Rushed off to work right after the episode ended. It was a nice, quiet day. We were mildly busy around the usual lunch and dinner rush hours, and that was it. In addition to being between holidays and the week before the beginning of the month, it was way too beautiful for shopping. The sun was out, the sky was a brilliant blue, there was a lovely cool breeze, and the humidity vanished with the clouds yesterday. It was a perfect upper-70's day that couldn't have been nicer. I swept and did carts in the morning; when more help arrived around noon, I focused on the carts and outside trash and recycling.
Went straight into writing when I got home. After Brett and Charles finish their number, Orson the March Hare figures he'll wake up Gary the Doormouse by getting him to tell a story. Gary's half-asleep in the teapot, but he wakes up long enough to tell a story about sisters, treacle, and a well.
Broke for dinner at 6:30. Had leftovers while watching Match Game '76. The feisty older man contestant had a great time here, tossing off lines and kissing all the ladies. In fact, Richard sent Fannie in to kiss him when he helped him out with the Head-to-Head!
Started Honey Spice Muffins as the next show began. It was TV hunk night on Match Game PM as Brianne Leary joined Bart Braverman of Vega$, Robert Walden from Lou Grant, Betty White, and the regulars for questions about whom a super salesman sold an autographed photo of to Brett. (Hint - almost everyone said her maybe-ex-husband, including the contestant and Brett.) Brett was more nervous when she had to help the contestant win 10,000 in the Head-to-Head with "Blast __."
Sale of the Century was another close one. Once again, everyone bought or won something, but the champ pushed ahead in the Speed Round. He finally decided not to try again after two close calls in a row and took a collection of high-end video and stereo equipment.
Finished the night at TCM's on demand website with two comic mysteries. The comic thriller Seven Keys to Baldpate was filmed four times, including the version I watched from 1929. Novelist William McGee (Richard Dix) accepts an 5,000 bet to write a mystery in 24 hours beyond his usual melodramas. His publisher gives him the key to a summer resort that's supposed to be abandoned in the winter. Between a weird caretaker, thieves looking for the money they stashed there, and a feisty girl reporter, the place is probably busier during the winter than in the summer! McGee tries to solve the mystery...and learns a lesson that not everything that's mysterious has to be so dramatic.
No wonder this was filmed seven times. It's a fast and funny whodunnit where you're never sure if any of this is real, or if it's a part of the guy's story. Check it or the 1947 version out if you love a good, goofy mystery.
Mystery House is a lot less silly, and like Seven Keys, is also based after a book. Banker Hubert Kingery (Eric Stanley) claims he knows which of his five fellow officers forged and embezzled 5,000. Before the night's over, he's found dead. The police rule it a suicide, but his distraught daughter Gwen (Anna Nagel) knows better. She asks her crotchety aunt's nurse Sarah Keate (Ann Sheridan) and Sarah's detective boyfriend Lance O'Leary (Dick Purcell) to help find out who really killed her father.
This one trades the weird comedy for a straighter mystery, with Sarah and Lance working well together to sift through the officers and their relatives to uncover whodunnit, before they all leave the house. Honestly, both mysteries are worth checking out if you like your suspense on the lighter side or a little weird comedy with your mystery.
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