Tale of Two Cities: Literary Masterpieces (1980) Review

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(More customer reviews). . .it was a good watch anyway. Chris Sarandon was outstanding in the roles he played of look-alikes Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton. He captured Carton's sardonic humor well, and evoked his melancholic fatalism and innate dignity with much pathos. A quite elderly Kenneth More put on a great performance as the officious but kindly banker, whose character provided much humorous dialogue. The character of Miss Pross, the sharp-eyed chaperone, was absolutely wonderful.

I never expect a movie to follow a novel very closely -- books and films are two completely different art forms and cannot be translated one to the other with good effect. As the movie begins we see the words "Based on the novel by Charles Dickens." With those words we are given fair warning that what is to follow is an interpretation of Dickens' vision.
What this film did was capture what is so wonderful about Dickens' novels -- the alternation between the humor and the darkness at the center of much human experience. The scenes were knit together flawlessly, so that a rather complicated plot taking part in two different places came together without confusion or awkward transitions. The pacing was artfully done, and the last 40 minutes or so were very suspenseful.
It's too bad the movie received so many bad reviews because it didn't follow the book. I've read the book and found it, like many of Dickens' works, to be wonderful, but also probably inaccessible to many readers. This film takes a good story and opens it up to those who may never open the book.

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Foyle's War: Set Two (2003) Review

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(More customer reviews)I'd previously rated Series 1 of FOYLE'S WAR at four stars. I'm happy to report, after finishing the Series 2 discs, that the ongoing British telly miniseries has graduated to five stars. It's superb, and I'm desolate that I must wait until 2005 for the release of Series 3 that's airing now in the UK. (Of course, if I move to England ... Nah, the wife would never go for it.)
Michael Kitchen is Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle, who's been ordered to remain at his post as homicide investigator for Hastings and its environs; he'd much rather be doing his bit for King and Empire fighting the Nazis across the Channel. Indeed, his son Andrew (Julian Ovenden) is a flying officer with the RAF. The two other series regulars are Samantha "Sam" Stewart (Honeysuckle Weeks), the army's Auxiliary Territorial Service enlistee assigned as his driver, and Paul Milner (Anthony Howell), Foyle's assistant inspector returned to home front duty after being wounded during the disastrous British invasion of Norway.
The delight to be found in the four episodes of Series 2 is the underlying complexity of each plot, the tip of which is a murder being investigated by Foyle and Milner. Yet, even as the layers of the onion are peeled away, the viewer is still surprised at the intricacy of the solution, most of which is unraveled in the depths of Foyle's mind and revealed to the audience at the end, and which has ramifications that ripple far beyond the simple presence of a local corpse.
As in Series 1, the storylines of 2 encompass so much more than a tawdry homicide or two: homosexuality in the RAF, collaboration between British Big Business and the Nazis, black market commerce in luxury food and petrol, and skullduggery by Franklin Roosevelt's personal emissary sent to negotiate the Lend Lease.
My personal favorite episode is number four, "Funk Hole", wherein Foyle is relieved of his duties after being reported as having expressed seditious and defeatist statements while cowering in a London air raid shelter during a Luftwaffe bombing attack. The labyrinthine explanation for that was totally unexpected. Moreover, it looks like Sam and Andrew are to be an "item" - surely to be continued in Series 3. Indeed, at one point when Sam accompanies Andrew to a showing of "Gone With the Wind", we see her out of uniform, dressed in civvies, and with a smashing hairdo. Blimey, what a bird!
FOYLE'S WAR is sumptuously fleshed out with period costumes, automobiles, hairstyles, and commercial brand names. This is first class, period entertainment. Would that American TV was so good.


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The critically acclaimed PBS series that weaves mystery with real historical events returns with four stories set in September and October 1940. Winner of the Audience Award at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in 2003, the series stars Michael Kitchen (Proof of Life) as quietly enigmatic detective Christopher Foyle whose territory on the south coast of England is rocked by the chaos and danger of World War II. Also starring Anthony Howell, Honeysuckle Weeks, Julian Ovenden, and featuring Nicholas Farrell, Alan Howard, Corin Redgrave, and Amanda Root. The Mysteries: Fifty Ships--Foyle's determined investigation of a body on a deserted beach puts at risk the donation of American Aid and the crucial start of Lend-Lease in the war. Among the Few--Pilots and their girlfriends live fast and die young in a story of greed and passion where Foyle finds appearances are deceptive. War Games--Divided loyalties lead to revenge and murder when a businessman puts profits before principles in a secret pact with the Nazis. The Funk Hole--Foyle finds himself accused of a serious offense, which complicates his hunt for a ruthless murderer at a sinister hotel. DVD SPECIAL FEATURES INCLUDE an exclusive interview with Anthony Howell and Honeysuckle Weeks, production notes, cast filmographies, and photo gallery. "Brilliantly explores the moral gray areas of war"-San Francisco Chronicle "For mystery fans, Foyle is a must-see" -The Houston Chronicle "A series to be relished" -Radio Times

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Guests of the Nation (Broadway Theatre Archive) (1981) Review

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(More customer reviews)Frank O'Connor's famous short story becomes a stage play by Neil McKenzie in this Broadway Theatre Archives production, directed by John Desmond. Set in Ireland in 1921, the waning days of the fight for Irish independence, the play, like the short story, emphasizes the futility of war as two Irishmen capture two British soldiers while the British soldiers are bird-watching. Assigned to guard them in an Irish cottage for three weeks, the Irish soon discover that the British, like them, are country people who have been doing what they are expected to do by those in charge of their "side." None of them are really committed to the bloodshed which has marked this horrific war for independence.
To help the time pass inside Kate O'Connell's thatched cottage, they play cards together, practice step-dancing, share cigarettes, become friends on the most basic level, and even argue about the fine points of religion. The Irish think their prisoners are "decent chaps....to keep a guard on them is beyond sense," while the British acknowledge that "it's hard to remember what side you're on....I ain't even thinking of being set free no more." When a sixteen-year-old English soldier is killed in the western part of Ireland, the Irish soldiers must decide whether their emotional kinship with these simple, British "good lads" is stronger than their political kinship with the Irish army.
The almost slapstick high humor of the beginning becomes agonized decision-making in the course of the play. Frank Converse, as Barney, and Richard Cottrell, as Noble, the Irish guards, effectively convey the difficulties of wielding power over men very much like themselves. Charlie Stavola, as the irrepressible, harmonica-playing Hawkins, and Nesbitt Blaisdell as Belcher, the English birdwatcher, are so ingenuous that their efforts to be friends, rather than enemies, are completely believable.
Estelle Parsons, as Kate O'Connell, offers common sense advice, gradually changing from being a crotchety scold to a woman blossoming under their attention. The music by Elizabeth Swados, mostly flute, fiddle, and bodhran drums, suits the setting, and the outdoor scenes in the Irish countryside are beautifully filmed. A play that goes straight to the heart, Guests of the Nation, shows two sets of "lads" trying to understand their "duty" when it is "hard to remember what side you're on." Mary Whipple


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This drama tells the story of Irish insurgents and the captured British soldiers whom they are assigned to guard. While confined to a remote farmhouse the foursome enjoy card playing, jig dancing, and a great deal of amiable bickering. Throughout the conviviality, however, Barney Callahan is haunted by the knowledge that reprisals will be in order if the Irish harm their British captives. Frank Converse, Estelle Parsons.

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War & Peace (1972) (1973) Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm quite in agreement with the reviewer who wrote that this is the best version of Tolstoy's classic--which I have, in fact, read. This is distinct from the "Fonda/Hepburn" version for that very reason: the mid-'50's version is known as the "Fonda/Hepburn" version. There were no Stars in this BBC production, just excellent actors. Mind you, anyone who watched a lot of Masterpiece theatre was able to follow Angela Down [Princess Marya Nokolaievna Bolkonskaya] into a subsequent series, "The Glittering Prizes;" or Frank Middlemass who portrayed General Kutuzov into "Poldark" as Uncle Charles. It was only later that Anthony Hopkins went Hollywood, and became recognized; although his portrayal of gay butcher Richard the Lion Hearted in "The Lion in Winter" was superb in '68.
This is the best, most faithful to the book, version of War and Peace available.

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Leo Tolstoy’s timeless masterpiece of love and loss is universally recognized as one of the greatest novels ever written. Focusing on the consequences faces by three Russian families during the Napoleonic Wars, this classic work is retold in twenty parts in this epic BBC production, complete with award-winning design and breathtaking battle sequences. Anthony Hopkins heads the cast as the soul-searching Pierre Bezuhov (a role for which he won the 1972 Best Actor BAFTA); Morag Hood is the impulsive and beautiful Natasha Rostova; Alan Dobie is the dour but heroic Andrei Bolkonsky; and David Swift is Napoleon, whose decision to invade Russia in 1812 has far-reaching consequences for both the Rostov and Bolkonsky families. Includes a 44-page booklet featuring production notes, episode summaries, character profiles and stunning behind the scenes photography.

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