DVD Review: The Witness for the Prosecution (2016)

The Witness for the Prosecution
based on the short story by Agatha Christie (DVD Witness)

I’ve never seen the original 1957 film, Witness for the Prosecution, starring Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich and Charles Laughton, despite being a life-long fan of Agatha Christie. Both that film and this TV-movie, are based on a Dame Agatha short story, originally published as “Traitor’s Hands” in the UK in 1925, and subsequently reprinted under the more familiar title. Christie also adapted her story as a full-length stage play, which premiered in 1953. Billy Wilder and his creative partners adapted it again for the feature film, and it has been adapted several times for television in both the UK and US.

 

This 2016 was written by Sarah Phelps and directed by Julian Jerrold, and goes places the previous versions did not. Set in the early 1920s, the mystery revolves around the brutal murder of a socialite, ostensibly by Leonard Vole, a much younger man (a recent WWI veteran) who she had been using as a gigolo. Despite the victim’s maid’s assertions that Vole killed her, he says his “wife”, a dance-hall girl, can provide his alibi. Vole’s attorney takes the case to court, only to have the “wife” turn on Vole and provide testimony on behalf of the prosecution in the case. But there are still more twists and turns to come.

 

The performances in this teleplay version of The Witness for the Prosecution were superb, with great work from Kim Cattrall as the victim, Monica Dolan as the maid, and Andrea Riseborough as Romaine, the “wife”. Billy Howle as Vole was hit-or-miss. But the film’s real star is the diminutive Toby Jones as Vole’s desperate attorney, John Mayhew. The film-makers actually turned this into Mayhew’s story, more than those more central to the mystery itself. This is a double-edged sword — Peters easily carries the film as the main character, but if you’re a purest and wish to see an accurate and fair adaptation of Christie’s actual story, this misses the mark.

 

Production design is great, but I had serious issues with how dark and muddy the cinematographers chose to make everything — 2/3rds of the film seem murky and foggy, and I ended up being very frustrated — I wanted to see the actors’ expressions and most of the time that was difficult. Ultimately, I can only give this adaptation of The Witness for the Prosecution a 6 out of 10 on BookGuide’s rating scale — there’s lots to recommend it, but also lots to be annoyed with. Your mileage may vary.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the 2015 video adaptation of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, by the same production team.] [Also available in traditional print format.]

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this TV-movie ] | [ official BBC The Witness for the Prosecution web site ]

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you watched this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

 

Hey mystery fans! Don't miss this month's Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group discussion of the works of Elly Griffiths. The April 2021 Just Desserts meeting, tonight at 6:30 p.m. on Zoom. For more information, check out the Just Desserts schedule at https://lincolnlibraries.org/bookguide/book-groups/#justdesserts

DVD Review: Founding Fathers

Founding Fathers
[DVD 973.3 Fou Vol.1-4]

Here is a four-part miniseries from the History Channel broadcast in 2000 about the American Revolution, Volume One (one disc) and Volume Two (one disc). There are two episodes on each disc with each episode running approximately 50 minutes.

Narrated by Edward Herrmann this series follows the basic format we’ve come to know – actors reciting quotes along with faces of the subjects, newspapers, maps, and photos. A solid and interesting retelling of the characters and events leading up to the ratification of the US Constitution.

The first episode, “Rebels with a Cause” mostly covered Sam Adams and John Hancock though they are by no means the only topics discussed.

Episode Two, “Taking Liberties” focused on Patrick Henry and Benjamin Franklin.

Episode three, “You Say You Want a Revolution” discussed Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration of Independence, George Washington, his initial battles, Benjamin Franklin, and France. For Hamilton fans, there’s a short segment on him as well.

The fourth and final episode covered the constitutional convention, the creation of the US Constitution, and Washington’s presidency.

“We were very lucky we had a collection not only of genius and talent, but also of a disposition to use it for the public good and not to use it for the good of the men themselves. They did what they had to do and what they thought was right. And then they set up a system whereby the people would ultimately choose their leaders, and leaders would come and go but the system would remain.”

I enjoyed this series and plan to re-watch it. At 50-minutes per episode this was a quick history lesson. Be sure to get both volumes when checking out.

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this mini-series ]

Recommended by Charlotte M.
Bennett Martin Public Library – Public Services

Have you watched this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Hoopla Movie Review: Small Island

Small Island
(Hoopla)

Gritty and rosy at once, Small Island follows the lives of Hortense, an ambitious teacher from Jamaica, who dreams of an English house with a doorbell and a picket fence, and Queenie, a farm girl from Yorkshire, who dreams of travel and adventure, as they come of age and seek their happy-ever-after. The parallel and interconnected lives of the two women are told in scenes and flashbacks stitched together by a gentle narrator.

In the end, Queenie does the bravest thing, and so does Hortense, and their difficult choice — a sacrifice for both of them — leads to a moving happy-ever-after. Their hearts are strong and between them, they forge a way ahead…

This movie is about dreams and ambition and love and disappointment and…happiness. About stepping up to do brave things for those we love. The two women and the cast of friends, lovers, husbands share a moment in history when worlds converged, and from the bombed out rubble of Post War England dreams emerge.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the British series Call the Midwife, and Foyle’s War.] [Also available in traditional print format.]

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ official BBC Small Island web site ]

Recommended by Carrie K.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you watched this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

New Booklist on BookGuide: Westerns on Film and Television (a DVD booklist)

New DVD Booklist

We've had several requests recently from customers for a list of all the Western films and TV series that the libraries have on DVD. While searching in our online catalog will ultimately take you to most of the titles you'll find on this "Booklist", we thought we'd make it a little easier to find all these Westerns in one single location. Thus -- this "Westerns on Film and Television" DVD list was created. This is a "snapshot" of most (hopefully all) of the Westerns on DVD in the Lincoln City Libraries collection. As the descriptive information on the page indicates, there are also additional titles available only via our Hoopla digital service (not on DVD), which are not included on this DVD list.

Whether you're a fan of the classics -- the films of John Wayne, James Stewart and Clint Eastwood -- or more modern fare, or you want to revisit western series like Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., The Magnificent Seven, or more -- you'll find plenty to browse through in this list.

At the time this list was "published" on our website, all titles included were owned by the Lincoln City Libraries!

Check out the list of recommended viewing at the following link: 

Westerns on Film and Television (a DVD booklist)

DVD Review: And Then There Were None

And Then There Were None
[DVD And]

Having just reviewed the novel And Then There Were None for last month’s Staff Recommendations page, I finally got around to watching this 2015 TV 3-part mini-series adaptation of the novel, from the libraries’ DVD collection.

The Christie estate has been very proactive in the past few years about encouraging new adaptations, for film and/or TV, of Christie’s works. The novel, And Then There Were None, is the best-selling mystery novel in publishing history, with well over 100,000,000 copies in print, and is one of the top-ten best-selling novels of all time. It has been adapted, in both accurate and highly modified forms, numerous times over the years for film and TV, but the last such filmed version was in 1989. This 2015 made-for-TV version features an all-star cast of British film and TV performers, including Charles Dance (Rebecca) as Judge Wargrave, Aiden Turner (Poldark) as Philip Lombard, Toby Stephens as Dr. Armstrong, Burn Gorman (Torchwood) as Detective Blore and Miranda Richardson as Emily Brent. The novel has gone through several edits over the years, with changes made to both the title and some of the plot elements in the name of racial and cultural sensitivity. This mini-series adapts the most recent iteration of that novel, with the setting being Soldier Island, and the ten disappearing figurines being stylized soldiers.

The plot in a nutshell — ten diverse individuals with no apparent connection to each other, all accept mysterious invitations for a week at a remote island estate. Once they are all “trapped” on the island, with no means of leaving and no means of communicating with the mainland, they discover that they’ve all been lured there on false pretenses — a recorded message accuses each of them of being guilty of at least one murder, which they “got away with” without justice being served. Immediately, what was an usual situation becomes a highly-charged tense situation.

When one of the ten dies, under suspicious circumstances, then a second, possibly by accident, the remaining eight are on edge. When a third dies violently, and they discover that the ten carved soldier figures in the dining room are disappearing one-at-a-time, they realize they’ve all been brought to a death trap — and the killer may very well be one of themselves.

The production values in this are marvelous, including set decoration, costuming, etc. The sense of claustrophobia is well done. The performances are all fine, though a few seem “over the top”. Most of the major plot points remain in place, but extremely liberties have been taken with the plot of the novel, which I found very frustrating. The reasons for the guilt of a few of the trapped individuals have been radically altered. And the methods by which some of the island’s victims meet their ends are also dramatically different from the novel. Additionally, some unneeded changes were made to some of the characters and their relationships. All of which were totally unnecessary when dealing with one of the most famous works of fiction in the English language.

So…my review score is lower than I anticipated. I give the novel “10” but this mini-series only gets a “7”. The quality of the production is, sadly, offset by the changes made to the source material. It’s still worth watching for Christie fans and others, but it’s not a very loyal translation of her work to the screen. On the other hand, if you’ve never read the novel, you may love this sumptuous production. (But read the novel!)

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try And Then There Were None (also known as “Ten Little Indians”).]

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ official And Then There Were None page on the BBC web site ]

See Scott’s review of the novel And Then There Were None in the October 2019 Staff Recommendations

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you watched this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!