Customer Reviews

P.D. James: A Mind to Murder

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4 star:		(4)
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2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Since 1983, fans of P.D. James have relished the sumptuous TV adaptations of the mystery author's complex detective novels. For the most part, the books have been shepherded to the small screen with great care, and the casting of actor Roy Marden as Scotland Yard Commander Adam Dalgliesh has been seen as nothing less than a masterstroke. The one complaint that could be leveled against the producers is the seemingly random order in which the books have been filmed. A Mind To Murder, James' second Dalgliesh novel, was the eighth adaptation for television in 1996. This trend has played more than a little havoc with the chronology and character development laid down on the printed page. A Mind To Murder underwent more changes from page to screen than any previous adaptation, but remains gripping and thought-provoking taken on its own merits.

Once again, Roy Marsden assumes the mantle of the poetry-writing, introspective Dalgliesh, and his performance here is riveting and intense as usual. This is no ordinary investigation, as events in the story will affect him personally on several levels. The tense opening scene sees Dalgliesh lose a young member of his team in a hostage crisis. Three months later, he and his team are dispatched to the remote Steen Clinic to invesigate a murder, an odd assignment considered they are the Metropolitan Police. Dalgliesh will learn the reason for this assignment, and stumble across some unnerving secrets relating to the death of his colleague earlier in the tale - secrets that lay submerged within the stated function of the clinic, which is to treat the addictions and depressions of the rich and the powerful...

The members of the large cast are all marvelous, and the production values are extremely high. As a James fan, I usually enjoy the adaptations, and tend to balk at overt changes made from the printed page. In this instance, though, my grumbles are minor thanks to the strength of the performances and some neat little flourishes which add zest to the proceedings. Dark and fascinating.

One interesting fact about this video, is that no writing credits are given for the adaption of P D James book that this is based on. Viewers should not expect this adaptation to be a faithful reproduction of the original. Even the murderer is different! But I'm not going to tell the prospective buyer who it is, so they will need to buy it and find out for themselves. Having stated these facts, I still found this video an excellent and enjoyable experience. As expected, Roy Marsden again puts in another solid performance and portrays Dalgliesh as no other actor can. The supporting cast is top class, with Cal Macaninch giving a wonderful performance of a highly disturbed young man. The murder victim, has no friends and lots of enemies. The Steen Clinic for the emotionally disturbed, depressed, alcoholic clients, and its staff all have the potential for a 'A Mind to Murder' and Dalgliesh is handed the unenviable task of trying to find the culprit. The final scene has the potential to submerge the viewers and leave them literally breathless. An excellent production, full of intrigue, pathos, and of course the action packed, unusual conclusion.

While the miniseries-length TV productions of the P.D. James Dalgliesh stories (e.g. "Death of an Expert Witness," "Shroud for a Nightingale") provided more time for plot and character development, this 101-minute adaptation of "A Mind to Murder" exhibits far better production values than many of the earlier entries. It's not the best in the series, but it's still great fun to watch for those who enjoy the British whodunnits. Roy Marsden defined the lead character, setting a high bar for the fine actor Martin Shaw, who took over the role in 2003's "Death in Holy Orders." Marsden's Dalgleish is a calm, thoughtful man who remains in control even while the bodies are dropping around him and the suspects grow weirder and weirder. He infuses the character with a quiet but tough decency.

This adaptation is quite short, under 2 hrs. So the pacing is quicker and story necessarily a more direct than the other 6 hr adaptations. The acting is really nice though, and this is one of the adaptations that I have watched multiple times for that reason. The ending is over the top, but I loved it. I hope they paid that poor actor a lot to do the ending scene! You'll have to see it to see what I mean.

A MIND TO MURDER was the second Adam Dalgliesh murder mystery written by P. D. James, and one of the best: it established what would be a pattern for James of setting her mysteries in a tight, privileged, architecturally significant space (in the original novel's case, a wealthy clinic in a London mansion designed by Robert Adam) among a very unhappy and sour group of people. Much had to be changed for this television miniseries since it came later in the series of television adaptations of the Dalgliesh mysteries, which is understandable; but so much else has been changed the original story is nearly unrecognizable. The Steen Clinic is no longer in a London Regency house but in a Victorian mansion out in the countryside; the craziness of the mental patients is greatly emphasized; and a bizarre and outre chase with the murderer (involving the bows and arrows of the patients' therapy sessions, which Dalgliesh's inspectors never bother to lock up) that ends up in a quicksand bog is piled on top of everything else. The adaptor, Russell Lewis, clearly had very little faith in the narrative strength of James's novel, but what he substitutes is, for all its whipped-up action and melodrama, quite uninteresting and unconvincing (especially compared to the more faithful James television adaptations). Usually the surrounding casts of suspects makes up for Roy Marsden's dull portrayal of Adam Dalgliesh, but this time everyone seems to be just punching his or her time clock.

This entry from the filmed-for-TV versions of P.D. James offers a more physically active Dalgliesh (risen to Commander) and a less leisurely plot development, than in some of the earlier offerings. Some character development is sacrificed to time demands and the attempt to show that the (former) Inspector still has the clout of the Cop on-the-street he had once been. Nevertheless, despite these reservations, it is still a British treat, well worth the time spent viewing it.
A staff member has been murdered in a sanatorium for VIP's, their relations and for some British law enforcement agents who needed treatment. This latter element is not as fully delineated as it might have been, entering as it does, into the action of the film. Our perspective is (too) quickly narrowed to a handful of suspects, with the resolution, more hurried than we are accustomed too.
Good entertainment for British Mystery devotees, but rather less effective than some of the others based on James' characters.

This looks like a routine whodunit in which the cops must figure out which of the characters inhabiting a so-called mental clinic killed one of the staff. But the clinic's jaw-dropping incompetence or lack of interest in controlling its inmates kept distracting this viewer from getting into the basic yarn. The patients seem to wander around unrestrained and unattended, engaging in such recreations as firing bows and arrows and sharing beds with one another. One unbalanced chap simply takes the stairs to the top of the building and flings himself off. Throughout all this, the place is crawling with cops, who have their own problems just getting the cuffs on the murderer, who manages to skip away down to the seashore, where he becomes mired in a bog, relying on commander Dalgleish to pull him out.

And then there's Roy Marsden as Dalgleish. As reputable British actors go, Marsden ranks well down on the charisma scale. He's tall and well-spoken but has almost no affect at all, rarely changing expression or evincing any emotion. I've not read any of P.D. James' books, but I gather that Dalgleish is styled as a published poet. It's hard for me to imagine Marsden's Dalgleish mustering the emotional involvement to compose much of any sort of poetry. Perhaps that's why the TV scripts only infrequently allude to his poetic bent.

I love British mysteries and detective stories. This story was OK except for the lead actor he is the dullest,corniest British actor I have ever seen. He ruined the movie by his presence.

"A Mind to Murder" is based on James' second (1963) novel, video-taped in 1996. Having never read her novels, but after repeated critical viewings of this and related TV productions, this reviewer reluctantly concludes that James' work is unfortunately not in the same league as that of other prominent mystery writers whose work has been moved to the small screen.

James' major writing flaw is that she frequently (almost always?) begins with the key murder having taken place. With no well-considered and interesting introductory characterizations and interplay in advance of the main events, we never get to enjoy the delicious anticipatory speculation (like one gets in a Christie) as to who is going to "get it", when, and maybe even who's next and why? (But then Christie was a grand master of the art!) There is no opportunity to engage with the victim before the crime. We cannot witness in time sequence the suspect interactions: their sizzling and fascinating cross-dialog, their threats, their hates, their MOTIVATIONS, building up to the point of murder. Subsequent to the murder, no prior suspect characterizations exist upon which to build. There are no delicious denouements where scenes are replayed showing what "really happened." With James, what we get is nothing more than a dry formulaic recitation of the relationships and circumstances that lead to the murder, presented retrospectively in a series of boring, dull he-said-she-said talking head exchanges amongst Dalgliesh and a horde of strangers, including his assistants of the moment. With none of these can one even remotely identify. Hanging over all of this like a wet blanket is James' cold, impersonal style, best characterized in Roy Marsden's authoritarian (he-who-must-be-obeyed?) portrayal of Commander Adam Dalgliesh - Metropolitan Police, who is such an arrogant cold-fish as to completely dispel any empathy viewers could ever possibly develop. He may as well be another victim stretched out on that morgue slab.

For someone posing as an expert in murder solving, Dalgliesh is NOT an investigative detective (or lawyer) in the Poirot, Holmes, Dr. Bell, Barnaby, Cadfael, Foyle, Lord Peter Wimsey, (or certainly not Perry Mason) tradition. When asked by an assistant why a particular murder occurred, he says (Chapter 8) "Why is not the here nor there. If we find the how, we'll find the who." Dalgliesh's sentiment is not new or isolated, but his personal modus operandi (and apparently James' raisonneur), expressed in other episodes as well! Thus, Dalgliesh says, MOTIVE IS OF NO CONSEQUENCE IN SOLVING MURDERS! (But note even he, kicking and screaming, cannot escape reality at times.) Such sentiments put Dalgliesh completely outside the panoply of great investigative detectives. He is the diametrical opposite of the above-named great ones, being first and foremost a police officer. Indeed, visions of Police Lieutenant Tragg of Homicide come to mind, but without Tragg's engagingly smirky wit. And even Tragg was ALWAYS interested in MOTIVE, though the wrong motive!

After watching these other classic series, then watching one of James', the regression in story quality is striking. The video image on this DVD is surprisingly sharp and free of grain, though perhaps a bit on the dark side. The audio, a major concern in this series, is clear and largely free of distracting background noise. Reluctantly NOT recommended unless you are a completist.