Customer Reviews

John Le Carre's A Murder of Quality

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Stella Rode, the wife of the new junior master at Carne School, just doesn't fit in. Carne is a British prep school with a history of preparing the sons of the upper class for lives of service and privilege. The teachers at Carne are part of this upper-class world, smug in their superiority and condescending toward those who don't fit in. Stella Rode wears her Christian beliefs on her sleeve. She does good works, collects clothes for the needy, often has a superior air about her. She also searches out secrets, uses gossip and anonymous letters to bring retribution, and doesn't hesitate to destroy a career. One night, she is beaten to death.

Days before, she wrote to Ailsa Brimley (Glenda Jackson), a relative who had experience in the war, that she feared for her life and that she suspected her husband. Ailsa contacted a colleague who, like Ailsa, was now retired, but who had also done things in the war which people didn't refer to. His name is George Smiley (Denholm Elliot).

Ailsa convinces George to go to Carne and see what is worrying Stella Rode. By the time he arrives, Rode has been killed and the police suspect her husband. Smiley isn't so sure and decides to stay a few days. He is cooly welcomed by the other masters, including house master Terence Fielding (Joss Ackland) who is shortly to retire. Smiley, a quiet, middle-aged man who is easy to underestimate, begins noticing things. What happened to the bloody outer garments the murderer must have worn? What exactly was used to beat Stella Rode to death? Where exactly did Stanley Rode leave his briefcase that night, and why did it seem so heavy? What are the relationships between some of the teachers, and, perhaps, between some of the teachers and the boys they teach? Then one of the boys, Timothy Perkins (Christian Bale), is found dead on a country road, an apparent victim of a hit-and-run. Smiley determines Perkins may have been run over by a car, but it is far more likely he, too, was beaten to death first.

Eventually, Smiley narrows the circle of suspects down. Then, one evening over a very civilized dinner, he and Ailsa confront the killer. The murders were all about privileges and reputations, "our" class versus "their" class.

The teleplay was written by John Le Carre from his early mystery of the same name. The first half is almost sedate, as we learn about Smiley and then as he learns about Carne. Things pick up appreciably as the underbelly of the privileged is exposed. The conclusion, when even a boy can be sacrificed to preserve the class structure, is right in line with many of Le Carre's themes.

Denholm Elliot does a fine job as George Smiley, so underwhelming at first meeting and yet so smart, so persistent and, in his own way, so ruthless. Smiley doesn't talk about what he did during the war, but it is clear whatever he did involved subterfuge and killing. Two other actors have played Smiley; all three have been excellent. Alec Guinness starred in the two television specials Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley's People. James Mason played Smiley, renamed for some reason Charles Dobbs, in the movie The Deadly Affair (from Le Carre's Call for the Dead).

George Smiley (Denholm Elliott plays him so unassuming and gentle) and Ailsa Brimley (Glenda Jackson is a joy!) play former spy chums who crack a murder case in Carne, a classic English Boys School environment.

The school is all that is desirable on the outside, yet has dark secrets on the inside. Sheila Rode possesses all these secrets and is murdered for them.

What I find most intriguing about the story is how people remember Sheila. She is a Goody Two Shoes that everyone loved to hate. Even her father cannot say anything good about her, even when pressed by Smiley in his reporter's guise (Smiley: "How would you best remember her?" Father: "She got what she deserved.") Ouch. Her last act of blackmail was against her husband in a letter written to an agony columnist. In talking to Smiley (it turns into therapy for his agonized mourning--this is an especially good portrayal of complicated loss) the husband reveals he hadn't realized how much he'd hated her--how evil she really was--until after her death.

No clue wasted in this John Le Carre screenplay based on his book by the same name. I loved the cinematography. Those haunting images of the ghostly figure in the luminous raincoat on the bicycle traveling through the rain--what the homeless woman saw, of course, when she thought she saw the devil. Maybe she did.

--Janet Grace Riehl, author Sightlines: A Poet's Diary

I wasn't sure how I'd like an actor other than Alec Guinness
playing George Smiley-but Elliott does a fine job.As other
reviewers have noted,the plot doesn't concern spies this time.
As usual,it may take 2 or more viewings (or reading the book)
to appreciate all the subtle points being made (talking always
exceeds action for Le Carre)-but this is a big plus for me.
IE the performance can be enjoyably viewed many times.If you
like this one,you should view the 2 Guinness portrayals of
Smiley.

The reviewer from Beumont, TX has no clue what he was watching. To watch this film without any knowledge of the unparalleled John Le Carre is folly. The reviewer didn't know that the so-called "ex-spy" was Le Carre's great hero - George Smiley, spy par excellence despite his failing in the social graces. If you are aware of Le Carre and Smiley, you will enjoy this movie. It is difficult to portray Le Carre books effectively, because of the depth of his characters, but this does a good job of portraying the Smiley character.

This is an excellent adaptation of John Le Carre's elegant mystery concerning Britain's class system and academia.

Beware though: not for the unintelligent.

Having the George Smiley movies played by Alec Giuness,
I looked forward to A Murder Of Quality.Unfortunately
eventhough I like Denholm Elliot,this was not one of
his best performances.I just couldn't believe that he
had the brains to solve anything,let alone a complicated
murder such as this.I do admit that if I hadn't seen
Alec Guiness play the part first,I might have been more
disposed to Elliot's performance.
As usual,Glenda Jackson is her brilliant self.
I never tire of seeing Joss Ackland,who is completely
believable as the snotty wanna be uppercrust Britisher.
Read the other reviews for a plot synopsis.

Being a MEGA fan of Glenda Jackson,it really ticked me
off that the picture they used of her in the biography
section of this dvd is actually a picture of the actress
Diane Fletcher( House of Cards)who played Shane Hecht in
this movie.Look for a scene with Diane playing squash,
and you will see that she is wearing a white shirt and
a bandana in her hair and it is this that they used as
a picture of Glenda Jackson.Pretty sad when a studio
doesn't recognize a two time oscar winning actress.

This is a good adaptation of the book, but Denholm Elliott, though a fine actor, is no Alec Guinness when it comes to playing George Smiley. If you can get over the fact the Alec Guinness is not George Smiley, this is a good murder mysterywith a good plat and fine acting. It was interesting to see Glenda Jackson in a movie that is dated just a few years before she became a member of parliament.

Denholme Elliot does an understated but solid turn as John Le Carre's quintessential master spy George Smiley in this excellent made-for-TV version of "A Murder of Quality."

George Smiley is asked by a wartime colleague to visit the wife of a teacher at Carne, an exclusive English Prep School. The wife, who does not fit into the existing social set, fears for her life. By the time Smiley arrives, she has been murdered. The balance of the movie is Smiley's patient unpeeling of the complicated and most uncivilized lives of the faculity and students of Carne. In the end, and with the assistance of an often baffled local police chief, Smiley cleverly unmasks the killer.

Denholme Elliot lacks the world-weary qualities and understated ruthlessness of Alec Guiness's later portrayal of George Smiley; this is George Smiley at an earlier, less cynical, and more sociable stage of his career in espionage. Elliot is surrounded by a very solid cast that include Academy Award-winner Glenda Jackson and veteran British actor Joss Ackland. A young Christian Bale (Batman Begins) features as one of the students. Le Carre's novel was hard to follow in the original; this film version will challenge viewers to pay close attention to the storyline. The end result will be entertaining and worthwhile.

I feared that watching a George Smiley film without Alec Guinness might be disappointing, but Denholm Elliot won my heart immediately. He doesn't have the impressive presence of Guiness and is less fascinating to watch, but his version of Smiley is equally as endearing. Denholm's Smiley is even more self-deprecating that Guinness' which gives an interesting tone to the drama. All the other actors are first rate and the production is BBC quality--excellent. I found the story to be interesting but not fascinating, hence the lack of the fifth star. It doesn't approach "Tinker Tailor..." Still it's well worth watching.

Denholm Elliott, Joss Ackland, and Glenda Jackson are fine actors. Le Carre here gives them a chance to perform in one of his first post-cold-war vehicles as he searched for a substitute for the espionage-counterespionage thrillers on which his reputation was based. Somehow, however, George Smiley, his hero, seems diminished in the role of volunteer investigator into a situation at an English public school. The three stars do their best in these low-key roles but it is swimming against the tide of the many other similar British mysteries which have populated the TV airways with Morse, Frost, Dalgliesh and others doing the investigating. Nevertheless, these stars are what provide the interest in this film.. The remainder of the cast also meet the high standards set by British television for this type of show. Those of us who are addicted to the British "non-violent" detectives will find the film a suitable way to spend a couple of hours; others may find it a bit slow and unclear. Oh, yes, as one reviewer indicates, there is some problem at times in making out the dialogue with no subtitles to help.