Teresa Reviews “Nemesis” (1987): Murderous Mystery Tour

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Fidelity to text: 3 garottes.
There are a number of changes. Small ones include a few name changes, many dropped characters, and changing the time setting which matters more than you think. Large ones include entirely new characters (which worked) and changing Michael Rafiel a lot (which didn’t).

Quality of movie on its own: 4 garottes.
I liked it. That said, it helped enormously that I already knew the plot. Thus, I could follow along when the movie omitted critical information. 102 minutes is not a long running time. This is information that if the film had been just a few minutes longer, wouldn’t have been skipped. This is a real flaw because Bill had issues I didn’t, all stemming from not knowing what the heck was going on.

Movie producers should never make the mistake of assuming everyone in the audience read the book. The number of readers is vastly smaller than the number of TV watchers. If critical plot points are elided over, the nonreading audience will not understand, will not tell all their friends to watch this must-see TV, and will turn away and select something less challenging and more viewer-friendly.

Lionel Peel is a new character. He acts as Miss Marple’s legs in the film. He also takes over some of the tasks that Professor Wanstead performed in the novel. I could see why Lionel was added as he gave Miss Marple someone to talk to throughout the film, allowing the audience to follow her thought processes. He got kind of short shrift there at the end. It felt to me that the tour guide, Madge, (Mrs. Sandbourne in the novel) might be flirting with Lionel as a love interest but that potential plot thread came to nothing. Pity, I thought, since I enjoyed watching Madge in her perky uniform trying her darnedest to shepherd the tour group into keeping on track and on schedule. Lionel and Madge just seemed made for each other.

Another new character was Mrs. Brent (Nora Brent’s mother. Nora was a Broad in the novel. You should be able to guess why the scriptwriter changed her last name. This is a case where I won’t argue.) This was a deeply moving scene for me, when Professor Wanstead interviews Mrs. Brent. It’s been almost a decade since her Nora vanished and she’s still grieving. She is sure her daughter is dead since there’s been no contact for all those years but she doesn’t know.

Like the Joan Hickson version of The Body in the Library showcasing Pamela Reeve’s father, the scriptwriter emphasized what we so often don’t see in mysteries: the devastated family left behind. And they are devastated. It’s nice to see some attention paid to the fallout from a murder and not just on the puzzle the murder presents.

Michael Rafiel is devastated too and in more ways than one. He’s Jason Rafiel’s ne’er do well son and Verity Hunt’s lover. A problem I had with the novel and again with this adaptation is age differences. Mr. Rafiel looks to be about 80 when he dies (or more). Michael, on the other hand, is in his early thirties. So Jason Rafiel fathered a son at age 50? This is certainly possible with a hot young wife, a typical accessory for a business tycoon. But we’re never given details, either in the novel or in the adaptation about Mr. Rafiel’s wife. She’s dead and that’s all there is to it.

I get hung up on bus schedules. Time tables. Age discrepancies. This is one of those cases again where an astute scriptwriter can make changes I would agree with: they have the chance to clarify or fix a discrepancy in the original text.

Michael is presumed to have beaten and strangled Verity Hunt. In the novel, he’s imprisoned in a mental institution. In this adaptation, he’s a homeless bum, living on the street. We are shown what a nice guy he really is by the close relationship he has with his mongrel dog and by testimony from other homeless men about how Michael stands up for them.

Okay. Sure. I can buy that.

What I can’t buy was watching homeless, sleeping on the streets Michael in 1954 or thereabouts looking like he’d just shaved the night before. He was extremely attractive and well-groomed for a bum, with a very fashionable stubble. Nobody wrinkled their noses at him. The shaving was particularly noticeable since any man who doesn’t shave on a regular basis is going to grow a beard pretty darn quick. I watch my husband and our son go days or weeks without shaving and the beard and mustache shows up promptly. More time away from a razor and the beard and mustache get longer. And longer. And longer. That attractive, fashionable stubble requires regular maintenance with a razor.

Hollywood strikes again.

The fashionable stubble on our leading man was made even more obvious by the fact that all the other homeless bums had straggly, arrest-me thatches of facial hair cascading down their chests. Not our Michael. It’s quite clear that a shave, a wash, and a new suit will transform him into a gentleman and that is indeed what happens. This did not ring true to me, although everything else in Nemesis did.

I really enjoyed our tour guide, Madge. I enjoyed even more following along on the tour of England’s historic homes and gardens. Wow. Castles, stately manors, libraries that were several stories high, abbeys, huge gardens. Wow. Just wow. No wonder Miss Marple said yes to Mr. Rafiel’s crazy request to solve an unstated crime. She didn’t just earn 20,000 pounds and bring more justice into the world. She got an all-expenses paid tour of England!

I also liked the three sisters, living in their slowly decaying manor house. This was a building that would never be on England’s historic homes and gardens tour. Not enough history and too much dry rot and leaky roofs. The house perfectly reflects the characters of Clothilde Bradbury-Scott, Lavinia Bradbury-Scott Glynne, and Anthea Bradbury-Scott. If you’re up on your Greek mythology, you may notice certain similarities between the three sisters’ names and those of the Fates: Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. Their companion in mythology is, naturally, Nemesis, who delivers justice and exacts retribution for sin and crime.

There was so much to like about this film. The lawyers trying to administer Mr. Rafiel’s will. The mysterious young women on the tour who kept showing up at odd moments. The other tour members. The scenery. My God but the scenery. Wow.

There are also things to dislike. The movie was difficult to understand at times. Some of the actors couldn’t enunciate worth a damn or their quaint regional accent was thick enough to spread with a knife on toast. Subtitles would have helped.

What would have really helped was about ten more minutes to better explain why Verity Hunt was living with the weird sisters. The relationship between Miss Temple and Verity Hunt. Why Michael Rafiel, whom everyone in town was convinced was a murderer, was a homeless bum and not in jail. Why Mr. Rafiel waited until he was at death’s door to hire Miss Marple.

Heck, why did Mr. Rafiel give such cryptic instructions to Miss Marple? We’re told he liked puzzles and games and manipulating people, but even so. If you want justice done, you don’t make the challenge deliberately difficult.

But those are minor points. I enjoyed Nemesis and you probably will too. It’s a worthy addition to Agatha Christie film adaptations.

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