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The third installment of Dorothy L. Sayers’s famous Harriet Vane mysteries, Gaudy Night unfolds at the all female Shrewsbury College at Oxford. Upon returning to Oxford for the first time in years for a school reunion, Harrie… More >>
Dorothy L. Sayers Mysteries – Gaudy Night
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I beg to differ with the other reviewers. I have read a couple of the Sayers books (Gaudy Night and The Nine Tailors come to mind). I don’t remember much about the books, except that I wasn’t keen on reading them all. But I love mysteries and I’ve seen all the Wimsey eipsodes made for television, those with Ian Carmichael and those with Edward Petherbridge. The Carmichael episodes are far better, for my money. Carmichael’s Wimsey is charming, sparkling, a little quirky and fun, a man you want to know. Petherbridge is glum, looks very tired and bored. I don’t believe he’s attracted to Harriet, no matter how many times he says so. There is nothing in his eyes. And Harriet!!! There’s a snotty cow. Usually looks like she’s revolted by a nasty smell. Nope, nothing anybody could fall in love with there either. Whether it was a careful recreation of the characters in the books or just the casting of two particularly unsympathetic people, it just doesn’t cut it.
Rating: 1 / 5
The main characters in this series are very poorly cast, and the overall production is uneven and jarring, mixing video and film awkwardly.
Edward Petherbridge and Harriet Walter have absolutely no chemistry together, which greatly undermines the dynamic of the series. Frankly, all the sexual tension seems to be between Lord Wimsey and his manservant, with sometimes comic levels of sexual undercurrent. While I enjoy BBC mysteries very much, this one just fell flat. Definitely a miss.
Rating: 1 / 5
Having seen all 3 of the Rutheridge adaptations of Sayer, I must say I was disappointed with this one, my favorite by far of the 3 novels, just as I was impressed by how well they did Have His Carcase, one of Sayer’s less impressive novels, imo. This adaption cuts alot of what made the novel so interesting. Wimsey’s nephew does not appear. The subplot of the students, including the one with the crush on Harriet and the one who is suicidal, does not appear except for an early 2 minute interview by Vane of a few of the women students, who then disappear, a singularly pointless scene, as though they decided not to have the student bit after all and then left one scene in by accident. There is no chess set, and none of the undercurrents between Vane and the Hilliard woman that that event brought out in the book. Hilliard is just hostile, because she is an unpleasant woman. Uninteresting. There is no dog collar, for which I was thankful, I’m afraid men who put dog collars on women just brings too many irrelevancies to mind these days.
There is so much of the interaction of the dons that is lacking, there is no development at all of any suspicions and clues pointing at any of the dons, as there was in the book, there is in fact no development of the mystery at all. Vandalous things happen on several nights, then Peter springs the solution on us all, clever fellow.
But most disappointing to me of all is that this version just did not give us the marvelous presence of Oxford itself as Sayers empphasized it so strongly in the book. It was key to what happened between Wimsay and Vane and what it symbolized of the primacy and the costs and rewards of the intellectual life was a rich underlying theme for every character, including of course the culprit. But this production cheated us – vane thinks a few poetry lines re Oxford at the very beginning as she is driving there, then wimsey says something about how awfully serious Oxford makes everyone at the very end, and the whole theme is just absent otherwise.
I like the Vane characterization across all 3 of the videos. Rutheridge as Peter lacks all the effervescence and whimsey and defensive buffoonery of the Sayers character – a fact that is a big defect imo in Strong Poison but much less so in this video, as in fact Sayer’s Wimsey drops his clownishness more and more in the successive novels.
Rating: 3 / 5
While enjoyable, it was “a mystery to me” why footage was cut from the version I saw on Mystery. I definitely remember the scenes about the chess set when I saw this story on TV.
Why, oh why, was it cut? It captured a major awareness, on Harriet’s part, concerning her feelings for Lord Peter.
I feel cheated, as when we purchase such a product, we expect to see the ENTIRE work. If that does not matter to you, then this incomplete work stands alone as better than nothing.
Rating: 3 / 5
Thanks to Volavampire for her review that mentioned Petheridge as Peter Wimsey. I have been enamoured of this detective since I first read Strong Poison when I was in high school. However, I felt so strongly that Ian Carmichael (I think that was the actor) was NOT Wimsey in any way, shape, or form, that I did not watch the televised versions. I wasn’t aware of the “Harriet Vane” series with E. Petheridge until I read the review here. I am totally delighted with his portrayal of Wimsey. He fits my pictures in every way, as does Bunter. The casting of Harriet Vane is good as well. For any Wimsey fans, I recommend this DVD set with multiple stars.
Rating: 5 / 5