Thursday Movie Picks: Police Detectives

Yup, I am late this week and hope to not be for the rest of the year. I work late Wednesday and didn't have my post written yet. I was going to go to the computer and get it done but hubby put in a movie(The White Countess) and I watched that instead. There are so many police detectives in film that I was wondering which ones to choose plus I was trying to avoid the private eye  type. I will enjoy everyone’s choices so head over to Wandering Through The Shelves and find out what other detective films were chosen. So here are my 3...

1. CHARLIE CHAN AT THE OPERA-1936

I used to watch Charlie Chan movies all the time because I love the mystery and I loved the character and his #1 son. The character is a detective from Honolulu and travels around with his son ending up in all sorts mayhem involving death. Keye Luke played #1 son who later became famous as the old blind man in Kung Fu and Sydney Toland played Charlie. Sydney was...Swedish! I love that fact but he “looked the part" because his grandmother had Mongolian in her lineage.  This is considered one of the best of the Charlie Chan series  which takes place at the opera( no kidding). A lunatic, Boris Karloff,  gets his memory back and escapes bent on revenge. The scene of the crime is behind the scenes of the  opera with the leads as well as others who could all be a possible murderers but Charlie Chan will get to the bottom of it. This is quite well acted, with a good storyline and great costumes especially the one Boris wears.

2. THE BIG HEAT-1953

I am finding out I really like Fritz Lang(Metropolis) films which seem to always deal with social injustice and this is another where Glenn Ford plays an honest cop who finds out that his town is run by some very corrupt a-holes..Lee Marvin being one of them. Many on his police force are also corrupt and Ford takes it to a new level when his wife is blown up in their car(the bomb was meant for him). You made Glenn one very angry cop who ends up working with Lee Marvin's moll(Gloria Grahame) to put an end to these S.O.B.'s. A great film, in my humble opinion, that is brutal for its time.

3. THE PINK PANTHER STRIKES AGAIN-1976

On to lighter fare with the great Peter Sellers as the fumbling French detective, Inspector Clouseau. I don't like the Steve Martin films which don't even compare to Peter Sellers who portrayed the inspector 5 times, I believe(the last film, Sellers died during the making of the movie, so the film was made around his disappearance). This film starts off where the Inspector visits his former boss, played brilliantly by Herbert Lom who should have received an Oscar Nomination for this role, to see him on the day Lom is leaving the insane asylum, cured of his insanity. Let's just say, within a few minutes, Lom's eye starts twitching and he really wants to kill this incompetent detective. Lom and his evil minions kidnap a scientist and his daughter and hole up in a castle in the Alps wanting money and the nations to kill Clouseau or else. You have the inspector having to dodge his manservant Kato who tries to kill him to keep the Inspector on his toes, funny disguises, a beautiful woman, Omar Sharif and Lom's twitching eye. Poor Sellers couldn't do a lot of his stunts since he had a weak heart, but he is so funny and this is one of my favourites. 

I wanted just one clip from the Pink Panther but, somehow, 3 showed up...oh well...enjoy!

So which 3 would you pick?