Watch Of Dolls & Murder w/John Waters as narrator

Want to watch Of Doll & Murder documentary w/John Waters as narrator?  Of course you do.

Icon John Waters and filmmaker Susan Marks

Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death by icon Frances Glessner Lee

Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death by icon Frances Glessner Lee

Reenactment footage of actress playing Frances Glessner Lee in Of Dolls & Murder

Documentary Films on Frances Glessner Lee and the Nutshell Studies

If you are interested in purchasing the Of Dolls & Murder DVD, go here.  It includes the film, a John Waters interview, an extra on Frances Glessner Lee and filmmaker's commentary.

Our follow up documentary film on Frances Glessner Lee and the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, Murder in a Nutshell: The Frances Glessner Lee Story isn't finished yet. Fingers crossed for more funding so we can cross the finish line!

We also made a short film about Cynthia von Buhler who was so inspired by Frances Glessner Lee that she created her own dollhouse crime scene (and play) to solve the murder of her grandfather. You can buy the DVD for Inside the Speakeasy Dollhouse here.
 

Of Dolls & Murder screening in London!

We are so excited to be screening Of Dolls & Murder this Thursday (4/16/15) at the Wellcome Trust in London! If you don't have tickets, sorry to say it's too late. Read about it here. If you go, drop us a line and let us know what you think! Also, if you want a DVD of your own, click here.

The Missing Nutshell on exhibit in London

You may remember the "missing Nutshell" from previous posts. If not, here's the scoop: Jerry D. of the Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner first told me about the missing Nutshell about 8 years ago. And through my research I found a photo essay in a Popular Mechanics magazine from the 1950s featuring the not-so-missing Nutshell.

Then fast forward to a few years ago, I was looking at a website of the Bethlehem Heritage Center - prepping for our shoot there and I spotted the Nutshell. Hiding in plain sight. We went Bethlehem, NH and interviewed people on camera about the missing Nutshell and how it wound up on display. To hear the full story, you have to wait for the new documentary to be done.

Fast forward again to last year - staff from the Wellcome Trust in London lamented that the Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner wouldn't answer their requests to borrow the Nutshells for their upcoming exhibit. (It's almost comical how often people ask me to get the OCME to lend them Nutshells for their exhibits.)

On one very rare occasion, the OCME lent out 4 of Frances Glessner Lee's precious Nutshells for an exhibit but honestly, they are more valuable than most normal sized houses and they are teaching tools that are in constant use.

Once I broke the news to the Wellcome Trust that they shouldn't get their hopes up for the OCME Nutshells,  I did tell them that about one other Nutshell that may be available to borrow... 

I'm happy to say that the missing Nutshell is in London right now for the Wellcome Trust exhibit. (I do hope that the Bethlehem Heritage Center was well compensated!)

 You can read all about the exhibit here. Clips of our film, Of Dolls & Murder (featuring John Waters) will also be a part of the exhibit. Hope you can make it!

Narrator for Frances Glessner Lee documentary?

I love this photo of Frances Glessner Lee from our documentary film - courtesy of the Glessner House Museum. I can only imagine she was an excellent driver.

We are starting the process of securing a female off camera narrator for our documentary. Who do you think we should have on our short list? We had John Waters as the narrator in our previous documentary - Of Dolls & Murder and we could never capture that kind of magic again - so we want to go in a new direction. Feel free to leave your thoughts.

I once asked a room full of FBI detectives and homicide detectives who they thought should be the narrator. Any guesses to what name they shouted out?

Frances Glessner Lee Documentary FIlm Update

Film editing can be a slow process, but it's even slower if you don't do it! That's why I'm so grateful that I have a producing partner - we keep each other on track. It's hard to imagine producing a documentary film on one's own. For more updates on our progress, go here.

The film is coming together beautifully. More beautifully than I ever imagined. I feel lucky to be working on such a great project about such an incredible phenomenon like The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death and the incorporable Frances Glessner Lee.

Meanwhile, if you need a Frances Glessner Lee fix - we have a special DVD offer. We usually don't do this kind of thing but it's the holidays and we would love for our films to get into the hands of people who don't normally buy DVDs. (And everyone knows the best part about owning a DVD are the DVD extras! In fact, we ran out of room on our Of Dolls & Murder DVD because it's full up with extras! Including some whip smart interviews with John Waters! )

Yours for only $10! But it ends forever on Dec 31st.

Frances Glessner Lee & Nutshell Studies Documentary Film Update

The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death - Parsonage - Dorothy Dennison. This Nutshell was based on a pretty intriguing case. Only slight details were changed. If you are a good researcher, with some time on your hands, you will be able to find out the answer to this case. But I warn you: once you find out the answer, it takes all the fun and mystery out of it. 

Dorothy Dennison body wasn't as decompose as the meat she purchased from the butcher. Why is that? I watched a FBI agent figure it out in a couple seconds flat. 

Here's a research tip for all you people who want to know what happened to Dorothy Dennison - keep in mind that not all research can be done online. Shocking, I know. Filmmakers, writers and yes even detectives, get offline for the bulk of their research. We don't wait for anyone to hand us the answers, we dig for it. There are 100s of cases that Frances Glessner Lee could have based "Parsonage" on, so don't trust what you read online. (Sadly, young women murdered in a domestic setting is far from rare.)

So, happily get out of your comfort zone and think like someone in the pre-internet era. Having said that, we did discover a case that one Nutshell was based upon through google books and then confirmed it at a library.

I hope I don't come across as preachy, just truthful. And hopefully helpful.

On that note: despite what you've read - Murder She Wrote was NOT based on Frances Glessner Lee. 

Know how I know? 

I asked one of the producers of the tv show and he said no, Jessica Fletcher was based on Miss Marple from Agatha Christie's crime novels. 

Again, I asked an actual person that worked on the show instead of believing (and I so wanted to believe!) what I read about Frances being the inspiration for Jessica. So hopefully I've given you some insights into beyond-the-internet research. (I know a few professional researchers who also need to be reminded of some universal truths of research in the internet era.)

Want to know more about Frances Glessner Lee? Read on:

The recent Slate article and the Stuff You Missed in History Class podcast on Frances Glessner Lee has people pretty excited about our documentary film Of Dolls & Murder and our new, forthcoming documentary film and screenplay on Frances Glessner Lee, Her Miniature Life of Crime. 

So here's a run down for the folks that are new to our blog:

•  We are filmmakers Susan Marks and John Kurtis Dehn
• If you want to know more about the actual cases the Nutshell Studies were based on, you will have to wait for our film to be finished. I'm not saying we will hand you the answers, you smartypants types (and you know who you are) will be able to figure out a few very important clues. If you want updates on our film, you can like us on facebook
• We are currently filming the final interviews for the Frances documentary this summer! 
• We've finished our interviews with Frances Glessner Lee descendents, as well as her carpenter, Alton Mosher and we are, again, thrilled. 
• We found the missing Nutshell as well as the unfinished ones! 
• We will be attending the HAPS Conference next month in Baltimore. 
•  You can only get the DVD extras with John Waters when you buy the DVD of Of Dolls & Murder from our website. 
•  Feel free to be in touch with any questions.