This month we watched Please Murder Me.
Genre: Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Plot: A lawyer wins an acquittal for his client, a woman accused of murder. After the verdict, he finds out that she indeed did commit the murder and manipulated him to win her acquittal. Guilt-ridden, and knowing that she can't be tried again for the murder, he devises a plan to bring her to justice.
Key Characters: Myra Leeds (Angela Lansbury), Craig Carlson (Raymond Burr:).
Review: we rated as 3 out of 5.
The movie seemed to be slow to start. Some of the acting was rigid but was typical of the period in which it was made. As it continued, the movie started to keep us guessing until the end. We realised then that the name of the movie was perhaps Craig Carlson, unable to live with himself, asking/forcing Myra to murder him – please murder me. This allowed him to ease his conscience by ensuring that she would be tried for his murder, after she had wrongly been found not guilty of her husband’s murder. Raymond Burr was perfect for the role, and we could see how this formed his entry into his later role on TV as Perry Mason.
We also discussed the term film-noir, a term originally applied to American thriller or detective films made in the period 1944–54, a style or genre of cinematographic film marked by a mood of pessimism, fatalism, and menace. Similar films could include the 1946 adaptation of the James M Cain novel The Postman Always Rings Twice. We decided to watch this movie in May if it could be found.
Further: Our May movie will be The Postman Always Rings Twice starring Lana Turner and John Garfield. We aim to start watching the movie promptly at 1:00pm so that we have time to discuss the movie.
Genre: Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Plot: A lawyer wins an acquittal for his client, a woman accused of murder. After the verdict, he finds out that she indeed did commit the murder and manipulated him to win her acquittal. Guilt-ridden, and knowing that she can't be tried again for the murder, he devises a plan to bring her to justice.
Key Characters: Myra Leeds (Angela Lansbury), Craig Carlson (Raymond Burr:).
Review: we rated as 3 out of 5.
The movie seemed to be slow to start. Some of the acting was rigid but was typical of the period in which it was made. As it continued, the movie started to keep us guessing until the end. We realised then that the name of the movie was perhaps Craig Carlson, unable to live with himself, asking/forcing Myra to murder him – please murder me. This allowed him to ease his conscience by ensuring that she would be tried for his murder, after she had wrongly been found not guilty of her husband’s murder. Raymond Burr was perfect for the role, and we could see how this formed his entry into his later role on TV as Perry Mason.
We also discussed the term film-noir, a term originally applied to American thriller or detective films made in the period 1944–54, a style or genre of cinematographic film marked by a mood of pessimism, fatalism, and menace. Similar films could include the 1946 adaptation of the James M Cain novel The Postman Always Rings Twice. We decided to watch this movie in May if it could be found.
Further: Our May movie will be The Postman Always Rings Twice starring Lana Turner and John Garfield. We aim to start watching the movie promptly at 1:00pm so that we have time to discuss the movie.
With all the movies we watch, we look at them as literature – literature in a different medium, the medium of film. This helps to focus the discussion, covering ideas around genre, characters, plot, but also adding the aspects that relate to film, such as cinemascope, music and atmosphere.
Joy Shirley
Joy Shirley
