Miss Marple is a fictional character in Agatha Christie's crime novels and short stories. Jane Marple lives in the village of St. Mary Mead and acts as an amateur consulting detective. Often characterized as an elderly spinster, she is one of Christie's best-known characters and has been portrayed numerous times on screen. Her first appearance was in a short story published in The Royal Magazine in December 1927, "The Tuesday Night Club", which later became the first chapter of The Thirteen Problems (1932). Her first appearance in a full-length novel was in The Murder at the Vicarage in 1930, and her last appearance was in Sleeping Murder in 1976.
James Avery Hopwood was an American playwright of the Jazz Age. He had four plays running simultaneously on Broadway in 1920.
Allan J. Pinkerton was a Scottish cooper, abolitionist, detective, and spy, best known for creating the Pinkerton National Detective Agency during his time in the United States.
Come to the Stable is a 1949 American comedy drama film that tells the true story of the Abbey of Regina Laudis and the two French religious sisters who come to a small New England town and involve the townsfolk in helping them to build a children's hospital. It stars Loretta Young, Celeste Holm, Hugh Marlowe, Elsa Lanchester, Thomas Gomez, Dooley Wilson and Regis Toomey.
Jane Darwell was an American actress of stage, film, and television. With appearances in more than 100 major movies spanning half a century, Darwell is perhaps best remembered for her poignant portrayal of the matriarch and leader of the Joad family in the film adaptation of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, for which she received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Mary Roberts Rinehart was an American writer, often called the American Agatha Christie. Rinehart published her first mystery novel The Circular Staircase in 1908, which introduced the "had I but known" narrative style. Rinehart is also considered the source of "the butler did it" plot device in her novel The Door (1930), although the exact phrase does not appear in her work.
John Francis Regis Toomey was an American film and television actor.
Amy Lou Adams is an American actress. Known for both her comedic and dramatic roles, she has featured three times in annual rankings of the world's highest-paid actresses. She has received various accolades, including two Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for six Academy Awards and seven British Academy Film Awards.
Julie Bishop, previously known as Jacqueline Wells, was an American film and television actress. She appeared in more than 80 films between 1923 and 1957.
Gaylord Ravenal is the leading male character in Edna Ferber's 1926 novel Show Boat, in the famous Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein II 1927 musical play of the same name based on the novel, and in the films made from it. He is a handsome, compulsive riverboat gambler, and he becomes leading man of the show boat Cotton Blossom at the same time that Magnolia Hawks, the captain's daughter, becomes the leading lady. In the novel, this happens after several of the company's leading men and ladies have left, including the illegally married mulatto Julie Dozier and her white husband Steve Baker. In the musical, Magnolia and Ravenal become the leading players on the boat immediately after Julie and Steve are forced to leave the show, not years later.
Mignon Good Eberhart was an American author of mystery novels. She had one of the longest careers among major American mystery writers.
Murder on the Blackboard is a 1934 American pre-Code mystery/comedy film starring Edna May Oliver as schoolteacher Hildegarde Withers and James Gleason as Police Inspector Oscar Piper. Together, they investigate a murder at Withers' school. It was based on the novel of the same name by Stuart Palmer. It features popular actor Bruce Cabot in one of his first post-King Kong roles, as well as Gertrude Michael, Regis Toomey, and Edgar Kennedy.
Blanche L. Friderici was an American film and stage actress, sometimes credited as Blanche Frederici.
Top Gun is a 1955 American Western film directed by Ray Nazarro. The plot concerns an ex-gunslinger who arrives in a small town warning of an impending attack by his old gang. The film features Rod Taylor in one of his first American roles.
Bullet Scars is a 1942 American film produced and distributed by Warner Bros. It was directed by D. Ross Lederman with top-billed stars Regis Toomey, Adele Longmire and Howard DaSilva.
High Tide is a 1947 American film noir directed by John Reinhardt. The film features Lee Tracy, Don Castle and Julie Bishop.
Her Sister's Secret is a 1946 drama film directed by Edgar G. Ulmer and starring Nancy Coleman, Margaret Lindsay, Phillip Reed, and Regis Toomey. It centers around a woman who falls in love with a soldier. Believing she has been abandoned, she gives her baby to her married sister. The picture was produced and distributed by Producers Releasing Corporation. The screenplay was by Anne Green from the novel Dark Angel by Gina Kaus.
Miss Pinkerton is a 1932 American pre-Code comedy mystery film about a nurse who becomes involved in a murder investigation. It stars Joan Blondell, George Brent and Ruth Hall.
Smashing the Spy Ring is a 1938 American drama film, directed by Christy Cabanne. It stars Ralph Bellamy, Fay Wray, and Regis Toomey, and was released on December 29, 1938.
