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eBook – The Empire Striketh Back

eBook –  The Empire Striketh Back Full title :  William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back By : Ian Doescher  Iillustrations :  Nicolas Delort Score : 9/10 Year : 2014 Publisher : Quirk Books  eISBN :  978-1-59474-716-8 Based on  978-1-59474-715-1 (hard cover) Pages : 176 *  Language : English From Goodreads : Hot on the heels of the New York Times best seller William Shakespeare’s Star Wars comes the next two installments of the original trilogy: William Shakespeare’s The Empire Striketh Back  (and not reviewed as yet,  William Shakespeare’s The Jedi Doth Return.) Return to the star-crossed galaxy far, far away as the brooding young hero, a power-mad emperor, and their jesting droids match wits, struggle for power, and soliloquize in elegant and impeccable iambic pentameter. Illustrated with beautiful black-and-white Elizabethan-style artwork, these two plays offer essential reading for all ages. Something Wookiee this way comes!  *** As he explains at the end, Ian Doescher
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Movie – Suspicion (1941)

Movie – Suspicion
Score : 8/10
Year : 1941
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Country : USA
Language : English
Duration: 1h39 (IMDB) ; 1h35 (DVD*) 
Writers : Anthony Berkeley (as Francis Iles) - Novel before the fact

Afraid of ending an old maid, 28 year old shy Lina marries dashing Johnnie. As time passes, she discovers his flaws, and starts to suspect that he's a murderer... 

From this basic plot, Hitchcock has made several movies. He's good at building suspense and hiring writers who let a lot of innuendos in the dialogues. 

Although the music doesn't stand out, at least it's not annoying like in some of Alfred's movies, so that's a rather positive aspect. 


The master of suspens' strength relies, once more, on superbe cinematography where plays of shadows and light are usually an integral part of the filming process. I'll note, that once more, Hitchcock found at least one really original scene to shoot, which is quite famous and involves a bulb in a glass... 

The acting by Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine is superb, and support from Nigel Bruce as Beaky is very quirky and funny. 

I love how Hitchcock often uses crime novel writers within his movies as supporting characters to the stories, and how dialogues add light to the motives or opportunities of the murderers in the movie. 


I have to admit that I thought Alfred hadn't made his usual cameo, but that upon online research found out that he did make one. In the original version, it's about 47 minutes into the movie and on our French DVD edition just under 45 minutes into it. 


I don't know what happened to the 4 missing minutes from the full version but it seems that the new US bluray edition which was released just a few months ago proposes the full 99 minutes, in full 1080p HD... more on that later.

As often, there are many scenes with fur in Suspicion - not new for old movies, and although I understand that not everyone hates it, I do and find it so gross that my overall enjoyment suffers because of it. 

Casting : Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, Nigel Bruce, Cedric Harwicke, Damne May Whitty, et al. 
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