From the Couch Hole: Out on the Wily, Windy Moors

Previously on FTCH, the scream came in the shadows of the night in Cape Fear of the empty Copper Sea by Travis McGee. This week there was more family time. I like having Caleb live close enough to just “drop by.” My Michigan Wolverines lost one of our better coaches ever in basketball and on the same day, my Dallas Mavericks gained a quality young coach. This week the murder in paradise of Wuthering Heights was a Cornish mystery on disclosure day. The true toy story was that the ultra garlic parm Doritos are the best. Remember, FTCH is now a little bit thicker, richer, redder, and better tasting than ever.

Pop Culture Ephemera

• Agatha Christie – Murder in Paradise: Thirteen Mysteries from the Travels of Hercule Poirot (2020) (Published by William Morrow): “Difficulties are made to be overcome. What a truly magnificent attitude.” – Poirot. These 13 Hercule Poirot stories supposedly revolve around travel. It’s a stretch in some of them where the travel is a barely across London, but I’m not here to quibble. This was an audio book, which gave me a different perspective on some of these stories that I had already read in other collections.
  
  David Suchet, who plays Hercule Poirot on the British series is the narrator. He is Poirot for many of us. His style fits the audio version of the stories very well. It’s a very enjoyable collection of stories that span the early to late Poirot career. I would suggest this as a great starting point for reluctant Agatha Christie readers. You get a sampling of some of the most clever mysteries that Poirot has solved from the iconic actor.

Buy Murder in Paradise: Thirteen Mysteries from the Travels of Hercule Poirot

• Agatha Christie’s Poirot – “The Cornish Mystery” (S.2 E.5) (ITV) (1990): “He will learn soon enough that his open-and-shut case has the broken hinges.” – Poirot. The short story was a brief, lean case. I was curious how they would flesh it out to a 50-minute episode. They’ve added Miss Lemon and Inspector Japp as key characters to the unraveling of the mystery. There’s a little twist in the final reveal to give Hastings his own moment instead of Poirot that lends itself to the character arc over the course of the series so far. Add to that some clever bits on Hastings worrying about his pancreas and the definition of “hussy” and you get one of my favorite episodes to date.

Buy Kate Bush – Kick Inside

• Kate Bush – “Wuthering Heights” (from The Kick Inside) (1978): “How could you leave me / When I need to possess you?” Kate’s debut single from her debut album. It’s such a wonderful album that I’m ashamed that I wouldn’t discover it until 1985. It would be two more years before I read Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, and it would make more sense, although Bush had only seen the 1967 BBC miniseries when the song was written too. She was just 19 when this song hit #1 in the U.K. That amazing vocal was from a teenager! The song remains in my Top Ten Kate Bush songs thanks to that guitar solo by Ian Bairnson that ends the song.

• Toy Story 5 (2026) (Directed by Andrew Stanton): “I don’t know, Jessie. Toys are for play, but tech… is for everything.” – Woody. The first Toy Story (1995) came out a year before the birth of my first son. The fifth entry arrives with my children in their twenties and thirties and staring at grandchildren in my future. As much as life changes, it stays the same. This is an entertaining but safe story revolving around the pervasiveness of screens in the lives of children. The film arrives at a happy medium between screens and play; likely the only acceptable result for today’s parents. Buzz and Woody are relegated to supporting characters and Jessie takes the lead. I think that was going to be necessary after four films. It’s Jessie’s journey and the introduction of the new (yet obsolete) toys that drive the interest in this story. There are some missed moments. There’s a hint at the feelings of aging toys, like Woody (with a bald spot and belly) that are only the butt of jokes instead of explored themes. Overall, this is the bell cow franchise that defines Pixar, and this is a healthy entry.

Buy Jessie Interactive Talking Action Figure

• Disclosure Day (2026) (Directed by Steven Spielberg): “Don’t be afraid of what you don’t know.” Margaret Fairchild. I left this film thinking that the reviews (I wait to read them until after I see a film) would be mild to favorable. The few negative reviews bring their own faults and foibles to the film. Writer David Koepp has pulled together an entertaining script from a complex idea. About an hour into the film, you realize that there are about 12 hours of content if they were to adequately address all of the themes present. The decision was to focus on the emotional over the action elements. The result is that the lesson becomes the need for empathy. That undercuts some of the action scenes of the final act, when the results are less important than than the emotions.
  
  This film has the most Hitchcock elements of a Spielberg film since maybe Minority Report (2002). The movie starts on the run and stays that way throughout most of the story. Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) and Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) end up on the run together with a backpack sought by the bad guys (thanks for bringing me more Colin Firth). The backpack serves as the MacGuffin we need to keep the action moving forward. We’re only missing a chase scene by a crop duster in a corn field. Koepp could have used some punch up with the dialog, but he understands how Spielberg wants to unfold the story. He tells more than shows a little too much. I won’t make this a Top Ten Spielberg film, but it’s a great work by a talented, mature director who still has things to say.

Best of the Rest

• Two years after it went to #1 in the U.K., Pat Benatar covered Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights” on her Crimes of Passion album. The only reason this actually works is that Benatar was a classically trained opera singer. She doesn’t disappoint on the high register of the song, and then adds her distinctive arena-rock guitar solo to the end. I don’t love the Neil Giraldo guitar work as much as the original, but I have respect for a respectful effort. For many teens of the era who didn’t have access to Kate Bush imports, this was the definitive version of the song for years. I would have heard it well before the original.

• One character that DC Comic adaptations have gotten spectacularly wrong over the years is the Green Lantern. A few months ago, it looked like another splendid failure to return to a Zack Snyder dark look over the bright new days of James Gunn. Now it’s Green Lantern in the style of Spider-Noir. Kyle Chandler seems like a decent choice as a Hal Jordan. Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner is even more inspired casting. The eight episode series, Lanterns, debuts on HBO in August.

• Scooby-Doo: Origins is set to debut next year on Netflix as the first live-action Scooby series. It’s brought to us by the Greg Berlanti production arm. They gave us the CW Arrowverse and some fun CW adaptations like Riverdale. I would normally have dismissed this effort, but Berlanti was involved with Nancy Drew, which was very Scooby-ish in dealing with ghosts and magic. You heard it hear first; this might actually be entertaining.

Sunday Morning Tuneage Flashback

• Sunday Morning Tuneage from 7/18/2010, I was getting ready for another fun trip to Comic Con for the upcoming week. The boys were deep into the football-practice season and work was careening towards my super-busy August weeks. True Blood (HBO) was getting more ridiculous and I loved it. So You Think You Can Dance (FOX) was my current guilty pleasure. I was disappointed with the new season of Futurama (Comedy), but it was making me watch earlier seasons. The list of the week finishes an interesting triple.
  
  My #55 Top TV Show of All-Time was Batman (Live-Action) (ABC) (1966-1968): I discovered this campy classic after school while in elementary school. The young me loved the fights and the continuity each two episodes. I’m a Julie Newmar-favorite Catwoman person. When they introduced Yvonne Craig as Batgirl, I was even more intrigued. There weren’t many superhero shows in my youth, so this held a higher rank in my heart than it does in quality. I’ve been watching some of the episodes recently, and while it holds up in terms of camp, it’s not a show I can watch more than two episodes at a time. I fear this wouldn’t make the Top 100 again.
  
• BEST CIVIL WAR MOVIES OF ALL-TIME (2010)
  • 10. Shenendoah (1965) (Directed by Andrew McLagen)
  • 9. Gone with the Wind (1939) (Directed by Victor Fleming)
  • 8. Gods and Generals (2003) (Directed by Ronald Maxwell)
  • 7. The Birth of a Nation (1915) (Directed by D.W. Griffiths)
  • 6. Gettysburg (1993) (Directed by Ronald Maxwell)
  • 5. The Red Badge of Courage (1951) (Directed by John Huston)
  • 4. The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) (Directed by Clint Eastwood)
  • 3. Andersonville (1996) (Directed by John Frankenheimer)
  • 2. The General (1926) (Directed by Buster Keaton)
  • 1. Glory (1989) (Directed by Edward Zwick)
    
• BEST CIVIL WAR MOVIES OF ALL-TIME (2026)
  • 10. The Birth of a Nation (1915) (Directed by D.W. Griffiths): Controversial but interesting as a film made just a couple generations after the actual war. There’s a John Ford cameo in the film, that isn’t as important as Ford learning so many directing techniques from Griffiths.
  • 9. The Red Badge of Courage (1951) (Directed by John Huston): Audie Murphy stars in the book that most of us read in 7th or 8th grade. The traditional story about the film is that Huston’s very dark version of the story was chopped up by the studio. It’s still pretty great.
  • 8. Gone With The Wind (1939) (Directed by Victor Fleming): Overblown and overly dramatic in every sense of the words. I may not love it, but I respect it’s staying power in popular culture. It’s easily the one film of these ten that a majority of people could identify.
  • 7. Gods and Generals (2003) (Directed by Ronald Maxwell): The “sequel” and/or “companion” to Gettysburg (1993). Jeff Daniels returns and the focus is mostly upon the Southern Generals. The battles are well choreographed, but you get a little icky feeling when you are cheering for the Confederates.
  • 6. Gettysburg (1993) (Directed by Ronald Maxwell): Based upon Shaara’s The Killer Angels, this four-hour film was originally slated to be a longer mini-series on TNT. It’s one of Jeff Daniels’ best performances. It only suffers from a little too much attention to actual historical detail that slows down the drama. As a historical piece, it’s hard to beat this one.
  • 5. The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) (Directed by Clint Eastwood): It’s important to acknowledge that this pacifist story is really a story about the Vietnam War set in the Civil War. That said, Eastwood has a great eye for the Civil War details, and I would have loved another film of this era from him.
  • 4. The Horse Soldiers (1959) (Directed by John Ford): Ford’s Westerns often dance around themes of the Civil War, regarding loyalty and complications of breaking up families. This is Ford’s only Civil War-set film. John Wayne and William Holden were huge stars at the time and this film is often lost among their superior work in the decade This takes some liberties with some true occurrences, but all of the themes that make a great Civil War film are here.
  • 3. Lincoln (2012) (Directed by Steven Spielberg): Can one of the best Civil War movies not take place on a battlefield? Good question. But Daniel Day Lewis is so fascinating in his performance that a film about passing the 13th Amendment is one of the best about the war.
  • 2. The General (1926) (Directed by Buster Keaton): The Civil War, extended-chase film is remarkable not just for Keaton’s amazing stunts, but his attention to detail on everything from the uniforms to the locomotive is worthy of respect. This is one of our greatest American films.
  • 1. Glory (1989) (Directed by Edward Zwick): There still hasn’t been a film that captured both historical accuracy and the personal toll of the war. Casting is everything. Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington and Matthew Broderick all deserved awards for their performances.

Buy Glory

1976 in Review

• June – Avengers #148 (Marvel Comics): “You have your definition of a hero and I have mine — and mine includes being a lot more aware.” – Captain America. Cover by Jack Kirby. Written by Steve Englehart. Art by George Perez. It’s Part Six of the Serpent Crown saga. It’s mostly an excuse for the Avengers battling the Squadron Supreme and some of Perez’s best art.
• June 25 – Toby Harrah, shortstop for the Texas Rangers, had one of the weirdest days in a doubleheader against the Chicago White Sox. Over the course of both games, he was 6 for 8 at the plate with two home runs and eight RBIs. In the field, there were 68 balls put into play over two games by the White Sox. Harrah didn’t touch any of them. No ground balls, no pop flies, and no assists. It’s still a record for a doubleheader that only Toby holds.
• June 28 – Detroit Tigers 1976 Yearbook. Mark “The Bird” Fidrych wasn’t supposed to happen in 1976 for the Detroit Tigers. He wasn’t on any the year’s marketing. He didn’t even have a Topps’ baseball card. By June 28th, he had started and completed eight games and was 7-1 on the season. The Worcester, MA 21-year-old was tall, lanky, and talked to the baseball. On June 28th, he started on Monday Night Baseball (ABC) against the mighty New York Yankees. It was a 5-1 complete game victory, but the national audience got their first view of the rookie who would win 19 games that season. Because of injuries, he would soon be out of the league. For this shining night, everyone in Michigan had hopes for a season to equal 1968 that wouldn’t come for another eight seasons.

What the Hell Did I Put in My Mouth?

“Ooh, it gets dark, it gets lonely
On the other side from you
I pine a lot, I find the lot
Falls through without you
I’m coming back, love, cruel Heathcliff
My one dream, my only master.” – Kate Bush