I Keep My Promises

-

In my last blog entry I promised you an Easter egg from The Blacklist. What I didn't know then was that I would notice another. I will admit up front that these are probably known to diehard fans, but I had fun spotting them. They both appear in season one. At one point we see the main character Raymond "Red" Reddington in front of a painting of a boat. The picture is "Storm on the Sea of Galilee" by Rembrandt which was stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum in Boston in 1990 and has never been recovered. I also promised to connect this with a James Bond film, Dr. No. In the film Bond is about meet the doctor for dinner in his lair. As he climbs a staircase he passes a painting that is visible to the audience. It is Goya's Portrait of the Duke of Wellington, which had been stolen the year before the film was released, and not recovered for several years after.  In fact, the Bond franchise repeated this effect in Skyfall, this time with a missing Modigliani.

              The second Easter Egg may have caught the attention of many Hitchcock fans. At one point is season one agent Liz Keen is in trouble, and Red is helping her. He tells her to contact a Mr. Kaplan at the Emissary Hotel. In North by Northwest, Hitchcock has his hero, Roger Thornhill, hoping to get out of a jam by clearing up a case of mistaken identity. He is looking for a man at the Plaza Hotel named Mr. Kaplan. If you watch the entire series of The Blacklist and the film North by Northwest, you will learn that this may be more than just a reference in homage to a great director. It could be some foreshadowing.

              I think one of the reasons that viewers like these types of references is that it makes them feel like insiders – they know something that not everyone knows, or they notice something that has escaped others. Isn't that part of the fun with the more traditional mysteries as well? Readers try to dig out clues from seemingly inconsequential details of a story. Sometimes those details are buried in with other mundane items, needles in haystacks, like some Agatha Christie clues. Sometimes they are obvious by their meaning is the reverse of the most likely interpretation, for instance, K. Chesterton's The Mistake of the Machine  or if you prefer your clues in video format, a great example is the episode Knowing Her of the 80's television series Moonlighting. Then there are the clues so odd that they can only be interpreted after a lot of investigation or in light of a vast body of knowledge, which is often the case with Sherlock Holmes. As an example of Holmes recognizing the significance of an odd clue try The Adventure of the Three Students. Whatever the approach, many mystery readers want to see if they can keep up with the author. So part of the fun of writing is offering them hints and references like these to keep them engaged with the work.

              So far I have mentioned several stories in various media, and I expect to do so quite a lot in the future. These are not necessarily recommendations, but if you become curious and discover an author or show that you enjoy, then part of my hopes for this blog has been accomplished.

              In the next entry I am going to discuss some media that presents the magician as detective, including a bit of non-fiction as well. Until then, thanks for reading my blog.


--
Dean Paczewitz

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Welcome!

-
Welcome to my blog! I am here for mysteries, magic, and puzzles, and I hope you are too. When you visit here you can expect to read about my own writing, the mysteries I like (both real and fictional), magic and magicians, and occasionally puzzles. My main goal here is to provide some entertainment and introduce you to my fiction. I got hooked on mysteries myself way back in fourth grade when I read some Edgar Allan Poe stories. Then one dreary Sunday afternoon I discovered my father’s copy of The Complete Sherlock Holmes. I looked for a story I had heard of, The Adventure of the Dancing Men, since it was mentioned in a book about codes and ciphers in my school library. From there I strayed into more Holmes stories for a bit then moved on to other genres. It wasn’t until college that I turned back to mysteries in a serious way. I read everything I could by Doyle (thank God for Dover reprints), Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers (wished I could dress like Lord Peter), G. K. Chesterton, a...
Read more

I’m not in a Jam and it’s Tough

-
So far I haven't written much about my books themselves. This blog should b a place you can visit for tips on entertainment, mostly related to mysteries, magic tricks and snows, and puzzles. But I do need to work through something, and I thought getting it all in type in front of me might help.  I am working well beyond full time with a second job and a small business. That means when I sit down to write I like to be ready with the next part of my story. I have the outline worked out, and the first draft is about 75-80 finished. But I am a bit stuck. This is not exactly writer's block. I have just written a scene in which my main character has to sneak around a mansion to collect some evidence. As I wrote the crucial moments I realized that I forgot to make it difficult for him. The majority of my time plotting the book so far has been thinking up nearly impossible situations and then thinking up ways my hero can get out of them. But this time I hadn't got that together, so...
Read more

When Solving isn’t Enough

-
When I decided to include puzzles in the scope of this blog I began thinking of the various types of puzzles I was aware of. I have a few in possession, but there are some others that I have lost or never owned. One of the ways I intend to make up the deficit is to build some of the ones I want to add to my collection. To be worthwhile they should be attractive enough to sit on a desk in an office space as a decoration. This means I will likely use wood as often as possible. I don't intend to figure out my own designs, but find suitable plans on the Internet. This works best if you know what kind of puzzles you are searching for. I started by searching for a particular type whose name I know because I do own it, then expanded. The puzzle is called a yoke puzzle, which is based on its shape, and it is a type that challenges the player to manipulate string that has been run through various shapes of wood. The idea is to move or release a steel ring that is trapped on the string. As I...
Read more