“No Agatha Christie story has ever been made into a better movie than this one. The movie has the altered ending from the book (which I’m told was changed by Christie for the stage version because let’s face it. The book’s ending would never *ever* work in a dramatized setting, film or stage) and the character of Tony Marston has become a Russian prince to accommodate the casting of Mischa Auer, but apart from that Christie’s book has been flawlessly translated right down to the last detail.

The look, the settings, the characters, all of it is just right. There are also some wonderfully comedic performances that veer into some delicious black comedy at times (my favorite being Louis Hayward’s bemused response to Roland Young’s bumbling deductions: “And then he takes the chopper and splits open his own cranium. Fact. I’d like to see you do that yourself.”) About the only casting flaw is June Duprez, who is woefully bland and dull as Vera Claythorne, the lead female character.”

I liked this review until the bit about June Duprez … she played the slightly dazed but not incompetent female protagonist and was excellent imho … and I really liked the ending.

Which was the best version of the story? Including the book? Frankly, this was the most atmospheric to my mind, loved the way they dressed, it had that 40s “niceness” to it, despite the macabre story … my vote’s for this one.

Ladies and gentlemen, there’ll now be a short hiatus until early evening. Enjoy.

 

(0943) Cunning plan today, good people, is to do a bit more blogging, load a film for later, there are no other good shorts just now … so a bit thin on the ground today. I have a visitor most of the day, shall dig out some reasonable music for about 1100, film is at 1300, shall post more in the late afternoon as per usual. (0957)

 

15. If you could go on three last trips

… would this be one of them?

14. Time for letter agencies to go?

13. Why are all these people so sick in the head?

12. Widespread mental health issues today

11. Is Stacy right?

 

(0754) … after which I’ll refer to Wednesday instead. Good morning all, first light up … yep, past the soldtice now. Reasonably on track for today at this end. (0809)

 

10. Moosh corner

9. Deadbeat of the day

8. Good thing too … orrible bint … nasty piece of work

7. Note where I ticked

6. Numbers of invaders

(0611) Morning all, let’s get this show on the road. Amfortas in his quietus time, O&P’s wife and hisself, IYE’s lurgy, Ripper also remembered today.

 

5. Steve at 1241

• ‘Deeply Upset’ Danish Authorities Summon US Ambassador After Trump Appoints Jeff Landry as Greenland Envoy, and Says About the Artic Island: ‘We Have To Have It’ (JH: Steve, please don’t use single talking marks … it bgrs up the works here, pls use doubles. Topic … remember this is Denmark, not Greenland itself … 🍿🍿🍿🍿)
• DHS Triples Reward For Illegal Aliens Who Self-Deport Over Christmas
• Fulton County’s Admission That 315,000 Votes Were Unlawfully Cast Exonerates President Trump Once And For All
• Vice President JD Vance Participates in Gruelling Navy SEAL Workout
• Greenland; Trump wants it, EU fears US. Vance, Ukraine will lose Donetsk. Battleships target China
• The BBC’s superflu campaign: How it started and how it’s going
• Google and Microsoft to demand “age verification” from Australian
• Much more.

4. Andy has got this “dodgy website” investigation thing going

That’s nice, appreciated, keep your eyes open, readers for this occasional series. Because of the nature of the subject, best I don’t transfer urls, ok.

3. The real issue

2. DAD at 1241

a) [Lots of twisted and soiled underware in Europe.] The United States announced on Tuesday sanctions targeting five European personalities committed to strict regulation of tech, including the former European commissioner, Frenchman Thierry Breton….

b) Broken and defeated, Ursula von der Leyen’s European Commission is a sinking ship. This is a Commission that confuses moralistic fervour and emotional manipulation with legal authority and slogan-infested political theatre with actual power.

c) “Dance, pig”: an ongoing investigation to find the author – surely a Briton – of the humiliation of a Jewish child at Roissy airport.

d) El Salvador’s justice system sentences members of a terrible gang to “exemplary sentences”: from 463 to 1,335 years in prison.

e) Happiness is in Pasta.

Italian cuisine has just been awarded the prestigious status of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO….

 

(0500) This is virtually my Christmas message to all readers, which I’ll also post on X but do a separate one at OoL. Merry Christmas to all our patrons and stumble-upons, even those hostile. With some friends not well, my main concern is them, esp. one mate close to the end … so prayers for them seem important, also for those out there we don’t know, doing it hard … they’re first priority.

Then there is the issue of those I’m close to, to varying degrees, on the sites I am at, inc. X … the main problem is both overreach, being over-friendly to those who might not appreciate it … plus being not friendly enough for those who assumed, rightly, that we were friendlier. One friend sent out a generic Merry Christmas and that was that.

Miffed? Initially but then I thought … most of us have dozens to remember … and they must be remembered … my memory is notiriously bad, I have to work from what’s written down. There is truly no offence intended … also, wishing MC out of the blue can jolt some who’d forgotten me. It’s a fraught thing, Christmas … the potential to offend is high, even in quality of gift. Offence is truly not intended … even genuine enemy out there … let’s call it a Christmas truce, defences still in place. Health here is currently not bad.

Lastly, Merry Christmas to all, may a joyful spirit prevail … best to you and yours. (0513)

.o0o.

In practical terms, I do have a visitor today, place here needs cleaning up a bit, so do I, there are cards to go out and messages at blogs and on X between now and midday tomorrow, plus chatting with friends and neighbours. Somehow I’ll keep a skeleton blog service running as I know that many of our readers would like that to be happening … hoping this is a welcoming place these next two days … some films, a few items, some politics.

(1606) Evening all … back to 2025 eh? Thoughts and prayers with Amfortas, Old P, IYE, any of us doing it hard just now.

 

20. Secret passages

A view of the Sistine Chapel from a place few can enter. pic.twitter.com/Lgvhc6BsCB

— The Figen (@TheFigen_) December 23, 2025

19. Moosh corner

18. Steve corner

Hearts of Oak at 1241:

Rev. Chris Wickland – The Birth of the Messiah: Light in Bethlehem

War room at 1241:

• James Rickards: From The Start These Warmongers Never Cared About Ukraine. This Has Been About Getting Rid Of Putin! For There To Be Real Peace, First Zelensky Must Go. As Long As He’s There, There Won’t Be A Breakthrough
• President Trump Announces New “Trump Class” Of Navy Battleships
• Captain Fanell On The Fleet We’ve Needed for Two Decades: Time to Execute the Trump-Class Battleship Program
• Admiral Sonny Masso On The New Trump Class Battleships: This Is Gonna Be A Game Changer For Our Navy, I Just Hope That We Can Get This Moving Along Smartly So It Doesn’t Lose Its Energy

17. Mila Joy

16. They simply leap into suppression

… at the drop of a hat.

15. More of the tacky

14. Another closure

13. DAD

12. Steve

BREAKING – Jobless liberal white women who spend all day stalking around ICE are finally getting put in their place.

“This is your one warning. If you follow us again, we’re going to stop you, break your window, rip you out, and arrest you.”

“Can I ask you a few questions,… pic.twitter.com/GAAjIUCnJ2

— Right Angle News Network (@Rightanglenews) December 20, 2025

Still exploring at what point in youth culture we changed without realising we were being changed by those influencing tastes. There was a plethora of largely positive songs where male and female looked at each other at least … why did it change?

Aspiration and avarice … bands tried to become more complicated for street cred, hence the wow factor with jarring guitars competing, music was almost dead by 1968/9, then came the turgid Pink Floyds and the screaming Black Sabbath and Cream … and the change of path from fun to … whatever … cleverness … was signposted by Led Zeppelin in 1971, after the Beatles had gone Swami and broken up, after the drug-addled, STD ridden Woodstock, also the change in education into regressive, uneducated … Hendrix died, Joplin, Jim Morrison …

… and Plant had sung about it in Stairway to Heaven … there are two paths … youth had been heading upwards or so it seemed, so bands like Zeppelin and Jefferson Airplane, plus the new metal speed guitar freaks, turned it onto the road to hell and youth dutifully followed, as if behind a Pied Piper … anything melodic was passé, twee … the hidden culture makers behind the scenes were directing it, as they had created flower power, beat generation, hippies … Leary and psychedelics … now it was the road to hell, which yoof saw as kool.

Kids or just past kidhood … we had to be kool, man, had to be with the latest wow … we were led away from “wholesome” … that was so L7 … for the newest cheap, risque trick … as kids are wowed by. Punk was light years from the melodic … it was all frenzied darkness … except the Ramones who at least brought old rockabilly back into it.

When did Ian Curtis suicide? 1980, just as ska was enjoying a couple of years … then the depressing 80s … decade of nothingness … kids had grown up, were having families themselves or else it was all sex and no commitment … late 80s was acid house, followed by Betty Boo and rap style … everything dark in nature. Or else yuppy paradise for the aspiring new, powerdressed middle.

First half of the 90s was at least some attempt to bring back music, but it was lost by 1997, just as the lost generation started … Gen Zee … generation of being sold short, badly educated, diverted into perversion, as primary children. Not unlike the Eloi. May as well not even mention the 2000s and later … and here we are.

Naturally, most will not accept my case above … some might.