Customer Reviews

The Singing Detective

5 star:		(83)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

THE SINGING DETECTIVE is a compelling, funny, and heart wrenching mystery starring Michael Gambon as Phillip Marlowe: writer, protagonist, and hospital patient. Patrick Malahyde (Middlemarch) flawlessly plays Marlowe's nemesis (nemeses)-three different characters with three different British accents. The cast also includes Janet Suzman as wife, lover and vamp; Alison Steadman (Mrs. Bennet in the recent production of `Pride and Prejudice') as wife, mother, lover, and vamp (Marlene Dietrich lookalike), Joanne Whalley (ex-Kilmer) as nurse, etc.; and the housekeeper from the BBC television series `As Time Goes By' as the school teacher from your worst nightmare.

In addition to the superb cast and wonderful settings filled with vintage WWII elements, one can watch `The Singing Detective' for the pure entertainment provided by a convoluted plot, quirky characters, musical segments, and many humourous moments. One of my favorite scenes occurs when Marlowe responds to the ministrations of a group of Christians who attempt to impose their musical doctrine on the hapless ward patients. Another angle for viewing this film is provided by the drama of Marlowe's medical condition. Is it mental, physical or both? Will he improve or not? Will the psychiatrist be able to break through his defenses or is he defenseless? A third avenue for exploring the film is the depiction of the creative writing process. How do Marlowe's characters take form? What is the source of his plot elements? How much does he remember and how much does he imagine? Can one find the line between fiction and nonfiction.

Probably the most interesting angle from my perspective is the parallel between the Singing Detective and Shakespeare's Hamlet: the play within a play within a play (the play's the thing); the dead Ophelia floating in the Thames (who is she anyway-at least three different women turn up as the same corpse); the different `ghosts' who haunt the protagonist; unfaithful and spurned lovers; and two nameless hit men who try to assassinate the hero over and over from the beginning to the end of the story. I believe this BBC production (1986) must have inspired many of the deconstructed and now classic plays and films produced in the 1990s including `L.A. Confidential'; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead'; `Pulp Fiction'; Reservoir Dogs'; `The Spanish Prisoner'; `Mulholland Drive'; and others.

Dennis Potter's The Singing Detective is, quite simply, the greatest
work in film or television ever. Every scene is fascinating in its
own right, and as you see more of the series earlier moments take on
new significances as it is learned how they relate to the series as a
whole. The Singing Detective deals with a hospital-bound mystery
writer who is suffering from a crippling skin disease. In addition to
the often horribly funny scenes involving his current plight, we see
flashbacks of his childhood, fantasies about his estranged wife, and
episodes from one of his novels. The stories all gradually start to
connect with each other.... Potter constantly alters chronology, and
yet does so in such a masterful way that everything always makes
sense. And oh yes, there are musical numbers. Many aspects of this
series have been appropriated by later films such as Pulp Fiction
(with its time-shuffling) and Dancer in the Dark (with its imagined
musical productions), but compared to The Singing Detective these
works are crap. ...Do yourself a favor and buy it already.

I'm hesitant to call this a musical, though that's precisely what it is. Dennis Potter wrote several musicals over the years, using different eras of music. This one is, by far, the best! The music here is from the 1940s. The drama, however, is actually a contemporary one. A (failed?) mystery writer named Philip Marlowe is hospitalized with a severe case of psoriasis...more corrrectly, psoriatic arthropathy (which Potter also suffered from). He has this one great novel in his past, though..."The Singing Detective." Marlowe's illness is terribly severe, and throughout the film we join his delirium as he relives events from his childhood, falls into a fascinating fantasy based on his novel, and comes back (from time to time) to the events currently happening in the hospital. These three streams are brilliantly intertwined, and the resulting story is absolutely THE BEST THING *EVER* TO HIT TELEVISION! This is *not* hype or exaggeration! The other reviewers are completely correct in making this same claim. If you've never seen this one...well, it's your loss....

Dennis Potter died a few years ago from pancreatic cancer. He was simply a GREAT writer. He wrote *many* screenplays...dramas for both TV and film, as well as the "musicals" noted above. He also wrote novels. His best, I think, are brilliantly detailed studies of a mind either gradually breaking down, or gradually coming back from some kind of breakdown. "The Singing Detective" falls into the latter category. That alone would be enough to recommend this video...but the fact that it's *also* a "musical" is what makes it utterly remarkable! I honestly don't think I have the words to be able to say just how it transcends to the level of something almost divinely inspired. At the risk of saying it one too many times, folks, this one is TRULY GREAT!

If you're able to find it, there's an interview with Dennis Potter that was originally broadcast on the Bravo channel shortly before his death. He was quite sick at the time, and he took occasional sips from his flask of pain medication during the interview. He talks some therein of "The Singing Detective." Yes, Marlowe shares the diagnosis of psoriatic arthropathy...but, he's an entirely different personality than Potter himself. Based on truth...expanding into the realm of the literary. It's an interesting insight into the brilliance of Potter as a writer.

Meanwhile, "The Singing Detective" is something you really *must* see! *VERY* HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

It would be hard to add much substance to the many glowing reviews of this series so I will address my comments to those who might be more strongly influenced by the negative reviews.

This is a story about a man who is tortured by his past and who cannot help but associate the appearance of his skin with the sins he feels he has committed. The not so subtle association between the uncleanliness of the skin and of the soul is, of course of "Biblical" proportions (lepers were considered sinners), but Potter's take on this is far from trite.

What many have found offensive about the presentation is, ironically, something that I encounter with regularity in medical practice. The psychotic imagery brought on by medication is not uncommon, nor is the humiliation of a patient who finds his or her self at the mercy of the system, unable to control their most personal of bodily functions. Is it offensive? Too people too polite to discuss such things. But we are viewing the experience not through the eyes of the system, but through the eyes of the patient who wanders in and out of reality and is often unable to distinguish between them.

The ward system of care (many patients in the same room) has all but disappeared in the US with the Veteran's Administration hospitals being one example of the holdover. In such settings, nothing that happens to you is completely private; not your appearance nor your feelings nor your communications with others. Worse, Marlowe's disease is on the outside, for all to see. The disgust his ward mates (and the audience) feels is a reflection of the prejudices we have against people with physical deformities.

Such prejudices are natural, of course. The revulsion that we sometimes feel at the sickness of another is part of a primitive reflex that prompts us to avoid whatever it is that the sick person has encountered. Part of the process of caring for others involves learning to suspend that revulsion. But what of a man who is offended by himself? How does he care for himself?

Marlowe is a modern Job, brought up with an intense faith in and love of God who finds his faith challenged by the events in his life. Were this drama not infused with the thoughts and feelings of Potter's own experiences, it might have been considered sensational and certainly some have regarded it as unnecessarily grotesque and explicit.

But if we allow ourselves to suspend our prejudices and view this work as a uniquely frank and revealing look at a real-person's experiences as told through his fictional character, then what we see is not only a story of profound complexity, but also a peek at the health care system as it is sometimes seen by patients.

As a physician, I frequently take exception to the portrayal of health care on TV, especially the soap opera like characterizations of ER and Chicago Hope. I first saw the Singing Detective as I was entering medical practice and was struck by how closely it resonated with my experiences.

If one is to be shocked or disgusted by this film, be shocked and disgusted by the way that disease and often treatment leaves patients stripped of their privacy and dignity. If one is to be disgusted by this film, be disgusted by the perverse way in which the teacher uses the childrens' fear of God as a way to exact a confession.

What is offensive is not what is portrayed, but rather, what it tells us about how we, as a people, sometimes act.

At one point in the story, Marlowe tells Dr. Gibbon: "I sat at my desk, perjurer, charlatan, and watched and listened and watched and listened as one after another they nailed that backward lad hands and feet to my story. I have not seriously doubted since that afternoon that any lie will receive almost instant corroboration and almost instant collaboration if the maintenance of it results in the public enjoyment of someone else's pain, someone else's humiliation."

In German, there is a word for this, so recognized it is as a common phenomenon.

At one point Marlowe asks a nurse about a patient who has died (and, whose death, Marlowe believes, was caused in part by Marlowe's own feelings about the patient). The nurse replies "We don't talk about these things, do we?" to which Marlowe retorts, "Why not? It is the operating assumption, here, that none of us are mortal."

In essence Marlowe is questioning the rule that there are "some things that polite people don't talk about" insofar as disease and death are concerned. But to the patient these, and other things, assume critical importance. Rarely has a work of fiction so accurately captured those issues from the perspective of the diseased rather than the healer. As he loses hope of recovery he begins to confront the daemons of his life in all their ugliness.

It is rare, indeed, to be able to watch that process through the eyes of the patient.

I have not been able to stop thinking or talking about this series since I watched it. I made a ritual out of watching one episode every Friday night for six consecutive weeks, and found myself barely able to wait from one week to the next. The way Potter weaves the different elements of the story into a cohesive whole is simply magical. All of the superlatives in the other reviews are spot-on. This is a masterpiece, plain and simple.
Funny, heartbreaking, mesmerizing...I could go on and on. The cast is splendid (JoAnne Whalley is a knockout), but it's Michael Gambon who steals the show. Due to the character's illness, he moves very little, and so must rely on his incredibly expressive eyes and marvelous voice to convey Marlowe's feelings. No other actor comes close to the Great Gambon. Just watching him try to light a cigarette is excruciating. I'm almost afraid to see the Mel Gibson / Robert Downey film version, for fear that I will be sorely disappointed. Oh well, I always have my boxed set. In fact, I'm about to start my Friday ritual all over again, this time with my wife watching as well. I envy her- she's about to have a marvelous experience.
Buy this set, you will enjoy it for the rest of your days...

One of the previous reviewers commented unfavourably on the image quality of this DVD set - it almost kept me from buying it. Almost... I did get it though, because I remembered it as one of the greatest things I had ever seen on television. Bearing in mind that this is a production for television, I can not find anything wrong with the image quality. The quality of the transfer has also been praised elsewhere. So don't worry, this is a great set.

20 years after I first saw this on the BBC, I watched it again, just as mystified and enthralled and, I have to say, confused.

Dennis Potter makes enormous demands of the viewer in trying to figure out just what the heck is going on during the whole thing. That's partly the enjoyment of watching it.

As with his earlier 'Pennies from Heaven', Potter has the cast break into song sporadically to great effect.

Well worth the money.

First, let's start by saying this is one of the best, most complex and compelling mini-series I have ever seen. Dennis Potter's "The Singing Detective" deserves all the praise it gets here. Michael Gambon plays writer Philip Marlow who has been hospitalized with psoarsis. As he drifts in out of consciousness he hallucinates incorporating the people around him into one of his detective stories involving the Singing Detective (also Michael Gambon). There's three stories going on here--the pulp fiction story, the story of Marlow suffering in the hospital and Marlow remembering the trauma of his childhood. All three are intertwined with the people from his past life and current life appearing in his fantasy life.

Featuring an amazing performance by Gambon, this BBC production also features top flight imaginative direction by Jon Amiel. One of my favorite dialog exchanges occurs between Marlow and one of his compassionate nurses--"A little bird told me you were a writer"..."with a name like Marlow what else could I write (referring to detective stories) "no E at the end but it sounds the same", "As what?" the nurse (Joanna Whaley-Kilmer asks)"As Philip Marlowe!" Then Marlow briefly muses what he might have written if he had been named Christopher Marlowe. Full of witty, intelligent dialog and scenes that veer from satire, drama to musical interludes all within the space of minutes, Amiel does a great job with Potter's script.

The DVD features some marvelous extras including a commentary track for all the episodes by director Amiel and producer Kenneth Trodd. Amiel knows when to be quiet and when to offer a bit of background on the production. I do wish that actor Gambon could have been involved as well. There's a short documentary on Potter, an interview with Potter, photo gallery, articles, cast biographies and the packaging also includes a brief essay by TV critic David Bianculli. Packaed to look like the pulp novel from the title sequence, Warner and BBC have done a marvelous job with "The Singing Detective" overall.

The video transfer, however, is good but not spectacular. Shot and aired in 1986, it appears as if the original broadcast video was used as the source NOT the film itself. It could be that the show was edited on video and this might be the only source of the completed project. If not, I'm a bit disappointed that original film itself wasn't dug out of the archieves at the BBC for the transfer. It varies from fair to good. The colors, although not as bold as I would have liked, are good if a bit faded. The transfer has the most problems when we see Marlow in the hospital. Nevertheless, it looks better than many other shows from the same time frame. The mono audio occasionally sounds distorted but, on the whole, the dialog is clear. Some of the distortion is from the fact that the music is drawn from vintage recordings.

Despite some visual flaws, "The Singing Detective" is presented with loads of extras and nicely packaged. An exceptional job overall. It's too bad that Potter and writers like Douglas Adams are no longer around. They wrote challenging material that always involved the viewer and used imagination, wit and compassion to tell their stories.

This is indeed one of the finest television productions ever filmed. I see that it is the property of Fox, so one would hope that a DVD is on the way, as the price for the taped set is exorbitant. Michael Gambon achieved deserved praise and fame for his brilliant, tour-de-force performance as Philip Marlowe (yes, that's rather an obvious pun, but the humor and wealth of ideas on display in this work in no way fall into that category). Director Potter had one of the truly eccentric, surreal and comic imaginations of the past 50 years. This masterpiece definitely falls under the heading, "MUST VIEWING." Hopefully, it will be far more accessible to the viewing public in the near future.

I hesitated buying this set because $ is a lot of money. The positive reviews tempted me, but I thought they might be motivated by a small cult following of Dennis Potter.

Well, I guess I am now joining the "cult." This is a terrific series. There's not much I can add to the other reviews except to say that despite the various layers of the "plot," the film is not all that difficult to follow. The central figure moves from the present to the past to his fictional world and back--with one character (Finny/Binny) running the gamut of this spectrum. The film captures rather well the way one's mind works as it gather clues to its own identity.

Michael Gambon is the perfect actor for this production. The actor who played his father is also remarkable. One of the most moving scenes is in the tavern where the young Marlow is drinking a soda and listening to his father sing and perform bird songs.

Now, if only the BBC would wake up and offer Pennies from Heaven in DVD, or even VHS!!!