DVD Review: A Murder of Quality (1991)

DVD Review: A Murder of Quality (1991)

Note: This article contains minor spoilers about the book A Murder of Quality (but not the movie).

John le Carré’s second Smiley novel, 1962’s A Murder of Quality (review here), wasn’t adapted for the screen until nearly thirty years after its publication. It must have come as a surprise to readers and viewers when the feature-length television adaptation popped up so long after the fact. It’s possible that the BBC had been brainstorming how best to bring Smiley back to the screen ever since Smiley’s People scored so well with audiences and critics alike in 1982. Was an adaptation of 1989’s The Secret Pilgrim considered as a vehicle for Alec Guinness to return to the role? It would be a problematic novel to adapt, but I can’t imagine the prospect wasn't at least bandied about. Perhaps it was and Guinness turned it down. Whatever the case, that wasn’t made and TV producers were probably wondering how they could possibly top the big budget international production of Smiley’s People… and realized that they couldn’t. But if they went back to that second novel, a rich little period mystery set at a prep school, then they wouldn’t have to compete with past Smiley TV adaptations. It was small enough—and different enough—that direct comparisons would be unlikely. Of course that’s all pure speculation. Perhaps the impetus came from le Carré himself. As it happened, A Murder of Quality didn't come from the BBC, but from Thames Television, and it's a far different animal from the sprawling miniseries Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley’s People.

Since A Murder of Quality isn’t a spy story and isn’t set at the Circus, the only series character involved is George Smiley himself. Denholm Elliott (Codename: Kyril, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) is quite good in the role (and certainly looks the part), playing a more seemingly befuddled Smiley than Guinness. It’s almost as if every actor who’s ever tackled the role has chosen to focus on a different aspect of the literary Smiley’s personality. If you could assemble them all together into some avant garde production along the lines of Todd Haynes’ Bob Dylan biopic, I'm Not There (which featured multiple actors portraying separate aspects of the musician’s persona), you would have a complete representation of the character from the books. If James Mason is the Smiley the Lovelorn Cuckold and Alec Guinness is Smiley the Introvert and Gary Oldman is Smiley the Ruthless, then Elliott is Smiley the Fool. Of course, the fool is just a disguise for Smiley—a Lord Peter Wimseyish defense mechanism—and Elliott conveys that well. But it’s certainly a legitimate aspect of the literary Smiley. Elliott’s Smiley is Smiley as he’s perceived by people who don’t know better.

Le Carré himself penned the screenplay for A Murder of Quality… and, surprisingly, he wasn’t the most faithful of adaptors. It’s a weird experience watching this TV version right after reading the book, because the differences stand out more than the similarities. A lot of the same material is still there, but it’s been shuffled around, and good lines have been redistributed to different characters. It’s not that it’s been shortened (which wouldn’t be necessary for such a slim volume), but rewritten. This is the rare opportunity to witness an author with a chance to rewrite his second novel thirty years later, and observe exactly what he would have done differently. Personally, I preferred the original.

In his introduction to later editions of the novel, le Carré said, “Rereading the book now, I find a flawed thriller redeemed by ferocious and quite funny social comment.” For the screenplay he clearly accentuated the social comment, but it loses some of its bite in being moved to the fore. If he attempted to “fix” the thriller elements, he didn’t do a very good job. The mystery becomes more obvious in the film, and the cleverest part (involving a letter case behind) is streamlined so as to remove all the fun of the clue. Even the primary suspect in the murder mystery is changed. In the book, we’re led to always suspect the victim’s husband, Stanley Rhode (David Threlfall), because he’s mentioned in his late wife’s letter—the letter that gets Smiley involved in the case to begin with. And for all the reader knows, he could have done it. But in the movie, we see him, through a subjective camera, come home alone and discover his wife’s body and react, so we’re reasonably certain all along that he did not commit the crime! And, unfortunately, that doesn’t leave too many viable red herrings.

We also learn about Stella’s true nature much sooner in the movie than in the book—pretty much right away, in fact, which seriously dulls one of the novel’s biggest surprises and leaves us with a much more conventional Agatha Christie-type mystery. But because of the lack of red herrings and misdirection, it’s a lot more predictable than your typical Christie mystery. While the omission does streamline the plot, the book’s ingenious misdirection doesn’t seem to have been cut for the sake of time; what fit in a 150-page novel should fairly easily translate to a 90-minute drama. Instead, I suspect that le Carré purposely pared away a lot of the story’s “thriller” aspects in order to allow the social satire to better shine.

Indeed, he keeps much of his best (which is to say, nastiest—and funniest) dialogue verbatim, though while the lines were mostly Shane Hecht’s in the book, many have now been awarded to other characters, as Shane is a fairly minor role in the film. In fact, le Carré now gives the murderer some of Shane’s best lines, in order to accentuate his or her own class consciousness and drive home the already biting critique of the British class system. The move rather backfires, though, I’m afraid. In moving the social satire to the foreground, the author’s motives become too transparent. Such commentary works best when it’s surreptitiously inserted into other genres (like mystery) and takes the reader or viewer by surprise. When it’s the whole point of the piece, it loses a good deal of impact.

While I understand why Shane Hecht’s dialogue was redistributed, I don't understand why in the movie le Carré takes away some of Smiley’s actions and gives them to other characters, actually making his hero less proactive! That seems like an odd choice, and somewhat diminishes Smiley’s character.

All of my complaints, however, derive from direct comparisons to the book. Judged on its own merits, A Murder of Quality makes a handsome one-off in the PBS Mystery! mold (on which it originally aired in America), likely to satisfy most fans of British period detective shows. Director Gavin Miller (Foyle's War) creates a pleasing atmosphere and takes full advantage of his locations; whatever actual school stood in for Carne does a good job. There’s a first rate cast, too, including Joss Ackland as house Master Terrance Fielding (brother of one of Smiley’s wartime compatriots), Glenda Jackson as the former colleague who involves Smiley in the mystery, Ailsa Brimley, and a young Christian Bale (The Dark Knight) as one of the boys who unwittingly holds a vital piece of the puzzle. Diane Fletcher does a fine job as a slightly defanged Shane Hecht, but I can’t help imagining how wonderfully Maggie Smith might have channeled the character from the novel (with all her lines intact, hopefully). Ah well. What might have been. Matthew Scurfield is also good as Smiley’s police contact, Inspector Rigby.

Solid cast and high production values aside, though, the finished product is undeniably lightweight. As a television drama, A Murder of Quality is even less essential Smiley than the book. It’s still worth watching for serious Smiley fans, however, just to see Denholm Elliott’s take on the character. I quite like it, but wish we could have seen him in something a bit more substantial—like, maybe, another crack at Call for the Dead. As a spy story, that one might have drawn more inevitable comparisons to the Guinness miniseries, but I have to wonder if there might have been plans to film it with Elliott after A Murder of Quality had the actor's health held up? (He died a year later.) As things stand, his sole contribution to the Smiley Files is limited to this rather insubstantial television movie.

The Region 1 A&E DVD offers an adequate, if grainy (as expected for UK TV productions of that era) presentation, and is thankfully uncut. (There’s some surprising female nudity, which I can’t imagine made it into the original PBS broadcast.) Other than some text features on the author and the actors, there are no special features to speak of.

The Smiley Files
Part 1: George Smiley: An Introduction
Part 2: Movie Review: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
Part 3: Book Review: Call for the Dead (1961)
Part 4: Movie Review: The Deadly Affair (1966)
Part 5: Book Review: A Murder of Quality (1962)

Upcoming Spy DVDs: Mission Impossible: The '89 TV Season

More good news for Mission: Impossible fans! Presumably timed to coincide with the DVD release of the latest Tom Cruise theatrical film (although that does seem awfully fast, even in this age of ever-decreasing theatrical windows), the second season of the 1988-90 revival series of Mission: Impossible will hit DVD in Februrary! TV Shows On DVD reports that the final season of Mission: Impossible TV episodes containing the final appearances of Peter Graves as the real Jim Phelps will be available on DVD on February 28, 2012. It's hard to believe that the first theatrical Mission (in which Jon Voight played a very different character named Phelps) came just five years after this DVD set leaves off. The two incarnations of the brand seem worlds apart. This 4-disc set (containing all 16 episodes of the revival's final season) represents my own preference. These episodes aren't as good as the Sixties and Seventies ones, but they're still highly enjoyable and, for me, more fun than the movies. I just hope that CBS/Paramount puts a little more effort into remastering this batch of episodes than they did into The '88 TV Season. Some of the episodes in that set look little better than off-air recordings, which is a surprising come-down from the top-notch quality of the original series DVDs. Speaking of that original series, one of its stars, Greg Morris, returns to the revival once more reprising his role as Barney Collier in the two-part season premiere, "The Golden Serpent." (Those episodes, incidentally, are directed by old ITC hand Don Chaffey, who helmed his share of spy fare like The Prisoner, The Avengers, The Baron and more back in the Sixties.) Morris' son, Phil, is a regular on the revival, playing Barney's son Grant. The other regulars this season are Tony Hamilton, Jane Badler and Thaao Penghlis.

Retail on Mission: Impossible: The '89 TV Season is $39.98, but Amazon's already got it available for pre-order at just $27.99. That same day will see the release of a 2-pack, Mission: Impossible: The '88 and '89 TV Seasons, which bundles the entire revival series together for just $69.98 (or $48.99 on Amazon). No extras have been announced, and since none of the Mission: Impossible seasons to date have ever boasted extras, it seems unlikely that any will be, but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for that 1997 Diagnosis Murder episode "Discards" to truly complete fans' Mission: Impossible TV libraries. Barbara Bain reprised her Cinammon Carter role from Mission's earliest seasons on that, and Phil Morris (confusingly) appeared in a role other than Grant Collier. Ex-spies Robert Culp, Patrick Macnee and Robert Vaughn rounded out the guest cast, making the episode a bit of a Holy Grail for Sixties spy fans. The Diagnosis Murder DVD releases petered out after just a few seasons, so "Discards" remains elusive. Since the episode in which Mike Connors reprised his Mannix role was included (at least in excerpts) as an extra on the first season of that CBS/Paramount series, I was hoping that this one would turn up on a Mission: Impossible release at some point... and this one marks the last chance for that to happen.

Read my review of Mission: Impossible: The Seventh TV Season here.
Read my review of Mission: Impossible: The Sixth TV Season here.
Read my review of Mission: Impossible: The Fifth TV Season here.
Read my review of Mission: Impossible: The Fourth TV Season here.
Read my review of Mission: Impossible: The Third TV Season here.
Read my review of Mission: Impossible: The Second TV Season here.
Read my review of Mission: Impossible: The First TV Season here.

Upcoming Spy DVDs: Frederick Forsyth Presents

Upcoming Spy DVDs: Frederick Forsyth Presents

Wow, I never thought we'd see a Region 1 release of the 1989-90 ITV series Frederick Forsyth Presents. But TV Shows On DVD reports we'll be getting exactly that for Valentine's Day, from Timeless Media Group! So much did I doubt this would ever happen that I just imported the Region 2 version from Amazon.co.uk this past summer. Now it turns out I could have saved a lot of money... but at least I got better cover art! Because this TMG budget release sports some truly awful Photoshopping. That cover isn't representative of the six classy TV movies contained on 3 discs within. These movies are based on novellas contained in Forsyth's book The Deceiver. Alan Howard (best known as the voice of the Ring in the Lord of the Rings movies) plays unorthodox spymaster Sam McCready, Forsyth's answer to George Smiley. McCready generally takes a backseat, however, to the people he's manipulating in each story. This formula enabled the producers to bring in a big guest star for each film, including Elizabeth Hurley, Lauren Bacall, Brian Dennehy, Beau Bridges, Chris Cooper, Phillip Michael Thomas, David Threlfall and Peter Egan. The ones I've watched are solid productions, and I'm not sure why this production isn't better known. It deserves a place beside other solid Forsyth adaptations like The Day of the Jackal (indeed, one of these stories concerns Carlos, the international terrorist the media dubbed "the Jackal" after Forsyth's book!), and especially the Pierce Brosnan and Michael Caine starrer The Fourth Protocol. (Now if only that would get a Region 1 DVD release!) This budget release, priced at just $14.98, will no doubt prove to be one of those nice little cheap gems for spy fans eager for more serious dramas in the serious vein of Le Carre. The set hits stores on February 14, so get it for your spy-loving sweetheart. You can already pre-order it on Amazon.

DVD Review: Circles of Deceit: Sleeping Dogs (1995)

DVD Review: Circles of Deceit: Sleeping Dogs (1995)

Sleeping Dogs is the second of the Circles of Deceit TV movies (recently released on DVD from Acorn) starring Dennis Waterman as an aging former SAS soldier turned MI5 operative John Neil. After the tragic events of the first movie, The Wolves are Howling (review here), Neil has retreated back into his private, alcohol-fuelled seclusion in Northumberland. But he did a good job on the Irish mission, and seems too good a man to let go without a struggle. So when his former colleague, played by Susan Jameson, is appointed Controller of MI5 (remember, this is ’95, the same year Judi Dench took over as M during Stella Rimington's tenure as the first publicly identified Director-General of MI5), she seeks him out and basically dares him to come out of retirement. Between SAS veterans who’ve seen combat together (in a highly unconvincing flashback set in Libya in 1983, made to look even sorrier in comparison to the combat scenes in the recent SAS drama Strike Back), that seems to work. And so, a little bit fitter than when we last saw him, with additional facial hair (which becomes him), and with a trendy new female boss instead of Derek Jacobi, John Neil is suddenly back in action and the one-off drama Circle of Deceit has, two years later, become the series Circles of Deceit.

Sleeping Dogs is much more of an espionage story than The Wolves Are Howling, which dealt with terrorism. Neil is sent to visit an aging former KGB colonel in Paris who wants to sell information. It’s his job to determine if the information is even worth buying four years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. “Since the fall of the Wall, it’s a buyer’s market,” he tells the would-be seller, Colonel Petrov.

Petrov is played by portly spy veteran Leo McKern (The Prisoner, Hot Enough For June, Help!) with great joviality, very much along the lines of Oskar Homolka’s Colonel Stok in the Harry Palmer movies. McKern doesn’t even attempt a Russian accent (at least I don’t think he did…), but he’s one of those larger-than-life screen presences who doesn’t need to, like Sean Connery in The Hunt For Red October. Petrov gives Neil two names as a free sample demonstrating the quality of his decades-old intel. Unfortunately, he’s murdered shortly thereafter, giving the Controller plenty of reason to believe that the names are valuable. It’s up to Neil to figure out why.

One of them, Annie Shepherd (Frances Barber, a Reilly: Ace of Spies vet who now plays that eyepatch lady on Doctor Who), is a sexy, mature woman (who teaches adult education classes in German), so of course Neil ends up falling for her, even though she might be a Russian sleeper agent… or worse. The other, Bill Roper, is a wealthy software designer who drives a white Lotus Esprit Turbo. 

The Lotus is involved in a car chase (well, a pursuit, anyway, as Neil follows him, but not at high speed). It doesn’t turn into a submarine, but submersible capabilities aside, any screen time for a white Lotus is sure to increase my opinion of a spy movie—not that it really needs increasing in this case. 

Like The Wolves are Howling, Sleeping Dogs is solid spy entertainment. The production values don’t seem quite as high as they were on the first entry, but there’s still a large enough budget to destroy a few cars and deploy a few helicopters. (And a little of that stuff goes a lot farther in a more serious spy drama like this than it would in a Bond imitation.) There’s also some much more elaborate fighting than in the first movie, including a particularly violent struggle to the death between Roper and an assassin who might be working for the Russians or might be IRA.

Yes, the IRA is involved again (and still harboring a serious grudge against Neil for the blow he dealt them last time out), as are former KGB and Stasi agents, various freelance assassins and Paul Freeman (Belloq from Raiders of the Lost Ark), all of which adds up to a fun and intricate plot. 

Freeman is so good as a slick, slimy, upper-crust MI5 official that I’m surprised he doesn’t get this kind of role more often! Neil makes an uneasy alliance with a sadistic ex-Stasi assassin and puts his trust in Annie (despite his boss’s belief that she’s a dangerous KGB sleeper) to pull all these threads together and stop an imminent threat to a rapidly approaching summit meeting.

Like The Wolves are Howling (again), Sleeping Dogs doesn’t really bring anything new to the genre, but it does a very good job with tropes tried and true. The plot is a sort of mash-up of various Len Deighton and Ken Follet elements (all good things), and Neil himself (well played by the likable Waterman) remains a compelling, if not terribly original, character. 

Like James Bond, he’s ultimately a blunt instrument wielded by the state. And that seems to give him the edge over the radicals and zealots he comes up against. Unfortunately, it also makes him ideologically incompatible with his potential lover, who’s passionate about her political beliefs. “Petrov explained it to me,” Neil tells Annie, recalling a conversation he didn’t quite understand at the time but comes to over the course of the movie. “He said he never recruited anyone with political beliefs. Just people like me.”

“And what did he mean?” she inquires. “People like you?”

“Just… ones who can’t live any other way.”

DVD Review: Circles of Deceit: The Wolves Are Howling (1993)

DVD Review: Circles of Deceit: The Wolves Are Howling (1993)

The first of four British made-for-TV movies starring Dennis Waterman (The Sweeny, New Tricks) as former SAS operative turned MI5 agent John Neil is identified on screen only as “Circle of Deceit.” I suspect it was originally filmed as a one-off, then did well enough to justify a series at which point the title was apparently retroactively changed to Circles of Deceit: The Wolves are Howling. That’s how it’s identified on Acorn’s Circles of Deceit DVD set at any rate.

Director Geoffrey Sax (Fawlty Towers, Framed, Spice World) apparently likes to set a challenge for himself, so he begins his movie with flashbacks to a circus tragedy, an odd and outdated movie cliché so overused that it was hilariously sent up in OSS 117: Lost in Rio. Yet here Sax more or less pulls it off. Despite that beginning, he delivers a really good drama. Such a beginning, in fact, proves entirely appropriate, because Circles of Deceit: The Wolves Are Howling trades on clichés of this nature, yet handles them all so well that it really doesn’t matter. This movie doesn’t bring anything new to the spy genre, the ex-soldier genre or the IRA infiltrator genre, but it makes an incredibly solid example of all three. And, personally, sometimes that’s exactly what I want out of a genre movie. 

John Neil is an SAS Falklands vet who lost his wife and child two years earlier in an IRA bombing at a circus in Germany. This event provoked his retirement, and he’s been a drunken recluse ever since. Then an amazing coincidence occurs. (The plot hinges on a couple such coincidences, but gets away with it.) An Irishman named Jackie O’Connell dies in a car accident. He was born in Belfast, but has lived in London for the last twenty years or more. And he bears an uncanny resemblance to John Neil. This is too good an opportunity for MI5 spymaster Randal (Derek Jacobi, playing a typically sleazy bureaucrat) to pass up. While O’Connell was not himself a terrorist, he has an estranged brother in Belfast who’s a priest in a parish dominated by IRA soldiers. It’s a rare and perfect chance to place an infiltrator in their midst. With a little prodding from Randal (who isn’t above playing on Neil’s past and hatred for the IRA because of what they did to his family), Neil is lured out of retirement and given a crash course in the Belfast neighborhood he’ll claim to be from and its mostly nefarious denizens. 

Foremost among them is Liam McAuley, a high-ranking IRA mastermind and patriarch of a whole IRA family. Liam is played by stalwart ITC veteran Peter Vaughan (Hammerhead, The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, Codename: Kyril, various Avengers, etc.). His accent sometimes fails him, but overall Vaughan delivers his usual screen-filling, utterly captivating performance.

Neil makes his entrance at the wake for one of McAuley’s sons, freshly killed by British soldiers. He introduces himself as Jackie to Jackie’s brother, the parish priest, Father Fergal. Fergal gives him a few tests which Neil’s cramming enables him to pass and then readily accepts him as his long-lost brother. Fergal is a sympathetic character, well played by Ian McElhinney. He wants to see the best in everyone and he clearly wants to believe that Jackie has returned, so he’s easily fooled. Naturally, Neil feels guilty for taking advantage of the optimistic man of God, and he may even find a real kinship of sorts with him. But Fergal does not approve of the McAuleys or their methods, and therefore loses faith in the man he believes is Jackie when he starts (per orders) associating with them. One can only imagine how betrayed he’ll feel when it comes out that Neil isn’t Jackie at all, but a British soldier. (A patriotic Irishman to the core, Fergal has even less love for the British than he does for the IRA.) Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, as it spares the audience some excruciating discomfort), we never get to see his reaction to that revelation, as the story has moved in other directions by then.

Through Fergal, Neil is introduced to the McAuley clan and even accepted. When Neil hits it off with Liam’s pacifist daughter, Eilish (who shares her family’s cause, but not their methods), Randal orders him to use that connection to get close to Liam. Naturally, Neil develops strong feelings of his own for the passionate Eilish (a very appealing Clare Higgins). He starts to fall in love with her, a turn of events which regular viewers of this sort of drama will know can only end in tragedy. Yes, The Wolves Are Howling is ticking formulaic boxes, but it’s ticking them well.

Waterman is quite good as John Neil, imbuing his every action with enough of a haunted past that we really didn’t need the circus flashbacks. The score by Tim Souster is particularly effective, and melds well with the performances, the settings and the direction to create a suitably gloomy Irish feel. It’s the atmosphere more than the story that stuck with me after watching this, and it’s largely that same atmosphere that makes it feel more like a one-off drama than an entry in (or beginning to) a series.

There is a budget here, enough for convincing location filming and some small-scale military action including helicopters. But that doesn’t make The Wolves Are Howling an action movie. I was expecting action just based on that ex-SAS premise, since action is usually what that premise delivers. Neil himself only does one little bit of fighting, but in true SAS form, it’s a single, lighting-quick surprise move that kills in one blow. No, The Wolves Are Howling is a drama—and a very good one. The story beats aren’t new and the characters are familiar. But the performances are engaging, as is the overall bleak tenor of the piece. (It kind of reminded me of the Patrick McGoohan/Lee Van Cleef IRA drama The Hard Way, another deliberately paced drama whose identity comes from its tone rather than its familiar one-last-job assassin plot.)

Undercover dramas of this nature are inherently heartbreaking, because you know all along that the hero must betray all of the relationships he forms. And you can’t help feeling sorry for some of the people he’ll betray. While the IRA are clearly bad guys here, this telefilm doesn’t really take sides in the conflict. Instead, it questions the methods of both parties. And ultimately it lays the blame at the feet of the English for perpetuating the circle of violence—somewhat surprisingly for something made for British television. Yet just as Circles of Deceit: The Wolves Are Howling isn’t an action movie, it’s also not a political movie. It’s a character-driven drama, and one I found very compelling. While this movie works perfectly well as a standalone, I'm looking forward to seeing where this series—and the character of John Neil—goes from here.

New Spy DVDs Out Last Week

Once again, I'm running a week behind. (And now even more behind, since I started writing this article on Tuesday.) But that's okay, because as far as I know there's only one major spy releases out this week. Looking back to last week, however, we have a couple of big TV releases to talk about. But first, that one out today...

A Dandy in Aspic makes its Region 1 debut as an MOD title from Sony's Columbia Screen Classics by Request line. It's been available on a Region 2 DVD for some time, but since a regular North American DVD release never materialized, I'm not at all surprised to see it show up as an MOD title, following in the footsteps of The Deadly Affair. Actually, Columbia has been quite good about mining their spy titles for MOD! A Dandy in Aspic is kind of a tough nut to crack. It's got a brilliant premise... but I'm not convinced the movie totally pulls it off. (I've really got to read the book on of these days.) Maybe that's just because I've never warmed to Laurence Harvey as a leading man. I do like Tom Courtenay, however, but never found this to be one of his better spy roles. (His best is in Otley, which just so happens to also be available as a Columbia MOD disc!) At any rate, it's still got all the skulduggery one could ask for against some great Sixties European backdrops, so I think I'll celebrate this release by re-watching my R2 copy at least... Columbia's list price is $26.99, but it's available cheaper than that on Oldies.com and DeepDiscount.

Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe hit shelves last week on both DVD and Blu-ray, courtesy of Fox Home Entertainment. The first Burn Notice TV movie spin-off is a prequel starring Bruce Campbell that depicts Sam's final mission as a Navy SEAL prior to the events of the show.  As we've seen already this season, some of the events portrayed here (involving a pair of CIA agents Sam gets the better of) have already come back to bite Sam in the ass. Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe marks the first high-def Burn Notice release since Season Two of the show, which was poorly received on BD. This one should boast a much better transfer, as it was shot in HD. Both the BD and the DVD contain an extended cut of the telefilm running 108 minutes (instead of 89) and including scenes not seen on the USA television broadcast this past spring.  Extras include an audio commentary with Campbell, Jeffrey Donovan (the star of Burn Notice who directed this spin-off--and makes a cameo) and series creator/spin-off writer Matt Nix, a featurette called "The Fall of Jeffrey Donovan" (a tongue-in-cheek "Hearts of Darkness" style portrait of Donovan the director going mad in the jungle, which was unveiled at this year's Comic-Con), "Burn Notice at Comic-Con," the 2010 panel (which I'd expected to turn up on the Season Four DVDs), two deleted scenes and a gag reel. Obviously, this is a must-buy for Burn Notice fans and Campbell fans! Retail is$19.98 for the DVD and $24.99 for the Blu-ray; both are currently available cheaper on Amazon.

Wish Me Luck: Series 3 also saw release last week from Acorn, thus completing the DVD collection of this 1987-90 WWII spy show. Wish Me Luck follows the fact-based exploits of female agents of Britain's SOE behind enemy lines in occupied France. The final season sees the team assigned a crucial mission to pave the way for the D-Day invasion. Meanwhile, Jane Asher's Faith Ashley has replaced Julian Glover as the head of the team's London office, and begins her tenure by recruiting two new agents to man a Resistance stronghold in the French Alps, which provide a spectacular scenic backdrop as the suspense builds toward an emotional, action-packed finale. Retail for the 2-disc set is $39.99, though of course it's available for less than that on Amazon.

Catch the Hawk!
Upcoming Spy Screenings: Hudson Hawk in Los Angeles

I saw Bruce Willis's notorious bomb Hudson Hawk in the theater on opening night when I was in middle school. I liked it. I liked it then, and I still like it now, but given its reputation, I certainly never thought I'd ever see it in a theater again. But it turns out I can, and so can anyone else in the LA area on Thursday, July 14, when it will play at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica. At a 20th Anniversary screening, no less! (I can't believe it's been twenty years... but I guess it does seem a long time ago that I remember my friend Jim eloquently explaining the movie to our French teacher the following Monday with a summary so succinct they should use it in the TV guide: "It's the guy from Die Hard, but he's going bald.") Director Michael Lehman and writer Daniel Waters will be on hand for a discussion following the screening. Sadly, there's no mention of Willis in attendance, who co-concocted the story about a cat burglar caught between the mob and the CIA as he goes after incredible inventions of Leonardo DaVinci in a comically unhinged tale of espionage and alchemy. Derek Flint himself, the great James Coburn, out-grins and out-swaggers even Willis as the Panama hat-wearing leader of a team of CIA agents code-named after candy bars. There's even a very direct Flint reference more than half a decade before Austin Powers. Really, what's not to love?  Showtime is 7:30, and tickets are available through Fandango or at the theater box office. As usual with American Cinematheque events, I recommend the box office, because I can never make Fandango work for their movies; it's always saying shows are sold out when they're not.

Upcoming Spy DVDs: Wish Me Luck: Series 3

Acorn will release the third and final season of the 1987-90 WWII spy show Wish Me Luck on July 26.  Wish Me Luck follows the fact-based exploits of female agents of Britain's SOE behind enemy lines in occupied France. Here's Acorn's official copy:

While World War II rages, British women risk their lives as undercover agents in occupied France. As D-Day approaches, the team gets a critically important assignment: to help stage an uprising that will divert German resources from the landings in Normandy. Now heading the team’s London office, Faith Ashley (Jane Asher, A Voyage Round My Father) recruits two new agents to work in Le Crest, a Resistance stronghold in the French Alps.

Based on actual events in Vassieux-en-Vercors, a town in France famed for its acts of resistance during the German occupation, the final series of this gripping wartime drama features strong female characters, historical authenticity, and spectacular scenery. The suspense builds toward an emotional, action-packed finale. Also starring Shirley Henderson (Bridget Jones’s Diary), Jane Snowden (All Passion Spent), Kate Buffery (Trial & Retribution), Terrence Hardiman (Cadfael) as General Stuckler, and Michael J. Jackson (Doctors) as Resistance leader Kit Vanston.

Retail for the 2-disc set is $39.99, though it can be pre-ordered for less than that on Amazon.

New Spy DVDs Out This Week

Finally!  A substantial week of spy DVD releases!  It's been a while since we've had so many.  Which isn't to say that there haven't been any; it's just that there've been few enough during February and most of March that it's been very easy for me to let the demands of real life overcome my  best blogging impulses again and again.  I will soon do a recap post summarizing all of the spy and spy-related DVDs I've passed over in the last several weeks, but for now, here's the lowdown on the wide offering available today! As usual, you can help support the Double O Section by ordering through the provided Amazon links. (Thank you!)

Scarecrow and Mrs. King: The Complete Second Season

The highlight of the week's releases for me has to be Scarecrow and Mrs. King: The Complete Second Season. I've been eager to see more of this show ever since I finished the first season on DVD nearly a year ago (review here). Scarecrow and Mrs. King, which updated the spy-teamed-with-talented-amateur dynamic of The Avengers for America in the 1980s, was really the only bona fide hit spy series on American television during that decade. As The Avengers found bizarre espionage plots in the mundane and ordinary of 1960s Britain (milkmen, nurseries, butlers, cats), Scarecrow and Mrs. King explored such conspiracies hidden beneath the surface of Eighties suburbia (Avon ladies, Winnebegos, football). Again and again, secret agent Lee Stetson (Bruce Boxleitner) found himself facing a scenario that really called for the expertise of an "ordinary housewife," which was his queue to call upon his (not so talented at first) amateur sometime partner, Mrs. Amanda King (Kate Jackson), who was exactly that. But the series isn't purely romantic wish fulfillment for housewives. (And even that was not a new notion here; it was integral to the formula of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. two decades earlier.) It's a genuinely entertaining light spy adventure that should appeal to spy fans of all stripes - especially those with a fondness for Eighties TV. The suggested retail price is $39.98, but it's more than $10 cheaper on Amazon right now.

The Tourist

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's widely reviled attempt at a throwback to the light and easy tone of the glossy Hitchcock (and Hitchcockian) thrillers of the Fifties and Sixties comes to DVD, Blu-ray and DVD/Blu-ray Combo today courtesy of Sony. It didn't go over well with critics (or audiences, for the most part), but I have to say, I didn't hate The Tourist. In fact, while I can certainly see why others did, I found a lot to enjoy in it. It's not a particularly good movie, but it's a fun one for fans of that sort of fluffy entertainment with big stars in haute couture capering around beautiful, exotic European cities. Venice, in fact, is the real star of the film, and von Donnersmarck makes it look amazing. If you're a fan of the travelogue side of the spy genre, you might well be surprised. Furthermore, The Tourist marks Timothy Dalton's return to spying (more or less) as a chief Interpol agent, and that alone is worth the price of admission for fans of his 007. His part isn't very big, but stick with it, because he gets more screen time in the third act. In fact, he gets to go up against former Bond villain Steven Berkoff (Octopussy), which is pretty cool! Megastars Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie star alongside Dalton and Venice. Extras on the DVD include a commentary with von Donnersmarck, the featurettes "A Gala Affair" and "Bringing Glamour Back" and an outtake reel. The really interesting sounding featurettes, unfortunately, are reserved exclusively for the Blu-ray releases, which include all that other stuff as well as the additional featurettes "Canal Chats," "Action in Venice" and "Tourist Destination - Travel the Canals of Venice." Retail is $28.95 for the DVD, $34.95 for the BDand $38.96 for the combo, but of course you can find all three cheaper on Amazon and other sites.

The Ambassador: The Complete Series

I really don't know much about The Ambassador at all, but this late 90s British drama series seems to be more of a political thriller with spy overtones.  According to the copy for this BFS release of The Complete Series, "Pauline Collins (Shirley Valentine, Upstairs, Downstairs) stars as Britain's Ambassador to Dublin, Ireland, one of the country's most coveted - and potentially explosive - Embassy posts. Supported by her Commercial Attaché and MI-6 operative John Stone (Denis Lawson - Bleak House), Harriet uses both diplomatic skill and common sense to bravely face issues ranging from territorial disputes, kidnapping and cults to sabotage and murder. Continually under fire, the Ambassador treads a minefield of Anglo-Irish tensions as she strives to prevent her personal life from clashing with her professional career - and her duty to Britain." Lawson's MI-6 agent appears to be a main character, and his missions factor heavily in many of the episodes, whether he's ordered to engage in cover-ups on behalf of Her Majesty's Government or tasked with protecting Collins' titular Ambassador, Harriet Smith. Sounds worth checking out! SRP for the six-disc set is $54.98, though it can be found cheaper at various online retailers.

Bulman: The Complete First Series

Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond, we have another eagerly-awaited Region 2 ITV release from Network: Bulman: The Complete First Series. Don Henderson makes his third go-round as (now former) Detective Inspector George Bulman, following previous series The XYY Man and Strangers, in this mid-Eighties series that rejoins the eponymous hero after he's left the police force to set up shop as an antiques dealer/clock repairman... but soon finds himself drawn back into the London underworld and international espionage as a private investigator. Thorley Walters (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy) also reprises his Strangers role as Bulman's Secret Service contact, William Dugdale, who gets the wily ex-cop entwined with such spy staples as sabotage, subterfuge, defectors, conspiracies and of course a beautiful KGB assassin who uses ice bullets. Bulman: The Complete First Series, a four-disc Region 2 PAL DVD set, retails for £40.84, but can currently be had for just £35.74 from Network's website.

Upcoming Spy DVDs: Circles of Deceit

Acorn will release another obscure British spy series this May—this one from the Nineties. Circles of Deceit stars ITV mainstay Dennis Waterman (The Sweeny, Minder) and, as far as I can tell, consists of four TV movies made in 1995 and '96: Circle of Deception, Dark Secret, Kalon and Sleeping Dogs. Information on the series seems kind of scarce (and I've honestly never heard of it before now), so I'll let Acorn's copy do the speaking:

Former special-forces operative John Neil (Dennis Waterman, New Tricks, The Sweeney) remains on call for the brass at Britain’s security services. Whether taking on Irish terrorists, tracking down professional assassins, or pitting his wits against ruthless drug dealers, the ex-SAS man harbors no illusions about the work he’s doing--or the people he serves. He faces down deadly adversaries as well as devious bosses who keep him on a need-to-know basis, forcing Neil to rely on his instincts and his training in a world of betrayal, danger, and deceit.

Top British actors guest star in these four feature-length dramas, including Derek Jacobi (I, Claudius), John Hannah (The Mummy), Peter Vaughan (The Remains of the Day), Kate Buffery (Trial & Retribution), Clare Higgins (Silent Witness), and Leo McKern (Rumpole of the Bailey, [and The Prisoner, of course!]).

Cool!  I love it when spy things I've never heard of pop up on the horizon.  I didn't even realize that there were any of these ex-SAS/spy things that were such a staple of British broadcast and cinema in the Seventies and Eighties made in the Nineties.  I can't wait to see this! Circles of Deceit, a two-disc set, comes out on May 17. Retail is a steep $49.99, but it's currently available to pre-order on Amazon for substantially less.

New Spy DVDs Out Last Week: The Piglet Files: The Complete Series 1

There are so many new spy DVDs out this week that it will take me a while to get that post together.  In the meantime, here's last week's belated post.  The only major spy release of last week comes from the other side of the pond, where Network unleashed the early Nineties British spy-com The Piglet Files. In the tradition of Get Smart (but with a distinctly Britcom sensibility), The Piglet Files follows reluctant spy Peter Chapman (Nicholas Lyndhurst), who's sacked from his University teaching post so that he can be pressed into service for MI5... which he quickly discovers is staffed by incompetents and nincompoops. As the only one with any discernible brains to speak of, electronics expert Chapman becomes their de facto Q, supplying the agents with gadgets but often going into the field himself as well. All the while, he must keep his new double life a secret from his wife, Sarah. While it bends frequently to sitcom conventions, The Piglet Files is quite funny. Today it's also an interesting time capsule from that short period after the Cold War thawed when people briefly believed spies were no longer necessary. (That's one of the main humorous conceits of the show: the obsolescence of MI5!) While The Piglet Files has been available on Region 1 DVD before from BFS (it's currently out of print), Network's release of the first season marks its debut in the format in its native Britain. Network's Region 2 PAL DVD includes all seven first season episodes on one disc, with no special features. SRP is £13.27, but the disc can currently ordered from Network's website for just £8.16 and from Amazon.co.uk for just £7.99.

Upcoming Spy DVDs: An Englishman Abroad And A Question Of Attribution

Hot on the heels of announcing MI-5: Volume 8, the BBC America Shop Blog has also announced Alan Bennett's Cambridge Spies teleplays "An Englishman Abroad" and "A Question of Attribution" for release on Region 1 DVD in early spring of next year.  "An Englishman Abroad," filmed for television in 1983 and directed by John Schlesinger, follows English actress Coral Browne (playing herself) on a cultural exchange in Moscow where she meets a mysterious Englishman.  He turns out to be exiled double agent Guy Burgess, one of the notorious Cambridge Spies.  Bennett's play reimagines the real conversations they had on all sorts of subjects, exploring Burgess' extreme homesickness and his motives for betraying his country.  Charles Grey also appears.  Bennett's fascination with the Cambridge spy ring continued in "A Question of Attribution" (1991), also directed by Schlesinger.  In that play, James Fox plays Sir Anthony Blunt, who served as Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures even after his private confession of espionage.  "A Question of Attribution" imagines a conversation between the spy and the Queen (Fawlty Towers' Prunella Scales). Geoffrey Palmer (Tomorrow Never Dies) also appears.  These two plays and eight others were released on R2 DVD in Britain as Alan Bennett at the BBC; the same collection will be released here as An Englishman Abroad - The Alan Bennett Collection. And of course this announcement comes right after I imported the UK version! D'oh.

Tradecraft: Shawn Ryan Tackles Tom Clancy

Well, not literally, although that would be kind of fun to see. Trade blog The Vulture reports that Paramount has hired the mastermind behind what for my money was the best cop show ever to adapt Tom Clancy's 1994 novel Without Remorse. The Shield creator Shawn Ryan is the latest writer to take a stab at a movie the studio has wanted to make pretty much ever since the book was published.  (Am I crazy, or was a post-Forrest Gump, pre-TV Gary Sinese attached at one point?) Without Remorse follows Jack Ryan's "dark side" Mr. Clark (aka John Kelly) in his formative years during the Vietnam War on both a covert mission and a personal vendetta.  According to the blog, though, "there's no definitive plan to make the film a period piece."  I guess that would make sense, if the studio wants Clark to remain a contemporary of their new Jack Ryan, played by Chris Pine in Jack Bender's upcoming movie, but I think it could be really cool as a gritty 70s-set action movie.  Willem Dafoe played Mr. Clark in Clear and Present Danger (starring Harrison Ford as Jack Ryan) and Liev Schreiber played him opposite Ben Affleck's Ryan in The Sum of All Fears.

Upcoming Spy Screenings: True Lies In LA

Want the chance to see True Lies again on the big screen before it comes back to life as an ABC TV show next season?  Well, if you're in the greater Los Angeles area, then you're in luck. James Cameron's big-budget 1994 Arnold Schwarzenegger spy comedy will screen at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica on Saturday, October 16–and co-star Jamie Lee Curtis will be on hand for a Q&A after the film!  It's a Curtis double-bill with A Fish Called Wanda, which is first on the bill.  That starts at 7:30, so True Lies probably begins around 9:25 or so.  (Though I don't know why you'd want to skip A Fish Called Wanda if you're already heading out to the theater anyway...)  When it came out theatrically, True Lies served as a surrogate for anxious Bond fans during the long wait between Licence To Kill and GoldenEye; maybe it can accomplish the same feat now.

Tradecraft: ABC Books Cameron's True Lies TV Show

Earlier this week we learned that James Cameron was shopping around a new TV series based on his 1994 action romcom True Lies; today Deadline reports that ABC has snatched it up.  With Cameron attached to exec produce, it's not surprising that a network bit so quickly, nor is it surprising that the "premium deal" includes a "large penalty." That means that ABC will pay dearly if the project doesn't go to pilot or series, making it even more of a sure bet than it already was based on name recognition alone.  So this is actually happening!  Deadline points out that ABC hasn't had a significant spy series since J.J. Abrams' Alias went off the air.  Booking True Lies is obviously a direct challenge to Abrams' similarly themed spy show as marital comedy Undercovers, debuting next week on rival NBC.

Tradecraft: True Lies Lives Again

Deadline reports that James Cameron is reviving True Lies... but not in the long rumored (and long hoped for) sequel movie, but instead as a TV show.  I'm not quite sure why, since J.J. Abrams' new TV series Undercovers looks like it  deals with very similar themes (the similarity is no doubt what inspired Cameron to revive his own franchise).  Perhaps Cameron is banking on Undercovers flopping, or perhaps he just feels that his brand is strong enough to survive in a competitive marketplace.  I'm not sure if that's true without the presence of the original movie's star, Arnold Schwarzenegger, but I guess we'll see! 

I probably haven't seen True Lies since it first came out in 1994, but I've always had mixed feelings about it.  The action scenes were incredible, but rather than tiding me over in that long gap between Bond movies, they basically just made me long for the real thing.  The marital comedy aspects never quite gelled for me, but of course that's the story's selling point as both a film and a potential television series.  It's certainly regarded as one of the more successfull attempts at that difficult blend of action movie and romantic comedy, so I should probably revisit the film.  (I've actually been meaning to for a while; this news gives me the excuse.) 

The gimmick was that Arnold was a superspy, Harry Tasker, but had to keep that a secret from his wife, Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis), who thought he was a boring, nerdy computer salesman.  Helen sought escape in the arms of sleazy car salesman (Bill Paxton), who appealed to her sense of adventure by pretending that he was a spy. Harry eventually got wind of that, and set out to teach his wife a lesson.  (That's the part that never really worked for me.)  Eventually, she learns the truth and they both end up on a big, exciting mission.  As it ended, it looked like the couple would spy together in the future. 

If that's the direction that the TV series goes, then it would be very similar to Undercovers.  But perhaps Cameron and showrunner/executive producer Rene Echevarria (Castle) will instead revisit the concept at its inception, picking up with Harry as a spy deceiving his family?  Then it becomes more like Covert Affairs or the first season of Abrams' previous spy drama, Alias.  Or perhaps the short-lived My Own Worst Enemy.  There's no question that just about every variation on this concept has been tried a lot (Mr. and Mrs. Smith put the best spin on the material by having the married couple actually be rival agents, neither one knowing the truth about the other; that film was also developed as a TV series that sadly never made it past a pilot), but that doesn't mean that Cameron won't be the one to nail it once again.

I hope I don't come off sounding down on this news. I think it's exciting; I'm just trying to figure out how it will manage to standout in a very competitive environment.  Personally, I hope that Cameron ups the ante when it comes to the action.  The action scenes were the best part of the movie, and the big-budget, movie-scale action scenes made his previous TV foray, Dark Angel, stand out.  Based on the trailers for Undercovers, action also seems to be in relatively short supply on that series, which looks to focus more on the romantic plot.  I would definitely tune in each week to watch a weekly spy series with a James Cameron level of action! Owing to the involvement of the highest-grossing filmmaker twice-over, I have little doubt that this series will actually make it to the air.  Personally, though, I would rather see a movie sequel with Arnold Schwarzenegger, who will soon be looking for work.