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DVD: John Le Carre's A Murder Of Quality
Directed by Gavin Millar (A&E Home Video)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson
A man walks home from a party one evening and finds the body of his brutally murdered wife. A standard opener for a murder mystery, certainly, but this is a murder mystery of quality, so all similarity with other mysteries ends here. John Le Carre's stories are always multi-dimensional and engaging, and this is a fine example of his work. Filmed in 1991 for British television,
A Murder Of Quality stars Denholm Elliot as Le Carre's brilliant spy/detective, George Smiley, now retired and more or less enjoying the quiet life until a former colleague comes to him with a letter from the murdered woman, who seemed to be sure her husband was trying to do her in. Smiley's intrigued enough to travel to the scene of the crime, a tiny town built around a spooky school for boys where moral decay and shame are evident everywhere he looks. We've seen the discovery of the body by the husband (played in a trance-like evocation of grief and confusion by NAME), so he's the only one in town we're sure didn't kill her, until Smiley peels the layers of the onion and we learn just how lovely his late wife was, and how many enemies she had, including her husband. But as damning evidence mounts against the husband, a handful of characters become just as interesting, and not because they're necessarily colorful in the traditional sense. In keeping with the decay of the town these people seem to be colored in dark shades of red and grey. Smiley encounters teachers and headmasters with dark secrets and axes to grind, a local lunatic woman (Billie Whitelaw) with the strength of three men, and a very troubled young student (Christian Bale) who seems to have something he wants to say. He's certainly not at liberty to.
This story goes deeper into the mass-psyche of the people on the periphery than the usual murder mystery does to comment on two tough subjects: discipline-eccentric boys schools and the British class system, both of which have gone terribly astray in this town. The added dimension makes the story all the more fascinating for the armchair detective trying to solve it at home.
Smiley is aided by the police detective (Joss Ackland) he's supposed to be just tagging along with, but once he's ready to kick it into high gear, George Smiley needs very little help to catch a killer. Le Carre's story was filmed with great care and attention to detail, a fantastic cast (including the always wonderful Glenda Jackson as a bitter, angry teacher) and a feature film attitude that raised it above standard television fare. Fans of murder mysteries can't go wrong with this DVD.
© 2005 - DJ Johnson