*WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS*
Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense (known in the US as Fox Mystery Theatre) had some excellent episodes, some on a par with its predecessor Hammer House of Horror. Sadly, despite a very intriguing premise, The Corvini Inheritance is by far one of the weakest episodes. This is not the fault of the actors; lead performers David McCallum and Jan Francis do the best with the material they're given, but this is not enough to redeem a lacklustre script.
A major problem with the script is that the final twist, revealed right at the last moment, is far too obvious, almost from the very start. I would be surprised at any viewer who has not guessed the twist after the first ten minutes. And this brings me to the second major flaw: the characters are just far too unlikeable. David McCallum seems to be doing his best to bring out the humanity in his character of Frank Lane, extremely proficient at his job but seriously awkward and timid when it comes to human interactions, but ultimately the actions of the character are just far too creepy and suspicious from the start. There are all manner of red flags surrounding Frank, particularly the knowledge that he was far too possessive of his ex-wife, of whom Eva is apparently the spitting image, not to mention his habit of spying on all his neighbours' outside activities without ever once contemplating the ethical problems of such an activity, and how quick he is to become overhelpful and overly interested in Eva's stalker problem. Simply put, the man has 'deranged stalker' written all over him, making him particularly hard to sympathize with, and making anyone who actually does not guess the final twist look... well, really not that smart at all.
This could be helped somewhat if Eva were a likeable character, but if anything she's even more unlikeable than Frank, to the point you wonder why he's interested in her in the first place. She comes across as brash and overly standoffish from the start, and though she certainly has good cause to feel uncomfortable around Frank and spurn his romantic interest in her, she nonetheless leads him on by visiting his flat and allowing him to let her accompany him to his workplace to get away from the unsafety of her flat, before abruptly cutting off the friendship. Then when she gets a boyfriend, she goes for a man who if anything seems even creepier than Frank and even more lecherous and pushy in his advances on her, making her look cheap and shallow and extinguishing any sympathy we might have otherwise felt for her.
Then there's probably my biggest gripe of all with this episode, which only adds insult to injury given the aforementioned factors - the completely unnecessary addition of a paranormal element to the story. Although the episode is titled after the set of jewellery Frank is monitoring at work, the Corvini Inheritance itself is more of a subplot, taking second place to the plot of Frank supposedly tracking Eva's stalker, and it serves no purpose other than to add an annoying, contrived and completely pointless touch of the paranormal to a story that really does not call for invocation of the paranormal at all. Since Frank is clearly unhinged as is, there is no reason to believe he needs some ancient medieval family curse to bring out his obsessive nature and the eventual outcome of the story, and this aspect of the plot comes across as hopelessly cliched and unnecessary. Of course it's possible that the supposed paranormal activity Frank witnesses at work concerning the jewellery only takes place in his mind, which is my preferred interpretation, but either way it adds nothing to the overall plot or outcome.
And if the aforementioned subplot is unnecessary, the episode certainly seems to drag at times - while most of the HHOM&S episodes were initially written to be 50 minutes in length, they were expanded when the show was instead given a 75-minute time slot to allow a 'Movie of the Week' feel, resulting in some of them dragging unnecessarily, and that problem definitely shows here.
Ultimately, with the final outcome and subsequent twist, both of which we saw coming and are likely to shock no-one, the viewer is left completely unsurprised and empty, not helped by the fact the characters have been so unsympathetic that it's hard to care what happens to them at all.
The Corvini Inheritance definitely had an intriguing premise and there should have been a great story in there. Unfortunately it is executed so poorly and in such an uninspired manner that it ranks easily among the weakest of Hammer's 80s output.
Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense (known in the US as Fox Mystery Theatre) had some excellent episodes, some on a par with its predecessor Hammer House of Horror. Sadly, despite a very intriguing premise, The Corvini Inheritance is by far one of the weakest episodes. This is not the fault of the actors; lead performers David McCallum and Jan Francis do the best with the material they're given, but this is not enough to redeem a lacklustre script.
A major problem with the script is that the final twist, revealed right at the last moment, is far too obvious, almost from the very start. I would be surprised at any viewer who has not guessed the twist after the first ten minutes. And this brings me to the second major flaw: the characters are just far too unlikeable. David McCallum seems to be doing his best to bring out the humanity in his character of Frank Lane, extremely proficient at his job but seriously awkward and timid when it comes to human interactions, but ultimately the actions of the character are just far too creepy and suspicious from the start. There are all manner of red flags surrounding Frank, particularly the knowledge that he was far too possessive of his ex-wife, of whom Eva is apparently the spitting image, not to mention his habit of spying on all his neighbours' outside activities without ever once contemplating the ethical problems of such an activity, and how quick he is to become overhelpful and overly interested in Eva's stalker problem. Simply put, the man has 'deranged stalker' written all over him, making him particularly hard to sympathize with, and making anyone who actually does not guess the final twist look... well, really not that smart at all.
This could be helped somewhat if Eva were a likeable character, but if anything she's even more unlikeable than Frank, to the point you wonder why he's interested in her in the first place. She comes across as brash and overly standoffish from the start, and though she certainly has good cause to feel uncomfortable around Frank and spurn his romantic interest in her, she nonetheless leads him on by visiting his flat and allowing him to let her accompany him to his workplace to get away from the unsafety of her flat, before abruptly cutting off the friendship. Then when she gets a boyfriend, she goes for a man who if anything seems even creepier than Frank and even more lecherous and pushy in his advances on her, making her look cheap and shallow and extinguishing any sympathy we might have otherwise felt for her.
Then there's probably my biggest gripe of all with this episode, which only adds insult to injury given the aforementioned factors - the completely unnecessary addition of a paranormal element to the story. Although the episode is titled after the set of jewellery Frank is monitoring at work, the Corvini Inheritance itself is more of a subplot, taking second place to the plot of Frank supposedly tracking Eva's stalker, and it serves no purpose other than to add an annoying, contrived and completely pointless touch of the paranormal to a story that really does not call for invocation of the paranormal at all. Since Frank is clearly unhinged as is, there is no reason to believe he needs some ancient medieval family curse to bring out his obsessive nature and the eventual outcome of the story, and this aspect of the plot comes across as hopelessly cliched and unnecessary. Of course it's possible that the supposed paranormal activity Frank witnesses at work concerning the jewellery only takes place in his mind, which is my preferred interpretation, but either way it adds nothing to the overall plot or outcome.
And if the aforementioned subplot is unnecessary, the episode certainly seems to drag at times - while most of the HHOM&S episodes were initially written to be 50 minutes in length, they were expanded when the show was instead given a 75-minute time slot to allow a 'Movie of the Week' feel, resulting in some of them dragging unnecessarily, and that problem definitely shows here.
Ultimately, with the final outcome and subsequent twist, both of which we saw coming and are likely to shock no-one, the viewer is left completely unsurprised and empty, not helped by the fact the characters have been so unsympathetic that it's hard to care what happens to them at all.
The Corvini Inheritance definitely had an intriguing premise and there should have been a great story in there. Unfortunately it is executed so poorly and in such an uninspired manner that it ranks easily among the weakest of Hammer's 80s output.