Customer Reviews

Exxon Mobil Masterpiece Theater: The Blackheath Poisonings

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

 

 

The BLACKHEATH POISONINGS is a great film. Originally, a BBC/Masterpiece presentation on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting network, the film features a cast of familiar British faces such as Judy Parfitt (JEWEL IN THE CROWN, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE), Patrick Malahide (MIDDLEMARCH, THE SINGING DECTECTIVE); Zoe Wanamaker (MORSE) and dozens of other actors you've seen in various Mystery Theater presentations.

The transfer of the film is reasonably good. The plot is very complex. The cast of characters excepting the doctors who treat the poisoned and the police who investigate what turns out to be murder, are all members of the same family). The family business is toy manufacturing, and a number of curious 19th century toys are featured in various scenes. The action takes place in a fabulous Victorian house (red and green and filled with nicknacks), a 19th century factory, a brothel, a train station, a cemetery, and a park. Think Sherlock Holmes crossed with Gilbert and Sullivan.

Parfitt plays the domineering, stingy, and uptight matriarch "she who must be obeyed" to a family comprised of resentful adult children - sons, sons-in-law, daughters, nephews, stepchildren. The seven deadly sins are represented by the various family members - anger, lust, greed, avarice, lust - did I say lust? Sex and money are at the root of their problems - often the case in repressed Victorian society.

This mystery is SO good my 74-year old husband who usually falls asleep at 8:00 p.m. in front of the tv stayed awake until 11:20 p.m. When I asked him 2/3 of the way through the three hour showing if he wanted to continue, he said, "Bring her on."

"I loved Roger Vandervent. My only crime has been my nature," says Isabel Collard, and it turns out to be true, even though her lover has died of arsenic poisoning. That a person's nature is the driving force can also be said of the true murderer, as well as of the person who takes the final step to justice.

The Blackheath Poisonings is one of those masterful Masterpiece Theater showcases, full of sumptuous Victorian detail, skillful acting and the sort of exquisite manners one loves to observe and is repulsed by. The Collard family owns Collard and Vandervent, toymakers to the empire. It is a company that nothing will change. There is Isabel (Christine Kavanaugh), married to George Collard (Ian McNeice), a fat, epicene man who loves chocolates. Isabel is an adulteress with Roger Vandervent (James Faulkner), who is married to Beatrice (Julia St. John), a Collard daughter and sister to George. She is a woman of treasured resentments and heavy brows. They have a son, young Paul (Christien Anholt), who worships Isabel and wants to be free of the family. Another daughter, Charlotte (Zoe Wanamaker), makes a match with an adventurer, Robert Dangerfield (Patrick Malahyde), but she just might prove to be better at the game than he. Ruling over them all with an imperious will that can shrivel all before it is the matriarch of the family, Harriet Collard (Judy Parfitt). She dresses in black, pulls her hair so tightly back it must hurt and has a glare which can freeze thumbs.

The affection these people seem to have for each other could fit in a thimble. Before long Roger Vandervent is dead and Isabel is charged with murder. No one seems to care deeply one way or the other except Paul. Then Harriet dies, gasping and discretely vomiting. All the while Robert Dangerfield is maneuvering for control of the firm. The Collard siblings seem to have no greater pleasure than to ignore each others' feelings and condescend to everyone else. In addition to all this, there are servants playing pinch the bottom in the butler's pantry, purloined letters of indiscrete passion and nasty blackmail. Paul is left to sort out the truth. He has little time because Isabel, now on trial for the poisoning of her lover, faces hanging. In a nice bit of Victorian realism, the truth takes Paul to a place which dare not speak its name, but which requires the funds of a gentlemen and an affection for corsets, makeup and veils.

It's vicious, tawdry, mannered and a great deal of fun. Unfortunately, things slow a bit toward the end. The revelation behind the murders isn't quite as gaspingly shocking as it might have been in Queen Victoria's time. Still, the story is told with poisonous skill, the production values are very high and the acting is a pleasure to watch. Particularly fine jobs are turned in by Parfitt, McNeice and Wanamaker.

The DVD picture looks just fine. The only significant extras are a cast filmography and cast list.

I loved the period details and I thought the acting was generally very good. I would recommend "The Blackheath Poisonings" to anyone interested in Victorian drama/mysteries.

Boy this brings back a lot of memories. I remember reading the book by Julian Symons from which it was based, and then watching on PBS. It sticks fairly close the novel, and further enhancing the deliciously tawdrier aspects of the story, although it also maintains the novel's stiff upper lip surface with its boiling passions underneath. Add to it the bunch of repulsive family members outwitting and outcunning one another, and you have a perfect concoction to spend a rainy afternoon. Others below have well discussed the plot, and I have to give credit to the adaptors for also satisfyingly (if a bit abruptly) dealing with the denouement of the book (difficult due to its literary format). However that ending (in the book) carries such resonance that it elevates the work from excellent to memorable.

"The Blackheath Poisonings," based upon the exceptional novel by Julian Symons, is a riveting and searing examination of a Victorian English family. This drama, a three-part miniseries which aired on PBS' Masterpiece Theater, is truly unforgettable.
The Collards and Vandervents are an extended family who are very prominent toy makers. However, just because they manufacture toys does not mean they are innocent people who love children! The family enjoys games all right, but their playfulness is of an adult nature. As is stated in the beginning of the drama by Judy Parfitt: "The seven deadly sins are embodied in one diabolical family." Here you will encounter gluttonny, greed, and lust just to name a few. When an untimely death occurs, Paul Vandervent, the seventeen-year-old boy who is being pressured into joining the family business, believes the death to be unnatural. He thinks a killer is at large, and anyone in the family could be involved. Paul probes into the mystery, unearthing family skeletons and learning a bitter lesson. His quest brings him face to face with a diabolical and malicious poisoner. This drama is much more than a whodunit; it is a psychological thrillerand coming-of-age story in which things are not always what they seem.

The cast in this miniseries is superb! Ian Neice shines as George Collard, the glutinous, chocolate loving son of Harriet Collard. Judy Parfitt is exceptional as Harriet Collard, the matriarch of this odd family. The other cast members are equally wonderful. Please give this film a chance, and please read Julian Symons terrific novel.

4 1/2 stars.

I'm pretty enthusiastic about this terrific Masterpiece Theater mini-series (180 minutes total) because the story corrals all that has elevated the Golden Age of the classic British mystery to its well-received status even today. If you're wondering why I shaved off the final 1/2 star, it's only because I felt that the conclusion was just a bit abrupt and somewhat incongruous. But that aside, I thoroughly enjoyed every gossip-worthy moment of this disfunctional family's dark escapades.

The clan of the Blackheath Estate (the Collards and Vandervents) owns a successful toy factory. Relationships in the family are publicly well-defined with the old matriarch calling all the shots; however, sexual infidelity and greed soon begin to reap their toll on all the superficial domestic placidity.

One of the prospectively spinstress daughters, a not very attractive one, re-connects with a seedy former suitor (artfully played by Patrick Malahide, The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries, Set 1) who is being pressed for gambling debts. This time around, though, he sees his opportunity for a slice of the family pie if he can convince the shrewd old matriarch to approve the marriage.

When one of the key male figures of the family business (and a secret lover of his amourous sister-in-law) is ruthlessly poisoned, an event which a fool of a physician sees only as an unfortunate gastric episode, internal family alliances shift... this leads to futher murderous consequences.

This series has it all: covert sexual interludes, blackmail, secret desire, greed, police incompetence, underworld activities, and murder/poisonings. The set and costume designs are spectacular and the acting is equally first-rate. The pace is also much faster than many of the other Masterpiece Theater productions I've encountered in the past. I was reminded of Robert Altman's superb feature film Gosford Park. You'll likely wish to view all these episodes in a single sitting if you get caught up in the story as I did.

I award very high marks for this fine production.

When this movie came out in 1993; masterpiece theater which was then done by pbs and Mobil (which was not yet combined with Exxon) had reached a point where they were doing more current books to movies often and the result was controversial sometimes. Viewers of the show from 1969 onward were used to more conservative stories and this one has a scene in a courtroom in which a woman describes her lovers manhood , a transvestite scene, a clothed sex scene and other things, Of course this is no big deal by todays standards or regular 1993 network tv even; but this was "Masterpiece Theater" and some old time fans were not amused. This wasn't a masterpiece at all they cried! This trend actually began back in the late 80's. Anyway this is tale of a dysfuntional Victorian age family and the poisoner in their mist. Even the servants are slimey in this one and few of the characters are likeable, but who cares? This is a murder mystery after all. The print isn't the sharpest in definition, but it's a good one with no blemishes and may never have been that sharp to begin with. The cast are alot of really familiar English actors who all do a great job with what they have. This is not great tv, it's a standard murder mystery that these days would have been shown on mystery, (the show split into mystery and masterpiece theater I believe) or just masterpiece, why they dropped the "theater" from the title , sometimes even the introductory hosts, and the cool theme music is beyond me, but I did enjoy this tale of murder and disconnected people even if it wasn't a really special show , it wasn't a bad one either.

Arsenic, creepy toys, and a big gothic mansion full of people with nasty little secrets. Can't fail, right?

Wrong. Sadly the Masterpiece Theatre production "The Blackheath Poisonings" proves that, with a murky murder mystery that is half soap opera and half serial killings, it can still be boring and hideously riddled with holes. It's a leaky vessel at the best of times, but the third episode spins out of control in random and hilariously awful directions. The actors are excellent, but they've got little to work with.

The Collard and Vandervent families (two branches of the same family) all live in the same house and work in the same toy firm. What's more, Roger Vandervent (James Faulkner) is having an affair with his sensual sister-in-law Isabel (Christine Kavanaugh).

When Roger suddenly becomes ill and eventually dies -- supposedly of gastric problems -- his son Paul (Christien Anholt) starts to suspect foul play. Unfortunately Isabel's explicit love letters to Roger have been intercepted by a treacherous servant, who is using them to blackmail the young woman, who is unhappily married to the gross, dissolute George (Ian McNeice). And the spinster daughter Charlotte (Zoe Wanamaker) has reunited with a ne'er-do-well suitor from long ago.

And as Paul begins investigating his father's possible poisoning, the family's iron-willed matriarch (Judy Parfitt) dies with exactly the same horrible symptoms as Roger. And as the police learn of the nasty little secrets of the Collard family, Isabel suddenly becomes their prime suspect -- something Paul never wanted, since he's obviously madly in love with his step-aunt.

As a piece of gothic suspense, "Blackheath Poisonings" is a pretty good piece of work-- a big spooky house, lots of creepy old toys with buggy eyes, and plenty of nasty little resentments just simmering under the surface. And the writers explore some facets of Victorian society that you wouldn't normally have seen, including a drag queen bordello, illegal underground fights, and servants who take the chance to blackmail their employers. It's all deliciously soapy.

Unfortunately as a mystery, it has more holes than a croquet game. Isabel is arrested and convicted based on the flimsiest of evidence, and a crucial witness insists that she was the person he sold poison to -- which means the idiot must be blind. The longer it goes on the leakier the entire mystery becomes, until the entire plot has basically become a conspiracy and a flimsy frame-up, neither of which is even remotely plausible. It has a clever twist ending, but that's about the only good part of it.

And the third act is pure absurdity -- Paul stumbles over the murderer by drunken chance rather than by intelligence or deduction, a loathsome slimy reptile spontaneously turns into Mr. Unselfish Charity, and Isabel starts spewing vitriolic anti-God verbal abuse at a vicar when he tries to help her. Oh yes, and the climactic confrontation between Paul and the murderer is a grotesquely over-the-top affair, and it becomes funny rather than horrific.

I'll give it this -- the actors are quite excellent, especially the boyish Anholt as a young man mature beyond his years. Unfortunately all the characters except Paul are so loathsome that it's hard not to wish they wouldn't all be poisoned -- Isabel in particular is treated as a tragic heroine, but she comes across as a whiny brat who excuses cheating with a married man by whimpering sexily, "My only crime has been my nature." I wonder what her sister-in-law thought of that.

"The Blackheath Poisonings" is interesting as a nasty little gothic melodrama, but the entire plot implodes in the third act. The actors are excellent, but they can't save this mess.

Thought that I would enjoy this period piece, but it was too vulgar for my taste. I love mysteries enough that I watched the whole thing. It reminded me of a play since I didn't think that most of the acting was very good as compared to Downton Abbey or Our Mutual Friend. I also figured out the ending about halfway through. The part that disturbed me the most was when the supposed murderess ridiculed the man of God and God himself. How rude. If she would be someone who believed in God and in morals, she wouldn't have been in the situation in the first place. I did enjoy the acting of the stepson and wonder what else he acted in. Didn't quite enjoy the part of the ending since people took the law into their own hands. Isn't that what got everyone into the predicament in the first place...everybody just doing whatever they felt like with no qualms about what's right and honorable? I decided that I enjoy refined Victorian mysteries, not amoral, vulgar characters.

Not only was the plot full of holes, the acting was horrendous! If possible, I would have given this film zero stars. Nothing in this story is even plausible. It isn't even worth a review except to warn you to avoid it like the plague. Ugh!