John Le Carre's A Murder of Quality
by Gavin Millar
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DVD details
Actor: Billie Whitelaw, David Threlfall, Denholm Elliott, Glenda Jackson, Joss AcklandDirector: Gavin Millar
Brand: A and E Home Video
Cinematographer: Denis Crossan
Editor: Angus Newton
Producer: Brian Walcroft
Producer: Eric Abraham
Writer: John le Carré
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-12-28
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: A&E Home Video
Product features:
- From internationally acclaimed spy-turned-author John Le Carr (The Tailor of Panama), comes this intelligent and elegant thriller based on his best-selling novel of the same name. Featuring a stellar cast including Academy Award Nominee Denholm Elliott (A Room with a View), Academy Award Winner Glenda Jackson (A Touch of Class), Joss Ackland (K-19: The Widowmaker), and Christian Bale (American Psy
DVD Reviews of John Le Carre's A Murder of Quality
DVD Review: Civilized, Brutal Murders At Carne School, With John Le Carre's George Smiley
Summary: 4 Stars
Stella Rode, the wife of the new junior master at Carne School, just doesn't fit in. Carne is a British prep school with a history of preparing the sons of the upper class for lives of service and privilege. The teachers at Carne are part of this upper-class world, smug in their superiority and condescending toward those who don't fit in. Stella Rode wears her Christian beliefs on her sleeve. She does good works, collects clothes for the needy, often has a superior air about her. She also searches out secrets, uses gossip and anonymous letters to bring retribution, and doesn't hesitate to destroy a career. One night, she is beaten to death.
Days before, she wrote to Ailsa Brimley (Glenda Jackson), a relative who had experience in the war, that she feared for her life and that she suspected her husband. Ailsa contacted a colleague who, like Ailsa, was now retired, but who had also done things in the war which people didn't refer to. His name is George Smiley (Denholm Elliot).
Ailsa convinces George to go to Carne and see what is worrying Stella Rode. By the time he arrives, Rode has been killed and the police suspect her husband. Smiley isn't so sure and decides to stay a few days. He is cooly welcomed by the other masters, including house master Terence Fielding (Joss Ackland) who is shortly to retire. Smiley, a quiet, middle-aged man who is easy to underestimate, begins noticing things. What happened to the bloody outer garments the murderer must have worn? What exactly was used to beat Stella Rode to death? Where exactly did Stanley Rode leave his briefcase that night, and why did it seem so heavy? What are the relationships between some of the teachers, and, perhaps, between some of the teachers and the boys they teach? Then one of the boys, Timothy Perkins (Christian Bale), is found dead on a country road, an apparent victim of a hit-and-run. Smiley determines Perkins may have been run over by a car, but it is far more likely he, too, was beaten to death first.
Eventually, Smiley narrows the circle of suspects down. Then, one evening over a very civilized dinner, he and Ailsa confront the killer. The murders were all about privileges and reputations, "our" class versus "their" class.
The teleplay was written by John Le Carre from his early mystery of the same name. The first half is almost sedate, as we learn about Smiley and then as he learns about Carne. Things pick up appreciably as the underbelly of the privileged is exposed. The conclusion, when even a boy can be sacrificed to preserve the class structure, is right in line with many of Le Carre's themes.
Denholm Elliot does a fine job as George Smiley, so underwhelming at first meeting and yet so smart, so persistent and, in his own way, so ruthless. Smiley doesn't talk about what he did during the war, but it is clear whatever he did involved subterfuge and killing. Two other actors have played Smiley; all three have been excellent. Alec Guinness starred in the two television specials Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley's People. James Mason played Smiley, renamed for some reason Charles Dobbs, in the movie The Deadly Affair (from Le Carre's Call for the Dead).
Description of John Le Carre's A Murder of Quality
Famed British spy novelist John Le Carré wrote the screenplay for A Murder of Quality, adapting it from his novel of the same name. Former Intelligence agent George Smiley investigates a murder within an elite British school. Storyline takes aim at the British class system. Stars British character actor Denholm Elliot (Noises Off), Glenda Jackson (Salomé?s Last Dance) and a young Christian Bale (Little Women, American Psycho).Bestsellers in DVD
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