The House Of Eliott – Series One
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C Episodes: B
From Eileen Atkins and Jean Marsh, the famous actresses
who also created the legendary TV classic Upstairs, Downstairs and its
spin-off Thomas & Sarah (reviewed elsewhere on this site) returned
in 1991 with The House Of Eliott.
Two sisters (Louise Lombard and Stella Gonet) thought their lives were
secure, when their father passes away and they find there is not the fortune
they were expecting. What are these two
women in the 1920s to do? How about
starting a fashion house?
Thus the origin of the show’s title, which ran three
seasons, aka series in England. Acorn
has issued Series One and though it is a soap opera, it is of the same
high quality upscale caliber as the previous shows, all very entertaining. Off the bat, it is nice to see anything
about fashion that does not involve runways, clichés and egotistical
idiots. Since the current scene in the
field has become even gaudier, this is a show that has appreciated in value if
anything. It may not be the
deconstruction of Robert Altman’s underappreciated Ready To Wear (aka Pret
A Porter) made soon after this series, but is far from boring.
Though the cast consists of mostly unknowns, once you
start watching, it is hard to stop. The
idea of how to create such a fashion house, name and brand is very interesting
for the time. The sisters Evangeline
& Beatrice have to go through the learning curve, while avoiding poverty,
then a scandal that threatens to tarnish the family name that they have nothing
to do with. In that, they have to deal
with high society as they battle the odds and then have to compete against
other fashion houses all over the world.
The show never fetishizes the clothes, which are not the
point of the show to begin with, or it would be some specialized
documentary. Instead, we get a very
interesting world we have never seen much of before populated by
three-dimensional characters. Atkins
and March have a knack for this kind of story set-up and The House Of Eliott
is worth a good look.
The full frame 1.33 X 1 image is nice and clean from the
analog PAL video, with good color throughout.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 is stereo and is likely the original TV broadcast
audio. TV was going stereo beyond MTV
at this point and this sounds good throughout, including Jim Parker’s score and
clear dialogue. All the extras are on
DVD 1 and include production notes, a stills gallery, cast filmographies and
some text on 1920s fashions. That’s not
bad, but I want more extras next time.
Good show!
- Nicholas Sheffo
