dvd Father Brown V1

3* dvd "Father Brown" V1 1974 ( Kenneth More) is based on G.K. Chesterton stories. I recalled a big red book I liked, and didn't like short Incredulity or find any similarities, so more research needed to compare screenplays. Like Holmes' Watson, Brown has pal Flambeau.

The film age shows. DVD lacks extras, sub-titles, or translations. Color and sound vary from indoor, outside, and studio. The setting time shows. Costumes have male knicker pant lengths, long lady dresses for dinner, hats, clerical collars. Classes are distinct: aristocrat vs. servant.

Low-key, serious, solid country priest solves murder in run-down theatre, village hotel getaway, and visiting parish. The first is best, when we can choose the villain. The second also gives us many clues toward a final exposé, but hides the particular link. The third bogs down in the similarity of bees to wasps, and murder motivations. I think the cause is greed for wealth and status, not being misunderstood by parents and society.

The Actor and the Alibi depends on trapdoors in old pantomime stages, and the rehearsal being in plain-clothes for a (School for Scandal - hohum hokey melodrama) scene where an actress is behind a screen. The retired actor-owner, given a licentious reputation by gossip, is knifed in a locked room. His aging lead actress wife is wooed by a much younger rising star, and given sidelong snide sneers by her long-time dresser.

The Quick One was a fast drink served while the bar was closed, by whoever spiked the cherry brandy with poison. The victim fought for honesty, making too many enemies.

The Man with Two Beards starts with one inexplicable shooting of an unwary bee-keeper, then skips to a second by a jewel thief, where our hero tracks over the evidence trail, and finds duplicate disguises for the suspected retired slain thief. In a twist, we know the perpetrator; he unnecessarily admits his guilt by running away. I would delete the whole last scene of blather tea talk, the drawing room gathering explanation is traditional and sufficient.