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Rating:  - DATED
I'm a huge fan of the English Murder/Mystery. I own many DVDs in the aforesaid genre. I bought a "Summer's Lease" thinking that I was getting yet another great English Murder/Mystery-after all Sir. John Gielgud had a leading role! WHAT could be better than that? I'm sorry to report that I was very disappointed in this entire presentation. The whole thing seemed very dated and unappealing to me. I think mainly because there wasn't one character I ended up caring one iota for; I didn't like one character NOT even the one portrayed by Sir John Gielgud.
Everyone on this board found Sir John's character enduring. I just found his character to be an annoying old feeble fart. My true feeling is that, at the time this was filmed, I'm afraid that (even as great of an actor as he was) Sir John was far too old to be playing this lecherous old man. He flubs many lines and is very hard to understand in many of the scenes. I've always found Sir John to be a marvelous actor; however NOT in this enterprise! Nevertheless, I found Molly as played by Susan Fleetwood to be the most irritating of all the characters.
For the entire film, Susan Fleetwood walks around, as Molly, with the stupidest grin on her face-at one point all I wanted to do was to slap her and to ask her if she was that stupid or just pretending to be that stupid? To me, she made the character of Molly just an annoying "harpy".
All of the reviews have talked of the gorgeous Italian scenery in the film. I'm afraid that the picture is so fuzzy that the scenery was hard to appreciate reflective, I'm sure of the technology of the day-it really look dated! Along with the aforesaid, the film has one of the most annoying sound tracts that I've heard (perhaps popular Italian music of the era??????)
Obviously, there are others that would disagree with the above; nevertheless, those are my feelings on this presentation.
Rating:  - Summer's Lease At Last!
I caught this mini-series on PBS in the 80's and I have never forgotten it. I have, in fact, longed to see it again so much that for years I searched the internet for copies of it and hassled the people at Scarecrow Video. At last, I saw that it was available and snatched it up as soon as I could. Not only was I NOT disappointed with the show, I was even more intrigued and enchanted by the mystery and the wit and of course the lucious scenery of the Tuscan villa and surrounding landscape. Its a wonderful blend of Italian and English sentiment and character. While waiting for this to be available I read the Mortimer novel on which it was based and even that paled in comparison to this production!
Rating: - THE BEST!!
I remember this mini-series on Masterpiece Theatre when it was shown in 1989. I loved the scenery (Italy/Tuscany) the terra cotta planter, the beautiful Tuscan architecture. Plus Sir John Gielgud was terrific as the "libidnous father" who weasles an invite to come along with the family. There's a plot, and of course, there's art: Piero della Francesco Renaissance artist, actually photographed in situ, and an almost documentary depiction of the Palia in Sienna. I studied in Tuscany some years later, and when I went to the town square in Sienna, I knew I'd seen it before (site of the Pallia). The dialogue is absolutely masterful at times. The author is the same as the one that wrote "Rumpole of the Bailey". (Sorry Senior moment--can't remember it--John Somebody.) The father/Gielgud at one time exclaims, "Oh! This coffee is as cold as chastity!."
I invited several of my girlfriends over to view this (yeah, it's a bonafide chick flick!!). We had vodka and caviar and then a cookout. Don't miss it!
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