Mystery to Me

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 "Th...

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 p...

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...

"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 coll...

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, Serge...

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...

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 s...

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 g...

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 pre...

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...

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,...

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,...

Satan Met a Lady is an infernal 1936 detective picture from William Dieterle starring Bette Davis and Warren William. The film is the second of three movies based off Dashiell Hammett's classic novel The Maltese Falcon to come out between 1931 and 1941. And the second time was certainly not the charm!  Basically, the story is that a devilishly annoying detective and a bunch of crooks, in...

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 creativ...

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 mus...

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 c...

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 t...

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 g...

Mystery to Me is a brand new podcast featuring riffs and recommendations on films and TV shows with a hint of mystery. Join us as we crack wise and dish out our own analysis on murder mysteries, film noir, cozy detective stories, police procedurals, psychological thrillers, legal dramas, tales of teen sleuths, and more. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow us on Facebook , ...