A Murder On 34th Street

Christmas in New York. The city's legendary Ramsey's Department Store is suffering its worst season in years. General manager Barnaby Tischler knows it's because their rival, Weatherly's superstore, is scaring off the store's customers--with bomb threats! But when Ramsey's Santa-for-hire is found in a utility closet shot through the heart, Tischler's only hope lies in his old buddy, Mayor Ed Koch.

The genre of legal cinema is an extensive and revealing one: it is a body of films that depicts lawyers, clients, criminals, judges, and juries, often not as they actually are, but as we would like them to be. The idealized courtroom of many legal movies tells us a great deal about what we think of our justice system and what we want it to reflect about America, but the films in the genre vary widely in how they do this. From To Kill a Mockingbird to Liar, Liar, from A Time to Kill to Twelve Angry Men, we see certain stereotypes repeating themselves again and again: the judge as stern referee, the jury as an ultimately fair body of decisionmakers, the lawyer as hardworking and passionate fighter for the underdog. In this new and comprehensive study of this understudied category of film, author Ross D. Levi argues that, contrary to popular belief, legal movies show us a system that is far more fair than our actual one, with corruption downplayed and greed made subordinate to compassion and compromise. With a comprehensive filmography, penetrating analysis—both cinematic and legal—and engaging discussion of a wide array of movies, The Celluloid Courtroom is an indispensable guide to a key aspect of American movies and American justice. The genre of legal cinema is an extensive and revealing one: it is a body of films that depicts lawyers, clients, criminals, judges, and juries, often not as they actually are, but as we would like them to be. The idealized courtroom of many legal movies tells us a great deal about what we think of our justice system and what we want it to reflect about America, but the films in the genre vary widely in how they do this. From To Kill a Mockingbird to Liar, Liar, from A Time to Kill to Twelve Angry Men, we see certain stereotypes repeating themselves again and again: the judge as stern referee, the jury as an ultimately fair body of decisionmakers, the lawyer as hardworking and passionate fighter for the underdog. In this new and comprehensive study of this understudied category of film, author Ross D. Levi argues that, contrary to popular belief, legal movies show us a system that is far more fair than our actual one, with corruption downplayed and greed made subordinate to compassion and compromise. These are films that have affected as much as reflected the American justice system, as we enter the courts hoping, often against hope, that they will be something like what we've seen in the movies. With a comprehensive filmography, penetrating analysis—both legal and cinematic—and engaging and enlightening discussion, The Celluloid Courtroom is an indispensable guide to a key aspect of American movies and American justice.

In this volume, Amnon Kabatchnik provides an overview of more than 150 important and memorable theatrical works of crime and detection between 1925 and 1950. Each entry includes a plot synopsis, production data, and the opinions of well known and respected critics and scholars.

From movie villains to scream queens, here are interviews with 36 actors and actresses familiar to fans of sixties and seventies cult cinema. Interviewees include the well-known (David Carradine, Christopher Lee), the relatively obscure (Marrie Lee), sex symbols (Valerie Leon), surfers who became movie stars (Don Stroud), and action heroes (Fred Williamson), among many others. Each interview is accompanied by a biography and filmography.

From the national bestselling author of Murderers Prefer Blondes. All Paige Turner wants for Christmas is to make it through the season alive. New York City in 1954 can be bad for a girl’s health, especially if she’s a staff writer for a pulp mystery magazine who can’t help getting a little too involved in her work. Not that she’s looking for trouble this time; Detective Dan Street, her new love, has forbidden her from ever making like Sam Spade again. But what’s a girl to do when her late husband’s army buddy turns up with a tale like something out of Daring Detective magazine? His sister murdered. A stash of diamonds to die for hidden in a box of oatmeal. The mystery is a Christmas present Paige can’t resist opening. But with the killer hot on her trail, Paige faces the chilling possibility that this Christmas might be her last. “Paige Turner is the liveliest, most charming detective to emerge in crime fiction in a long time. . . . She is irresistible, a force of nature.”—Ann Waldron, author of The Princeton Murders “1950s New York City comes alive. . . . This is great writing by a fresh talent.”—Nelson DeMille “Prepare to be utterly charmed by the irrepressible Paige Turner.”—Dorothy Cannell