A Murder of Quality ** (1991, Denholm Elliott, Joss Ackland, Glenda Jackson, Billie Whitelaw, David Threlfall, Ronald Pickup) – Classic Movie Review 9,661

George Smiley (Denholm Elliott) is asked by his wartime intelligence colleague, Ailsa Brimley (Glenda Jackson), to investigate a letter from a junior master’s wife at an English boys’ school, saying her husband is planning to kill her.

John le Carré’s 1962 novel (his second) finds holidaying spymaster George Smiley (Denholm Elliott) turning amateur sleuth in the 1950s to investigate the murder of a schoolmaster’s wife at a Dorset public school, Carne School. It also stars Glenda Jackson, Joss Ackland, Billie Whitelaw, David Threlfall and Ronald Pickup.

Director Gavin Millar’s 1991 made-for-TV feature film A Murder of Quality is a disappointingly straightforward murder mystery which this starry, handsome production (shot at le Carré’s old school of Sherborne, Dorset, England) cannot raise much above the ordinary. It is further disappointing that this George Smiley story unfolds outside the arena of espionage, the only one to do so. Indeed it is the only le Carré non-espionage novel.

However, the production and the quality cast are definite attractions, though, helping to make it acceptable, even enjoyable mystery thriller entertainment. With its 1950s period setting, it makes an an absorbing enough Agatha Christie-style TV murder mystery, though the cast are better and classier than the piece. The Sherborne School and town locations are a huge advantage, much and well used.

Especially good are Glenda Jackson as Smiley’s former wartime intelligence colleague Ailsa Brimley, who calls him in to investigate, Joss Ackland as school house master Terence Fielding, David Threlfall as teacher Stanley Rode, and Matthew Scurfield as local police Inspector Rigby. Poor Billie Whitelaw (virtually unrecognisable) has nothing to do as Mad Janie, and nor does Thorley Walters as the Bishop. Jackson could do with more to do, but when she’s on screen she commands with quiet authority and is a good foil and sidekick for Elliott, who keeps it intense, twinkly and quirky. This is hardly the Smiley we know, but it works well for this non-spy mystery.

Ailsa Brimley has received a mysterious letter from a junior master’s wife at the all-boy’s Carne School, among whose pupils is the devious Tim Perkins (Christian Bale), alleging that her husband is planning to kill her. But Smiley finds she has already been murdered, bludgeoned to death by a heavy mystery object, and her husband (David Threlfal) is the obvious prime suspect. 

It is a shame that there is an awkward musty smell of homophobia across the thing. Maybe this is unintentional, but it is there none the less. Le Carré certainly has a strange attitude to homosexuality, a bit attracted, a bit sneery. It is odd that in a story set in an all-boy’s school, le Carré has no interest in the pupils at all. The only student character with any significant role is Tim Perkins, and for all his screen time, the character is hardly more than a plot device.

Also in the cast are Diane Fletcher, Fiona Walker, Nick Reding, Michael Cochrane, Charles Pemberton, William Armstrong, Moray Watson, Helen Lindsay, Samantha Janus, Thorley Walters and John Grillo.

Elliott replaced Anthony Hopkins as Smiley after le Carré rewrote Hugh Whitemore’s original script, making changes that he did not like. Elliott was sought just three days before production was to start, but said no as he was living in Spain and returning to work in the UK would raise his tax bill. He was offered twice the fee to agree.

A Murder of Quality is directed by Gavin Miller, runs 102 minutes, is made by Portobello Films and Thames Television, is released by Thames Television and A&E channel, is written by John le Carré and Hugh Whitemore, is shot by Denis Crossan, is produced by Eric Abraham, is scored by Stanley Myers and is designed by Grant Hicks.

It was filmed on location at Sherborne School and in the town of Sherborne, Dorset, and at Shepperton Studios. Le Carré [David Cornwell] was born in Poole, Dorset. He was a member of MI6 when he wrote his first novel Call for the Dead (1961) in Hamburg, so he had to use a pseudonym. He used his schooldays in Sherborne and brief experience teaching at Eton for the setting of the A Murder of Quality novel.

Rupert Davies played Smiley in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965), James Mason in The Deadly Affair (1967) though he was renamed Charles Dobbs; and Alec Guinness in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979) and Smiley’s People (1982). Gary Oldman was the fifth actor to play Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011).

Denholm Elliott recalled: ‘I thought Alec Guinness was brilliant as Smiley. But I thought he was very, very dry. I decided to play him far more eccentric and with as much comedy as I could.’

RIP Moray Watson, who died on 2 May 2017, aged 88.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9661

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