Scoop
(British telefilm)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: C- Telefilm: C+
IN what
is supposed to be a spoof of early journalism, Scoop (1987) offers a fine cast that includes Donald Pleasence,
Michael Malone, Denholm Elliott, Nicola Pagett, Herbert Lom and Renée
Soutendijk, but is never really funny and almost seems afraid to push the
envelope. Based on Evelyn Waugh’s book
set in the early part of the 20th Century in England and involves
the wrong man (Maloney) sent to cover a war in a fake East African country,
when he is not even a news journalist.
Instead,
his specialty is wildlife, which may come in handy otherwise as he gets to
examine the pack of lies and deception, but it never develops any kind of
suspense either, so it teeters between the two as it tries its hardest to be
“quality television” first, which means it falls into the clichés of said TV
and the result is just plain odd. The
performances are good, but Gavin Millar’s directing never takes the material
where it could or should have. Just
having a newspaper called The Daily Beast should have been the take-off point
for such a thing, but Millar and the William Boyd teleplay plays it too safe
and the result is two hours of missed opportunity.
The full
frame color image looks like an older PAL transfer, though the work looks like
it may have actually originated on film.
Cinematographer Roger Pratt, B.S.C., handles the locations well, but
they do not forward the limits placed on the narrative. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is also average
and representative of the original TV mono, though likely is not first
generation, with Stanley Myers’ score not too impressive. The few extras are limited and text,
including a Waugh biography, the same coverage on Maloney and Elliott (which
seems lame as compared to what BFS usually offers) and quotes from Waugh. That makes this a curio at best.
- Nicholas Sheffo
