marilyng-08110

I enjoyed season one, not happy with season two. In season one, Finn's wife Siobhan left Port Devine when she was having an affair with Eddie, the PE teacher. She returns to town and aggressively tries to get back with Finn but he is not having any of it. In season two Finn tells everyone who listens that the marriage is over. Then he finds out that Siobhan is sleeping with his friend and shady co-worker Al, even though all season long she has told people that she is still in love with Finn and wants to get back together with him. In this last episode of the season, when Finn finally finds out about this second affair, he STILL goes ahead and tells her that he wants to get back with her. And to top if off, he tells her that IT'S ALL HIS FAULT, HE DROVE HER AWAY! So it was his fault that she eagerly and repeatedly tore off her clothes and got busy with another man? Finn did have a brief relationship with a nice woman in season one, but that was when he told his wife he was through with her and he was moving on. I knew this is how this season would end but I still watched, it's fascinating to me to watch people do stupid things. Anyway, season three and four are not in the USA on PBS yet so I'll see if I can stop myself from indulging!

This film was aired on TCM in December 2020 as part of the Women Make Film lineup, as the director is a woman. I mostly enjoyed the film, but was distracted by the amount of damage that obscured the action, and the title cards, which were extensive and long, as well as all in French. I got the general idea of the plot, but missed out on the finer details, such as what the Egyptian mummy he brings home and puts in the bedroom has to do with anything. The variety of tinting was very nice, the parts of the film that were not damaged were very fine.

The story is engrossing, what I could gather from the action, not being able to read the title cards. The older husband is very busy with his Egyptian relics, and doesn't find time to spend with his younger wife, though the scenes with them together tend to show great affection between the two. We see her wandering around the house and grounds after being rebuffed by her distracted husband, which leads her to amuse herself outside of the house. She is flirted with by a young and handsome golf pro, but it never goes any further. However, her husband does find enough time to follow her around and he sees something that he mistook as what appeared to be a clandestine meeting between his wife and the golfer. Deciding to kill himself by mixing a poisoned cigarette in his full box to make death random, we see a servant sneak a smoke, and various other people, including his wife, try to take a cigarette out of the box which he vigorously prevents. All works out in an unusual way in the end. If you can read French, I would recommend this movie, otherwise, it may be tedious for some to figure out what's going on.

This movie is supposed to be based on the book The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan. I have never seen a movie based on a book that was so far removed from the source material, the only similarities appear to be the title and the main character's name. Read the book, it is amazing.