FOYLE'S WAR

A LESSON IN MURDER

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 4 out of 5

Because of: brief partial nudity, violence

Rated:

Not all British young men are wholly behind the war effort, and many attempt unusual ways to dodge the draft. One "conscientious objector" refuses to fight because he's a pacifist. When he becomes vocally aggressive in the war office, he's dragged out by policemen who don't appreciate his point of view. Stripping him and hosing him off, they face an inquiry when the young man is found dead a few hours later, hanging by the neck in his prison cell. This unpleasant rumor of possible police brutality brings Christopher Foyle (Michael Kitchen) in to investigate. His concern for the judge who had the young man arrested leads him to the countryside and the unhappy Gascoigne family. The judge (Oliver Ford Davies) and his wife have taken in a London refugee in the form of a small boy to appease their daughter Susan (Sophia Myles).

Desiring to help the war effort, Susan's attempts to get through to Joe (Gregg Prentice) are largely unsuccessful. The township are not overly fond of Judge Gascoigne. The young man's widow, his pacifist but angered best friend, and Susan's forbidden lover Peter Buckingham (Elliot Cowan) all have reasons to hate him. When a brick with a threat tied to it is thrown through their window in the middle of the night, Foyle concludes it could have been any one of a number of people. His interest in the investigation brings him to the factory where Peter works. Designated a "government operation for manufacturing ammunitions," Foyle is convinced its purpose is more sinister. In the meantime his driver Sam (Honeysuckle Weeks) becomes friendly with Tony (Danny Dyer), an English-Italian waiter who works in his father's restaurant. He is considering enlisting and wants a "girl to write home to."

Italy has just given in to Hitler's advancing forces and this results in hostility towards Italian immigrants. Sergeant Milner (Anthony Howells) is sent as a bodyguard to Gascoigne but is dismissed when he is accused of being caught in a compromising position with Susan. It becomes very apparent that someone is out to kill the judge... and innocent people are harmed in the process. Eventually Foyle will be called in to investigate double murders, learn the truth behind the ammunitions factory, and uncover a shocking scandal. With as many red herrings as its predecessors, this episode of Foyle's War is slightly more unconventional than the rest but no less engaging. I had an inkling early on as to who was responsible for the murder and was proven right, but nevertheless his means of reaching the ultimate conclusion were worthy.

Aside from the first few minutes of this episode, which show a naked man being hosed off in the corner of his prison cell (frontal carefully obscured), the rest is free of offensive content. Susan is having a relationship with Peter but it doesn't imply anything sexual; they meet in the summer house and once her father "found them together," but the phrase could just as easily mean they were sitting together. Milner comforts Susan by putting his arm around her, and her father accuses him of "taking liberties." There is some mild profanity and abuse of deity. A brick is thrown through a window, and a building explodes when a wire is tripped. The diseased man's body is shown several times, as well as a flashback of his murderer shooting him at point-blank range (blood comes out of his mouth). Rioters in the street break windows and throw a flaming bottle inside a restaurant, sending it up in flames.

It was fun seeing Sam have a larger part in the story, giving the film a romantic edge. Her cheek and good nature well round out Foyle's dry humor. Milner also has a more significant role to play and some of his discussions with Susan are particularly thought-provoking. It was not easy to live through WWII, with the food rationing, prices on petrol going up, and hysteria that the Germans were to invade any day rampant in the city streets. A film like this manages to take the historical tension and weave it cleverly with a murder mystery. It does trip up on minor points (namely some of the accents in this episode are difficult to understand) but the flaws fail to override a solid story. The ending is might disturb more sensitive viewers since it reveals a darker side two two primary characters, but I loved it.