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Loading... Shadows in Their Blood (1991)| 37 | 1 | 664,250 | 
(3.65) | None | Aging actresses and sometimes sleuths Evangeline Sinclair and Trixie Dolan are starring again--but not exactly in the film of their dreams. In fact, the shooting of a new Dracula film in an isolated old abbey is rapidly becoming a nightmare. The weather is foul, so is Evangeline's temper, and the director is a slave-driver, who lashes the emotional tensions to a pitch of killing intensity both onscreen and off.… (more) |
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The heavens had opened the day we arrived and stayed open ever since.  | |
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[Barney has positioned Trixie so she's facing a cutting wind.]
If it weren't for my curiosity, I would have protested, but a lifetime's experience has taught me that when a gentleman takes you the long way round it's either because he has designs on your virtue, or else there's something he wants to say. The passage of time has ruled out the first option for me, so that meant I was about to hear something I probably didn't want to know. The wind carried away my sigh. (chapter 3) [Trixie and Evangeline are talking about Fabian de Bourne, the actor playing Dracula]
'I have to admit that it was perfect casting to get Grisly for his vampire mother,' Evangeline said. 'They both have that same arrogance. With any luck, they may begin a feud and kill each other -- but not until the picture's finished.'
How many producers had said that about Evangeline herself as they pitted her against the newest egomaniacal heart-throb and stepped back out of the line of fire? She had never actually killed any of them, but she'd certainly whittled more than a few down to size. (chapter 4) 'Job -- we've just been attacked!' Evangeline greeted him.
'Congratulations! I always knew you two weren't past it.'
'Not that kind of attack, you fool!' I thought Evangeline was going to hit him. (chapter 11) | |
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▾References References to this work on external resources.  Wikipedia in English
None ▾Book descriptions Aging actresses and sometimes sleuths Evangeline Sinclair and Trixie Dolan are starring again--but not exactly in the film of their dreams. In fact, the shooting of a new Dracula film in an isolated old abbey is rapidly becoming a nightmare. The weather is foul, so is Evangeline's temper, and the director is a slave-driver, who lashes the emotional tensions to a pitch of killing intensity both onscreen and off. ▾Library descriptions No library descriptions found. ▾LibraryThing members' description |
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4
The movie is being filmed in Whitby, along the Yorkshire Coast, not Transylvania. It's January and the heavens are providing free spooky atmosphere in the form of storms. The cast and crew accommodations are in the same defunct hotel where the filming takes place. We don't get through chapter one before we're given evidence that those rumors about the director could be true.
Besides our movie stars and the director, three supporting characters from the earlier books are included. Two of them are Gwenda and Des, two of the four young actors who share the flat at the top of Jasper's London house, where Trixie and Evangeline have been staying. The third is Detective-Sergeant Julian Singer, the Golden Age movie fan.
Stir in:
a. a fourth Golden Age movie star who has a romantic past with one of the three elder ladies
b. a lovely female lead with an impossible mother
c. a male lead as arrogant as he is handsome
d. another young actress who uses one of the less reputable methods of improving her career, and
e. a local Golden Age movie fan
to mix up another fun farce that one needn't be a film buff to enjoy.
NOTES:
Chapter 1:
a. The accommodations are described.
b. Our heroines' costumes were designed by Posy, whom we met in book two.
c. The female lead's mother has been nicknamed Madame Defarge. Mrs. Bright is a classic Stage Mother with all the negative qualities often associated with the term.
d. Although Evangeline says 'head on a plate,' it's usually called a platter, which is what happened to John the Baptist's head in chapter 6 of the Gospel of Mark.
e. There is no Unit Medical Officer for this film.
Mentions: John Wayne, Gloria Swanson in 'Sunset Boulevard,' Madame Defarge, King Kong,
Chapter 2:
1. There's an Ethel Barrymore reference.
2. The kitchen and canteen are in the basement.
3. We learn how Job tricked the actresses about the film's location.
4. Margaret Dolan Carpenter and Hugh are on their honeymoon. They took his children, Orlando and Viola, with them. Look here for the reaction when Evangeline wanted to accompany them.
5. We meet Grisly's old lover, former Hungarian matinee idol Igor Ferenczy, who will be playing the servant. His backstory is given.
6. There's a Lon Chaney reference.
Chapter 3:
a. Gwenda is working hard to lose the twee (British for cutesy or corny) accent she had in the first two books. She's sharing a room with Meta.
b. Part of the exterior set is described.
c. The defunct hotel is on the East Cliff above Whitby, in sight of the town's ruined abbey: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/whitby-abbey/
d. The lawn side of the hotel is opposite the West Cliff. Trixie gives us a bit of local description. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2259560/Dracula-church-raining-bones-Deb...
e. A man having designs on a woman's virtue is an old euphemism for wanting to have sex outside of marriage with her.
f. We meet Barney Pirren, the Art Director, Production Designer, and odd jobs man; who fills Trixie in on some spooky local legends.
g. Trixie is referring to a famous Sherlock Holmes story, 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'.
h. We learn about one of the sets Trixie and Evangeline will be using.
i. Barney gives Trixie a warning.
Chapter 4:
a. Julian has bought our heroines a much-appreciated gift.
b. Evangeline once played Skittles, probable mistress of King Edward VII of England, in 'Queen of His Heart'. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Walters
c. We learn how the events of Encore Murder affected Martha and Hugh's wedding.
d. Trixie thinks about something producers used to say about Evangeline and egomaniacal heart-throbs.
e. Evangeline discusses Martha and Hugh in a way that infuriates Trixie.
f. The jet shop set is described. One of the busts resembles Grisly.
g. In describing Job's attitude toward the cost of filming, Trixie uses part of what some studio boss is supposed to have said to director King Vidor when he wanted to film on location: A rock is a rock, a tree is a tree, shoot it in Griffith Park [Los Angeles, California].
h. Barney tells Trixie some uses to which jet was put.
i. The principal cameraman/Director of Cinematography used to work with Evangeline and Trixie in the golden days of Hollywood.
j. Gwenda is playing the jet shop's dogsbody [employee stuck with all the boring and least pleasant tasks] and apprentice vampire.
Chapter 5:
a. Another fake film of Evangeline's is mentioned.
b. Evangeline has a good comeback for Lora, a rude young American actress whose hysterics she ended.
c. Trixie uses one of those old silent film subtitles.
d. Job ordered a new item added to the breakfast menu. Trixie refuses to try it.
Chapter 6:
a. Trixie is referring to the old saying that two's company, three's a crowd.
b. Trixie mentions what was done to the corpses of movie stars during Hollywood's heyday.
c. a few more spots in the hotel are described, including the library.
d. We meet Hobart 'Hobie' Steele, the stunts coordinator.
e. Julian has been sitting in on script conferences.
f. Grisly uses the accent she used when she played Nazi villainesses.
g. Trixie mentions palimony.
Chapter 7:
a. We're introduced to 'Yesterday's Dreams,' a film memorabilia private museum.
b. Man Mountain Dean was a professional wrestler, actor, and stuntman. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0541174/
c. There are references to real-life Golden Age movie stars (skipping those mentioned in earlier chapters): Harold Lloyd, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Carmen Miranda, Erich von Stroheim, Charles Boyer, David Llewelyn Wark "D. W. " Griffith, Mary Pickford, William Powell, and Fred Astaire, as well as another fictional star from this series, Beauregard Sylvester. His grandson, Jacob, has the house where Trixie and Evangeline have been staying.
d. The classic film 'Meet Me in St Louis' is mentioned.
e. There are also references to movie characters -- Andy Hardy, Tarzan, and Sabu.
f. The owner of Yesterday's Dreams used to work at Madame Tussaud's wax museum in London. He gives us his reason for leaving. https://www.madametussauds.com/
g. 'Midnight in Vienna' is mentioned.
h. The owner is using the customer definition of 'punter'. http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/p.htm
i. There's a comparison to Sir Walter Raleigh and Queen Elizabeth I.
j. A fake film Griselda and Igor were in is mentioned.
k. The owner changed his name to pay homage to movie greats. Call him 'Griff'.
l. The wardrobe mistress for that fake film was named Magda.
m. Trixie is referring to an old tale about Russians throwing other passengers from the sleigh to chasing wolves so others may escape. http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/7033/did-travelers-by-troika-throw-p...
Chapter 8:
a. Igor's English is very good, but a bit dated.
b. Trixie tells us what a Hollywood director once told her about the kind of voice Evangeline is using now.
c. We hear a line about Job's notorious hypochondria.
d. 'Her Master's Voice' might be a play on this old phonograph record slogan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Master%27s_Voice (it's on some of my parents' records).
e. Job has pulled a trick that upsets our heroines.
f. There's a comparison to escape artist Harry Houdini.
Chapter 9:
a. Four days pass in a sentence. Trixie tells us what makes filming boring.
b. There's an anecdote about when Ethel Merman played Gypsy Rose Lee's stage mother.
c. Trixie tells Lora the closest she's come to working with Job before.
d. This link talks about what it meant to have a fit of the vapours/vapors.
http://www.wisegeek.org/what-were-the-vapors.htm
e. Apparently the quotation that Lora recognized is from 'The Jew of Malta' by Christopher Marlowe. http://www.classic-literature.co.uk/british-authors/16th-century/christopher-mar... (I'm not an anti-Semite, so this play sounds like a 'must-miss' to me.)
f. 'The funny farm' is a nickname for an insane asylum/mental hospital.
g. A bit of the film's plot is given, as is one of Job's money-saving tricks.
h. Igor gives some trivia about royal and aristocratic seduction in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
i. Fabian gives Mrs. Bright food for thought.
j. Trixie and Evangeline's reaction to Lora's warning about a trick Fabian has been pulling isn't what she expects.
Chapter 10.
a. Meta explains Job's orders about the menu from now on. (Sounds as if it's time to smuggle in a microwave and a mini-freezer. She wants to cook the stuff about as much as our heroines want to eat it.)
b. There's a Cecil B. DeMille and his 'The Ten Commandments' movie reference (whether the 1923 or 1956 version isn't specified). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ten_Commandments_(1956_film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ten_Commandments_(1923_film)
c. Trixie and Evangeline wander around Whitby.
d. Trixie talks about how films are shot out of sequence.
e. How the scene of Dracula crawling head down the wall of the castle has been shot is explained.
f. Are our heroines encountering one of the spooky legends Barney told to Trixie?
Chapter 11:
a. There's a Batmobile reference.
b. Igor mentions something from his past.
c. Trixie makes a snark [snide remark] about Job and guilt.
d. Trixie learns Meta's true feelings about Job.
Chapter 12:
a. Job makes a joke about their tea that our heroines don't find funny.
b. They shoot a scene between Griselda and Evangeline.
c. Meta explains to job why the exterminators he wants won't come.
d. Trixie is reading 'The Whitby Gazette'. One section makes her wonder why there aren't more murders in the world.
e. Griselda is wearing glamour wear instead of sensible clothes.
f. Trixie describes Julian's policeman's sigh.
Chapter 13:
a. There's a reference to Basil Rathbone playing Sherlock Holmes.
b. 'Good Night Ladies' is a real song. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodnight,_Ladies You may hear it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92z1ntgIKeA
c. Trixie uses the old line about being an Old Man's Darling.
d. Evangeline quotes Shakespeare.
Chapter 14:
a. Evangeline makes a reference to Detective-Superintendent Ron Heyhoe from the first two books. Does she bother to get his name right this time?
b. A 'bent copper' is what we Yanks call a crooked cop.
c. There's a reference to World War I Nurse Edith Cavell https://www.cavellnursestrust.org/edith-cavell and Evangeline's career.
d. 'Little Mary Sunshine' was a character from a musical: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHevCNxRpmw https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Mary_Sunshine
e. Trixie makes reference to the traditional horror movie scene of peasants with torches advancing -- and what the extras were really shouting.
f. There's a Bluebeard reference. http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/bluebeard/
Chapter 15:
a. Trixie talks about madness and murder in movies.
b. There's a Boris Karloff reference.
c. Three fake films Job directed are mentioned.
Chapter 16:
a. There's a scene involving a mirror.
b. There's a John Barrymore reference as well as a variation on a Shakespeare quotation.
c. A Harpo Marx comparison is made.
e. Griselda's first Hollywood film is mentioned.
Chapter 17:
a. Mrs. Bright's nickname used by some who know her is given.
b. Yes, that 'The Happy Couple' movie series that Evangeline starred in gets mentioned in this book.
Chapter 18:
a. 'Had-I-But-Known [what the consequences would be]' is a sub genre within mystery fiction. Classic writer Mary Roberts Rinehart made such use of it that Charlotte MacLeod (another mystery writer) called her Rinehart biography Had She But Known.
b. We learn where Meta got her name.
c. Is Trixie so nervous she calls 'Grisly' 'Girsly' by mistake, or is it a typo?
d. Trixie mentions one of her fake films.
Chapter 19: Two of Grisly's fake films are named.
Chapter 20: Evangeline mentions an anecdote about actor Hamilton Dean.
Alas, this is not one of Ms. Babson's cat mysteries, but we bat lovers may take comfort in knowing that the bats on the cover aren't just window dressing.
If you enjoy cozy mysteries with more than a touch of farce, this book is for you. (