…guest stars Michael Brandon…
…(also of Dario Argento’s Four Flies on Grey Velvet, 1971)…
…John Saxon…
…(Dario Argento’s Tenebre, 1982)…
…and Tony Lo Bianco…
…(Leonard Kastle’s The Honeymoon Killers, 1969)…
This is just weird. That casting director had to have some idea, no? In any event, the Murder, She Wrote episode is 1994’s “Proof In The Pudding,” and its mystery has among the lamest solutions to any in the series, and believe me, My Lovely Wife and I have seen quite a few episodes. Right now, as you may have inferred, we’re working our way through the Season Ten DVD set.
I probably don’t need to tell you that the woman in the Flies screen cap with Brandon is the ineffable Mimsy Farmer, or that the woman with Lo Bianco in Killers is the immortal Shirley Stoler. Am I correct?
So did Larry Tucker ever pop up on this show, or what?
Did Chaka Demus & Pliers ever appear on the show?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-av7F1JBmj4
I haven’t seen Brandon very much but at my daughter’s command I hear him everyday, as the voice of the Storyteller on PBS’ long-running THOMAS & FRIENDS. “Fizzling fireboxes!”
RIP Gloria Stuart, age 100. Among other things she, too, was a MURDER, SHE WROTE alum.
Kinda going off topic, but …
Thinking specifically of Shirley Stoler, I wonder how much of her immortality (which she definitely does deserve … don’t get me wrong) was based on THE HONEYMOON KILLERS having been her first role and then not having much of a career afterward. In other words, she was kind of frozen in amber as Martha Beck, and thus sticking in the memory identified as that role in a way that a more versatile or prolific actress might not have been.
So my mind drifted to my favorite performances of all time and I drew up a very unsatisfactory list of 10, at least one from each of the four categories. And I found that most of them were my first exposure to that actor, in most cases, I hadn’t seen a lot else by them, and some of those other roles even seemed to fold into the one I think among the greatest of all time.
In other words, does it help to have or only be known for a few roles. Here’s that list of mine:
Gloria Swanson in SUNSET BLVD – First time I’d seen her, since only seen her in two or three other films, all silents, which seems appropriate
Vivian Leigh in STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE – Second time I’d seen her, but that first-seen role (GWTW, obviously) deepens and enriches her here; still only seen her in one additional time
Liza Minnelli in CABARET – First time I’d seen her, seen her a few times since obviously, but usually as a musical performer I can assimilate to Sally Bowles
Marlon Brando in LAST TANGO IN PARIS – Rule, meet exception
Aurelien Recoing in TIME OUT – First time I’d seen him, never seen him since
Olivier Gourmet in THE SON – Second time I’d seen him; only once ever seen him outside the Dardennes’ universe, where he’s a constant presence
Orson Welles in THE THIRD MAN – Rule, meet another exception
Jean Hagen in SINGIN IN THE RAIN – First time I’d seen her, only conscious of having seen her twice since
Agnes Moorehead in THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS – Now I saw the entire run of “Bewitched” before I heard of Welles, but frankly, she doesn’t here look much Endora, though you can hear the voice
Zasu Pitts in GREED – First time I’d seen her, and it becomes more eye-popping when you learn (and actually see her as) a slapstick comedy star
Apropos of nothing many years ago my family got the Murder, She Wrote board game and played it with my Angela Lansbury-esque grandmother when we visiting her place on holiday. The game was kind of a rip off of Cluedo and involved everybody leaving the room and then each person taking it in turns to go alone into the room with the game and make their move – the twist of course being that the person who had been dealt the murderer card would go about bumping people off.
The game began to get very confusing at around the halfway point, and it was only quite near the end that we as a family found out that my lovely, kindly grandmother who wouldn’t hurt a fly had unfortunately been dealt the murderer card, and not only that but she wasn’t really certain about the rules of the game and every time she took a turn at making her move in secret had killed a character, or even resurrected them!
She single handedly managed to turn a pretty average TV spin-off board game into a wonderfully memorable and charming family moment!
I wonder if there was ever a Murder, She Wrote episode where Jessica Fletcher turned out to be the giallo-esque psychosexual killer? (à la Tenebrae?)
“I wonder if there was ever a Murder, She Wrote episode where Jessica Fletcher turned out to be the giallo-esque psychosexual killer? (à la Tenebrae?)”
I seem to recall one where she mauled a blind Udo Kier.
Oh, that’s how the series ends–we discover that Jessica Fletcher was the mastermind behind all 12 seasons’ worth of killings, and had meticulously engineered framings for every accused killer. A really unexpected conclusion.