Favorite Fictional Characters --- Lee Stetson and Amanda King

 

It’s probably fair to say I was more than a little nerdy as a kid. I was that kid who wanted to read through my great-grandma’s set of Encyclopaedia Britannica, then quiz the adults around me on what I had just read. I could get lost in a book or TV show to the point the rest of the world ceased to exist. Some of that was due to the dysfunctional way I was raised by my mom — a childhood that forced me to learn how to entertain myself. But I think I still would have been a Brainy Smurf–level nerd even if I had had a “normal” childhood.

I truly believe I was born gay — and a nerd. Even as an adult, I read anywhere between 350 to 500 books a year, and my Funko Pop! collection is just a little excessive. Even my taste in TV would have been a dead giveaway. Perry Mason and Murder, She Wrote were must-watch television, and so was Scarecrow and Mrs. King.

Anchored by the crush-worthy Bruce Boxleitner as suave secret agent Lee Stetson and Kate Jackson as divorced housewife Amanda King, Scarecrow and Mrs. King was the kind of show I wanted to be in when I grew up. Like a lot of us, I was fascinated by the idea of being a spy, and I devoured every episode I could. Yes, the missions they went on were a lot of fun to watch — but it was Lee and Amanda who truly captured my attention as a kid, a fondness that has carried over into my adulthood.

They aren’t the kind of couple who fall instantly in love. In fact, I’m pretty sure annoyance and exasperated amusement were the predominant emotions they initially felt for each other. But even then, the chemistry between them lit up the screen. There was something about their partnership that grabbed your attention as a viewer, even at my tender, impressionable age. The annoyance eventually turns into respect and admiration, but it’s when they both realize there’s a spark between them that they truly become a couple worthy of a happy ending.

For a kid who found comfort in books and television, Lee and Amanda weren’t just characters — they were proof that even unlikely partnerships can grow into something lasting. Maybe that’s why they still matter to me. Their slow-burn story taught a lonely, nerdy kid that love doesn’t always arrive in a flash; sometimes it builds quietly and steadily, until you realize it’s exactly what you’ve been waiting for.

Favorite Fictional Character ‐-- Stephen Neale

 

The first Ray Milland movie I ever saw was The Uninvited (1944), and it remains my favorite ghost story of all time—thanks in no small part to Milland’s mix of suave charm and awkward vulnerability. I love that film and his performance so much that I even featured his character, Roderick “Rick” Fitzgerald, in a previous Favorite Fictional Character post.

It was a good friend of mine, Yvette of In So Many Words, who first suggested I try Ministry of Fear (also 1944). As usual, she was right—I absolutely loved it. (And Yvette, if you’re reading this, I miss your classic mystery reviews. I hope you’ll come back to blogging, too.)

In Ministry of Fear, Milland plays Stephen Neale, a man just released from an asylum after serving two years for the mercy killing of his wife. Over the next hour and twenty-some minutes, poor Neale—through no fault of his own—finds himself tangled in a Nazi spy ring and attending one of the most hauntingly beautiful séance scenes ever filmed.

What amazes me is how Milland pulls it off. Like Rick, Neale carries himself with a sophisticated, debonair air, but underneath I see a fumbling, slightly insecure man doing his best to keep his head above water. He’s burdened with guilt over his wife’s death, and instead of easing back into life after confinement, he’s thrust into danger that would have had me giving up on the train. Honestly, I’d have tossed that cake right back at them the moment the fortune-teller demanded it. (If I intrigued you with that reference, I hope you watch the movie.)

Neale is a man whose instinct is always to do the right thing, even when it puts his life or freedom at risk. He’s quick on his feet, both physically and mentally. He’s protective of those he cares about and willing to sacrifice himself for a woman in distress, a cause he believes in, or a country he feels loyalty to. From the first time I met him on screen, I admired him—and maybe even started to fall for him a little. That feeling has only deepened with each rewatch.

Ministry of Fear - 1944

Part Of Synopsis From Back Cover:

On his way to London after being released from a mental asylum, Stephen Neale (Ray Miland) stops at a seemingly innocent village fair, after which he finds himself caught in the web of a sinister, possibly Nazi-connected underworld.

I'm almost positive that Yvette of in so many words... is responsible for me seeing this movie, at least the first time around.  She reviewed it on December 28th, 2010.  I read her review on December 29th, and watched the movie on February 2nd, of 2011.  I only know this because I just went back and read the comments I made on her post.  I've always found Ray Miland rather dashing, and I'm in love with him in The Uninvited, so when she wrote up her review, I knew I had to watch it.

The Criterion Collection just released it on Blu Ray last year, and I'm pretty sure I bought it the week it came out.  How can you not love a movie that starts off with Ray Miland's character being released from an asylum, where he was committed for two year after buying the drugs his wife used to killer herself.  She was dying a horrible death, and she asked for his help in ending it.  Once he bought the drugs, he was unable to go through with the plan, but she got a hold of them anyway, and that was that.  So he was there for two years, and the first thing he does is hope decide to hop on a train for London.  Once he is at the station, he sees a little fete across the way, and since he has time he joins in.

Long story short, he ends up with a cake, meant for someone else.  He is followed onto the train by a fake blind guy steals the cake, jumps off the train, and Ray Miland starts chasing after him.  The guy is killed by a German bomber, dropping bombs on the innocent countryside.  Which if you think about it, a German spy getting killed by a German bomb, is rather hilarious.

Once in London, Milan decides to look into the charity that hosted the fete, he meets the Austrian refugees who run the organization, and the games really begin.   For the rest of the movie, we are treated to some of the craziest, most convoluted actions on the face of the planet.  The plot just takes off, and if it can be twisted and turned, it is. But that's the genius of the movie, it's takes the most outrageous plot twists it can, and somehow you still buy into it.  You really believe that a cabal of German spies, has been able to infiltrate every level of society, stealing military secrets and using a tailor to pass them along.  The characters are over the top, just the way they should be in such a story, though some of the acting itself is rather stilted and some of the casting choices, Marjorie Reynolds, doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Hillary Brooke on the other hand, who I also adore, is brilliant as Mrs. Bellane, one of the cabalists, and a fake medium.  It's through here that we are treated to one of the most memorable seance scenes I've ever seen on screen, the tension is thick through the entire thing, and the way light is used, sheer genius.  Actually, the entire movies uses light and shadows brilliantly.  There are a few scenes where the absences of light is used to it's fullest effect, two of the better ones are at the end.

Did I forget to mention that this is all taking place in a London that is in the middle of war, dealing with nightly German bombardments?  I also want to make sure I mentioned the many gun fights, an apartment explosion, and one of the coolest book stores (also a Nazi front), that I've ever seen.  I won't get into how many characters die, or the one who has to die twice.  I won't even mention the lack of resolution concerning some of the characters, such as Mrs. Bellane.  You just have to assume that in the end, they are all rounded up.

What I will say, is that with every viewing, I find myself falling in love with this one more and more.  Fritz Lang, though the movie is supposed to be quite different in tone from the Graham Greene book it's based on, directed a terrific example of Noir, and it plays those tropes to the hilt.  It is quickly becoming one of my favorite movies, and I'm sure it is one that will have many more viewings in my home.

The Great Prince Shan by E. Phillips Oppenheim

Synopsis From Back Cover:

The central figure of this absorbing story is the mysterious and cultured Prince Shan, ruler of China; the heroines are captivating English girl and a exotically beautiful Russian who pit their charm, their loveliness, and their wisdom against each other and against the highly-trained diplomats of many countries.  Each of them attempts to influence the decision which may change the map of the world.

The England that Lord Nigel Kingley and Lady Maggie Trent find themselves living in, is not one we would recognize.  They live in a country that learned all the wrong lessons from World War I.  It's a country that elected a laborer to be Prime Minister.  It's a country that has put all it's eggs in the basket of The League of Nations.  It's a country that has stopped using diplomats, and did away with it's clandestine operations.  It's a country that believes economics and common brotherhood is enough to protect itself.  It's a country that is living in a fantasy land.

A few of them, like Nigel and Maggie, understand the dangers they face.  They can see what's happening in Europe and Asia, happenings that look very bad for England.  With the help of a few smart Americans, Chalmers and Jesson, who see the danger as well, they learn of a meeting between Prince Shan of China, Nadia Karetsky of Russia, and Oscar Immelan of Germany.  What is to be decided at that meeting could destroy England for all time.  What they can actually do about it, nobody is really sure.  They come up with a plan to find out what's going on, but it's a plan that gets interrupted by the human connections that take place between the various characters.

But even then, the characters and the nations they represent will need to answer some questions. Will Maggie be able to convince Prince Shan to not go along with Germany's plots?  Can Nigel and Nadia find themselves on the same side, or are they destined to be enemies?  How will Oscar Immelan react when he find out things are starting to go the opposite of what he wants?  How many people need to die to protect England from it's enemies, and how can Nigel and Maggie stop what seems to be the inevitable?

This is a book that explores a lot of political fears and hopes swirling around the world between the two World Wars.  It's a mystery book, but it's much more than that.  It's an exploration of the doubts many felt in putting faith in The League of Nations, and in the fear some felt in the growing power of certain countries after the end of World War I.  It's a fear born out of the opening of the East, and in the Nationalism on the rise in certain countries.  But it's also a story of hope and love.  It's story that convinces it's reader that no matter what you face, either personally or globally, the individual can make a difference.

Challenges: A-Z, VM (Malicious Men)