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Kartweeler
Reviews
Barnaby Jones: The Black Art of Dying (1973)
Barnaby at his best
This is my favorite of the entire series (I enjoy only the first four seasons, since I didn't like the corny inclusion of nephew JR starting in Season Five or the constant involvement of Secretary Betty's personal life in the cases). Frtiz Weaver (seen later playing a lawyer in one of my favorite Law & Order episodes) is perfect as the phony psychic, sounding like a British import rather than from Pittsburgh, right here in USA. His subject is a wealthy woman, played by Joanne Linville, who's lost a daughter to a kidnapper years ago, then her husband, and psychic Jason convinces her the girl is still alive -- "I'm getting nothing from the other side," he keeps insisting -- and romances her as well, prompting her to make generous donations to his "Psychic Institute" in London. His attractive young blonde sidekick, also in love with him, researches the parties to whom Jason imparts his psychic insights. (After one insensitive remark, Jason tells her, "You really are a heartless creature, aren't you?") He's not so kindhearted either; his cruel plot with the wealthy widow requires a murder or two along the way. Appearance by Jerry Lester, whose late night show in the early 1950s preceded the modern Late Show and others, and Joanne Linville is now 91.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999)
Good before it became Days of Our Lives
I love this show, second to the original, but they are showing reruns now, and the later ones, after Benson becomes a sergeant, center more on the lives of the detectives than actual cases -- or the cases involve the detectives. I'm not interested in these episodes, and there are too many of them. Also, I don't understand why Benson and the blonde detective don't do something with their hair other than part it in the middle and let it hang.
The Perfect Wife (2001)
Customary entertaining Lifetime psycho movie.
This movie is like most of the Lifetime "he/she seems nice but is really a psychopath" types that are entertaining and good for a laugh. There are some familiar Lifetime actors, including Shannon Sturges, who overdoes her phony sweetness, and Perry King and William R. Moses, both probably underrated because of their association with Lifetime movies. Michelle Greene adds spice in the scene outside the kitchen at the brother's funeral. I just wonder, since there are no goofs listed, if anyone else wondered, in one of the movie's early scenes, why Greta the housekeeper is complaining that the new wife has been mistreating her for three months, when the happy couple has returned from their honeymoon just minutes ago.