'The Third Man' is obviously not a reference to the Graham Greene novel but to 'The Red Headed League'. 

I'm wondering if this is a pattern. Has anyone who is a more avid detective/mystery fiction reader discovered

other episodes constructed on famous literary fiction? It would be neat to find out. 

The name of the ep. is also a very direct reference to The Third Man, the movie with Orson Welles, but in name only. And I think what Stana referred to was the vibe of the Castle-Beckett relationship in particular, which is the exact reverse of the Thin Man- with Fillion a much more aggressive amateur sleuth than the socialite played by Myrna Loy, and Beckett the more humorless version of the drunken detective character, though former detective, in the Thin Man. I also think that's what she's thinking when she says their relationship could continue if married, she's thinking of the Loy-Powell duo. Though I have my doubts: The Beckett character would have to change considerably, become much, much lighter, and probably retire from the force, as the Powell character does in the Thin Man. Improbable but not impossible. 

What I meant about the classic detective tale was that 'The Third Man' is clearly an homage of 'The Red Headed League', both being about a person being tricked into leaving his abode for the villains to use said location for a robbery. In the Sherlock Holmes tale, it's not an auto-robbery, as is in the Castle ep. And in Castle, the 'tunnel' is already there, it's the unused chute – vertical in Castle as opposed to horizontal, going across the street, in the Holmes classic tale. 

I could even swear the python was used in another detective story but I can't remember where. I don't know if other episodes have borrowed so distinctly from a well known detective or thriller plot. Perhaps not, perhaps it's more that they borrow a literary vibe, rather than a particular twist or setup. Given that, I wish they would be brave enough to try for an inverted mystery this season. 

Oh, come on guys! I've heard there's an episode with a Steven King reference. Do someone know which one is it? I've no idea whatsoever.

1892Rojas said:

The name of the ep. is also a very direct reference to The Third Man, the movie with Orson Welles, but in name only. And I think what Stana referred to was the vibe of the Castle-Beckett relationship in particular, which is the exact reverse of the Thin Man- with Fillion a much more aggressive amateur sleuth than the socialite played by Myrna Loy, and Beckett the more humorless version of the drunken detective character, though former detective, in the Thin Man. I also think that's what she's thinking when she says their relationship could continue if married, she's thinking of the Loy-Powell duo. Though I have my doubts: The Beckett character would have to change considerably, become much, much lighter, and probably retire from the force, as the Powell character does in the Thin Man. Improbable but not impossible. 

What I meant about the classic detective tale was that 'The Third Man' is clearly an homage of 'The Red Headed League', both being about a person being tricked into leaving his abode for the villains to use said location for a robbery. In the Sherlock Holmes tale, it's not an auto-robbery, as is in the Castle ep. And in Castle, the 'tunnel' is already there, it's the unused chute – vertical in Castle as opposed to horizontal, going across the street, in the Holmes classic tale. 

I could even swear the python was used in another detective story but I can't remember where. I don't know if other episodes have borrowed so distinctly from a well known detective or thriller plot. Perhaps not, perhaps it's more that they borrow a literary vibe, rather than a particular twist or setup. Given that, I wish they would be brave enough to try for an inverted mystery this season. 

I really do love those Nick and Nora comparisons.  The Thin Man series is such fun, so playful and clever. 

But how about thinking of it the other way around?  Yes, Powell plays the detective character (like Beckett), with Loy as the wealthy socialite (equivalent to Castle's position).  But personality-wise, I tend to think of Beckett as the parallel to Loy: able to be very funny in her own right, but most often plays "straight man" to the goofier Powell, and has easily the greater share of common sense.  And Castle, like Powell's character, is more the comic of the duo, and more inclined to go stirring up trouble.

unniw said:

ReverseDoubleJinx said:

1892Rojas said:

Oh, come on guys! I've heard there's an episode with a Steven King reference. Do someone know which one is it? I've no idea whatsoever.

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There's a reference where Castle has been spinning his wild theories again and when Beckett points out how absurd they are, he says something along the lines of, "Stephen King wrote about cars eating people and had a best seller!"   I'll look up the exact quote…
 

Edit: I'm blanking.  The line wasn't where I'd thought.  Anyone remember where this scene came up?  I know they're in the precinct…

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oh yes, it's the same episode 211 The Fifth Bullet:

Beckett: Ice bullet and fleas with guns. Do you have writer's block again?

Castle: Stephen King wrote stories of blood thirsty cars and sold millions of copies. I figure why be limited by logic?

Yes!  Thank you.  That little mental block was starting to bug me!

And by the way, unless there is an older reference, the ice bullet is Dick Tracy, at least as revealed in 3 Days of The Condor — coincidentially written by Lorenzo Semple (check him out reviewing movies at The Reel Geezers, the guy is a hoot) who wrote for Batman, the original detective superhero

Bingo! Mine, too. You know what would be neat? (besides inviting Patterson, Connelly, et all, to either help break a stroy – or provide outlines, or polished a finished draft – I don't expect them to pick up screenwriting in a day and provide an ep script in the time that is required)

I would love them to do an inverted mystery. That's when you know who the murderer is and see the whole thing executed, and then you have to figure out how they'll solve the mystery. Inverted mysteries were very fashionable in the forties, two that were Broadway hits, Rope and 'Dial M for Murder', were made into Hitchcock movies.

And you know who they could recruit to do it? William Link, he's the co-creator of Columbo, where almost every episode was an inverted mystery. He's publishing a collection of new short stories involving Lt. Columbo. He could easily be hired to come up with the whole murder plot.