Inspector Morse - The Wolvercote Tongue

Rating:
Summary: Morse is actually quite funny throughout this film
Review: Extremely well written, this mystery has Morse and Lewis on the trail of a murderer when all the evidence points to death by natural causes. In the course of the story Morse must deal with all sorts of wealthy American tourists, and one wonders whether this film had any impact on the screenwriters of GOSFORD PARK. Whether it did or not, and whether the actors are really Yanks or not, the cultural clashes are more overtly funny than this series usually gets, Morse is very nearly Basil Fawlty in several scenes.
By this time in the series, Whatley and Thaw were really hitting their stride and their natural ease with each other made these films entirely believeable. Dexter set out to write these stories because he thought he could do a better job than what he had read in the genre, and he did just that. Morse and Lewis are every bit the match for Holmes and Watson.
Anyway, this is a great story, brilliantly written for the screen, and one in which Morse's caustic humour is let run rampant over each and every person with whom he collides. Oh yeah, a jewel is stolen and a woman is dead. Who done it..... that would be telling.

Rating:
Summary: Content good, DVD quality poor
Review: The Inspector Morse series is one of the great British TV mystery programs of all time. "The Wolvercote Tongue" is a decent adaptation of Colin Dexter's "The Jewel That Was Ours," although the book is better. The stereotypical American characters are grating, but this episode is still worth watching for the wonderful performances of --and chemistry between-- actors John Thaw and Kevin Whately. My real complaint about this DVD, however, is with the overall presentation. While I'm grateful to BFS Video (an apparently low-budget operation in Canada) for finally bringing the Morse series to DVD in the US, they've done an incredibly poor job on the DVD transfer and with the packaging of the handful of Morse DVDs that they've released to date. Among other things, the video quality is poor. It looks something you'd get when you put your VCR to the lowest recording grade possible. Second, the unbelievably cheesy BFS Video logo and theme song that assaults the eyes and ears at the start of each DVD is an embarrassment. BFS can't seem to even get the cover photo of their products right. On some of their other Morse DVDs, they use photos that have nothing to do with the particular episode and/or are printed backwards. For this early Morse program, however, they go one further and use a photo that was not only taken many years later, it's from a DIFFERENT SHOW ENTIRELY, namely John Thaw's barrister series from the 1990s, Kavanagh QC. BFS- if you're reading this, kindly fire your products marketing people, as they clearly don't know anything about Morse. There are dozens --if not hundreds or thousands-- of fans out there like me who will gladly help you do things properly, and for no charge! There's no excuse for such shoddy work. Morse fans deserve better.

Rating:
Summary: Rage, rage against the dying of the light.....
Review: The WOLVERCOTE TONGUE is a pin that fits into a buckle-an elaborate and beautiful Anglo-Saxon buckle of the sort excavated at Sutton Hoo. The bejeweled tongue is the most beautiful part of the buckle that once clasped the waist of a mighty lord. The matching buckle is on exhibit in the fabled Oxford University Ashmolean--the oldest museum in England.

The tongue, long ago separated from the buckle, is owned by a rich American woman who has traveled with a group of tourists to Oxford, where she plans to present the pin to the Ashmolean. The afternoon of the presentation, after too much touring about the city has tired her, the woman goes to her hotel room to take a nap from which she will never awake. Her husband discovers her body and that the Wolvercote tongue has gone missing. Never fear, Endeavor Morse, Detective Chief Inspector of the Thames Valley Police and his trusty sidekick Sgt. Lewis are soon on the case.

This is a lovely film, and a vicarious thrill for Anglophiles who have spent hours and hours in Oxford or wish they had. The colleges, the shops, walking along behind Merton, the Botanical garden, punters on the Thames, the Ashmolean-it wouldn't matter to me if the plot made sense or not (it does), or whether the characters were fully developed or not (they are). Oxford's gleaming spires in the dying light of the afternoon sun and John Thaw-who could ask for anything more.

Rating:
Summary: avarice and jealousy
Review: This entry in the Morse series represents a blend of various ingredients--- a suspicious death, suicide, homicide, adultery, possible theft, and attempted insurance fraud. Despite the serious nature of these events, however, this mystery is unexpectedly humorous. The plot basically revolves around a group of wealthy American tourists who visit Oxford as a part of their itinerary. Arrangements had been made previously for one of the lady tourists to donate "the Wolvercote Tongue" to an Oxford museum. Shortly after the group arrives in Oxford, however, the lady is found dead in her hotel room and the valuable artifact is missing. Despite evidence to indicate that the lady suffered a heart attack, Morse becomes convinced that some form of foul play precipitated the death. His position seems to be strengthened by the fact that shortly after the lady's death, the body of the museum director is found floating in the river under circumstances which point to homicide. Morse is fairly certain that the same person may have had a role in both deaths and that both deaths are connected to the missing Wolvercote Tongue; however, one characteristic of this episode is that Morse reached several conclusions regarding the identity of perpetrators and the nature of their crimes which proved to be mistaken in the final analysis. Ultimately, of course, all these mysterious questions are answered--- but not until one more homicide occurs late in the episode. Actually, the guilty party inspires a certain amount of sympathy, considering what he experiences at the hands of his wife and colleague. Once more, Morse demonstrates his ability to focus on small details (a suitcase, window draperies, and a left luggage receipt) which help to clarify the issues and solve the case. As stated above, despite the serious themes which characterize this episode, this entry in the series is quite humorous at times. The group of tourists is somewhat stereotypically presented-- with at least one of the group portraying the usual obnoxious know it all type person. There is a great deal of humor derived from watching this tiresome lady interact with other people--- especially since she gets what she deserves at the end of the episode. All things considered, this is one of the best Morse episodes in my opinion.