46 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
As good as I remember it 27 years ago, August 1, 2000
It took only a quarter century to catch up with <Lord Peter Wimsey: Murder Must Advertise> and I am eternally grateful to Acorn Media for making it available, along with "Clouds of Witness" and "The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club."
Yes, "Five Red Herrings" and "The Nine Tailors" are due soon. Having read the book several times, I can say that the dramatization is not only faithful to the plot but also to the comic tone of the original. Sayers herself did work in an advertising agency and she perfectly catches the chaos, the frustrations, and the high spirits that pervade such an establishment.
Even more on video than in the novel is each character fully realized. When Wimsey (working under an alias) first enters the secretaries' room, the more flamboyant of the women (played by Fiona Walker) is found coffee cup high in the air and sheet of advertising copy low in hand, thereby establishing her character perfectly. She can also quote Latin tags and Shakespeare with colloquial ease. The stuffy head of the firm, Mr. Pym, is played by Peter Pratt, well known to Gilbert & Sullivan buffs as the comic lead at the D'Oyly Carte several generations ago. The ubiquitous Peter Bowles plays the villainous Major Milligan as a dope dealer to the "bright young things" who still knows when to apologize for rudeness. Mark Eden continues his role as Chief Inspector Parker, now Wimsey's brother-in-law since marrying into the family after the "Clouds of Witness" case. If I cannot warm up to Lady Mary (Rachel Herbert), it is perhaps because of her smugness that tries to be charming but (for me) just misses.
Possibly the best realized character is Bridget Armstrong's Dian de Momerie, the fading sexpot who knows she is doomed by her associates, her drug taking, and the ravages of time. Armstrong turns what could have been an utterly cliched role into a sympathetic and believable one.
And of course, Ian Carmichael is the same bubbling amateur sleuth of the first two mysteries, always ready to apologize for forgetting he has advantages over most of the others. The plot combines a simple whodunit with a complex howsitdun; and if you pay close attention to the most seemingly inconsequential lines in the first reels, you will appreciate all the more the solution in the last one. I will reveal none of the plot here, except to say it is a lot of fun.
The production budget is below that of the Poriot series, but the period feel is just as good. By the way, when Wimsey (in disguise) is compared with Bertie Wooster, the script writer might be indulging in an inside joke: Ian Carmichael did play Wooster in a series on British TV and that association nearly cost him getting Wimsey after he himself suggested it to the powers that be!
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Humor and mystery go hand in hand in Murder Must Advetise., August 14, 2001
Murder Must Advertise is, perhaps, the most entertaining of the five Lord Peter Wimsey videos now available to the public. Lord Peter goes undercover as Death Breedon to take a job as a copywriter for Pym's Advertising Agency to help Mr. Pym discover if foul play caused the death of Victor Dean, an employee of the agency. As Death Breedon Lord Peter shows his comic side as he obviously enjoys having fun with the various employees at Pym's. But more often than not there is purpose behind the humor as Lord Peter carefully sifts through a variety of clues and determines that Victor Dean was, indeed, murdered. Catching the killer is not so easy and draws Lord Peter into the world of the drug dealing de Momerie crowd. His various encounters with Dian de Momerie are highlights of the video.
Ian Carmichael was born to play Lord Peter. Add to that statement the obvious care with which Carmichael prepares for each scene and you have always in each video of the series a carefully orchestrated and meticulously delivered performance.
I now own two DVD versions of this series and wish I had been able to purchase the entire series in that format. As a bonus in the two DVDs that I do own, Ian Carmichael is interviewed and talks about his career and his work portraying Lord Peter. I would have liked for the interview to be longer, but it appears as if the producers cut the interview into parts to put into the various titles of the series.
In any format, I can highly recommend Murder Must Advertise along with each of the remaining titles in this series which is now complete.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lord Peter Shines Again!, February 11, 2003
This review is from: Lord Peter Wimsey - Murder Must Advertise (DVD)
This DVD, along with The Nine Tailors, is one of my two favorite of the Lord Peter Wimsey series starring Ian Carmichael that were first produced in the mid 1970s. In Murder Must Advertise Lord Peter works incognito, using his two middle names Death Bredon as an alias, at an advertising agency in London. His purpose is to solve a puzzling mystery surrounding the death of an employee at the agency, shortly before that employee was to reveal some shocking information about criminal activities at work. The story is classical Sayers, with plenty of red herrings to mislead and beguile you. It has an additional charm in that it gives a good view of what life must have been like in an advertising agency in Britain in the 1930s (Dorothy L. Sayers worked in such an agency before creating Lord Peter, so the give and take of office life rings true. You also get a glimpse of the sordid world of drug dealers and the unhappy frivolity of the Bright Young Things. I also enjoyed Peter's sparkling sister Lady Mary and his snobby sister in law the Duchess of Denver The mystery itself is well told and comes to a satisfying conclusion. The DVD also has a nice interview with Ian Carmichael and some Wimsey/Sayers trivia
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