Three Cases of Murder

2/8/2014

Shepperton’s Tricksy Trio. Eamonn Andrews is the link man for two tales of supernatural suspense and one murder mystery. In the first segment, titled In The Picture, an art gallery guide is lured into a macabre house painting by the artist and finds himself at the mercy of the residents who dwell there. In the second segment, titled You Killed Elizabeth, two friends fall in love with the same woman and when she is murdered it’s obvious one of them did it. But which one? The final segment, titled Lord Mountdrago, The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs ruins the career of an opponent in Parliament and finds the man appearing in his dreams enacting retribution. As is always the case with anthologies, the quality of stories is mixed, with here the middle section being the one th

8/29/2023

Alan Badel provides the thespian thread for these three stories and he is really quite effective. The middle one is more of a straightforward, manipulative, whodunit - with an interesting twist at the end; but the other two are worth a bit more comment. In the opener, his role is in a museum where he engages in conversation with an employee "Jarvis" (Hugh Pryse). He brings his new friend's attention to the fine detail of a painting which looks almost real. Of course it can't be - or can it? What lies behind that black wooden door and why might the candle in the window only seem to burn some of the time? The final instalment features a rather clever psychological drama with Orson Welles as the grandiose Foreign Secretary "Lord Mountdrago" who casually swats away a speech by Badel's opposing