Tuesday, May 30, 2023

A new blue plaque for Wilkie Collins.

Wilkie Collins. NYPL.
The Isle of Thanet News reports that Church Hill Cottage (aka Woodside Cottage) in Broadstairs, UK, has received a new blue plaque (a historical recognition program for UK structures), as it was the location where Wilkie Collins wrote the early chapters of his landmark mystery The Woman in White (1859–60). Journalist Ken Nickoll followed clues in censuses, land documents, and Collins's correspondence to uncover Collins's lodging.

Monday, May 22, 2023

"Directed by Ida Lupino: Macabre Television."

Ida Lupino.
On June 24 at the Billy Wilder Theater, UCLA Film & Television Archive will salute some of Ida Lupino's directing contributions to TV mystery and horror through the program "Directed by Ida Lupino: Macabre Television," showing the episodes "A Crime for Mothers" (Alfred Hitchcock Presents),  "Guillotine" (Thriller; screenplay by Charles Beaumont, based on a story by Cornell Woolrich), and "The Masks" (Twilight Zone).

Monday, May 15, 2023

Beijing hosts Sherlock Holmes exhibition.

Sherlock Holmes by
Sidney Paget
China Daily brings word that the National Museum of Classic Books in Beijing is hosting an exhibition on Sherlock Holmes until November 2, including crime scenes from the Holmes canon and a late-19th-century Chinese newspaper that printed Holmes tales translated into Chinese.

Monday, May 08, 2023

Orson Welles and The Black Museum.

Illustration of Orson Welles 
to advertise The Lives of
Harry Lime
, ca. 1951
Over on Wellesnet, Ray Kelly discusses Orson Welles' role in The Black Museum, an early true-crime radio program based on Scotland Yard cases, and The Adventures of Harry Lime (US title: The Lives of Harry Lime), a radio program based on Welles's shady character in the film The Third Man

Listen to Black Museum episodes here.
Listen to The Lives of Harry Lime episodes here.

Monday, May 01, 2023

Hardboiled programs, DeKalb (IL) Public Library.

From May through August, DeKalb (IL) Public Library is hosting the free monthly program "The Golden Age of Film Noir and Its Novels," discussing key novels and showing clips from their film adaptations. Authors featured include Dashiell Hammett (May 27), James M. Cain, W. R. Burnett, and Cornell Woolrich.

Photos: (left) James M. Cain; (right) Dashiell Hammett, Yank, 30 Nov. 1945; (bottom, top) illustration of W. R. Burnett by his first wife, Marjorie Burnett, 1932; Cornell Woolrich.