Dorothy L. Sayers Mysteries (The Lord Peter Wimsey-Harriet Vane Collection - Strong Poison / Have His Carcass / Gaudy Night)
by Christopher Hodson, Michael Simpson
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DVD details
Actor: Clive Francis, Edward Petherbridge, Harriet Walter, Richard Morant, Shirley CainDirector: Christopher Hodson, Michael Simpson
Brand: Warner Brothers
Editor: Masahiro Hirakubo
Producer: Michael Chapman
Producer: Rebecca Eaton
Writer: Dorothy L. Sayers
Writer: Philip Broadley
Writer: Rosemary Anne Sisson
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Box set, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 513 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-10-25
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: E1624
Studio: BBC Video
Product features:
- Three elegant murder mysteries adapted from the crime novels of Dorothy L. Sayers which chronicle the relationship of amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane unfolds in a realm of romance and intrigue. Includes the mysteries: "Strong Poison," "Have His Carcass" and "Gaudy Night."Running Time: 513 min. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: MYSTERY/SUSPENSE Rating: NR Age: 79405
DVD Reviews of Dorothy L. Sayers Mysteries (The Lord Peter Wimsey-Harriet Vane Collection - Strong Poison / Have His Carcass / Gaudy Night)
DVD Review: "Detecting is my hobby. A fellow has to have a hobby of some kind."
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the best literary romances I have ever read concerns Lord Peter Wimsey's turmoiled courtship of the mystery writer, Harriet Vane. In four gripping books written and set in contemporary 1930s, the aristocratic amateur sleuth meets, woos, is repeatedly rejected, but at last wins over the very independent-minded Harriet, who, in every way, is a match for our monocle slinging detective. Along the way, amidst their witty banter and intellectual discourses, they manage to solve several refined murder mysteries. DOROTHY L. SAYERS MYSTERIES (Featuring Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane) collects the three great BBC television adaptations STRONG POISON, HAVE HIS CARCASE, and GAUDY NIGHT, which all came out in 1987. It's lamentable that Busman's Honeymoon, which chronicles the Wimseys' wedding and most unusual honeymoon, was never made available for a BBC dramatization.
STRONG POISON is presented in three segments and runs about 150 minutes. As Lord Peter Wimsey peruses the newspaper, he glimpses a photo of mystery author Harriet Vane and is instantly smitten with her striking face, which he finds "damned attractive." However, the photo is linked to an article chronicling the ongoing trial of Ms. Vane, who is accused of having poisoned her free-thinking lover. Lord Peter adamantly declares Harriet's innocence and sets about proving it. He also manages to get a face to face with the suspect and, there and then, proposes to her. With Harriet one step away from the gallows, Lord Peter must rely not only on his wits but on the assistance of his capable butler and two resourceful women from the L.P.W. Bureau, the Secretarial and Typing Agency. STRONG POISON is the slowest of the three adaptations but does serve to introduce Harriet Vane into Peter's life. Plus, we get to see Peter very briefly play hopscotch.
The four-part HAVE HIS CARCASE (around 200 minutes long) picks up sometime after the events of STRONG POISON. Harriet Vane, now cleared of murder and desiring nothing more than solitude, throws herself into a walking tour of the English coast, where she promptly stumbles onto a corpse. When she gives the scoop to a London newspaper (to rather ghoulishly promote her new book), Lord Peter finds out and off he goes traipsing over to help with the case and to again ask Harriet to marry him. He and Harriet end up solving a murder mystery, but Harriet again says no to his marriage proposal. In my opinion, HAVE HIS CARCASE is the best adaptation of the lot.
Then comes the three-part GAUDY NIGHT ("gaudy" meaning, in this instance, an annual university dinner or feast; this one runs around 150 minutes). Harriet returns to her old Oxford haunts for a college reunion and succumbs to her old professors' plea for help. Accordingly, she's called upon to use her insight and skills as a mystery writer to root out the identity of the "poisoned pen", the prankster seemingly bent on sabotaging the reputation of Harriet's old college by writing obscene and terrifying letters. But things take a turn for the worse when the culprit escalates to vandalization and physical assaults. As Harriet goes into her sleuthing, she also finds herself struggling with her conflicted feelings for Peter. You know, even with the unrelenting if justified focus on the prunish and debate-jonesing academic ladies, I got caught up in the doings. Not only does GAUDY NIGHT strongly focus on Harriet as she investigates by her lonesome, but it also gives us the resolution to the Peter-Harriet soap opera. One wishes, though, that more of the episodes dealt with the Peter-Harriet romance.
See, never underestimate the value of a romantic foil. Lord Peter's life irrevocably changed with the entrance of the willful and sometimes caustic Harriet Vane. As a Sayers reader, while I've certainly enjoyed her Lord Peter exploits sans Ms. Vane, I've always savored more the books with the both of 'em together and exchanging in stimulating and sometimes daffy conversations. What can I say, it's the romantic sap in me. Even if the high-falutin', multisyllabic, now pretty obscure references they drop tend to leave me with an inferiority complex. But never mind. Even with their usage of scary big words, Peter and Harriet still equated to heady romance.
The mysteries themselves, sketched out in well-mannered drawing room sensibilities, will puzzle. The most perplexing one lies in HAVE HIS CARCASE, which depends muchly on timing and alibis and ciphers. The television episodes unfold events in a gradual and leisurely pace and, as a byproduct, will steep the viewer into the British culture of the '30s. Just remember, these may be the most heinous of skullduggeries, but when the investigator is blueblooded, well, certain proprieties must be observed. Thus, there are plenty of cultured exposition and polite manners going around. Peter, in his going about and looking into, proves to be all-around perceptive, someone capable of dealing with both nobility and the commons of the earth.
The acting is consummate, about what you'd expect from the Brits. I'd never heard of Edward Petherbridge before, but he improves on Ian Carmichael, who portrayed Peter in several 1970s television mini-series. Petherbridge embodies Lord Peter Wimsey in all ways, not only from a physical similarity but to his wonderful blending of brains, melancholy, brittleness, nervous energy, and just a dash of studied foppishness. But as Harriet's college warden opines, when it comes to Lord Peter, "That practiced air of inanity he's pleased to adopt conceals a sharp intellect." Anyways, Petherbridge's performance could not better be. Harriet Walter as Harriet Vane complements him very well. I expected her voice to be somehow richer, as befits the strong minded Harriet Vane (so I had thought), but Walter's voice grew on me. She isn't classically lovely, but her long face is compelling and, yes, attractive. She imbues her character with enough willfulness, an intelligent spark, and no small amount of spunk. Gosh, she put Peter thru the wringer in several scenes. Not to forget Richard Morant, who is marvelously reserved but at times cheeky as Lord Peter's faithful and fabulously multi-skilled manservant, Mervyn Bunter. Everyone else is darn excellent, but I've got to give props to the culprit in GAUDY NIGHT, who makes a riveting impassioned speech during the denouement.
God, I wish there'd been a screen adaptation of BUSMAN'S HONEYMOON. Maybe, someday. For those wishing to follow up on the adventures of the Wimsey family in book form, Ms. Sayers has written the short stories: "The Haunted Policeman" and "Talboys" (both can be found in the short story collection Lord Peter : The Complete Lord Peter Wimsey Stories). Sayers also had an unfinished manuscript titled Thrones, Dominations (A Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery), which was meant to be the next Lord Peter/Harriet Vane book. This was finished in 1998 by English author Jill Paton Walsh, who then wrote A Presumption of Death, which is based on "The Wimsey Papers," fictional letters written by the Wimseys which Dorothy L. Sayers had contributed to the The Spectator magazine during WW2.
Lastly, any criticism I have regarding this dvd offering would have to lie in the odious area of its special features, which are near non-existent (an actors' bio and trailers). Other than that, this 3 dvd package is golden and belongs on any mystery lover's shelf.
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