"Noble House" (1988) TV mini-series

Director:

Gary Nelson

Writers:

Eric Bercovici (writer)
James Clavell (novel)

Release Date:

21 February 1988 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama

Plot:

Ian Struan Dunross is chairman of Struan & Co, the oldest and largest of the British-East Asia trading companies...

Plot Keywords:

Hong Kong | British Colonial | Communist Infiltrator | Spy | TV Mini-Series

Awards:

Nominated for Primetime Emmy. Another 1 nomination

Cast

Pierce Brosnan	...	Ian Dunross
Deborah Raffin	...	Casey Tcholok
Ben Masters	...	Linc Bartlett
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Keith Bonnard	...	Tip Tok-Toh
Tia Carrere	...	Venus Poon
Eric Chen	...	Hotel Consierge
Khigh Dhiegh	...	Four Finger Wu
Richard Durden	...	Paul Havergill
Denholm Elliott	...	Alastair Struan
Brian Fong	...	Goodweather Poon
John Fujioka	...	Baldhead Kin
Helen Funai	...	Mrs. Kwang
David Henry	...	Bruce Johnjohn
John Houseman	...	Sir Geoffrey Allison
George Innes	...	Alexej Travkin
Gordon Jackson	...	Supt. Armstrong
Nancy Kwan	...	Claudia Chen
Burt Kwouk	...	Philip Chen
Harris Laskaway
Steven Vincent Leigh	...	John Chen (as Steven Leigh)
Kay Tong Lim	...	Brian Kwok
Leon Lissek
Lisa Lu	...	Ah Tam
Choy-Ling Man	...	Mary Li
Pip Miller	...	Insp. John Smyth
Julia Nickson-Soul	...	Orlanda Ramos
Bennett Ohta	...	Richard Kwang
Edward Petherbridge	...	Jason Plumm
Duncan Preston	...	Pugmire
Nicholas Pryor
John Rhys-Davies	...	Quillan Gornt
David Shaughnessy		(as David Shaughnessy)
Michael Siberry	...	Linbar Struan
Dudley Sutton	...	Commissioner Roger Crosse
Damien Thomas	...	Lando Mata
Irene Tsu
John Van Dreelen	...	Jacques DeVille
Vincent Wong	...	Lim Chu
Ping Wu	...	Paul Choy
Ric Young	...	Tsu-Yan
Galen Yuen	...	Smallpox Kin

Also Known As:

James Clavell's Noble House

Runtime:

355 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Hong Kong, China

Company:

De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (DEG)

Trivia:

James Clavell, author of the novel "Noble House" is represented in that book by a writer named Marlowe. Marlow is not portrayed in the film, but his wife is - she's the pregnant woman who jumps off the burning restaurant with Linc Barlett.

Quotes:

Ian Dunross: [speaking to Lim Chu, who had disabled Quillan Gornt's brakes] If I want some foreign devil's brakes buggered, I will order it. The Noble House has always maintained its pre-eminence by holding more honor than its competitors.

Movie Connections:

Follows Tai-Pan (1986)

A creditable adaptation of a great novel

I still remember looking forward anxiously to seeing this miniseries when it first aired -- I had considered "Noble House" James Clavell's masterpiece, even greater than "Shogun." I had come away from reading the book with the sense of knowing the characters as if they were real people, and missing them when the book was finished.

In some cases, the characterizations in the miniseries hit the mark. Pierce Brosnan does an excellent job as the supremely self-confident Ian Dunross, John Rhys-Davies gives a truly inspired performance of charming villainy as Quillan Gornt, Burt Kwouk is very convincing as the compradore of the Noble House, and Gordon Jackson did a fine turn as the committed, conflicted Superintendent Armstrong. I also thought Julia Nickson Soul really heated up the screen; she was much better than a young Tia Carrere (in her pre-"Wayne's World" days).

Unfortunately, I thought the American performances were weak. Deborah Raffin was OK as K.C. Tcholok, but I would have preferred it if they had stuck to the story and not had her wind up romantically involved with Ian Dunross. The weakest in my opinion, though, was Ben Masters as Linc Bartlett. While Mr. Masters may be a good actor, I didn't think he carried this role off very well. In the book, Bartlett is a cool, calculating, and yet personable man who comes across as opportunistic but respectful of Hong Kong business and cultural traditions. Clavell wrote him as a friendly, likable man who moves easily into the circles of power in the Colony but who is an unknown, unpredictable quantity to all of the vying factions. I thought that Mr. Masters overplayed the part as too cocky, too brash, and too shallow to be a likable or sympathetic figure. In the novel, I thought Bartlett was an intriguing character on a par with Dunross. In the miniseries, I generally thought he was just a jerk.

That aside, while the miniseries has to trim a lot of the interesting sub-plots in the interest of time, it does a good job of remaining true to the spirit of Clavell's novel. I'd agree with the observation that you should watch the miniseries, then read the novel to see what the story was REALLY about.