Year Releaed: 2015
Directed by; edward Hall
Starring: Jessica Raine, David Walliams, James Fleet, Matthew Steer
(Not Rated, 2 series divided into 6 episodes 52-55 min. each)
Genre: Mystery and Suspense

“A secret Assassin. A missing girl. A communist plot. Tommy, we were born for this kind of thing.” Tuppence Beresford

The Thin Man, Mr. and Mrs. North, Hart to Hart, and Castle! America’s Partners in Crime. Now meet Tommy and Tuppence, the equally adorable Brit couple created by Agatha Christie.

But don’t expect this delightful version to stick to the straight and narrow. The two Christie novels brought to the screen, The Secret Adversary and M or N, actually take place in 1922 and 1941 respectively, but this series sets both films back-to-back in the early 50s with an emphasis on the Cold War politics in England.

That gives us plenty of atmosphere to keep up the steam, quite literally at times. Because it’s always more fun when it happens of a train. Whispered words of passion muffled by clacking wheels, narrow lovemaking in the upper birth, a grisly murder behind polished mahogany.

Or in this film version, a touch of Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes , but it’s not some fluffy old dame hardly anyone will miss, but a beautiful and exotic young thing.

And it’s Tuppence (a fabulous Jessica Raine) who notices her instead of her somewhat staid husband Tommy. Of course, some of the fun is Tommy’s steady nothing-is-wrong remarks interspersed with the real skullduggery happening to our exotic young thing as he speaks.

Another modern hook to the film is Tommy’s reduction to "the damsel in distress" of the partnership. But David Walliams, who plays Tommy, is okay with that. "I like that Tommy has to defer to her; that she is more intelligent and heroic than he is."

That subservient attitude, of course, follows the trend in mysteries with females equal or even dominant over the male as in Miss Fisher Mysteries, My Life is Murder, and especially in more recent seasons of Murdoch Mysteries . This avid Agatha Christie fan does remember Tommy as being less impetuous than Tuppence, but not as ineffectual as Tommy seems here.

He tries without success to run a bee business, neglecting even to read the book about it that he has purchased, and even his uncle (James Fleet), a big wig in British Military Intelligence, won’t hire him when Tommy comes to him hat in hand.

“You’re a stay at home man. You’re a slippers and papers man,” he tells Tommy.

Speaking of hat in hand, Tommy’s 50s style hats are superb. Very dandy and with a sufficiently worn look.

And while we are talking about 50s style wardrobe, we have to admit that Hitchcock also loved that elegant era, showcasing its exquisite gowns on his lovely leading ladies Grace Kelly, Kim Novak, or Eva Marie Saint.

Here is a n excellent feature about the 50s style Tuppence sports in Partners in Crime:

Fashion enthusiast will enjoy this thorough and charming review of the costumes from Partners in Crime, notably…

Albert Pemberton (Matthew Steer), who helps Tommy and Tuppence, is almost the perfect 1950s schoolteacher in his tweed jackets and tank tops. His wooden arm, replacing a hand blown off when he worked in bomb disposal during the war, hints at bravery and less scholarly talents.

As well as assorted Ne’er-do-wells:

Gangster boss Whittington wears a suit, but the lapels are a little too wide, it's all just slightly too showy. His equally unpleasant underling wears a rather nasty print shirt, and you can see his vest – clearly lacking in refinement. As for Whittington's fedora and raincoat combo, that's straight out of the Film Noir Book of Villains.

***

Yes, the characters and their clothes and style are great, but what about the plots? Agatha Christie purists may not like some substantial plot changes, but this sometime purist doesn’t mind. Maybe that’s because Partners in Crime and the various novels featuring Tommy and Tuppence seem a frothy soufflé and not the Beef Wellington and Yorkshire Pudding substantial fare of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.

In Different Drummer’s opinion a little fiddling with the somewhat forgettable Tommy and Tuppence plots is far from blasphemy.

Some critics complain of the lack of chemistry between the two on screen, but Tommy and Tuppence’s subtle passion recalls our earlier era when just a look of longing or a kiss meant so much more than the visual sexual gymnastics now featured so regularly on screen.

In particular, Tommy’s ardent reaction to Tuppence sporting a blond wig for an under cover assignment is delightful. What he and she don’t say says it all.

Take a break from the t endless dirge suggesting we march in lock step toward in a life devoid of freedom, and intimacy. Remember how it used to be and celebrate some frivolous fun with Tommy and Tuppence.

You won’t regret it.

–Kathy Borich
🥁🥁🥁🥁

Trailer

Film-Loving Foodie

Tuppence is a terrier. Once she gets a scent, she is on it. So even though Tommy’s uncle, Major Anthony Carter, a British Military Intelligence big wig, turns him down for spy works, somehow the duo stumble into the case on their own. And then Tommy’s uncle has to depend on them. Because, like it o not, Tommy and Tuppence do have a certain raw talent for unearthing buried secrets.

While impetuous Tuppence is usually the first to dive into the fray, Tommy quickly follows her lead.

Down dark alleys, into dank gambling halls, or even to Soho’s houses of ill repute, they both venture forth.

Finally, when Uncle Anthony reads them into the case at a tea time meeting, it is Tommy and Tuppence who hold back at least some of the crumbs they have stumbled upon..

But all 3 manage to finish their teacakes without leaving any. Crumbs, that is. Maybe it is because the teacakes are so delicious.

Ours are as delectable as they are easy. They are baked in a muffin cups, giving them a perfectly round shape.

Feel free to substitute chocolate for the pecan or walnut halves, or just add some to it. That’s how Albert Pemberton, their friendly bomb expert who is always starved, likes them.