The Life & Crimes Of Robert Palmer
(British Mini-Series)
Picture: C
Sound: B- Extras: C- Episodes: B
Jack The Ripper was not the only serial killer from the
Victorian Era, as The Life & Crimes Of Robert Palmer (1998) tells us
of the title doctor (Keith Allen) who is respectable. He has a nice family and nice placer to live. His reputation brings all kinds of clients,
but the problem is that he is not good at curing them. As a matter of fact, many of them are
dying. Why, almost all of them, because
Dr. Palmer is poisoning all of his patients and making it look like illnesses
beyond his control.
Of course, this goes on for a long time with few noticing
it, but eventually he is discovered and that is what the three-part mini-series
is about. We see the scenes of the
various patients dying, which is painful, though it may go too far in
repetition of such ugliness. For a
serial killer story, there are not the usual murder scenes since this is
poisoning, yet it is something we have not seen done like this before. There is more of a story here, while just
because this lacks more gruesome outright murder does not mean this is somehow
classier than your usual murder story.
This was shown on PBS’ Mystery!
The 1.33 X 1 image is fuzzier than usual, and that is
outside of the stylized shooting and production design. It is shot well enough, with a rich look
otherwise. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
is much better, even offering Pro Logic surrounds. The only extra is text on the cast, but text or a featurette on
the actual killings would have been a great idea BFS missed. Otherwise, this is interesting enough to get
a good look at.
- Nicholas Sheffo
