"Ruth Rendell Mysteries" Master of the Moor: Part 1 (1994)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Marc Evans

Writers:

Trevor Preston (adaptation)
Trevor Preston (writer)

TV Series:

"Ruth Rendell Mysteries" (1988)

Original Air Date:

2 September 1994 (Season 7, Episode 1)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

Plot:

Stephen Whalby loves the moor. When a series of senseless murders of young women invades his beloved moor, he becomes intrigued...and a suspect. |

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel

Cast

Colin Firth	...	Stephen Whalby
B.J. McLagan	...	Young Stephen Whalby
Rachel Fielding	...	Painter on the Moor
Emma Croft	...	Lyn Whalby
John Michie	...	Nick
Sylvia Syms	...	Stephen's mother
Andy Greenhalgh	...	Landlord
Robert Urquhart	...	Dadda Whalby
George Costigan	...	Det. Insp. Manciple
Ingrid Lacey	...	Newspaper Reporter
Richard Graham	...	Moor Man
Hugh Downer	...	Young Peter
Jane Ellison	...	Botanist

Runtime:

UK:60 min (3 episodes)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

Blue Heaven Productions

Firth proves that he is THE "master of cinematography" with this one!

Out of the almost 16 movies that I have seen Colin Firth in since recently discovering the A&E production of "Pride and Prejudice," I have to say THIS is Colin Firth at his finest!

This film was before his Darcy days and before the entire world's female population fell head long into swoon-ville as he emerged from the lake with a sodden shirt, damp curly hair and a little-lost-boy look to Elizabeth Bennet.

However, after watching "The Master of the Moor" I was utterly amazed again at this man's talent to convey his emotions and feelings on screen so that the viewer forgets they are watching Colin Firth and sees the character, Stephen Whalby. They see all his internal hang-ups, family issues, and confusion. You experience something when Firth is on the screen that is not felt with other modern day actors and actresses.

From the beginning to the end, he looks like an intelligent lost boy who doesn't know what is happening to him and is very confused on the events taking place around him. However, in the last segment, from the moment that Det. Insp. Manciple (George Costigan) arrives on the scene again after playing a near psycho is the first two episodes, the movie takes a drastic switch that even I couldn't have foreseen – although I have to admit when I reached this segment, the clues confused me – and rightly so. It was one of the best switches I had seen in a long time.

The ending is another switch that wasn't as shocking as it would normally have been but was more artistically correct for the characters involved. (Will not share the secrets of what happened on the moor! You will never guess and have to experience the full measure of it yourself!)

I have to admit when first hearing the name "Master of the Moor," I was really hoping for a more Gothic-Jane-Eyre type movie with high boots, lord of the manor style, and dark mansions. After watching this movie, however, I have to say that it was the best movie of Firth's that I have seen so far.

Firth fans who have not seen "Master of the Moor," take my word for it. It is worth the trouble to gain a copy. This actor is phenomenal at portraying emotions by not doing or saying anything spectacular.

He is a REAL "master of the cinema."