When A&E presented Ian Carmichael's five "Lord Peter" stories back in the 1990's, they cut about 10 minutes out of each of the 4 episodes, in each of the five stories. Outrageous! But of course, they had to have time for 18 minutes of commercials in each hour presentation. Now with the release of the complete BBC films in either VHS or DVD, you can see them all complete with about 52 minutes per episode. Plus there is a charming interview with Ian Carmichael, recorded in 2000. I don't think my remarks near the end of this piece is really a spoiler, but if you haven't seen the film, or known the novel, you might want to stop before the last paragraph, even though it doesn't expose the actual murderer.
The BBC has told Dorothy's story very faithfully and with little extrapolation or omission. Whether you like Ian Carmichael in the role, is likely a matter of taste. He doesn't look like my own visualisation of "Lord Peter", but he surely acts much as I have pictured "his lordship". Edward Petherbridge, in the 3 "Harriet Vane" related films made about 10 years after these 5, looks to me physically more like Dorothy's impossibly accomplished "rennaissance man". My, oh my! "Lord Peter" could spot the inferior 1908 Champagne just by smelling it, was a dead shot, even deadlier swordsman and jiu jitsu fighter, had muscles of steel, knew ancient Greek and Latin better than Socrates or Caesar, and wowed the ladies just by adjusting his monocle! (all but "Harriet" that is). Well, heck! I liked them both, but for different reasons.
I seem to be wandering a bit from a discussion of MURDER MUST ADVERTISE, but there are comments elsewhere better than mine. One point I would like to emphasise, though, is that in this novel, Dorothy was writing about a background she knew well: the advertising business. She was in fact probably still working for "Benson's" when she wrote this story. She knew little or nothing first hand about the aristocrats who make up many of her characters, but she surely knew people involved in advertising. She even put herself into MURDER MUST ADVERTISE as the character "Miss Meteyard". Note that "Miss Meteyard" seems to have developed quite a yen for "Death Bredon" as the story proceeds. There are those who say that Dorothy fell in love with her aristocratic sleuth and put herself into other novels as "Harriet Vane".
The BBC has told Dorothy's story very faithfully and with little extrapolation or omission. Whether you like Ian Carmichael in the role, is likely a matter of taste. He doesn't look like my own visualisation of "Lord Peter", but he surely acts much as I have pictured "his lordship". Edward Petherbridge, in the 3 "Harriet Vane" related films made about 10 years after these 5, looks to me physically more like Dorothy's impossibly accomplished "rennaissance man". My, oh my! "Lord Peter" could spot the inferior 1908 Champagne just by smelling it, was a dead shot, even deadlier swordsman and jiu jitsu fighter, had muscles of steel, knew ancient Greek and Latin better than Socrates or Caesar, and wowed the ladies just by adjusting his monocle! (all but "Harriet" that is). Well, heck! I liked them both, but for different reasons.
I seem to be wandering a bit from a discussion of MURDER MUST ADVERTISE, but there are comments elsewhere better than mine. One point I would like to emphasise, though, is that in this novel, Dorothy was writing about a background she knew well: the advertising business. She was in fact probably still working for "Benson's" when she wrote this story. She knew little or nothing first hand about the aristocrats who make up many of her characters, but she surely knew people involved in advertising. She even put herself into MURDER MUST ADVERTISE as the character "Miss Meteyard". Note that "Miss Meteyard" seems to have developed quite a yen for "Death Bredon" as the story proceeds. There are those who say that Dorothy fell in love with her aristocratic sleuth and put herself into other novels as "Harriet Vane".