#Mary Roberts Rinehart

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The mystery story is really two stories in one: the story of what happened and the story of what appeared to happen.

– Mary Roberts Rinehart

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The Bat Whispers (Шепот Летучей мыши)

Пригоди геніального злочинця у провінції.

Роланд Вест вдруге екранізував п'єсу Мері Робертс Райнхарт та Евері Хопвуда (у 1926 він екранізував п'єсу під назвою "Кажан"). Це напівготичний трилер, який часом забавний, часом лоскоче нерви. До жанру жахів має таке саме відношення, як і романи Едгара Уоллеса. Цікаво, що завдяки цьому фільму з'явився культовий герой – Бетмен. Боб Кейн написав в автобіографії, що саме "Шепіт Кажана" був одним із джерел натхнення при створенні Бетмена.

Чудова класика, досить кумедна, але все ще цікава.

Фільм довгий час вважався загубленим. Копія була знайдена в 1987 році в маєтку Мері Пікфорд (свого часу Мері Пікфорд набула права на фільм з метою зробити ремейк, в якому головні ролі мали зіграти Хемфрі Богарт і Ліліан Гіш).

[have-you-read-this-short-fiction]

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Mary Roberts Rinehart & Avery Hopwood - The Bat Whispers, First Photoplay Edition (Grosset & Dunlap, 1926).

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The Bat (1959)

My rating: 6/10

Rather a pleasant little whodunit somewhat reminiscent of the German Edgar Wallace movies that were released around the same time, I thought, though it could've used significantly more Vincent Price - although, is there a movie where this isn't the case?

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"I hate with a murderous hatred those men who, having lived their youth, would send into war other youth, not lived, unfulfilled, to fight and die for them; the pride and cowardice of those old men, making their wars that boys must die."

Mary Roberts Rinehart, novelist (12 August 1876-1958)

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I spied Miss Emily as she got out of the hack that day, a cool little figure clad in a thin black dress, with the sheerest possible white collars and cuffs. Her small bonnet with its crepe veil was faced with white, and her carefully crimped gray hair showed a wave border underneath.

This is another description of Miss Emily, a spinster, sole survivor of her family, and the center of the mystery by from Mary Roberts Rinehart titled “The Confession and first published in 1917. It proves how observant Rinehart was of contemporary fashion and how much fashion signaled about a character.  The white collar and cuffs was formula for the basic dress which appeared late in the 19th century and well into the early 20th century. The bonnet tells us more because the year was 1917 when fashion had already shifted from bonnets which were a mainstay of the 19th Century to enormous hats. Miss Emily is elderly and her clinging to a bonnet shows one of the truths of everyday fashion: not everyone ran out and bought the latest trends; some people clung to the fashions they had known for years. But Miss Emily is not without a little vanity as the white facing on the bonnet like white collar was meant to prevent all that black from casting unnecessary shadows on a face that showed the marks of age. This advice was already standard with dress writers.

Miss Emily has insisted on renting her home out for the summer for far less than it is worth to the narrator who spends the rest of the novel trying to figure out a mystery about her and the house. “The Confession“ was first published  as a serial in a magazine, and then republished with another story in 1921 in novel form. Rinehart was best known for her mysteries although she wrote all kinds of stories including comic and love stories.

[nevinslibrary]

Mystery/Thriller Monday

I had sort of heard of Rinehart in passing here and there (I’ve been a librarian for long long enough that even if I haven’t read an author, I probably have still heard of them), but, had never read anything by her. She and Agatha Christie were close to contemporaries, and, Christie is now the more well known one, and so, I’m probably not the only person who never really got around to reading Rinehart.

This is actually her last book, written in 1952. It’s about Judith and Lois, sisters. Lois is also a detective novelist. Her older sister Judith arrives, and from minute one exhibits very weird behavior, and then there is a dead woman found in the swimming pool. Add to that the the policeman staying in a rented cottage, ooh, and something from the past that may or may not be connected as well.

Like with Christie, it’s Lois and the policeman from the cottage who… let’s go with ‘help’ the local authorities in trying to figure out what’s going on with Judith and with the dead woman in the swimming pool. It was straight up detective fiction awesomeness, and I can’t wait to read a bunch of her other novels as well.

You may like this book If you Liked: You Let Me In by Camilla Bruce, Retribution by Anthea Fraser, or The Sinful Lives of Trophy Wives by Kristin Miller

The Swimming Pool by Mary Roberts Rinehart

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THE BREAKING POINT

1923

The Breaking Point is a three act play by Mary Roberts Rinehart, based on her 1922 novel of the same name. It was originally produced by Wagenhals and Kemper with staging by Mr. Kemper. 

This was Rinehart’s first attempt at adapting her own prose for the theatre without a collaborator. 

The play is set in the home of Dr. Livingston and the Clark Ranch in Norada, Wyoming.

Suburban doctor Dick Livingston discover that he suffers from amnesia. An actress appears and calls him by a name he does not know. A reporter accuses him of being guilty of a crime committed out in Wyoming ten years before. The doctor rushes to Wyoming discover the facts about the roughneck he used to be. He had loved the actress, killed her husband, escaped, got double-pneumonia and amnesia and turned respectable. But when ho gets out West he finds the sheriff after him. The sheriff la at the house, too, and when he goes out one door the man he wants comes in through another. Finally, ln a fit of anger the doctor knocks the reporter down and suddenly old memories flood his mind. Quick as a flash he becomes the fellow he was ten years before and just as he did then, escapes by the window.

Based on her positive experiences with a previous play, Rinehart chose Washington DC for her play’s world premiere; June 25, 1923 at Poli’s. 

“Between the acts, Mrs. Rinehart was called on for a curtain speech. She  declined on the grounds that the only effective speech by an author she had ever heard was on the occasion that the curtain came down on the speakers neck just after he had said 'Ladles and Gentlemen.' So Mrs. Rinehart just said 'Thank You' and retired with the masses of flowers that were presented to her.” ~ ‘THE OBSERVER’

Next, the play opened in Atlantic City at Nixon’s Apollo Theatre (Boardwalk and New York Avenue) on July 2, 1923. After AC, the play moved to AP, playing the Savoy in Asbury Park. 

Unusually, Paterson NJ’s Lyceum also hosted the play pre-Broadway for two nights only on August 13 and 14. Oddly, these dates were also advertised for the Shubert in New Haven. It is unclear which booking was fulfilled. 

The play opened on Broadway at the Klaw Theatre (251 West 45th Street) on August 16, 1923. It ran 68 performances. 

ABOUT THE VENUE: In 1929, the Klaw became the Avon. In 1934, it was leased (and later sold) to CBS. When CBS sold it in 1953, the new owners demolished the theatre and replaced it with a parking structure.  It was named for the producer and theatre owner Marc Klaw, who partnered with Abe Erlanger on many productions from 1996 to 1919. This theatre opened in 1921. 

Don’t be late!

After the play closed on Broadway, it was immediately sold for stock and amateur productions, The first of which cropped up by the end of October 1923.

In 1924, Paramount released a film version of The Breaking Point starring Nita Naldi. 

The film opened in Atlantic City on July 16, 1924 at the Virginia Theatre on the Boardwalk. 

[azazel-dreams]

The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart

Rating: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

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George Ziel - The Circular Staircase

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Victor Kalin

Manor Murder Mystery