Daily Archives: January 12, 2025

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi High 1.7 “Just Friends”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Sunday, I will be reviewing the Canadian series, Degrassi High, which aired on CBC and PBS from 1989 to 1991!  The series can be streamed on YouTube!

This week, Wheels breaks another heart.

Episode 1.7 “Just Friends”

(Dir by Kit Hood, originally aired on December 12th, 1989)

Heather Farrell has a crush on Wheels so Erica Farrell helps her throw a party so she can invite Wheels to their house and share a dance with him and maybe discover if he feels the same way about her that she does about him.  Of course, Wheels doesn’t feel that way about Heather and is surprised when Snake informs him that Heather obviously has a crush on him.  Still, that doesn’t stop Wheels from making out with Heather on her front porch while all of the party guests watch through the front window.

Heather has a boyfriend!

Well, no.  Actually, Wheels tells Snake that he still doesn’t like Heather like that and that making out with her is just something that happened.  He’s only interested in her as a friend.  (AGCK!  I mean, don’t get me wrong.  This is actually a lot more realistic than what happens on most high school shows but poor Heather!)  Wheels is supposed to call Heather when he gets home so that they can talk.  Of course, Wheels doesn’t call Heather and he ends up with not one but both of the Farrell twins mad at him and giving him their trademark evil eye.

(Of course, as we all know, Wheels is eventually going to be sent for prison after he runs over a kid while driving drunk so, really, the Farrell twins kind of lucked out here.)

The main problem with any episode that centers around the Farrell twins is that it’s difficult to remember which is which and neither one of them is really that interesting of a character.  I spent most of this episode trying to remember whether it was Erica or Heather who had the abortion.  I’m pretty sure it was Erica, which explains why Erica freaked out when she saw Heather making out with Wheels.  Erica doesn’t want the same thing that happened to her to happen to Heather.  But, aside from that, the Farrells have always kind of been boring characters and their party looked kind of lame as well.

Lucy was invited to the party but, instead of going, she instead went to the hospital to visit with L.D., who had just been told that she had Leukemia.  Good for Lucy!  One of the best parts of Degrassi High has been watching Lucy go from being self-centered and kind of mean to being one of the show’s most genuinely nice characters.  To the show’s credit, it’s shown her slowly becoming more emotionally mature as opposed to just having her change overnight.  It’s another example of how Degrassi High was realistic in the way that most teen shows were not and still aren’t.

Finally, Kathleen, Melanie, and Diana went to a movie but they didn’t invite their friend Maya (Kyra Levy) because Maya is in a wheelchair.  They didn’t think Maya would have been able to take the “streetcar” to the movie and the theater was not wheelchair accessible.  The next day, an angry Maya tells them that she could have gotten a ride from her mom and that they could have gone to a different theater that was accessible.  Maya angrily tells them not to assume that she can’t do things just because she’s in a wheelchair.  Good for Maya!  Myself, I’m just happy to see that Kathleen has apparently dumped the abusive Scott and is refusing to speak to him.  Good for for Kathleen!

This episode was a good example of how Degrassi High dealt realistically with being a teenager.  The Farrell twins are kind of boring but the L.D. and Maya subplots were well-handled.  This was a good episode, even if both Joey and Caitlin were noticeably absent.

Lisa Marie’s Week In Review: 1/6/25 — 1/12/25

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Needless to say, my heart goes out to everyone who is dealing with wildfires in Los Angeles.  My heart also goes out to all the people in North Carolina and Hawaii who are still struggling to rebuild their lives.  I’ve heard some infuriating stories about the failure of local and national government to help those effected but I’ve also heard some inspiring stories about ordinary people looking out for their neighbors and bravely helping out in whatever way they can.  That’s one reason why I love this country.

Here’s what I watched and listened to this week.

Films I Watched:

  1. Abigail (2024)
  2. Arrowsmith (1931)
  3. Arson, Inc. (1949)
  4. The Bear Lake Murders (2025)
  5. The Bitch (1979)
  6. The Cardinal (1963)
  7. Casablanca Express (1989)
  8. Cindy Goes To A Party (1955)
  9. The Country Girl (1954)
  10. The Elevator (2021)
  11. Exodus (1960)
  12. Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003)
  13. The Great Smokey Roadblock (1977)
  14. It Came From Aquarius Records (2022)
  15. The Jazz Singer (1980)
  16. Juror #2 (2024)
  17. The Lost Wife of Robert Durst (2017)
  18. Mercy Streets (2000)
  19. Moonstruck (1987)
  20. Mysteries From Beyond Earth (1975)
  21. Mysteries of the Gods (1976)
  22. Night of the Running Man (1975)
  23. Quasi at the Quackadero (1976)
  24. Quick Change (1990)
  25. Shadow of the Vampire (2000)
  26. The Stud (1978)
  27. Terror Comes Knocking: The Marcela Borges Story (2025)
  28. When It Rains In L.A. (2025)
  29. Why? (1973)
  30. The Wraith (1986)

Television Shows I Watched:

  1. Abbott Elementary
  2. Check It Out!
  3. Degrassi High
  4. Dark
  5. Doc
  6. Dr. Phil
  7. Fantasy Island
  8. Friday the 13th: The Series
  9. Going Dutch
  10. Hell’s Kitchen
  11. Highway to Heaven
  12. Homicide: Life On The Street
  13. Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action
  14. Kitchen Nightmares
  15. The Love Boat
  16. Monsters
  17. Pacific Blue
  18. Shifting Gears
  19. Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test
  20. St. Elsewhere
  21. Welcome Back, Kotter

Music To Which I Listened:

  1. Adi Ulmansky
  2. Bob Dylan
  3. Britney Spears
  4. The Chemical Brothers
  5. Clint Mansell
  6. Commodores
  7. Crud
  8. David Bowie
  9. Frank Stallone
  10. Genesis
  11. The Heavy
  12. Huey Lewis and the News
  13. Kenny Loggins
  14. The KLF
  15. Led Zeppelin
  16. Lindsey Stirling
  17. New Radicals
  18. Pretty Sick
  19. Ringo Starr
  20. Saint Motel
  21. The Wallflowers
  22. X
  23. Yvonne Elliman

Live Tweets:

  1. The Wraith
  2. Night of the Running Man
  3. Quick Change
  4. Abigail

Awards Season:

  1. DGA Nominations
  2. SAG Nominations

News From Last Week:

  1. Los Angeles wildfires death toll rises to 16 as Gavin Newsom faces new firefighting funding scrutiny
  2. 2025 Critics Choice Awards Postponed Due to L.A. Fires, New Date Revealed
  3. Oscar nominations delayed, voting extended due to L.A. fires
  4. The Producers Guild Delays Nomination Announcement

Links From Last Week:

  1. 2025 Oscars: How to Fix The Film Industry and Save the Oscars – Part One
  2. Tater’s Week in Review 1/10/25
  3. Happy Birthday Nicolas Cage! I Watched SEVEN “Cage-tacular” Films To Celebrate!
  4. “Toby”: Cephalotus follicularis update

Links From The Site:

  1. Case reviewed Raising Arizona!
  2. Leonard reviewed The Sorcerer’s Apprentice!
  3. Erin shared No Escape, House Call, Hellcat, Ben Wilson, Lust Jungle, One Hot Night, and Fleshpot!
  4. Erin reviewed Bull Durham!
  5. Erin shared The Manliest Covers of True Man!  And she paid tribute to a brave little spider!
  6. Jeff reviewed Dead For A Dollar, Silverado, No Holds Barred, Counterpunch, Glass Jaw, The Challenger, and The Great White Hope!
  7. Jeff wished Elvis a happy birthday!  He posted a game review and he shared great moments in both comic book and television history!
  8. Brad reviewed Wanted Dead Or Alive, Stakeout, Hard Times, Borderline, Death Hunt, A Family Thing, Kid Galahad, It Could Happen To You, 
  9. Brad reviewed the second episode of Shane!
  10. Brad shared song from Flight of the Conchords!
  11. Brad paid tribute to Jimmy Page and Jan Gan Boyd!
  12. I reviewed The Country Girl, Red Alert, The Hole In The Wall, Mercy Streets, Cindy Goes To A Party, King Richard, Casablanca Express, Che!, Quick Change, A Streetcar Named Desire, Saturday Night, Fargo, Jazz Singer, Arrowsmith, Wild 90, Mysteries of the Gods, Why?, Moonstruck, Bonnie & Clyde: Justified, The Great Smokey Roadblock, From Here To Eternity, and After Hours!
  13. I reviewed Homicide, Check It Out, Welcome Back Kotter, Friday the 13th, St. Elsewhere, Highway to Heaven, Malibu CA, Monsters, The Love Boat, Pacific Blue, Fantasy Island, CHiPs, Miami Vice, and Degrassi High!
  14. I shared songs of the day from Shirley Bassey, The Chemical Brothers, Flight of the Conchords, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, Clint Mansell, and Huey Lewis and the News!
  15. I shared scenes from Money Plane, Psycho, The Warriors, A Few Dollars More, Predator, Zandalee, and Back to the Future!
  16. I paid tribute to Rob Zombie, Alfonso Arau, Walter Hill, Ulu Grosbard, John McTiernan, Roger Pratt, and John Singleton!
  17. I shared music videos from Ringo Starr, Pretty Sick, The Wallflowers, Lindsey Stirling, David Bowie, Kenny Loggins, and Ludacris!
  18. I shared my week in television!

Click here to check out last week!

Lisa Marie Reviews An Oscar Nominee: The Country Girl (dir by George Seaton)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

First released in 1954 and based on a play by Clifford Odets, The Country Girl is centered around the production of a believably terrible stage musical called The Land Around Us.

Director Bernie Dodd (William Holden) is known for his willingness to take risks.  One of his previous plays was about a punk-drunk boxer so he cast an actual punch-drunk boxer in the role.  For The Land Around Us, Bernie wants to cast Frank Elgin (Bing Crosby), a former singing star who has fallen on hard times.  Frank was once a hitmaker but, after the tragic death of his son, his career went downhill.  He’s now lucky if he can get a job singing a commercial jingle.  Though Frank aces his audition, the show’s producer (Anthony Ross) insists that Frank is just too unreliable and that everyone know that he’s now a drunk.  Bernie, however, insists on casting Frank and Bernie, as always, gets his way.

Bernie grew up looking up to Frank and it’s hard for him to see that his idol is now struggling.  Bernie squarely puts the blame on Frank’s wife, Georgie (Grace Kelly, wearing glasses and her hair tied back).  Whenever Bernie sees Georgie, she seems to be criticizing Frank and micromanaging his life.  Bernie tells Frank that Georgie is holding back his career but Frank explains that Georgie is unstable and that, whenever he’s tried to leave her, she’s responded by attempting to commit suicide.  Bernie, who seems to have issues with women in general, believes everything that Frank says.  Whenever Frank makes a demand during the rehearsal process, Bernie blames Georgie.  Whenever Frank seems to be insecure about whether or not he can still be a star, Bernie blames Georgie.

Of course, Bernie’s wrong.  As is obvious to everyone watching the film (and as should have been obvious to Bernie from the moment he first saw Frank and Georgie together), Georgie is the the only person who is keeping Frank from totally falling apart.  If she seems to be demanding, she knows that it’s because Frank is so desperate to be a star again that he tends to let people walk all over him.  If she’s overprotective of Frank, that’s because she knows that Frank is an alcoholic who blames himself for the death of their son.  Frank is the one who tried to commit suicide, not Georgie.  Georgie has dedicated her life to taking care of Frank and, if she is sometimes overly critical with him, it’s because she alone understands that Frank is throwing his life away.

It’s a sad film.  Both Georgie and Bernie are almost fanatically loyal to Frank but it’s hard not to feel that the self-centered and self-destructive Frank doesn’t really deserve their loyalty.  That we have any sympathy at all for Frank is due to the performance of Bing Crosby, who plays the role with just enough self-awareness that the audience gets a hint of the man Frank was before he turned to alcohol and self-pity.  As usual, William Holden is well-cast as a cynical but ultimately kind-hearted character and he does a good job of hinting at what lies underneath Bernie’s rough exterior.  Grace Kelly won her only Oscar for playing Georgie and she does a fairly good job, even if she does seem to be miscast.  Georgie is far cry from the glamorous characters that Kelly usually played.  Personally, I think she was far more Oscar-worthy in Rear Window, which was released the same year and featured Kelly in a far more interesting role.  George Seaton directs the film as if it were a film noir, with Holden, Crosby, and Kelly often acting in the shadows.  The Country Girl works best when it contrasts the artificiality of Bernie’s show with the real-life human drama taking place backstage.

The Country Girl was nominated for Best Picture, Director, Actor, and Actress.  While Grace Kelly was named Best Actress, the rest of the awards were won by On The Waterfront, with Bing Crosby losing to Marlon Brando.

Dead For A Dollar (2022, directed by Walter Hill)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

In 1897, bounty hunter Max Borlund (Christoph Waltz) is hired by wealthy Martin Kidd (Hamish Linklater) to track down Elijah Jones (Brandon Scott), the man who Martin says has kidnapped his wife.  Accompanying Max is Alonzo Poe (Warren Burke), who served with Elijah in the Army.

From the start, Max suspects that Martin is not being completely forthright about the kidnapping and it does turn out that Rachel Kidd (Rachel Brosnahan) voluntarily left with Elijah and is planning on traveling to Cuba with him.  Martin has hired crime baron Tiberio Vargas (Benjamin Bratt) to have Rachel raped and murdered because Martin thinks that the tragedy will help him launch his political career.  Because Martin suspects that Max might not be trustworthy, he has hired Max’s rival, Joe Cribbens (Willem DaFoe), to track down Rachel as well.

This film has a cast that is full of talented people and it’s a western directed by someone who has proven himself to be one of the masters of genre, Walter Hill.  I wanted to like Dead For A Dollar but the movie just didn’t work.  Waltz and DaFoe are great actors but they just seem to be going through the motions and Rachel Bsonahan is miscast.  Benjamin Bratt and Hamish Linklater are forgettable villains.  Even worse, Dead For A Dollar has a washed-out visual style that you would never expect from a director like Walter Hill.

Rewatch The Long Riders instead.

Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life on the Street 2.3 “Black and Blue”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Sundays, I will be reviewing Homicide: Life On The Street, which aired from 1993 to 1999, on NBC!  It  can be viewed on Peacock.

This week, Pembleton gets a confession.

Episode 2.3 “Black and Blue”

(Dir by Chris Menaul, originally aired on January 20th, 1994)

In this week’s episode, Pembleton manipulates a man into confessing to a murder that he didn’t commit.  Pembleton does it with the full knowledge that the man is innocent and that, if the man is indicted and goes to trial, he will undoubtedly be found guilty as a result of that coerced confession.  Pembleton does it to prove a point to Giardello.

The man is Lane Staley (Isaiah Washington), who has been identified (by his grandmother, who was just trying to be helpful) as an eyewitness to the shooting of Charles Courtland Cox.  Pembleton is convinced that Cox was shot by a policeman and he only wants to interrogate Staley as a witness.  Giardello, who feels that Pembleton is to obsessed with his cop theory and who, as a proud member of the police force, does not want Pembleton to be right, insists that Pembleton treat Staley as a suspect.  Pembleton responds by going into the Box and pretending to be sympathetic to Staley’s situation.  He and Staley talk about how they’re both expected to always be polite and careful about what they say around white detectives.  Pembleton jokes that he always has to be extra polite when he comes to work.

Staley starts to open up to Pembleton and eventually admits that he was present when Cox was shot.  That’s when Pembleton starts shouting at Staley, accusing him of being responsible and basically browbeating Staley until Staley is in tears.  Pembleton makes Staley feel guilty for not doing more to protect Cox and continues to yell at him until, eventually, Staley feels that Cox’s murder was his fault.  Staley finally signs a confession, even though it’s obvious that the sobbing man is not a murderer.  Pembleton hands Giardello the confession and reminds him that’s the way that the police have been getting confessions out of young black suspects for years.

It’s a powerful moment and one that took me totally by surprise.  Andre Braugher and Yaphet Kotto both gave excellent performances in this episode.  The dynamic between Pembleton and Giardello has always been one of the more interesting parts of the show.  The fact that both of them are black and both of them are portrayed as being fully aware of the racism surrounding them brings an extra edge to their debate as to whether or not the black Cox was shot by a white policeman. (At one point, Giardello snaps at Pembleton to speak to him as respectfully as he speaks to the white lieutenants and it’s the exact type of moment that most shows would never have the courage or insight to portray.)  Pembleton is a great detective because he’s laser-focused on getting a confession, to the exclusion of worrying about anything else.  Giardello is a great lieutenant because he’s enough of a pragmatist to understand that some battles are not worth the price of victory.  In the end, Giardello comes to realize that Pembleton is right about the shooting but one still has to wonder what would have happened in Giardello hadn’t torn up Staley’s confession.  The murder of Cox would have disappeared from the headlines but the innocent Staley would have disappeared into the system.

The scenes with Pembleton and Staley were so electrifying that it made up for the fact that this is yet another episode that features Bolander feeling sorry for himself after his divorce.  Fortunately, for Bolander, he meets and befriends a young waitress named Linda (Julianne Margulies) who mentions that she plays the violin.  Bolander reveals that he plays the cello — WHAT!?  Since when has Bolander, someone who has expressed no interest in art or creativity or even music during his entire time of the show, become a cello player?  The episode ends with Bolander and Linda playing their instruments together and it’s a sweet scene but it’s still a bit hard to buy that apparently every woman in Baltimore is instantly attracted to a middle-aged, balding cop who spends all of his time talking about his divorce.  Ned Beatty was one of the great character actors but it sometimes feels like Homicide wasn’t sure what to do with his character.

But, hey, maybe Bolander will finally stop being so whiny.  That’s my hope.  This episode found Munch breaking up with his girlfriend after he accidentally gave her a carnivorous fish that ate all of her other fish.  At one point, Munch says that he can’t accept the idea of Bolander being happier than him.  Seriously, Munch, don’t jinx this.  I’ve been listening to Bolander complain nonstop for 15 episodes.  If he’s happy now, let him have it!

Next week …. life on the street continues!

Made-For-Television Movie Review: Red Alert (dir by William Hale)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The 1977 made-for-television movie, Red Alert, opens with a man walking through a cemetery on a rainy day.  As we watch Howard Ives (Jim Siedow) move amongst the tombstones, we hear his thoughts.  He’s a sad and bitter man, wondering why he’s wasted so many years of his life at work.  He thinks about someone close to him who has died.  He’s obviously very troubled.

(Of course, any horror fans in the audience will immediately recognize Jim Siedow from his role as the Drayton Sawyer in the the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  He was troubled in that film as well!)

Howard works at the local nuclear power plant.  Ominously, when the film cuts to the plant, the first thing we see is a leak of very hot water.  I don’t know much about nuclear power plants but I imagine any type of leak is not a good thing.  The water leak causes the computer that runs the plant assuming that a nuclear disaster is minutes away from happening.  The compound is automatically sealed off, trapping fourteen men (including Howard), inside the reactor.  As Commander Stone (Ralph Waite) tries to keep a possible nuclear disaster from occurring, two investigators (played by William Devane and Michael Brandon) try to determined whether the accident was the result of a malfunction or of deliberate sabotage.  When the local sheriff (M. Emmet Walsh) informs them that Howard Ives’s wife has committed suicide, the investigators look into the troubled man’s history.  Eventually, the two investigators realize that the only way to prevent a nuclear disaster is by risking their lives by entering the sealed-off power plant.  The two investigators attempt to do their work under the cover of night and without causing a panic.  Needless to say, it doesn’t work.  One of them calls his wife (Adrienne Barbeau) and tells her that she needs to leave the area.  She tells her mother, who then tells her neighbor and soon the airport is crowded with people looking to get out of town.

Red Alert contrasts the intuitive approach of the two inspector with Commander Stone’s insistence that every bit of a data be fed to his computer before any decisions are made.  Stone’s hands are so tied by protocol and red tape that he stands by while the fourteen men who are trapped in the nuclear power plant die.  Wisely, though, the film doesn’t turn Stone into a cardboard villain.  He’s very much aware of what will happen if the plant suffers a core meltdown.  When one of his assistants mentions that he hasn’t been given any instructions on how to evacuate the town in case the plant does explode, Stone tells him that no plans have ever been drawn up because the plans would be useless.  There would be no way to evacuate everyone in time.

In the end, Red Alert is scary not because it deals with nuclear power but because it presents us with a world where no one — not even Devane and Brandon’s heroic investigators — seems to know what to do.  Everyone is slowed down by a combination of red tape and their own personal angst.  Devane is a strong investigator because, as a widower whose only son died in Vietnam, he has no family to worry about.  Unlike everyone else in Red Alert, he has nothing left to lose.  In the end, the film suggests that the only way to save the world is to cut yourself off from it.

Red Alert is a compelling and intelligent thriller, one that is well-acted by the entire cast and which builds up to strong conclusion.  The film’s anti-nuclear message is a bit heavy-handed but I imagine it was an accurate reflection of the fears that people were feeling at the time.  Today, the film works best as a warning about bureaucracy and depending too much on AI to make important, life-or-death decisions.  In the end, it’s human ingenuity that saves the day and that message is timeless.

Song of the Day: Goldfinger (performed by Shirley Bassey)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Goldfinger (1964, dir by Guy Hamilton)

It’s Shirley Eaton’s birthday!

Shirley Eaton has since retired but she had a busy acting and singing career in the 1960s.  Her best-know role was playing the ill-fated Jill Masterson in the 1964 Bond film, Goldfinger.  She was the one who ended up getting suffocated in gold paint after helping Bond expose Goldfinger as a card cheat.

It seems appropriate, therefore, that today’s song of the day should be that film’s title tune.  Enjoy Goldfinger, performed by the great Shirley Bassey.

Goldfinger, he’s the man
The man with the midas touch
A spider’s touch
Such a cold finger
Beckons you to enter his web of sin
But don’t go in

Golden words he will pour in your ear
But his lies can’t disguise what you fear
For a golden girl knows when he’s kissed her
It’s the kiss of death from Mister Goldfinger
Pretty girl, beware of his heart of gold
This heart is cold

Golden words he will pour in your ear
But his lies can’t disguise what you fear
For a golden girl knows when he’s kissed her
It’s the kiss of death from Mister Goldfinger
Pretty girl, beware of his heart of gold
This heart is cold

He loves only gold
Only gold
He loves gold
He loves only gold
Only gold
He loves gold

Songwriters: Tim Wheeler

Scenes That I Love: The Cockpit Fight from Money Plane

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today is Andrew Lawrence’s birthday!

Who is Andrew Lawrence?  He is the director of the greatest film ever made, Money Plane!  Today’s scene that I love comes from that 2020 masterpiece.  In this scene, Adam Copeland learns that it’s not as easy to take over a plane as one might think.  I just love this super-powered co-pilot!

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Rob Zombie Edition

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films is all about letting the visuals do the talking.

Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to Rob Zombie!  It’s time for….

4 Shots From 4 Rob Zombie Films

House of 1,000 Corpses (2003, dir by Rob Zombie, DP: Alex Poppos and Tom Richmond)

Halloween II (2009, dir by Rob Zombie, DP: Brandon Trost)

The Lords of Salem (2012, dir by Rob Zombie, DP: Brandon Trost)

31 (2016, dir by Rob Zombie, DP: David Daniel)

Film Review: The Hole In The Wall (dir by Robert Florey)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Released in 1929, at the dawn of the sound era, The Hole In The Wall tells the story of The Fox (Edward G. Robinson) and two women known as Madame Mysteria.

The Fox is a con artist, a veteran criminal who takes care of the people working for him.  He may not be an upstanding citizen but he seems to truly care about his sidekick Goofy (Donald Meek) and his partner-in-crime, Madame Mysteria (Nellie Savage).  Madame Mysteria is a fake psychic.  She sits in a chair and does readings while The Fox sends her a series of electric shocks in morse code to let her know what she should say about each victim of their con.  They’ve got a pretty good thing going until Madame Mysteria is killed in a train accident.

(Since this film is from 1929, the train accident is recreated with a miniature train that falls off a track in what appears to be a plastic city.  Basically, it looks like a primitive YouTube video made by an enthusiastic toy train hobbyist.  It may not be convincing but there’s something charming about just how cheap it all is.)

Shortly after Mysteria is killed, Jean Oliver (Claudette Colbert) wanders into The Fox’s shop.  Jean is looking for a job and for revenge.  As she explains it, she used to have a good job in a department store until her manager accused her of stealing.  Though Jean was innocent, she still spent some time in jail.  Her life was ruined.  Now, she wants to be the new Madame Mysteria and she wants to kidnap the daughter of the woman who accused her.  She doesn’t want to get any ransom or anything like that.  Instead, she wants to raise the little girl to become a criminal.  Fox and Goofy agree, which leads me to wonder if the Fox is really as clever as he thinks he is.  Is Jean really the only person they could find to be the new Madame Mysteria?  Surely they could find a Madame Mysteria who doesn’t demand they commit a major felony just for her services.  Still, kidnap the little girl they do and strangely enough, she never seems to be upset over being taken from her parents.  (Even more strangely, we don’t actually see or learn the details of how she was kidnapped.  She just suddenly shows up at the Fox’s home.)  Goofy becomes a babysitter and Jean becomes Madame Mysteria.

By an amazing coincidence, the reporter (boring David Newell) who decides to write a story on the amazing psychic Made Mysteria just happens to be Jean’s ex-boyfriend!  While the Fox falls in love with Jean and the police search for the abducted child, Jean herself starts talking to the dead….

In many ways, The Hole In The Wall is typical of the melodramas that came out during the early sound era.  The majority of the supporting actors are still adjusting to acting with sound and the action often feels rather stagey.  That said, it’s an entertaining film, largely due to the performance of Claudette Colbert and Edward G. Robinson, both of whom were just starting their careers and on the cusp of stardom.  This was Robinson’s first role as a gangster and he snarls with style while Colbert actually keeps the audience guessing at her motivations.  The Hole In The Wall is definitely a film from a different era but, for a film that was made nearly 100 years ago, it holds up remarkably well.