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SteveDir
Reviews
The Inspector Lynley Mysteries: A Suitable Vengeance (2003)
Minor spoilers - Which Lynley characters are NOT in the movie.
A good movie but somewhat of a disappointment for fans of the book. I understand a screenwriter has to make major changes in order to fit a full-length novel into a 90-minute TV show but I was still think that deleting major characters makes it a different story. No Simon St. James, no Deborah, no Cotter so we had to have Lynley engaged to Helen instead and made Sidney Lynley's COUSIN? I guess a lot of the changes were due to changing the chronology of Lynley's stories. This was the fourth book published, but the whole book was a flashback to before Lynley even worked with Havers. Now the TV episode was the ninth installment and set right in line with others.
Enough whining. The movie was very good, well acted, the plot points all tied together well. Sharon Small was excellent as a guest at the Lynley mansion completely out of her element. I would have really loved it if I hadn't read the book.
Crashing Through Danger (1936)
Typical Depression era pot boiler
Formula movie about 3 men who risk their lives maintaining the utilities in a large U.S. city in the late 30's and their romances. Sally Blane (Loretta Young's sister) is as beautiful as ever, but really can't act. The rest of the cast are 30's era contract players, doing their best when making 10 or 12 movies per year. I guess it was worth the nickel admission of it's time.
I like seeing the old city (I assume that it was filmed in LA) and seeing how the safety precautions for utility workers were pretty primitive in that era.
All in all it was an unremarkable film to me, although others may find it action packed and romantic. My favorite scene is a fight scene in a what was apparently a German Beer Hall type place, interesting for 1938.
It didn't bore me, but didn't really excite me either. If you come across it, watch it. I'd be curious what other people thought of it.
Riders of Destiny (1933)
The Duke at 26!
REAL early John Wayne! He's young and active, doing his own stunts like jumping on to a horse at a full run, and he actually sings! Sure his acting skills are a bit rough, but he looks great, and you can see the great future as a hero in front of him