Harold and Maude became the second film of legendary director Hal Ashby who was eager for the challenge of creating a movie about peace and love. The film stars Bud Cort as Harold Chason, a young, lonely man obsessed with death and pranks his stiff, upper-crust mother (played by Vivian Pickles) by staging phony suicides. (This is a very dark comedy, by the way!)

The Margos take a trip back in time when the social strata in America were restrictive in all aspects of your life from where you lived, worshipped, and mostly--who you wanted to marry. Our author this time is Edith Wharton who grew up in America and Europe in a luxury lifestyle with the top aristocracy of the mid 19th century.

The Margos feel the love of mystery and the thrill of self-reliance with the lively Enola Holmes as our main character. The teenage younger sister of brothers Mycroft and Sherlock.  Both are brilliant and confounded by their sister’s pluckiness and determination.

The Margos decided to go back to being a little spooked as we were in October by tackling the Henry James classic The Turn of the Screw (neither one of us had read it before!) Originally published in 1898, the ghost story has been adapted several times. We contrast this with the 1961 film "The Innocents."

The Margos want to celebrate the recent election by talking about one of the most celebrated films about American politics ever made--Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Director Frank Capra’s ode to decency and fighting the most difficult battles for America’s soul.

Are you lonesome tonight? Listen to this episode of Book Vs Movie with the Margos and feel like you are part of an 80s Book/TV Movie club! Elvis & Me is Priscilla Beaulieu Presley’s 1985 autobiography and wow, this caused quite a stir when it was first published.

The Margos are closing out our Halloween episodes with one of the best films about a serial killer of all time--The Silence of the Lambs. The Thomas Harris book was released in 1988 and is a sequel to 1981’s Red Dragon (which is the basis for the 1986 movie Manhunter and the 2002 remake Red Dragon.)

The Margos are here Mother, and we are going to talk about Psycho whether she likes it or not! 

The 1960 masterpiece by Alfred Hitchcock is considered one of the best horror films of all time and typecasted Anthony Perkins for decades as the nebbishy killer Norman Bates (though he eventually embraced his most recognizable role.) Listen to this episode to hear us talk about the novel & film while we decide which we like better.

The Margos are heading back to the Burbs with our long 70s flowing hair and obsession with waxing kitchen floors in the Ira Levin classic novel The Stepford Wives that was turned into a film in 1975 and directed by Bryan Forbes. Stepford, Connecticut is the fictional setting where families move in and within four months--the wives turn into robots who love, sex, cooking, and cleaning

The Margos had an excellent suggestion for this episode--The Phantom of the Opera which first appeared in a series featured in Le Gaulois in 1909 & 1910 by author Gaston Leroux.  Inspired by events that happened at the Paris Opera in the mid-19th Century, including a secret underground lake that was used for firefighter training as well as a chandelier crash that was a source of mystery at the time.