By Steve Crum

Investigative journalist Laura “Lo” Blacklock (Keira Knightley) decides to mix pleasure with business on board a luxury “super yacht” in The Woman in Cabin 10. The business entails the destination of the 3-day excursion, a fundraising event in Norway. She is going to write a feature covering it. The pleasure is relaxing on a cruise en route, hobnobbing with the rich and famous. 

What could possibly go wrong? Plenty.

Beginning the first night, Lo awakens to a woman’s scream, and immediately begins an investigation: a bloody handprint by Cabin 10 coupled with her witnessing someone fall overboard. Yet the clues lead to a dead end, per se. No one is staying in Cabin 10. No one knows anything about someone falling overboard. The ship’s captain does a headcount of everyone on board. And no one is missing. 

Yet more oddities pop up, only discovered by Lo. Now her safety is seemingly at risk. And what about the wealthy, ill woman Anne Bullmer (Lisa Loven Kongsli)? How does her husband, the millionaire whose yacht has become central to the plot, tie in to the chaos? After all, Richard Ballmer (Guy Pearce) seems supportive of Lo’s seemingly endless revelations. 

Reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock’s Lady on a Train (1945), The Woman in Cabin 10 is loaded with suspicions and danger. However, what director/screenwriter Simon Stone’s Cabin 10 comparatively lacks is pace, credibility, and editing. The first half tends to drag, while the payoff conclusion seems rushed and predictable. 

It is also a negative when late in the story, the point of view shifts from the victim(s), Lo included, to the perpetrators. 

Still, The Woman in Cabin 10 has its moments—nail biting as they are. 

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GRADE on an A-F Scale: B-

By Steve Crum

What hath Agatha Christie (1890-1976) wrought when she first wrote about elderly amateur sleuth Miss Jane Marple in 1927? The fictional Miss Marple led to her being featured in numerous short stories, novels and motion pictures. It is no coincidence there have been a number of novels, TV shows and films since then that have included an aged citizen detective solving murders. 

Take the most recent movie, The Thursday Murder Club, currently streaming on Netflix. It is a terrific showcase for not one, but four senior citizens teaming up to solve a murder. Directed by Chris Columbus (Mrs. Doubtfire, Home Alone) and based on Richard Osman’s book of the same name. The Thursday Murder Club covers 118 minutes of a murder case that evolves into multiple murders. It is fortunate that the four inhabitants at Berkshire, England’s Cooper’s Chase Retirement Home have already formed their own sort of private club of murder solving enthusiasts. They focus on cold cases that have never been solved.

That the grimly fun film is headlined by four Hollywood names truly adds to the desire to watch it. (One name I did not know is Celia Imrie, who plays nurse Joyce Meadowcroft.) Her fellow residents and compatriots in sleuthing are Pierce Brosnan as Ron Ritchie, union leader; Helen Mirren as spy Elizabeth Best; and Ben Kingsley’s Ibrahim Arif, a psychiatrist.

We find out about each of their backstories as Katy Brand and Suzanne Heathcote’s screenplay unfolds. 

That progression begins as the film opens with a woman being pushed from her window, after which the four decide to investigate. As the local police investigate, so do the Thursdays. 

In the midst, another person is killed—a prime suspect. Then another is mysteriously killed. At this point, our four detectives are working overtime via interviews and pursuing clues. It’s all pretty engaging and sometimes a bit confusing. Without giving away too much, it seems the future of Cooper’s Chase is a factor in all the doings.

A plus to the film is the casting of David Tenant and Jonathan Pryce in major rolls.  

True, the title and overall concept smacks of Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building, but The Thursday Murder Club has a unique spin that makes it well worth watching.

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GRADE on an A-F Scale: B+

By Steve Crum

THROWING BACK to 1954, when 7 year-old Stephen Crum began his journey/destiny of journalism. In my 61st & Ann Avenue home in KCK, I loved reading The Kansas City Times and Star (both the morning and evening editions). So I published my own newspaper, really a one-pager, The Ann Avenue News. Since I had no typewriter or copy machine, it was a laborious task. Every story was hand written by me…and included my single panel comic, Sammy Shoe. (It featured a dorky kid with huge feet.) I churned out maybe six copies of the same issue each week, and hand delivered them to a like number of neighbors. The stories were brief and gossipy. This enterprise lasted two issues. 

My journalistic spirit rekindled big time when I was a junior and senior at Wyandotte High School. As a member of the Pantograph newspaper staff, I drew cartoons, took photos, and wrote news and features. Thirty-five years later, I was teaching journalism at Wyandotte, and advising the Pantograph. 

In between, I became associate editor of The Bulletin student newspaper at Emporia State (then Kansas State Teachers College). I also wrote news and features (play reviews, etc.), and drew cartoons. 

After my stint in the Army, I briefly wrote for an arts and entertainment magazine, Greenhouse, distributed throughout Greater Kansas City. That was 1974.

I surprised myself when I researched the number of high school newspapers I advised over the years following college. They include: Rosedale High School’s The Rosedalian, Harmon’s The Talon, Washington’s The Washingtonian, Schlagle’s Diachron, Wyandotte’s Pantograph, and Bishop Ward’s Outburst. 

In the midst of all the writing, teaching and deadlines, I proudly served as President of the Kansas Scholastic Press Association, 1985-87.

Factor in three city newspapers for which I wrote film and stage reviews and interviews, and drew cartoons: The Kansas City Kansan, The Wyandotte West, and Courier Tribune (Kansas City Missouri’s Northland).  

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Sadly, few local newspapers still publish. The Internet rules. 

I miss those deadlines..sort of. I miss being able to actually hold a paper copy of one’s publication. I miss feeling the pride and accomplishment on distribution day.