What's Up With The Woman In

The House Across The Street

From The Girl In The Window?

Not to be confused with The Woman in the House (1942) or The Woman in the Window (2021), or Gone Girl (2014) or The Girl On The Train (2016), The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window is a dark comedy (and parody) designed to poke fun at a bizarre sub-genre of “girl” movies and books. Created by Rachel Ramras and Hugh Davidson, the eight-part Netflix series stars Kristen Bell, Michael Ealy, Tom Riley, and Mary Holland, and focuses on a heartbroken woman named Anna (Bell), who is unsure whether she has witnessed a murder. She mixes alcohol with medications prescribed by her therapist, has frequent hallucinations, and suffers from a crippling fear of the rain (ombrophobia). She becomes ostracized by members of her community, including her new neighbors, and labeled "crazy" by the police. Regardless of whether or not she saw the murder in question, Anna takes it upon herself to find the truth. Note: I have not yet seen the show, but it has received mixed reviews from critics, while the viewing audience has been a bit kinder.

HISTORY AND JUSTICE

Five Things to Know About

The 1955 Murder Of Emmett Till

We all think we know the story of Emmitt Till, the Black teenager was murdered by two white men in Money, Mississippi, in August 1955 after a white woman accused him of making a pass and physically touching her in a grocery store. The teen, who lived in Chicago, was in town visiting family during the summer of 1955, and his mother had reportedly warned him to keep his head down in the Jim Crow-era south. The white woman, Carolyn Bryant Donham, told her husband that Till whistled at her and grabbed her while making lewd suggestions. Almost seven decades later, certain aspects of the case—and Till’s life—have faded into the twilight known as modern American history, and are at risk of being lost forever. (Particularly in light of today’s revisionist educational system and an attempt to (quite literally) whitewash the past.) A new profile from Investigation Discovery, however, reveals some of the misconceptions and untruths about the young man’s life and death, including the fact that many years after the incident, Donham admitted that Till never grabbed her in the store that day. Additionally, after his killers were acquitted of murder by an all-white jury, they confessed specific details of the crime to Look Magazine. Because they had already been acquitted of the murder, they could not be tried again, despite the confession. Donham is still alive and living in Raleigh, NC.

How The Classic, Haunting

Theme From Laura Came To Be

Several days ago I came upon a social media post that featured the classic movie song “Laura” (this version was performed by Frank Sinatra) from the 1944 classic noir movie of the same name, starring Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews. In a nutshell, the film—based on the 1943 novel Laura by Vera Caspary—features NYPD detective Mark McPherson as he investigates the murder of a young, beautiful, and highly successful advertising executive, Laura Hunt, who was killed by a shotgun blast to the face just inside the doorway of her apartment. While the movie is gripping, the song itself is particularly haunting and enduring, and has a fascinating background itself. As legend has it, director Otto Preminger wanted to use Duke Ellington's "Sophisticated Lady" as the theme, but the film’s composer, David Raksin, didn’t think it was suitable. Angered, Preminger gave Raksin one weekend to compose an alternative melody, which he said “wrote itself” after Raksin’s wife supposedly sent him a “Dear John” letter. The lyrics were written by Johnny Mercer after the film made the tune popular, so he had to title the song "Laura". Mercer admits he had not yet seen the movie when he wrote the words, but knew it was a romantic story, so he began with: “Laura is the face in the misty light, footsteps that you hear down the hall, The laugh that floats on the summer night that you can never quite recall.”

31 Spy Thrillers That Will Keep

You On The Edge of Your Seat

I’ll begin this piece by stating unequivocally that this list is far from complete, for the simple reason that it excludes one of my favorite espionage thrillers of all time, No Way Out (Kevin Costner, Gene Hackman). However, spy movies are a terrific subgenre in the broader “thriller” category, and this checklist—compiled by Cosmopolitan’s Corrinne Sulivan—includes some of the true gems from the last twenty years, from the classic Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy to Bridge of Spies to Shadow Dancer. This roundup doesn’t include any movies from franchises, so there’s no James Bond, Jason Bourne, Jack Ryan, or Ethan Hunt to be found. But it does feature some lesser known, more recent flicks that are worth watching, including Red Joan and Red Sparrow. Check it out for some hidden gems to stream in the days and weeks to come.

Quiz: Identify Which Crime Film These

Famous Quotes About Love Are From

It’s not often that the most memorable lines in crime movies are about love. In fact, the most enduring are those that seem to be about, well, crime. Because February tends to be known as a month for romance, however, Crime Read’s Olivia Rutigliano devised a quiz for “crimes of the heart.” The objective is very simple: try to name the crime movie that each romantic quote comes from. “Romantic” is defined slightly loosely, because of the genre involved, but “crime” is not. There are no war films, no fantasy movies, no action-adventure flicks on the list. Some of the lines are declarations of love, some are acknowledgements of love, and some are confessions of crimes that also mention love for some reason. Some are flirtations. Some are proposals. There are opening lines. There are last lines. And there are some which are fairly tricky, but if you don’t remember them, hopefully you can guess your way to an answer based on context clues. Here's an example (and you’ll have to click the link to find the answer): “I killed him for money—and a woman—and I didn’t get the money and I didn’t get the woman. Pretty, isn’t it?”

Parallels To Emmett Till Murder

Are In Seven Thirty Thursday

The horrific murder of Emmett Till (see article, above) was at the forefront of my mind as I outlined the underlying theme of my novel Seven-Thirty Thursday, in which a prominent southern family is haunted by the effects of a racially motivated killing of a young Black teenager three decades ago. As described by the Providence Journal, the book is “an intensely personal tale that echoes of both Greg Isles and John Hart [and] establishes Bunzel as a kind of Will Faulkner of the thriller-writing world. His effortless prose crackles with color and authenticity as the brooding Charleston skies sets the stage for the storm that’s coming.” If you haven't already read it, please check it out when you have a chance.