Discussion Post: The Musgrave Ritual

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

It's discussion time! What did you think of The Musgrave Ritual, canon or the Granada version? As always, I've written up a few of my random thoughts and questions, which are behind the cut. Please add your own in the comments!



- The Musgrave Ritual is filled to the brim with Holmes and Watson goodness, giving us a delightful, detailed view into their rooms and their lives at Baker Street. The Persian slipper! The knife in the mantlepiece! The V.R. shot into the wall! Chemicals and experiments everywhere! Holmes really has a way of living in his home. Good thing he has such an accommodating companion in Watson, even if the doctor is a bit put-out from time to time.

- "You may remember... the affair of the Gloria Scott." We certainly do, Mister Holmes! This new chronological order for reading is working out nicely, I think. Looking forward to meeting Watson again for the first time next week in A Study in Scarlet!

- I love Reginald Musgrave a bit, stalking down his own hallway in his robe with a battleaxe in his hands. Holmes says he "dressed like a young man of fashion—he was always a bit of a dandy." My first thought went to The Kinks. ♫ And when he does his little rounds / 'Round the boutiques of London Town / Eagerly pursuing all the latest fads and trends / 'Cause he's a dedicated follower of fashion ♫

- Is Rachel guilty or not? I'm inclined to say no, because to me that best explains her complete shrieking hysteria the next day. She was keeping a hideous secret -- she betrayed her station, went with Brunton to steal the hidden treasure, and then watched him get hopelessly trapped in that tomb. She couldn't open it herself, and she couldn't ask for help lest her employer find out they were trying to rob him. Yes, that would drive someone quite mad, I'm sure. That's the theory I'm going with; you likely will have your own.

- Where is Rachel now? Did she really escape and leave England? Or is she as yet unfound in the water, as the Granada version suggests?

Two important things to know about the Granada episodes:

1. There are two Watsons we'll see over time. For the show, David Burke came first, but we're meeting Edward Hardwicke here first, watching in book chronological order. They are both excellent actors and their Watsons are perfect in their Watson-ness both. They are accurate and apt, but somewhat different, highlighting different pieces innate to the character.

2. Jeremy Brett sickened gradually over the course of the years filming these episodes, passing away not long after. Because we'll be watching them out of order, we'll be all over the place on his health. I think this may be better, honestly, because watching him decline steadily episode by episode can be quite sad.

Comments

[ennui-enigma.livejournal.com]

Personally felt that Granada did a great job of adapting this canon story to film. I was quite charmed by Watson's enthusiasm at a few days in the country and Holmes total adversion!

I have to go with Granada's version of Rachel's disappearance. Somehow she died shortly thereafter. I just can't imagine a mad woman going undetected and being able to manage her affairs abroad without help.

[hisietari.livejournal.com]

How could they cast such a good-looking actor for the part of Holmes?! My well-kept unemotionality regarding the character is already whining in a corner! =B

//too brain-boilt for sophisticated comment

[bwblack.livejournal.com]

What I particularly enjoyed about the Granada episode over the actual canon story was Musgrave talking about the hours they all spent searching as boys.

When I was reading it, I was all... Okay, but I would have paced those distances from every single spot on the grounds as a child. I would have been obsessed.

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

I felt the Granada version improved on some of the canon story, although I wasn't convinced about the oak being the one on the weather vane. I did like Holmes striding off counting the paces. And also when calculating the length of shadow cast by the elm and Watson's arithmetic letting him down.

I think I made a mistake by watching the Granada version before rereading the canon story. I think in future I shall try to do it the other way round.

[flawedamythyst.livejournal.com]

See, I did it that way round an enjoyed it because I could tell the bits they had lifted wholesale to be spoken by a character.

I have to say I really enjoyed how they made it a current case rather than an old one, and working in Watson was really well done. The actress playing the gamekeeper's daughter, who spent the whole thing lifting her skirt up and running across the lawn looking emotional, made me giggle, as well.

[azriona.livejournal.com]

I'm in the camp where Rachel drowned herself in the lake, be it for guilt or remorse or because she just went completely mad when she killed Brunton (and I'm not entirely sure it was accident or murder, either). But she was so hysterical and emotional, I can't see her just hightailing it to the Continent. Besides - how? Were there other jewels or coins in that box that she could have sold to use for funding, or did she have her own stash? Because I seriously doubt she was paid well enough to get over to Europe on her own.

Anyway, very curious what other people are thinking in terms of Rachel. (And I didn't see the Granada episode, so I'd like to hear about how she was portrayed in it compared to how she was in the story.)

[debriswoman]

I haven't seen the Granada version for some time. I like the details about the Baker Street appartment at the start of the tale, and agree that Rachel's fate is open to interpretation anyway (like so many aspects of canon!) An interesting glimpse of a younger Holmes.

Sunday, 26 August 2012

[livejournal.livejournal.com]

User thisprettywren referenced to your post from Sunday, 26 August 2012 (http://holmesian-news.livejournal.com/231456.html) saying: [...] by (Holmes, Watson | G | ACD) + Misc Discussion Post: The Musgrave Ritual [...]

[tweedisgood.livejournal.com]

Sorry I missed this, been away for the weekend.

They couldn't use an actual living tree, though, because in 300+ years any oak tree would have grown enough to throw the calculations out...oops, ACD.

spacemutineer,was your plan in future to have a separate Granada thread or keep on incorporating it in the discussion post?

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Oh quite. It would have been logical for the Cavaliers to have used an actual oak, since they expected someone to be looking for the treasure in a few years, which would have meant a small growth of tree, but not sufficient to have upset the calculation. As you say, oops ACD.

And the elm struck by lightening. Which must have been a better fate than had it lived and then died from Dutch elm disease.

[smoothe1.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes. Poor Janet Tregellis. When she isn't lifting her skirt for rolls in the hay, she's raising it to hurriedly flee from corpses.

It's nice to know I wasn't the only one who found a bit of comedy in the portrayal of her character.

[flawedamythyst.livejournal.com]

She was brilliant - it was the very last scene, when she found Rachel's body in the lake and immediately lifted skirts and pegged it across the lawn that made me giggle most. Poor girl.

[smoothe1.livejournal.com]

If you like the Granada adaptation of MUSG, you are not alone for this episode won an Edgar Award (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Award) from the Mystery Writers of America for Jeremy Paul's screenplay.

I miss that this episode didn't have Watson's list of Holmes peculiarities from the beginning of the canon story, but those are really not elements germane to the case itself (and I think some do show up elsewhere in the series). Overall I enjoyed this MUSG, as I think they expertly inserted Watson into the story without doing a injustice to the canon.

Hats off to those that decided to make watching the series part of the Sherlock60 experience. I have the complete Granada set on DVD and plan to watch along. I also will try to post some gems of info I found in the notes from the DVD set along with the book Bending the Willow (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1720047.Bending_the_Willow) by David Stuart Davies...plus other sources. Here are some fun facts for this episode:

GRANADA SERIES NOTES: The weather vane was substituted for the oak tree since the producers had a hard time finding the right selection of tress to follow the story.

Bending the Willow: gives another account of the tree change, mentioning it was done to get around the problem of the same oak tree remaining the same height for centuries. Perhaps both are true.

Where Have I Seen Him? The actor who played Reginald Musgrave is Michael Culver who, as Captain Needa (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Lorth_Needa), failed to capture the Millennium Falcon and is force-choked to death by Darth Vader.

[smoothe1.livejournal.com]

My apologies...I failed to mention that Captain Needa meets his fate in The Empire Strikes Back.

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

I'm open either way. My intent originally was to make separate threads with different comments in each. I posted this regular discussion and was preparing my Granada discussion post when I noticed that someone had already posted a comment about Granada here. I wasn't sure what to do at that point, so I just combined them.

What do you think? Separate could be better, or it could be pretty sparse over there.