Lord Peter Wimsey: The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club [VHS]

Lord Peter Wimsey: The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club [VHS]

Lord Peter Wimsey: The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club [VHS]
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VHS Tape Cover Information

Actor: Anna Cropper, Donald Pickering, Ian Carmichael, John Quentin, Vivien Heilbron
Cinematographer: A.A. Englander
Editor: Richard Trevor
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog
Format: Box set, Color, NTSC
Running Time: 180 minutes
Release Date: 2000-03-21
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: Acorn Media
Studio: Acorn Media

VHS Movie Reviews of Lord Peter Wimsey: The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club [VHS]

Movie Review: Entertainin' and Don't Seem At All Dated
Summary: 4 Stars

This series really holds up, thanks to the solid source material and Carmichael's sensational star turn. His Peter Wimsey is all "g" droppin' mannerism and he crisply rattles off reams of dialogue with an effortless charm that brings to mind Johnny Carson who he resembles a bit. Yet, he's also a thoroughly believable character played with deft naturalism. It's a performance that should be held in the same regard as Guinness' Smiley and Leo McKern's Rumpole.

The mystery here is involving, but kind of quaint, that is until we get to the final scene, which is a knockout.

Summary of Lord Peter Wimsey: The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club [VHS]

"I'm investigating when a man died of natural causes," states aristocratic sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey, "but it's beginning to look more interesting everyday." So it is in this impeccably mounted 1972 BBC miniseries, which would make Dorothy L. Sayers's peerless literary creation proud.

Ian Carmichael stars in his signature role as the stylish, cultured, and erudite Wimsey, whose investigation into the death of General Fentiman is as irresistible as "poking sticks into a peaceful and mysterious-looking pond to see what was on the bottom." Fentiman died in his favorite chair at the staid Bellona Club. Oddly enough, his sister died the same day. Wimsey agrees to try and determine when Fentiman died ("I shall enjoy it," he exults). In a nutshell, as one character states (which is always helpful in increasingly complicated cases like this), dispersion of the inheritance will become "uncommonly awkward" depending on who died first.

The "whendunit" becomes a whodunit when it is revealed that the general was poisoned. The unflappable Wimsey has a colorful gallery of suspects to consider, including the increasingly unhinged George, one of the general's grandsons (why is he smashing a bottle of digitalis?), and Ann Dorland, who stands to benefit most if the general died first (what's the deal with the books on chemistry and poisons she has recently purchased?). Other memorable characters further enliven the proceedings, among them the Munns, George's bickering (and at one point blackmailing) landlords.

As the very British title suggests, this is not a crime thriller to set the pulse racing (the discovery of Fentiman's body is referred to as "something rather unpleasant"). But as the mystery unfolds over the course of 180 minutes (and 4 volumes), it is as captivating as a good late-night read. --Donald Liebenson

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