Product Description

Three elegant murder mysteries adapted from the crime novels of Dorothy L. Sayers which chronicle the relationship of amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane unfolds in a realm of romance and intrigue. Includes the mysteries: "Strong Poison," "Have His Carcass" and "Gaudy Night."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2130 in DVD
• Brand: WARNER HOME VIDEO
• Released on: 2002-05-14
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 3
• Dimensions: .75 pounds
• Running time: 500 minutes

Features

• Three elegant murder mysteries adapted from the crime novels of Dorothy L. Sayers which chronicle the relationship of amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane unfolds in a realm of romance and intrigue. Includes the mysteries: "Strong Poison," "Have His Carcass" and "Gaudy Night."Running Time: 513 min. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: MYSTERY/SUSPENSE Rating: NR Age: 79405

Amazon.com
Three Dorothy L. Sayers mysteries involving amateur sleuth extraordinaire Lord Peter Wimsey and the lovely Harriet Vane are realized to perfection in these 1987 BBC adaptations. In Strong Poison, Harriet (Harriet Walter) is on trial for murder. Lord Peter (Edward Petherbridge) becomes enchanted by her and decides she cannot possibly be guilty. What follows are the twin stories of Lord Peter's search to find the real killer and his romantic pursuit of Harriet. Both are charming. As always, Sayers has plotted her story brilliantly, with a satisfying mystery and a sly comic touch (a gentle poke at the spiritualist movement is particularly fun). The period atmosphere is pulled off naturally and with close attention to detail, and the adaptation has a careful reverence for Sayers's novel. The performances are all remarkably strong. Petherbridge is perfect as Wimsey, revealing his brilliance and allowing him to be hopelessly in love without ever damaging his dignity. Walter plays Harriet with rich nuance, saying as much with her silences as she does with her lines, and Richard Morant is quietly fantastic as the remarkable Bunting.

Harriet, fresh from the trial, tries to get away from it all and ends up stumbling over a recently killed body in Have His Carcass. Unable to resist a crime (or, for that matter, Harriet), Lord Peter is soon on the case. In Gaudy Night, Lord Peter is still proposing at frequent intervals, and Harriet, though unable to say yes, is also unable to send Lord Peter entirely away. But enough with the romance. As Wimsey heads off for some foreign service work, Harriet visits her Oxford alma mater and lands smack in the middle of a poison-pen scandal. Harriet's status as a mystery writer, naturally, means she's the one who should investigate. Sayers clearly had fun writing this one, using Harriet to gently tweak her own profession, at the same time both parodying and defending the cloistered life at a women's college. --Ali Davis

Customer Reviews

WOO HOO!!
I am unbelievably excited that this is finally to be released in DVD, or any format for that matter. This has been and probably always will be my favorite PBS series - my family has worn out two VHS taped-from-TV copies (It will be wonderful to have the picture match the sound again!)

The first two stories are reasonably faithful to the books, and although the "Gaudy Night" episodes are sort of a Dorothy Sayers Lite, they do make a good introduction for someone who is not familiar with the books. These episodes introduced me to Dorothy L. Sayers (my favorite author along with Jane Austen) and in that way, have greatly influenced my life.

The casting and the acting of these is perfection (thank you Edward Petherbridge, Harriet Walter, and Richard Morant!)- there is no cheekiness that bothers me about the Ian Carmichael versions of some of the other novels.

My only complaint is that they couldn't do "Busman's Honeymoon" for this series (someone in Hollywood wouldn't release the copyright - but have they done anything with it??? NO.)

HOORAY!!!

Three To Ponder
This is the boxed set of three of the four mystery novels Dorothy Sayers wrote about her sleuth, Lord Peter Whimsey, and Harriet Vane, the mystery writer who eventually became his wife. These are the DVD's of the BBC productions of "Strong Poison," "Have His Carcase," and "Gaudy Night," starring Edward Petherbridge and Harriet Walter. Unfortunately, the BBC was unable to obtain permission to produce the final novel, "Busman's Honeymoon," much to our loss.

I have already written reviews of the individual performances separately, and will focus here on matters that affect the entire set. For reference, these performances cover the period from Wimsey's successful efforts to free Harriet from suspicions of murdering her lover to Peter's proposal to her at Oxford several years later.

Both of the stars of this series do remarkable work. Petherbridge is almost too perfect for the role, and has managed completely to supplant my own imagined version of Lord Peter completely. My only quibble is that he seems more a man in his fifties rather than the forties I thought was Wimsey's age. Since I am in my fifties myself, I found this quite easy to forgive. As for Walter's depiction of Harriet Vane, she really is exactly as she should be. Richard Morant's approach to Bunter, Lord Peter's man, is more problematic, being well acted, but not quite in character. As far as the lesser characters, the casting is, for the most part, impeccable. The few exceptions to this rule are still more than acceptable.

What makes the novels unique for their time is that Sayers wrote them are not simply as mystery stories with a romantic aspect. Instead, Harriet Vane is in almost every way Lord Peter's match, a strong, intelligent, and independent woman who balks at marriage first because she does not wish to succumb to gratitude, and latterly because she does not with for her own depth of character to be subsumed under Lord Peter's. This dilemma is used by the author not simply to entertain, but to expand on the role of women in post World War I Britain. And here lies my major complaint about an otherwise delightful set of entertainments.

For whatever reason, the director (Christopher Hodson) decided to overemphasize the romance at the cost of other elements. In the case of "Strong Poison" and "Have His Carcase," this sin only extended to the modification of the endings to create a certain romantic suspense. In "Gaudy Night," unfortunately, Hodson made significant changes from the novel, and left out several elements as well. The result of this 'Hollywoodizing' is that the less familiar one is with the novels, the more enjoyable the performances are. If you are a long time Sayers fan, though, you may find yourself slightly dissatisfied. Purist that I am, I have rated the set at four stars rather than the five that it otherwise richly deserves.

Three Cheers for This 3-Disk Set!
How wonderful that BBC has released this delightful trio on DVD. As a longtime Sayers fan -- and particularly of the Peter/Harriet books -- I dropped everything to absorb this series' first airing in 1987. Edward Petherbridge is so nearly a perfect Peter (just a bit too old; if only they'd shot these 10 years before with him instead of Ian Carmichael, Sayers enthusiasts all over the globe would have rejoiced). Harriet Walter's Harriet Vane is a bit less satisfying -- she gets Harriet's intelligence and wit quite well, but lacks some of the gravitas and intensity that comes across in the book -- as well as the lovely, deep voice that I keep wanting to hear (Emma Thompson comes to mind).

But physical quibbles aside, these films do get the developing relationship between Harriet and Peter -- the cautious probing of emotions hampered by nervous reserve on his part and defensiveness on hers.

Another strong plus is the casting of the supporting characters in each story. Each is wonderfully realized by the BBC "stable" of fine actors. The settings and period details are also dead on.

My only real disappointment in the set is the truncating of "Gaudy Night". Admittedly, this is the most complex of all Sayers' books. The numerous subplots, while perhaps seeming irrelevant to the casual reader, are actually an intricate counterpoint of encounters and relationships, each of which provides a vital piece to one of the two puzzles to be solved in this novel: how Harriet and Peter will resolve their personal dilemma or (much less important) who is sending obscene poison pen letters to the Shrewsbury College community. Unfortunately, the screenplay for this film version of "Gaudy Night" leaves out many of the subplots not relating to the mystery. Without the richness of detail provided by these subplots, we're left with a mildly interesting mystery and a love story that is far shallower than it should have been. I have to agree with the reviewer who called this film "Gaudy Lite."

That having been said, I still recommend this set for both longtime Sayers readers and those new to her. If this is your first venture into the lives of Peter and Harriet, enjoy these films and THEN run, don't walk, to acquire/read the books. For those like me who can quote long passages of Sayers books verbatim, I'd say get these anyway. I can almost guarantee you'll enjoy them ... even if you have to use your imagination to fill in the blanks left in "Gaudy Night".

I still hope that the BBC -- or someone of similar caliber -- will do another remake of these that remedies the few deficiencies noted above ... and which also includes Busman's Honeymoon!