New movie reviews, DVD reviews, interviews, and all things film.

Follow Me

• Dark Shadows ***
• Darling Companion **1/2
• God Bless America ***
• Marvel's The Avengers ***1/2
• ReGeneration ***
• Sound of My Voice ***
• The Pirates! Band of Misfits ***1/2
• The Raven ***
• Safe **1/2
• The Lucky One 1/2*
• 4:44 Last Day on Earth **1/2
• Blue Like Jazz **
• The Cabin in the Woods ***1/2
• Damsels in Distress ***1/2
• Lockout **1/2
• The Three Stooges ***
• The Turin Horse ****
• We Have a Pope **1/2
• American Reunion **
• Goon ***
• More

• Bird of Paradise
• Maniac Cop
• Miss Representation
• Mother's Day (2012)
• Murder Obsession
• Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie
• Underworld Awakening
• The Vow
• Clueless
• Haywire
• Hit!
• Men in Black
• New Year's Eve
• The Red House
• More

• Peter Lord
• Abel Ferrara
• Nicholas Sparks
• Whit Stillman
• Sean Hayes
• Terence Davies
• Peter Lord Interview
• Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
• Taika Waititi
• Will Ferrell
• Interview: Ewan McGregor [SF Examiner]
• Interview: the 'Project X' stars [SF Examiner]
• Interview: Oren Moverman
• Interview: Rachel McAdams
• Interview: Ti West
• Interview: Elizabeth Banks
• 2011: The Year's Best Films
• Year's Best DVDs and Blu-Rays
• San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards
• The Decade's Ten Best Films: 2000-2009
• My Top 100 Films [Updated]
• My Top 60 Directors [Updated]
• Christmas Movies
• Essential Halloween & Horror Movies
• Cult Movies
• More Features and Interviews

• Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas, by Alonso Duralde
• Not Quite a Memoir: Of Films, Books, the World, by Judy Stone
• James Agee: The Library of America Collection, by James Agee
• Just Making Movies, by Ronald L. Davis
• More Books

• Home
• Reviews A-C
• Reviews D-F
• Reviews G-J
• Reviews K-M
• Reviews N-Q
• Reviews R-T
• Reviews U-Z

The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

SEARCH MOVIES / CELEB

P.D. James: The Essential Collection (2005)

Rating: 3 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Dalgliesh Dilemmas

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy P.D. James: The Essential Collection on DVD.

Koch Vision has released on DVD an absolutely mammoth collection of P.D. James mysteries: eight complete stories spread across 13 discs and running something like 1765 minutes, or almost 30 hours. Some of these were originally presented as miniseries, and run upwards of four hours apiece. Here in the U.S. the films have appeared on PBS's "Mystery!"

I opted to view the three shortest of the films, Unnatural Causes (1993), A Mind to Murder (1995) and Original Sin (1996).

Each stars Roy Marsden as Scotland Yard detective Adam Dalgliesh. Like Helen Mirren's Jane Tennison character in the Prime Suspect series, Dalgliesh has a troubled past that leaves him a little distant and a little guarded. A former poet and once married, Dalgliesh throws himself into his work now, solving difficult cases with multiple suspects.

Celebrated author P.D. James, now a baroness in her 80s, has a predilection for creating murder victims that no one likes, so that virtually everyone in the story has a motive. In Original Sin, an arrogant young man takes over a publishing firm and refuses to print the latest murder mystery by one of their regular clients -- an elderly female writer.

Some of the films play better than others. A Mind to Murder is the clearest, while Unnatural Causes has the most interesting directorial flourishes, but the least vivid storyline. They were all made with the small screen in mind, and they have the effect of being more relaxing than they are exciting. (They're the perfect thing to enjoy with a cup of tea.)

DVD Details: After I saw the three shorter films, it occurred to me that the longer ones might have played a bit better, having more time to establish the myriad of suspects as fleshed-out characters. The longer films are: Death of an Expert Witness (1983), Shroud for a Nightingale (1984), Cover Her Face (1985), The Black Tower (1985) and A Taste for Death (1988). Each disc comes with various extras, such as bios on James and Marsden, a James bibliography, credits and weblinks. Koch Vision is selling each film separately as well as in the giant box set. The big box sells for $149.98, the longer, two-disc films sell for $29.98 and the single-disc titles sell for $19.98.

Starring: Roy Marsden, Bill Nighy, etc.
Written by: Various, based on novels by P.D. James
Directed by: Various
MPAA Rating: NR
Running Time: 1765 minutes
Date: June 24, 2005