Lord Peter Wimsey - Clouds of Witness (1973) Review

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(More customer reviews)I am so glad to see this on DVD, and those who have it on VHS will be surprised--it looks fantastic! You'd never know this was done in 1972.
The picture is crisp and clear, even when switching from video to film (a common practice in those days--film outdoors, and videotape indoors). The sound level is a bit low, but it is not a problem--turning up the volume does not distort the sound in any way.
Lord Peter Wimsey (Ian Carmichael) must find the evidence to clear his older brother, Gerald, the Duke of Denver (David Langton) from the charge of murder. The victim is the fiancé of Gerald and Peter's sister, Lady Mary Wimsey (Rachel Herbert).
There is much conflicting testimony amongst the witnesses, and Lord Peter, ably assisted by his faithful manservant Bunter (Glyn Houston) and Inspector Parker (Mark Eden), does his best to save his brother.
The script is well written, and well paced. We get to see a trial in the House of Lords, something most viewers have perhaps heard of, but never have witnessed. We see the Wimsey family (Lord Peter, the Dowager Duchess, Lady Mary, and the Duke of Denver), and their friends (the Arbuthnots and others), in an excellent adaptation of what life was life in the upper-crust families after World War I.
The cast is first rate, as is the story and the quality of the DVD. There are extras (an interview with Ian Carmichael from September of 2000, information on Dorothy L.Sayers, a trivia quiz, and filmographies of the principal players) that make a nice addition to this slipcovered two-DVD set. Acorn Media has done a splendid job--highly recommended!

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This classic mystery just keeps getting better. A top-seller on VHS, it's now available for the first time on a feature-rich DVD. Ian Carmichael stars as Dorothy L. Sayers' aristocratic sleuth taking on his most personal case ever. When his sister's fianci is murdered during a family gathering, Wimsey's brother, the Duke of Denver, is charged with the crime. Wimsey must race the clock and risk his own life to exonerate him.

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Lord Peter Wimsey - The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club (1973) Review

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(More customer reviews)As many of us that were eternally grateful to Acorn Media for reissuing after too many decades the Lord Peter Wismey "Clouds of Witness," just so many and perhaps more can welcome back with the incomparable Ian Carmichael whose idea it was to film the series in the first place and who almost did not get the part!
Like the other four in this series, this is a low budget, shot mostly in the studio, affair; but it is impeccably "period" in décor, dress, and even idiom. The plot involves at first not a "who done it?" but a "when was it done?" Since the vast inheritance depends on the timing of the deaths of an elderly brother and sister, the hour if not the very minute of the former's demise is the Big Question. Surprisingly, that mystery is revealed half way through the story; but by then we have a murderer to find and...well, I will not spoil things for you and urge you to see for yourself.
Carmichael's Wimsey is ever the aristocrat, here ready to quote W.S. Gilbert and W. Shakespeare (though not nearly as frequently as Rumpole will quote his favorite poets), even though he must apologize now and then for being over the heads of some of his less well-educated acquaintances. In this story the grinding poverty of one of the interested parties is shown in striking contrast to Wimsey's luxurious accommodations and ability to be very generous with his money (which after all was never earned by any workaday sweat of his brow exept when he posed as an employee of an advertizing agency).
As with all of this series, the minor characters are extremely well drawn, right down to a patron of a tea shop who becomes all flustered in meeting "a lord." While the two opposing lawyers might border on the Dickensian, they are both shown to be intelligent and honestly working for the good of their clients. And even the villain is basically a very Good Person in all other respects! But such is the universe created by Dorothy Sayers and it is treated with respect and intelligence in this fine series.
Now we can only hope that Acorn Media will accelerate the releases of "Murder Must Advertise," "Five Red Herrings," and "The Nine Tailors."
Oh by the way, they are releasing at the same time some of the Poirots that have been butchered by A&E to make room for their insultingly frequent and overlong piggyback commercials. See the webpages for those. And by the way again, a comparison of Poirot and Wimsey would make a fascinating study.

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Lord Peter Wimsey - The Complete Collection (1973) Review

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(More customer reviews)Finally, finally, the full set of this series is on DVD. (Individual titles have been trickling onto the market for years.) These engrossing, spirited productions are the major detective-fiction product from a distinct period and style of British productions that gave the world some enduring classics: Upstairs Downstairs, its sequel The Duchess of Duke Street, Poldark, Danger: UXB, and of course (by informal consensus the best TV series ever made), All Creatures Great and Small. These 1970s productions share a look and feel that is quickly recognizable (with videotaped interior and filmed outdoor scenes, and a pool of outstanding actors, in the British tradition, many of them famous in higher-budget theatrical films also). They all aired in the US when they were new and occasionally later, and captivated audiences, who have looked eagerly for them since. (And who were, therefore, all the more disappointed with a later, 1990s re-make of some of Sayers's Wimsey stories, slick but without the heart and energy of this 1970s classic series with Ian Carmichael.) The original stories by Sayers are themselves very entertaining; she was one of the most intellectual, and certainly the most hard-working, of the British detective-fiction writers who flourished between the wars. (One of her stories turns on the gender of a definite article in French; another, relying on details of architecture, sent her studying the subject for six months so that she would know what she was talking about -- modern best-seller writers, please note.) Her fondness for and knowledge of the Church of England informs a number of the dramatizations, especially The Nine Tailors, thought by many people (including me) to be best of them -- certainly its plot is a lollapalooza. But they are all very good.

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Lord Peter Wimsey - Five Red Herrings (1976) Review

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(More customer reviews)I was delighted to see Acorn Media re-release Five Red Herrings. This is one of the best British mysteries ever by the greatest British mystery writer ever (in my opinion). While the DVD version is excellent, the print quality, as other reviewers have said, is not the greatest. BBC, in the mid 70s, used videotape for a lot of their productions instead of film with the result the picture quality suffered. But, this is a small point. The Wimsey series, first broadcast between 1974-77 in America and Canada on PBS Masterpiece Theatre, has been too long unavailable. Ian Carmichael is a perfect Wimsey and the Scottish countryside around Kirkcudbright makes this period piece a real charmer.
In most of Sayers novels, the villain rarely gets served up justice by the police as he/she/they do in Agatha Christie. Five Red Herrings is an exception, but suicide or some tragic cicumstance usually settles the score as it does in the other three released Wimsey series (to date). Not the hangman's noose for Dorothy's villains. Wimsey is a remarkable creation, very similar to Wodehouse's Wooster, but Sayers put Wimsey (and Bunter) through the hell of the Great War with the result there is a deeper side to the appearance of the "foppish Lord Peter". Five Red Herrings is a finely crafted story brought to the screen to perfection in this DVD
Top marks to Amazon and Acorn and I hope the creme de la creme of the 5 productions, The Nine Tailors, is soon to be released. The Nine Tailors is Sayers' finest work and, I think, the finest mystery novel ever written. The BBC production is outstanding and of five star quality. My recommendation to fellow viewers is to ask Amazon to complete the set and if you think the videos/DVDs are great, the novels are even better. Sayers was a classical scholar of international reputation who translated Dante's Inferno (still in print) and one of the finest writers of the early 20th century and nowhere is this talent better illustrated in The Nine Tailors and the other novels represented by this outstanding BBC series. "I say, well done Bunter!!"

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Ian Carmichael stars in this BBC adaption of Dorothy L. Sayers classic detective novel. Wimsey's fishing holiday in Scotland becomes a sport of a different nature when he is called to catch more than trout after a local artist is found dead. With six likely suspects, Wimsey must use his prize skills to determine the five red herrings and expose the murderer.

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Lord Peter Wimsey - The Nine Tailors (1975) Review

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(More customer reviews)With cross and candle and bell-knelling....More than one of the characters in THE NINE TAILORS is haunted. Lord Peter Wimsey and his valet Bunter are haunted by their recent experiences in France, where they spent too many weeks in the trenches. Other characters are haunted by events that transpired before WWI. The nine tailors are a set of very old and large bells that hang in the tower of a church in East Anglia. Each of the bells was specially cast and each has a name. On high holy days in the Anglican Church, such as the Feast of the Epiphany, the bells are rung by a group of men. Wimsey takes part in the change ringing and it is glorious. Dorothy Sayers was intrigued with Anglican theology, and in her later years she abandoned mystery writing for the study of theology. Every chapter of THE NINE TAILORS is preceded by a quotation involving instructions to clergy, change-ringing, and the like. Each is a clue. I believe Sayers was haunted -- like P.D. James -- by East Anglia, that odd part of England with a long violent history. THE NINE TAILORS is the best mystery I've ever read. It will appeal to those who like a literal case, but it will also appeal to those who sense that life itself is a mystery, and that even the greatest sleuth cannot solve it. I read the book, saw the original dramatization of the story, and then haunted by this incredible story, I traveled in East Anglia searching for the church. It does exist, and it contains one of the most beautifully carved interiors in England. Ultimately, the church provides Wimsey with many of the clues he needs to solve several mysteries. For there are several mysteries involving the theft of priceless jewels, betrayal, and murder. The question as always is whether or not these mysteries are related, and whether or not the same individual is responsible for all the evil deeds. I have been waiting a long time for the DVD and I am so glad ACORN finally is ready to release it.

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Lord Peter Wimsey - Murder Must Advertise (1973) Review

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(More customer reviews)It took only a quarter century to catch up with and I am eternally grateful to Acorn Media for making it available, along with "Clouds of Witness" and "The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club."
Yes, "Five Red Herrings" and "The Nine Tailors" are due soon.Having read the book several times, I can say that the dramatization is not only faithful to the plot but also to the comic tone of the original. Sayers herself did work in an advertising agency and she perfectly catches the chaos, the frustrations, and the high spirits that pervade such an establishment.
Even more on video than in the novel is each character fully realized. When Wimsey (working under an alias) first enters the secretaries' room, the more flamboyant of the women (played by Fiona Walker) is found coffee cup high in the air and sheet of advertising copy low in hand, thereby establishing her character perfectly. She can also quote Latin tags and Shakespeare with colloquial ease. The stuffy head of the firm, Mr. Pym, is played by Peter Pratt, well known to Gilbert & Sullivan buffs as the comic lead at the D'Oyly Carte several generations ago.The ubiquitous Peter Bowles plays the villainous Major Milligan as a dope dealer to the "bright young things" who still knows when to apologize for rudeness. Mark Eden continues his role as Chief Inspector Parker, now Wimsey's brother-in-law since marrying into the family after the "Clouds of Witness" case. If I cannot warm up to Lady Mary (Rachel Herbert), it is perhaps because of her smugness that tries to be charming but (for me) just misses.
Possibly the best realized character is Bridget Armstrong's Dian de Momerie, the fading sexpot who knows she is doomed by her associates, her drug taking, and the ravages of time. Armstrong turns what could have been an utterly cliched role into a sympathetic and believable one.
And of course, Ian Carmichael is the same bubbling amateur sleuth of the first two mysteries, always ready to apologize for forgetting he has advantages over most of the others.The plot combines a simple whodunit with a complex howsitdun; and if you pay close attention to the most seemingly inconsequential lines in the first reels, you will appreciate all the more the solution in the last one. I will reveal none of the plot here, except to say it is a lot of fun.
The production budget is below that of the Poriot series, but the period feel is just as good. By the way, when Wimsey (in disguise) is compared with Bertie Wooster, the script writer might be indulging in an inside joke: Ian Carmichael did play Wooster in a series on British TV and that association nearly cost him getting Wimsey after he himself suggested it to the powers that be!

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