Murder at the Grange

Elderly sisters Cynthia and Agatha believe they're being terrorised by Agatha's former fiance, who also killed their father, the problem is, he's dead.

For a low budget b featurette, I thought it was a bit of fun. It's definitely static and very dialogue heavy, but it has a certain kitsch appeal. It's full of solutions, charter and rounded vowels.

The spinster sisters are good value, almost like something out of an Ealing comedy, best of all though, seeing Tod Slaughter chewing the scenery.

That ending, that was quite something, I don't think I've ever seen such a crazy solution, I didn't expect it.

Writer John Gilling certainly had a degree of pedigree, I've recently watched a film he wrote just a year after this called Recoil, I would really recommend it.

Good fun, 7/10.

How odd this thing seems, 55 years after its making.

It is a little detective yarn (presumably for TeeVee) made to appear as if it were made in 1933. Already that era was remembered brightly enough to be valued as a touchstone: solid mind entering perfidious situations with blinds and hidden schemes.

The production values, sets and era of the story are all from the 30s. Unfortunately, when you make something that appears old, you have only two choices. You can replicate it, but if you do, you have to match not what was, but what people recall of what was. And sometimes that is unattainable.

Or you can create something that has two layers, the recreated one and the "present," self- aware one. Almost everyone chooses this path because it is easier, more hip and allows for cleverness.

This project makes the first choice. And fails.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

In "Murder at the Grange", formerly "Death at the Festival", Tod Slaughter doesn't plays Terence Reilly (his character in both "King of the Underworld" and "Murder at Scotland Yard"), but his brother Patrick, also a master criminal. Patrick Reilly also appeared in other episodes of the series, along with his brother Terence. Most of the sources spell the name as "Riley" but it's erroneous; furthermore, one of the episodes is called REILLY AT BAY...

No, he doesn't orate to the balcony, nor go on about "she will be a bride! A bride of death!" or any of that that is the sort of thing you hire Slaughter for. He's a butler: a butler with a criminal past, as Patrick Barr knows. He's the detective called in on the case of a jilted lover who seems to have been killing off members of a family for the last fifty or so years. He has to come in from Australia, so he can only do it on holidays, I suppose.

It's an episode from the TV show "Inspector, Late Of Scotland Yard, Investigates." That is, I suppose, the short version of an even more long-winded title. It's appropriate for the episode, because it's all talk, talk, talk, in small sets. Sometimes they have two chairs, sometimes one chair and a wheel chair.

Very dull. Even Tod Slaughter is dull.

Murder at the Grange looks like a quota quickie short. It was meant to be an episode of an early 1950s television series featuring the character of Inspector Morley (Patrick Barr.)

He has been approached by an elderly spinster Cynthia with a curious story about her sister Agatha when she was younger.

Agatha was engaged to be married to Richard Parker but her father forbade it as he did not like him.

Parker left for Australia but apparently vowed revenge on the family. Cynthia believes that Parker has over the years had killed members of the family.

Inspector Morley visits their home and immediately recognises the shady butler Reilly as someone with a criminal record. Meanwhile he does not get much joy from the disabled Agatha who has hated everyone since she had to dump Parker.

This is a slow moving talky episode. Trying to find the whereabouts of Parker. Strange thing is despite there being another death. Morley had worked it all out much earlier.