Inspector Alleyn Collection – Set One
Picture: C+
Sound: B- Extras: C- Telefilms: B-
Many years ago, while reading through many mystery novels
and detective series thereof, I picked up Ngaio Marsh’s A Man Lay Dead
because it was the first in her extremely successful Inspector Alleyn
series. Though well written for its
time and a good introductory novel to the main characters, something about it
just did not get me to go on. Marsh’s
reputation continues as one of the “best of the rest” after Dame Agatha
Christie, but her material has rarely been adapted into film. The BBC recently decided to take a “stab” at
it by casting Patrick Malahide as Alleyn and going through with a series of TV
movies. Acorn Media’s Inspector
Alleyn Collection – Set One offers four full-length telefilms, beginning
with A Man Lay Dead.
A party that offers a murder game in a rich mansion turns
up a really dead body on a beautiful Spring 1948 night, so Alleyn has to cancel
his upcoming trip to investigate. As he
goes through each of those present, a controversial dagger of religious
affiliation becomes a center of possible motive, while some of the guests who
might have a motive do not. Belinda
Lang plays his love interest, Agatha Troy, while Matthew Lloyd-Davies plays
reporter and soon-to-be investigative partner Nigel Bathgate. William Simons is Inspector Fox. Perennial villain Julian Glover (see my
review of the Indiana Jones box for more details) is the most familiar face in
the cast. Sarah Pia Anderson, who handles
everything by the action well, directed this in 1992 as adapted by Barbara
Machin.
The Nursing Home Murders
offers the death of the British Home Secretary during an accident during an
operation, but his wife thinks otherwise, so Alleyn investigates. This time, the teleplay by Kevin Laffan has
more science and politics to hold onto.
Anna Massey guest stars in a show directed by Silvia Narizzano, who
handles the action better than her predecessor. Ray Russell’s score is too much like a Bernard Herrmann/Alfred
Hitchcock film for may tastes, though.
Death At The Bar has a
barrister (read judge) die at a pub from a poisoned dart from a dartboard game,
a very popular bar game, so Alleyn has to find out how and why. Michael Winterbottom (see Code 46 and Butterfly Kiss elsewhere on this site) directs
and from the Alfred Shaughnessy teleplay, helms the best of the four
films. Though the idea of the way the
dart gets into the man’s hand is wacky, it is the best paced of the four. It becomes more than the usual mystery and
is a nice change of pace.
Final Curtain has Agatha Troy’s painting of
her latest subject lead to a road of murder and a battle over inheritance when
the subject turns up dead. She
immediately gets Alleyn to look into the matter, while all hell breaks loose
for the money. Martyn Friend directs
Hugh Leonard’s teleplay and this is more Agatha Troy’s tale than that of her
Inspector friend, but it too is a nice change of pace. That rounds out a surprisingly good set with
shows that avoid the lite humor that has almost become a cliché of this cycle
of detective TV series.
The full frame 1.33 X 1 image is very clean and come from
quality prints, as the series was filmed.
Only the DVD format holds back the nicely produced images throughout, but
this is as good as this will ever look in this format. Cinematographer John Walker, B.S.C., shot
all the films, except Death At The Bar. Dave Bennett lensed that show.
This is one of the last in a line of such-shot detective series and is
pretty good at recreating the era in its look and production design. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo offers Pro
Logic surrounds and Ray Russell’s score fits nicely enough, with Anne Dudley
responsible for the whimsical end theme.
Extras include cast filmographies and text on Miss Marsh’s life and work
worth reading on DVD 1, with cast info repeated on later discs.
So after watching the four films, I now have more of a
motivation to go back and read some more of Ngaio’s books, give or take wanting
to be surprised by the answers to the mysteries of future films. Detective Fiction lives in these DVD sets
and if you are happy with the latest Poirot, Holmes and Nero Wolfe series, you
should enjoy Inspector Alleyn Collection – Set One at least as much.
- Nicholas Sheffo
