# Old-fashioned Who-Dunnits, and really good Sci-Fi/Fantasy **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 11, 2020, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-who-dunnits-and-really-good-sci-fi-fantasy/851555 "2020-04-11T11:52:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2020, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-who-dunnits-and-really-good-sci-fi-fantasy/851555/41 "2020-04-12T07:05:23Z")
Most of my suggestions are adventure films, so maybe not what you’re looking for, but stylistically there’s often so much genre crossover, I tend to think of them as being tonally similar. Raiders Of The Lost Ark etc Romancing The Stone Willow Robocop Innerspace True Lies Speed Jumanji The Mummy National Treasure Prince Of Persia Source Code Attack The Block Dredd Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, etc Tomb Raider Alita Battle Angel ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2020, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-who-dunnits-and-really-good-sci-fi-fantasy/851555/42 "2020-04-12T07:31:57Z")
Not quite a who-dunnit, but _Day of the Jackal_ - the original, not the Bruce Willis knock-off. A cracking good yarn, and tense to the last frame. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2020, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-who-dunnits-and-really-good-sci-fi-fantasy/851555/43 "2020-04-12T08:08:04Z")
_Gosford Park_ is a fantastic English Country House murder mystery with a cast full of fantastic actors (and though the police never manage to find out whodunnit, we the audience certinly do) ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2020, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-who-dunnits-and-really-good-sci-fi-fantasy/851555/44 "2020-04-12T09:34:21Z")
The A B C Murders are still on Prime. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2020, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-who-dunnits-and-really-good-sci-fi-fantasy/851555/45 "2020-04-12T22:28:17Z")
If you like Agatha Christie, David Suchet is the **only** Poirot. I thought the 70s _Murder on the Orient Express_ was dreadful. The Branagh version is even worse. The entire Suchet season is on Acorn. They also have two TV series of Miss Marple. Joan Hickson is slightly better, but Geraldine McEwan is perfectly fine. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2020, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-who-dunnits-and-really-good-sci-fi-fantasy/851555/46 "2020-04-12T22:29:24Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > _Gosford Park_ is a fantastic English Country House murder mystery with a cast full of fantastic actors (and though the police never manage to find out whodunnit, we the audience certinly do) Love this movie so much! We’ve watched it 5 or 6 times, and we still see little things we’d missed — not the murderer(s) though. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2020, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-who-dunnits-and-really-good-sci-fi-fantasy/851555/47 "2020-04-12T23:17:08Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > If you like Agatha Christie, David Suchet is the **only** Poirot. I thought the 70s _Murder on the Orient Express_ was dreadful. The Branagh version is even worse. The entire Suchet season is on Acorn. They also have two TV series of Miss Marple. Joan Hickson is slightly better, but Geraldine McEwan is perfectly fine. I loved the 70s version, but yeah, the new one is just…:smack:. So far, a lot of this has been stuff I have seen, but it has been stuff I haven’t seen in a long time, and things I think the boychik would really like. I’ve never heard of _The Winslow Boy_, though, and am looking forward to that. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2020, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-who-dunnits-and-really-good-sci-fi-fantasy/851555/48 "2020-04-12T23:26:06Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > I loved the 70s version, but yeah, the new one is just…:smack:. > > So far, a lot of this has been stuff I have seen, but it has been stuff I haven’t seen in a long time, and things I think the boychik would really like. > > I’ve never heard of _The Winslow Boy_, though, and am looking forward to that. I had _The Winslow Boy_ for one of my English texts when I was eleven, and it’s one of maybe three texts in my entire school career that I really enjoyed reading at the time, and was glad to have had assigned. So I think the boychik will approve. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2020, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-who-dunnits-and-really-good-sci-fi-fantasy/851555/49 "2020-04-12T23:42:27Z")
I really liked Annihilation. Nice and creepy. But not gory or too violent. Re: subtitle size, check the subtitle settings for whichever service you are using. I’m pretty sure you can customize size/color on Netflix/prime. Not sure about hulu. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-who-dunnits-and-really-good-sci-fi-fantasy/851555/50 "2020-04-13T02:00:29Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Try “Murdoch Mysteries” a series set in 1896 Toronto, where the lead detective invents forensics and solves murders with science. Tesla is in the first episode. It’s on Season 13 now. It is on Acorn, and DVD from Netflix. There are a few movies, skip them, they aren’t as much fun as the show. > Also Miss Fisher, set in post WW I Australia. Three seasons, new movie out whichwe haven’t seen yet. > Other good British series are “A Touch of Frost,” “New Tricks” - before the cast change which hurt it, and “Death in Paradise,” murders in the Caribbean. Standard format, but the first three seasons are great. BTW, we just saw the new Miss Fisher movie on Acorn. It’s awful. Such a shame. ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-who-dunnits-and-really-good-sci-fi-fantasy/851555/51 "2020-04-13T03:34:30Z")
_The Glass Key_ (1942) Political fixer Alan Ladd finds politics, friendship and romance (with Veronica Lake) complicating investigation of a candidate’s son who died mysteriously. _Laura_ (1944) Classic murder mystery. _Murder my Sweet_ (1944) Classic film noir mystery. _Green for Danger_ (1946) Classic Brit whodunnit set in hospital, with detective Alastair Sim trying to ID the killer. Directed and co-written by Sidney Gilliat, who wrote _The Lady Vanishes_. _Out of the Past_ (1947) Not a mystery, but a great film noir. _The Fallen Idol_ (1948) Not a mystery, but a story about a boy’s involvement in murder. Written by Graham Greene. _Sleeping Car to Trieste_ (1948) Train-based intrigue with various parties after a stolen diary that could start WWIII. Superior remake of _Rome Express_ (1932), which had everyone after stolen paintings. _The Black Book_ a.k.a. _Reign of Terror_ (1949) During the French Revolution, various parties search for a book listing enemies of the state to be clipped. _D.O.A._ (1949) Classic mystery of poisoned victim searching for his killer. _State Secret_ a.k.a. _The Great Manhunt_ (1950) Not a mystery, but an exciting suspense story of American doctor (Doug Fairbanks, Jr.) on the run in “Vosnia” after his patient, Vosnian dictator, dies. Written and directed by Sidney Gilliat. _The Tall Target_ (1951) Detective Dick Powell tries to stop a train-based assassination plot on President Lincoln. _My Cousin Rachel_ (1952) Did Olivia de Havilland kill Richard Burton’s cousin? Will he live long enough to find out? Based on a Daphne de Maurier story. _An Inspector Calls_ (1954) A family’s involvement with a dead girl is probed by a mysterious inspector (Alastair Sim) in this Brit-made drama. _Kiss Me Deadly_ (1955) Detective Mike Hammer searches for the “Great Whatsit.” NOTE: This film is quite nasty in spots and may warrant pre-viewing to ensure it is family-friendly. _Night of the Hunter_ (1955) Serial killin’ psychopathic preacher Robert Mitchum wants to know where the money’s hid and the only ones who know are his very young step-children. Not a mystery, but a unique film with some astonishing visuals. _Curse of the Demon_ (1957) Dana Andrews gets involved with a devil worshipper in first-rate mystery with a side of supernatural horror. _Touch of Evil_ (1958) Investigation of murdered contractor sets stage for conflict between corrupt detective Orson Welles and Mexican Fed cop Charlton Heston. Brilliantly directed. _Breakheart Pass_ (1975) Another well-executed train action/suspense/mystery movie with Charles Bronson involved in political and criminal intrigues. ---
**Author:** ![Disheavel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Disheavel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disheavel)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-who-dunnits-and-really-good-sci-fi-fantasy/851555/52 "2020-04-13T03:44:32Z")
Childhood’s End was a 3 part miniseries a couple of weeks back. It was okay as a movie, but it was probably one of the best adaptations/retellings of a SF classic. Most characters and concepts are present. My 11&13 year olds liked it, but we had already read the book. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-who-dunnits-and-really-good-sci-fi-fantasy/851555/53 "2020-04-13T04:05:22Z")
The Night Stalker and followups, from wiki: “The Night Stalker garnered the highest ratings of any TV film at that time (33.2 rating - 48 share).[5] That resulted in a 1973 follow-up TV film called The Night Strangler and a planned 1974 film titled The Night Killers, which instead evolved into the 1974-1975 television series Kolchak: The Night Stalker, with McGavin reprising his role in both. An episode of the series titled “The Vampire” was an actual sequel to Stalker, deriving its story from characters introduced in the film.” ---
**Author:** ![mandala](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mandala/32/95_2.png) [@mandala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mandala)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-who-dunnits-and-really-good-sci-fi-fantasy/851555/54 "2020-04-13T09:49:17Z")
Battlestar Galactica, one of the best-rated sci-fi TV shows ever. Outstanding soundtrack by Bear McCreary. 9 seasons in all, and a few episodes can be slow, but the show as a whole is outstanding and well worth watching. Parental advice: has a fair bit of sex and violence. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-who-dunnits-and-really-good-sci-fi-fantasy/851555/55 "2020-04-13T13:45:11Z")
A lot of my favorites have been mentioned already, but here are a few that I didn’t see as I scanned through: **The Last of Sheila** – I’ve recommended this many times before. A truly wonderful mystery, written by Anthony Perkins and Stephen Sondheim – yes, Norman Bates and the guy who wrote all those musicals. Supposedly inspired by Sondheim’s games-filled apartment and the mystery games they used to play there. A wonderfully multi-layered mystery that plays “fair”, giving you all the clues. With James Coburn, Raquel Welch, Dyan Cannon (who was in “Deathwatch”, too), Richard Benjamin, James Mason, and others. With multiple solutions, but only one correct one. Highly recommended **Sleuth** – Anthony Shaffer’s screenplay, based on his stage play. He’s the brother of Peter, who wrote _Equus_ and _Amadeus_). Anthony went on to write other mystery screenplays and stage plays. _Sleuth_, like Sheila, is supposedly based on the games people played in their bunch, and Andrew Wyke’s game-filled house is based on Sondheim’s. Again, a multi-layered mystery, also featuring a sadistic games-master and life-and-death games. I really much prefer this to the 2007 remake with its script by Harold Pinter, even if people think Pinter was light years better than Shaffer. He isn’t right for this. Shaffer’s play and screenplay are tributes to the great “old time” mysteries, filled with “Easter Eggs” for the audience to find – he really quotes and cites a lot of the old mysteries, which Pinter doesn’t. I don’t think he knew or cared about them. **Charade** – Stanlet Donen’s movie looks like it out as a sendup of Bondian spy flicks with Caty Grant and Audrey Hepburn as the leads, but quickly becomes a great mystery-comedy. Written by Peter Stone (who went on to write lots of other good stuff, including the musical _1776_), it’s a beautifully set up and constructed story, with James Coburn (again), Ned Glassm and George Kennedy as the treasure-hunting murder suspects. With Walter MNatthau. Ignore the awful 2002 remake, _The Truth about Charlie_, which manages to suck all the life and humor out of the story, and doesn’t make much sense. **Mirage** – Another one by Peter Stone, written as sort of a follow-up to Charade. But this one’s much grimmer in tone, and feels like a Hitchcock movie (Edward Dmytryk directed it), and shot in grim black and white (CHarade was in color). It features George Kennedy and WAlter Matthau again, but with Gregory Peck instead of Cary Grant in the lead. Kevin McCarthy (from the original _Invasion of the Body Snatchers_) is there, too. A well-turned suspenseul mystery about a man who has amnesia and finds himself pursuerd by evil agents. When he thinks he remembers things, doorways that he thought he recalled don’t exist and entire floors of buildings seem to have vanished. The creepy ending gave me nightmares as a kid. **Body Heat** – William Hurt and Kathleen Turner star in Lawrence Kasdan’s (co-writer of Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and writer-director of The Big Chill) 1981 erotic thriller. It’s moody, and has a beautiful twist in it. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-who-dunnits-and-really-good-sci-fi-fantasy/851555/56 "2020-04-13T14:21:37Z")
Science Fiction: **Metropolis** – already mentioned, but I wanted to suggest that you get the most recent restoration. It’s something like 98% complete now. If you compare it against earlier versions (like the Giorgiou Moroder version, an earlier restoration with a rock score) you can see how much improved it is when you can see the whole tyhing. **The LOst World** (1925) The silent version of The LOst World has also profited by restoration to almost a complete version. Pretty good, considering how this film was so butchered that it was virtually lost until recently. There are actually TWO restored versions. One by the Eastman House museum (included as an “extra” on the DVD for the vastly inferior 1960 remake) and a fan-made version (which I prefer) marketed on its own. The film had the blessing and cooperation of Arthur Conan Doyle himself (who appeared in a now-lost prologue). With effects by Willis O’Brien and much of the crew that would go on to make _King Kong_, _Son of Kong_, and _Mighty Joe Young_. Some of the animation is hopelesslyjerky and amateurish, but some of it is superb, with multiple effects elements blended seamlessly together in a style they would later perfect for Kong. It also features only the second Monster-On-A-Rampage images (the first being Winsor McCay’s Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend cartoon “The Giant Pet”), and the first in a feature film. This was so new a trope that it wasn’t yet a cliche. **Robinson Crusoe on Mars** – 1964 film that featured a Mars that was still at least defensible in those days, but title star Paul Mantee still has to cope with his oxygen and water running out. Directed by Byron Haskin, who did lots of other good science fiction. With a very brief part by a pre-Batman Adam West. This is what survival by yourself on Mars looked like decades before Andy Weir’s _The Martian_. **Forbidden Planet** , **2001: A Space Odyssey** , and _The Day the Earth Stood Still_\*, of course. **It! The Terror from Beyond Space** – forget the stupid title, this one’s a classic from the 1950s. Jerome Bixby’s story of a monster who sneaks aboard a space ship and hides out while he picks off the crew was shamelessly ripped off by Ridley Scott’s _Alien_, but it works a lot better in the smaller, more claustrophobic cyliundrical ship[as the creature basically takes over the ship from the base upwards, with everyone croding into the command module at the top. Paul Blaisdell’s monster suit, if not up to H.R. Giger’s “biomechanic” design, is still his best work. You’ll cringe at the 1950s sexism (the women have to make and serve the coffee), the smoking (!) aboard ship, and the fact that they have both guns [iu]and grenades\* on a spaceship (so does Robinson Crusoe on Mars, by the way. Not to mention Heinlein’s book Rocket Ship Galileo. Must have been the era), but it’s an interesting time capsule. Highly recommended. (Bixby went on to write the screenplay for _Fantastic Voyage_, three episodes of the original _Star Trek_, and lots of other stuff. His short story “It’s a _Good_Life” got turned into one of the creepiest and best-remembered original _Twilight Zone_ episodes) **The Last Mimzy** – They prettied it up and gave it a happy ending, but there’s not enough stuff out there based on the works of Henry Kuttner and Catherine L. Moore. This one’s based on their 1943 short story _Mimsy were the Borogoves_. And we need a happy ending in this day. Not many people saw this when it was released in 2007 **Timescape** (AKA **Grand Tour: Disaster in Time** is a 1992 Time TRavel story alsdo based on a work by Henry Kuttner and Catherine L. Moore. Again, they very freelt adapted it and gave it an anomalous happy ending. But, as I say, it’s worth a watch, and we need the happy endings right now. I don’t really recommend it, but you could, if you can find a copy, watch **The Twonky** (1953). It, too, is adapted from a story by Henry Kuttner and Catherine L. Moore. As before, it’s a very free adaptation in which – you can see a trend here – they gave it a happy ending. Starring Hans Conreid, one of those actors who you know by sight but maybe not by name. **Day of the Triffids** – not the 1962 movie you probably know, or the 2009 BBD version, but the one made in 1981 for BBC and run on PBS in the US. It’s very well-done and faithful to the novel (which the others are not). DEpressing, especially when everyone is Sheltering In Place right now, but very well done. The Quatermass series – at least the first three TV serials (only part of the first one is available) and the original movies made from them in the 1950s and 1960s. The serials were **The Quatermass Xperiment, Quatermass 2,** and **Quatermass and the Pit**. In Britain the movies had the same titles, but in the US they became **The creeping Unknown, Enemy from Space** , and **Five Million Years to Earth** (not to be confused with Harryhausen’s _Fifty Million Miles to Earth_, which was, I suspect, the distributor’s intention). Britisg rocket scientist Bernard Quatermass vies against alien entities that invariably “take over” people and want to take over the earth. They are frequently disgustingly goopy, but I have a long-standing theory that the reason the British don’t like them is less because of their hygiene than becauise they’re “not British”. I think the reason they like Doctor Who is that he’s an alien who, illogically enough, IS British. The original Quatermass Xp0eriment serial actually has a very different ending from that of the movie, although both have the climax in WQestminster Abbey. All three were written by Nigel Kneale, a British author of many SF teleplays and screenplays (the 1950s _1984_, Harryhausen’s _First Men in the Moon_) who hated science fiction fans. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-who-dunnits-and-really-good-sci-fi-fantasy/851555/57 "2020-04-13T14:24:50Z")
Science Fiction: **Metropolis** – already mentioned, but I wanted to suggest that you get the most recent restoration. It’s something like 98% complete now. If you compare it against earlier versions (like the Giorgiou Moroder version, an earlier restoration with a rock score) you can see how much improved it is when you can see the whole thing. **The Lost World** (1925) The silent version of The Lost World has also profited by restoration to almost a complete version. Pretty good, considering how this film was so butchered that it was virtually lost until recently. There are actually TWO restored versions. One by the Eastman House museum (included as an “extra” on the DVD for the vastly inferior 1960 remake) and a fan-made version (which I prefer) marketed on its own. The film had the blessing and cooperation of Arthur Conan Doyle himself (who appeared in a now-lost prologue). With effects by Willis O’Brien and much of the crew that would go on to make _King Kong_, _Son of Kong_, and _Mighty Joe Young_. Some of the animation is hopelessly jerky and amateurish, but some of it is superb, with multiple effects elements blended seamlessly together in a style they would later perfect for Kong. It also features only the second Monster-On-A-Rampage images (the first being Winsor McCay’s Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend cartoon “The Giant Pet”), and the first in a feature film. This was so new a trope that it wasn’t yet a cliche. **Robinson Crusoe on Mars** – 1964 film that featured a Mars that was still at least defensible in those days, but title star Paul Mantee still has to cope with his oxygen and water running out. Directed by Byron Haskin, who did lots of other good science fiction. With a very brief part by a pre-Batman Adam West. This is what survival by yourself on Mars looked like decades before Andy Weir’s _The Martian_. **Forbidden Planet** , **2001: A Space Odyssey** , and **The Day the Earth Stood Still** , of course. \*\* It! The Terror from Beyond Space \*\* – forget the stupid title, this one’s a classic from the 1950s. Jerome Bixby’s story of a monster who sneaks aboard a space ship and hides out while he picks off the crew was shamelessly ripped off by Ridley Scott’s _Alien_, but it works a lot better in the smaller, more claustrophobic cylindrical ship as the creature basically takes over the ship from the base upwards, with everyone croding into the command module at the top. Paul Blaisdell’s monster suit, if not up to H.R. Giger’s “biomechanic” design, is still his best work. You’ll cringe at the 1950s sexism (the women have to make and serve the coffee), the smoking (!) aboard ship, and the fact that they have both guns _and grenades_ on a spaceship (so does Robinson Crusoe on Mars, by the way. Not to mention Heinlein’s book Rocket Ship Galileo. Must have been the era), but it’s an interesting time capsule. Highly recommended. (Bixby went on to write the screenplay for _Fantastic Voyage_, three episodes of the original _Star Trek_, and lots of other stuff. His short story “It’s a _Good_Life” got turned into one of the creepiest and best-remembered original _Twilight Zone_ episodes) **The Last Mimzy** – They prettied it up and gave it a happy ending, but there’s not enough stuff out there based on the works of Henry Kuttner and Catherine L. Moore. This one’s based on their 1943 short story _Mimsy were the Borogoves_. And we need a happy ending in this day. Not many people saw this when it was released in 2007 **Timescape** (AKA **Grand Tour: Disaster in Time** is a 1992 Time TRavel story alsdo based on a work by Henry Kuttner and Catherine L. Moore. Again, they very freelt adapted it and gave it an anomalous happy ending. But, as I say, it’s worth a watch, and we need the happy endings right now. I don’t really recommend it, but you could, if you can find a copy, watch **The Twonky** (1953). It, too, is adapted from a story by Henry Kuttner and Catherine L. Moore. As before, it’s a very free adaptation in which – you can see a trend here – they gave it a happy ending. Starring Hans Conreid, one of those actors who you know by sight but maybe not by name. **Day of the Triffids** – not the 1962 movie you probably know, or the 2009 BBD version, but the one made in 1981 for BBC and run on PBS in the US. It’s very well-done and faithful to the novel (which the others are not). DEpressing, especially when everyone is Sheltering In Place right now, but very well done. The Quatermass series – at least the first three TV serials (only part of the first one is available) and the original movies made from them in the 1950s and 1960s. The serials were **The Quatermass Xperiment, Quatermass 2,** and **Quatermass and the Pit**. In Britain the movies had the same titles, but in the US they became **The creeping Unknown, Enemy from Space** , and **Five Million Years to Earth** (not to be confused with Harryhausen’s _Fifty Million Miles to Earth_, which was, I suspect, the distributor’s intention). Britisg rocket scientist Bernard Quatermass vies against alien entities that invariably “take over” people and want to take over the earth. They are frequently disgustingly goopy, but I have a long-standing theory that the reason the British don’t like them is less because of their hygiene than becauise they’re “not British”. I think the reason they like Doctor Who is that he’s an alien who, illogically enough, IS British. The original Quatermass Xp0eriment serial actually has a very different ending from that of the movie, although both have the climax in WQestminster Abbey. All three were written by Nigel Kneale, a British author of many SF teleplays and screenplays (the 1950s _1984_, Harryhausen’s _First Men in the Moon_) who hated science fiction fans. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-who-dunnits-and-really-good-sci-fi-fantasy/851555/58 "2020-04-13T17:31:13Z")
(Waves hand excitedly) I did! I saw **The Last Mimzy** in a theater! My kids were the right age, and the short story is one of the best SF/fantasy shorts I know, if not THE best. Disappointed in the wrap-up, but can you imagine the reaction if the movie had kept the original ending? Crying children, horrified angry adults, pandemonium! ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2020, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-who-dunnits-and-really-good-sci-fi-fantasy/851555/59 "2020-05-03T00:21:43Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#): > > Not quite a who-dunnit, but _Day of the Jackal_ - the original, not the Bruce Willis knock-off. A cracking good yarn, and tense to the last frame. I just caught the Bruce Willis version on STARZ today. I thought it was pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2020, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-who-dunnits-and-really-good-sci-fi-fantasy/851555/60 "2020-05-03T02:31:53Z")
Have you watched Sherlock? What about Firefly and Serenity? Has he seen classic Spielberg and Lucas? Things like Jaws, Close Encounters, Raiders of the Lost Ark and E.T.? And Clue - it has 6 different endings, I think. StG [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-who-dunnits-and-really-good-sci-fi-fantasy/851555.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-fashioned-who-dunnits-and-really-good-sci-fi-fantasy/851555.md?page=4)