Author Archive: Retro

As he is about to retire, a police officer discovers that his daughter is mixed up with a criminal gang and is about to go to prison for a crime she didn’t commit. Against his better judgment, he comes up with a plan to keep her from going to prison.

A destitute, suicidal man is offered a contract for 18 months to act as a front for an unscrupulous businessman, with his life being forfeit. He carries out his agreement, also writing a successful novel and falling in love, wanting to break the contract early. He is refused

Charlie as a boy on a trip to the local museum, falls in love with a green Portland vase (Wedgwood), and decides that this is his quest in life to find it. So as a grown up and an antique dealer he is still searching, does he achieve his goal though ?

Produced in Italy in breathtaking Technicolor, this biographical story of Puccini (played by L’avventura’s Gabriele Ferzetti) spans his creative life from early student days to the height of success, including his early flop Madama Butterfly and his incomplete Turandot. Along the way he encounters three women who change his life, including a sexy, beautiful singer (Two for the Road’s Nadia Gray) whom he drops for a small town girl (Sirocco’s Marta Toren), and a servant girl who commits suicide over him. Well-selected excerpts from Manon, La Boheme, Madama Butterfly and Turandot are featured along with other Puccini music, including the voice of Beniamino Gigli. Sets, costumes and production values are first class, all sumptuously filmed by Claude Renoir.

A doctor’s ex-wife dies of nicotine poison.

Mr. Richard Carling is found dead in his home with a house full of suspects.

A group of impecunious Brits are stranded in a Stockholm hotel.

Rich, disdainful Greene family gathers yearly at creepy ancestral castle to discuss will. One by one, they meet untimely demises during current year’s gathering under mysterious circumstances.

Nightclub singer ‘the Canary’ blackmails acquaintances, ends up murdered. Only witness also killed. Detective Philo Vance investigates to uncover her killer among numerous suspects she had exploited.