P.D. James - The Black Tower

Rating:
Summary: The best......
Review: P.D. James is unequaled among contemporary mystery writers, an anachronism, a member of an older order that has sadly passed away. Like her counterpart-Dorothy Sayers-James not only provides an entertaining story filled with compelling characters and a well formulated plot, she is a realist who presents the world as it is-filled with moral ambiguity. Fortunately, the BBC dramatization of THE BLACK TOWER is faithful to James' book, and Lance Entertainment has been faithful to the BBC production-all 287 minutes. I have purchased the majority of the BBC-PBS Mystery productions and find the quality of this DVD a 10.

THE BLACK TOWER may have been the first P.D. James mystery filmed (1985?) but it is certainly one of James' better tales. She uses the country house setting-in this case Toyton Grange, a nursing home in East Anglia on the North Sea owned and run by a middle-aged man who may have been cured of MS on a visit to Lourdes. Typical of James, there is little bloodshed-her victims more frequently succumb to poison or smothering, leaving suicide as well as homicide a possible cause of death. By the end of the story, six people are dead and a more than a few have come close to the edge.

BBC television productions from the 1980s are akin to the U.S. staged television productions of the late 1960s and 1970s. The BLACK TOWER is a classic example of the era when stagecraft was more important than "special effects." The actors in this production include the wonderful Pauline Collins who played 'Shirley Valentine' in the film and on Broadway where she won a Tony Award, and who was a member of the 'Upstairs-Downstairs' cast. Other actors include Art Malik and Rachel Kempson from the "Jewel in the Crown" series. Roy Marsden is his usual quizzical self.

I like the video as well as the audio effects in the BLACK TOWER. Modern film makers use 'fuzzy' mikes that drown out much of the background noise, which they then augment with synthetic sound. This 'sound editing' is supposed to enhance the viewer's audio experience (mood altering, etc.), but what a treat to "hear" a film made before these modern advances. While it is true many of the shots where made on a sound stage, more than a few were filmed outside. The verisimilitude of the natural environment provides one with a sense of "being there" where a real breeze can be heard and it's effects seen, and real birds chirp in the bushes and trees.