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Post by helrunar on Oct 23, 2019 15:58:45 GMT
For anyone who's still curious, nice scan of the cover of the Barnabas, Quentin and the Serpent thing: darkshadows.fandom.com/wiki/Barnabas,_Quentin_and_the_Serpent It was published in December of 1970 when the show was in its final months of broadcast life. H.
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Post by andydecker on Oct 24, 2019 10:19:15 GMT
Ah, the Agatha Christie school of masquerading. (Which I always wonder if people back then really thought this believable.) Only her villains are more competent. In which Christie story does this happen? I am sure it does, but I cannot recollect any. From the top of my head:
The classic is After the Funeral, one of the Poirot's, where the murderer Miss Gilchrist disguises herself as the victim Cora Lansquenet at a funeral and a reading of a will, only to appear later as herself in the bossom of the family and nobody recognizes her. (In this novel it even makes sense to a point, as no family member had seen Cora for years.)
Next is Lord Edgeware dies where the murderer sends an actress impersonating her to a party to get an alibi while she is killing her husband.
Then there is Murder in Mesopotamia, another Poirot, where the victim marries a man - her murderer - without recognizing him as the man she already had married 15 years ago before he seemingly died on the way to the prison because he was a spy. Even allowing that the young couple didn't have much time together before he got busted this is a bit reaching, I think. I can't remember though if the villain here wore a disguise beside just being older. (Which alone would make this even more ridiculous.)
In Dead Man's Folly from 1956 one of the murderers also disguises herself as a Italian tourist to get an alibi, and not even her housekeeper recognizes her.
I think in Murder on the Orient Express there also was a disguise or at least an identity switch, but it is ages that I read the novel and the movie-versions have left such a strong impression that this may be wrong. All the movies rewrite the ending and the dynamics somewhat. (Or strongly as in the recent godawful Branagh movie.) In the novel it is basically a long monologue by Poirot while the suspects are listening silent.
I seem to remember that there was this also in some of the Poirot short-stories, but can't say for sure.
The novels are all Poirots of which I am a fan and of which I read quite a few of the novels while watching most of the adaptions. I guess in the rest of her novels with Ms Marple this idea is also featured. It would surprise me if she didn't use it here.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Oct 24, 2019 13:40:57 GMT
In which Christie story does this happen? I am sure it does, but I cannot recollect any. From the top of my head:
The classic is After the Funeral, one of the Poirot's, where the murderer Miss Gilchrist disguises herself as the victim Cora Lansquenet at a funeral and a reading of a will, only to appear later as herself in the bossom of the family and nobody recognizes her. (In this novel it even makes sense to a point, as no family member had seen Cora for years.) Next is Lord Edgeware dies where the murderer sends an actress impersonating her to a party to get an alibi while she is killing her husband.
Then there is Murder in Mesopotamia, another Poirot, where the victim marries a man - her murderer - without recognizing him as the man she already had married 15 years ago before he seemingly died on the way to the prison because he was a spy. Even allowing that the young couple didn't have much time together before he got busted this is a bit reaching, I think. I can't remember though if the villain here wore a disguise beside just being older. (Which alone would make this even more ridiculous.)
In Dead Man's Folly from 1956 one of the murderers also disguises herself as a Italian tourist to get an alibi, and not even her housekeeper recognizes her. I think in Murder on the Orient Express there also was a disguise or at least an identity switch, but it is ages that I read the novel and the movie-versions have left such a strong impression that this may be wrong. All the movies rewrite the ending and the dynamics somewhat. (Or strongly as in the recent godawful Branagh movie.) In the novel it is basically a long monologue by Poirot while the suspects are listening silent.
I seem to remember that there was this also in some of the Poirot short-stories, but can't say for sure.
The novels are all Poirots of which I am a fan and of which I read quite a few of the novels while watching most of the adaptions. I guess in the rest of her novels with Ms Marple this idea is also featured. It would surprise me if she didn't use it here.
Sorry, I think I meant specifically men disguising themselves as women. But thanks for the extensive list; it brings back many happy memories. To me, the outrageousness of the basic premise of MURDER IN MESOPOTAMIA is one of the novel's strengths.
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Post by sabenaravna on Jan 5, 2020 22:58:15 GMT
I am a Resurrection (wo)man but...
This reminds me a Marilyn Ross Gothic Ghost Ship of Fog Island, including an esaped mental patient and sea weed on the floor. Amateurish writing, otherwise very simple, but with adjectives in odd places "a big woman said" or "a little lawyer agreed". But it had a Gothic mansion, fog, sweet heroine, escaped metal patient and incestuous siblings, plus a dinner table discussion of Jack the Ripper!
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