Word: holmesian
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...produced a violent, often excessive U.S. reaction, most sharply expressed in the face and form of Senator Joseph Raymond McCarthy. Now McCarthy is dead, having outlived his ism, and the face of Nikita Khrushchev beams from U.S. television screens. Previous Supreme Courts had upheld security laws on the implied Holmesian basis of "clear and present danger." By comparison, Earl Warren's court has moved with drastic speed toward the implied concept of very little danger at all. Items...
Dial M is starred with fine scenes and good performances. Though played as contemporary melodrama, it somehow manages to reflect the gaslight magic of turn-of-the-century London. Murder is the plot, but everyone is extremely gentlemanly about the crime, from the Holmesian police inspector (John Williams) down to the caddish assassin (Anthony Dawson). The crime is conceived by quick-witted Ray Milland, who, losing his wife's love, decides to murder her for her money rather than wait for her to leave him. A solicitous sort who doesn't want to hurt anyone unnecessarily, Milland arranges...
Spiders & Guillotines. The famed Holmesian deductive method is also unchanged. In "The Deptford Horror," for example, it is soon clear that Mr. Theobold Wilson is a left-handed man with a Cuban background. "Your [walking] stick is cut from Cuban ebony," says Sherlock, "[and] there is a slight but regular scraping . . . along the left side of the handle, just where the ring finger of a left-handed man would close upon the grip." "Dear me, how simple," chuckles Mr. Wilson, blandly leading Holmes down to the cellar stove in which he keeps two specimens of the Galeodes spider-"the horror...
...understandable that the gossips had overlooked slim, personable Group Captain Peter Wooldridge Townsend, D.S.O., D.F.C., even though his picture had been appearing in the papers alongside Margaret for years. The gossip columnists who had long sought to probe the secrets of the princess' heart simply forgot the Holmesian precept that the most easily overlooked clue is often the most obvious one. As a royal equerry and deputy master of King George VI's household (appointed in 1944 when Margaret was only 14), he had the constant duty of accompanying the royal family in all its lighter moments. Group...
...this piece of Holmesian expediency look to millions in Africa, the Middle East and Asia who have never heard of Mr. Justice Holmes, but who expect moral leadership from the U.S.? Said Pakistan's Bokhari: "With regard to free discussion, I do not believe that any country in the world has a more honorable record than the U.S. [But its] reversal today will be very hard to explain ... It would almost look as though the U.S. had made up its mind to do a quick U-turn in a one-way street. What the consequences will be I cannot...