An Artistic Dragnet!

I happened to catch the first few episodes of the classic Dragnet (the 50's version) on TV a few weeks ago and that got me to looking some stuff up about the show. I was surprised to learn that Raymond Burr was on the debut episode as the boss. The show can be wonky for sure especially the later 60's rendition, but by and large I enjoy even its wackier episodes from time to time. Anyway while looking around I saw this wonderful cover for a 50's Whitman book. Here's a glimpse of the wraparound cover.

It's great! Does anyone know the artist? I guess I'm putting out a dragnet of my own -- no names need be changed.

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Total Dick - The Dick Tracy Movie!

I sort of remember when Dick Tracy, the high-profile 1990 movie from Touchstone Studios starring big-wheel Warren Beatty hit the theaters. It was about the same time as Darkman and I for some reason saw previews for one at the screening of the other, but I cannot now remember what the order was. Whatever the case, the brightly colored cinematic effort has a lot of charms hidden among its varied hues.

Not least of those charms are those put on display by an up and coming Madonna, a bonafide superstar singer when this movie hit the screens and who does what to my mind is her best film role as Breathless Mahoney. That she can lock down the role of a sultry seductress seems obvious and she does a great deal with the role with very small dresses. Her singing is a highlight of the movie too, though I confess I was likely on toxic overload to Madonna when this movie first landed and so reacted to her with less kindness. The years have proven me wrong and she does a pretty good job. Also on hand are a who's who cast with Beatty himself in the title role, Al Pacino as the major baddie Big Boy, Glenne Headley as Tess Trueheart, and guys like Dustin Hoffman, Ed O'Ross, William Forsythe, R.J. Armstrong, and Henry Silva as sundry Tracy baddies. Forsythe as Flattop steals all of his scenes though O'Ross as Itchy is dang good too.  I especially liked Mandy Patinkin as 88 Keyes too. Even the kid Charlie Korsmo is pretty good in a role which helps add some dimension to a simple crime drama.

The star of this show though is the production design which does everything it can to blend the four-color world of comics with the deep shadows of film noir to produce a movie which to my eye looks like nothing else ever filmed. And I have to say I enjoy it, the bright colors make the characters pop in a landscape that's supposed to evoke the dreariness of a Depression-era city battling mobsters. We're so used to thinking of this world in black and white, that seeing it in such eye-stinging color really shakes up the expectations. It's a pop-art masterwork!

This is far from a great movie, but it's a darn fine entertainment with lots of really fine actors chewing up brightly colored scenery with abandon. Dick Tracy as played by Beatty often looks bewildered, but he's not lost in this spectacle that is worth the time.

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Drama On The Jurassic Coast!

I'm not at all sure when I first ran across this compelling bit of television called Broadchurch. Maybe it was just a chance  pop on BBC America or maybe my Anglophile daughter mentioned it to me or maybe it was both at the same time. But I knew it was better than a lot of stuff I tickled my eyeballs with on the boob tube. I was at first put off that it starred David Tennant who is not my favorite Doctor, but I figured out pretty soon that this D.C.I. Hardy is far away from his frenetic turn as the master of the TARDIS. His nickname is "Shitface" and frankly it fits quite well. Also there is the completely alluring character of D.S. Ellie Miller who becomes the center of this story and is almost always the most interesting person in any scene she's in. She offers up a "Plain Jane" of increasing wit and force as the story rolls on. I've just finished watching the series all the way through thanks to my daughters who have introduced their old man to the fancies of Netflix. Don't worry, there are no spoilers in this review, the show's too good for that.

In the first season we meet the quaint town of Broadchurch and all seems sunny and calm but the murder of an eleven year old boy throws the town into a lurch of suspicion and paranoia as new cop Hardy attempts to solve the crime. His second is Miller, whose job he's taken, and together they sort out their own feelings and the clues to slog into a mystery which is a lurid as it is bizarre. People get hurt along the way and mistakes are made. But it seems that this series was filmed in sequence and that the identity of the killer was a mystery from the cast itself. It's a  honking good mystery too with lots of twists and turns and some of the best red herrings on the small screen.

The second season presents us with the results of the first season's investigation as the town folk must cope with a trial which calls into question much of what we saw in the first year. The challenges are mighty and the new additions to the cast, in the form of lawyers of great potency, is pretty dynamic. The pace is somewhat slower as we know most everyone, but we do have a somewhat older murder to solve, one which haunts Hardy and is part of why he came to Broadchurch to begin with. It's great to see Hardy and Miller working together again as they have developed a back and forth which the best teams get after time.

The third season deals with the consequences of the trial and offers up a new mystery altogether -- this one not a murder but a rape. A serial rapist is at long last uncovered and the pain which goes with that search is typical of the angst and grim critique of human nature which the show has from the very first put on display.

And looming over all three seasons is the spectacular Jurassic Coast.  This awesome sight dominates the landscape which itself is a vital part of the storytelling in Broadchurch. The fictional town sits on this site and the creators take every opportunity to feature it. That implacable face of rock says to anyone who is remotely aware that the doings of human beings are momentary and fleeting. It's ironic that a former Doctor Who would be in such a story. The drama which unfolds beneath its crags and along its beaches are just whims in the maw of impossible time. The details of Broadchurch are mysterious and evasive, but the theme never is. We are small and have only a short time to make what we can of a life which outraces us all into the grave.

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