceless Charlie, and a...

Murder on the Orient Express is a 1974 film conducted — er, directed — by Sidney Lumet, featuring a first-class-car-load of stars, including Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery, Vanessa Redgrave, John Gielgud, Anthony Perkins, Jacqueline Bisset, Michael York, and Wendy Hiller. The flick is a highly faithful adaptation of Agatha Christie's famous 1934 classic. Albert Finney stars...

Blondes at Work is a 1938 film directed by Frank McDonald, featuring Glenda Farrell, Barton MacLane, and Tom Kennedy. It's the fourth film in the Torchy Blane series.  In this installment, journalist Torchy Blane must get to work on a tough story without the assistance of her fiancé and favorite source, Steve McBride. But the intrepid fair-haired reporter has a few tricks up her sleeves when...

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for two newlyweds to buy National Treasure at Half Price Books and watch it after their honeymoon, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare their opinions of said film and the feelings which impel them to view it on or around the Fourth of July. Remember when dumb conspiracy theories were fun and revolved...

This episode will leave your sanity on the ropes! "The Lady on Thursday at Ten" aired on January 1, 1978. Show star Pamela Sue Martin rang in the year with her last ever appearance on The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, with John Karlen, Nicholas Hammond, Tony Burton, and Simon Oakland also featuring in the show. Nancy Drew's efforts to escape from New York take a tragic turn when...

Finally, a plucky reporter who's not afraid to say, "Damn the journalistic ethics, full speed ahead!" The Adventurous Blonde is a 1937 film directed by Frank McDonald, featuring Glenda Farrell, Barton MacLane, and Tom Kennedy. It's the third film in the Torchy Blane series.  Farrell stars as Blane, a glamorous, golden-haired gal with a gift for gab and getting scoops through he...

Joe Friday of the LAPD redefines intelligence by targeting the dumbest terrorist alive. "Intelligence: DR-34" is the twenty-seventh episode of the third season of Dragnet — also known as Dragnet 1969. This episode aired on April ,17 1969, and starred show creator Jack Webb as the stalwart Sergeant Joe Friday. An awkward night school reunion takes a disturbing turn for Friday when a Scotc...

Time to glide straight over entertainment and fun, and land far away, in the desolate fields of disappointment. "The Mystery of the Diamond Triangle" is the fourth episode of the first season of the The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries. In this 1977 installment, Pamela Sue Martin plays famed sleuth Nancy Drew. Nancy is out to obtain the "Diamond Triangle," a coveted award bestowed on glider pilots....

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 safel...

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 McD...

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,...

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 Lans...

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 t...

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 Jo...

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 was...

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 ch...

"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, w...

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...

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 tri...

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...

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 Stratemey...