Had the pleasure over the weekend of attending the world premiere of Stephen Schwartz’s first opera Seance on a Wet Afternoon. Schwartz has written such humongous stage musical hits as Pippin, Godspell and Wicked, and has won Oscars for his work on Pocahontas and Prince of Egypt.  I’m not qualified to judge opera in any way and so will only say that I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The reason I bring it up though is that it reminded me of how much I love this story – really, one of my favorite crime stories ever.  The novel by Mark McShane is excellent though copies are hard to come by.  The film, written and directed by Bryan Forbes, truly belongs on any list of the 100 best films of all time (if there’s no room for it, eliminate the second-rate and insufferable Nashville).  Forbes directed some terrific pictures, undeservedly forgotten these days, including an absolute beauty called Whistle Down the Wind, a neglected powerhouse called King Rat and a comedy called The Wrong Box which made me laugh so hard when I saw it that my mouth hurt when I left the theater.  It’s been a long time since I saw any of these, but I remember them as being top notch.  Of course, in keeping with the way of the world, his most famous movie was nowhere near his best:  The Stepford Wives, original version.

Seance on a Wet Afternoon, however, is a stone masterpiece.  It’s another one I haven’t seen in a while so I’m putting it at the top of my Netflix queue.  I suggest you do the same and we’ll see if I remember it rightly.