The Murdoch Mysteries Movie Collection

"When did Murdoch Mysteries move from Toronto to Winnipeg", I asked myself when I first saw this TV movie collection. Of course, I had it backwards. These three movies came first! I don't know why the show moved East for the TV series, but for me it doesn't make a difference. I love the current Murdoch Mysteries series, and I love these three movies.That said, there is some difference in characterizations between the two versions. Peter Outerbridge, playing Detective William Murdoch in the movies, is more overtly conflicted and wan. Still intelligent, honest and tenacious, of course. I did not dislike Outerbridge's portrayal, it is a bit different from Yannick Bisson's more closed and more cheerful version in the TV series.Constable Crabtree is less a personality on his own in the movies, he just doesn't have the screen time. Inspector Brackenreid is marvelously portrayed in the movies by Colm Meany. Thomas Craig does a great job in the character in the TV series, but he is not as street-tough.Now for the similarities between the movies and the TV series. The happenings at both Station No. 4's still have a lot of comedy. Not quite as much in the movies, because Crabtree's character just isn't there to carry so much of the comedy that he does in the series. They still bicycle through the city. Those not fans of the police still call them Frogs. Murdoch still has his famous blackboard, of a sorts. Here he uses one of the station's walls! Brackenreid still has a bottle in the office. There is still a female pathologist, though any romantic notions just barely begin by the 3rd movie. Murdoch's Catholic faith is still strong, and there is still prejudice against Catholics. (This held for a lot longer than the turn-of-the-century. My family is Lutheran from farming country in Minnesota, and in the 50's was shocked when one of my aunts married a Catholic from another town).And, maybe best of all, the movies started the tradition of Murdoch inspecting NEW scientific ways to detect. As well as historical tidbits that are always interesting.These movies originally aired in 2004-5 in Canada. In this 3-disc set you get 3 movies totaling 269 minutes, or almost 4 1/2 hours of a very good show. The only DVD bonus extra is a one page 2004 list of credits to read.1. "Except the Dying". The middle of the night in a disreputable part of Winnipeg, a young woman's naked body is discovered in an alley. There's only one light on in the surrounding buildings, a 3rd floor flat in a boarding house with a sign in its window: "No Dogs or Cathlics". Murdoch interviews the women. Their occupation? Well, they're not going to say the obvious, so they give another part of the truth, "We sell gloves for Mr. Webster on Queen Street... Men's articles, mostly, if you get my meaning. The finest pigskin. There's no loss of feeling for the gents."When Murdoch returns to the alley, there is a woman sketching the body. After trying to shoo her away, he finds out that she is Dr. Ogden, acting for the coroner. This is the first time they meet. Dr. Ogden becomes one of Murdoch's few allies in trying to bring criminalistics, or modern forensics, to the department.Murdoch is under pressure on this investigation because this is the third of three bodies found, killed in the same manner.NEW: Mesmerism (hypnotism)2. "Poor Tom is Cold". 3 am, Constable Crabtree is looking for Constable Wicken. Sarge is worried because Wicken didn't check in at 2 am. Unfortunately, it's because Wicken is dead, shot through the head with a printed suicide note in his hat. There's only one problem for Murdoch - the path of the bullet and blood spatter don't match the position of the body. AND, when he gets back to the station, the finger print on the gun is not Wicken's. This gets him no where with Brackenreid: "Aw, for gawd's sake. Fingerprints! Is that what you've sunk to?"Some of this movie's comedy stems from Murdoch taking dancing lessons. Professor Otrantos is trying to show Murdoch how to lead, "It's called the gliding waltz, Mr. Murdoch. Glide!.... When I first saw you dance I think to myself, 'I would take this clumsy water buffalo, and make of him a gazelle'."Murdoch: "A gazelle? Really?"Otrantos: "Alas, I have failed."NEW Fingermarks (fingerprints)3. "Under the Dragon's Tail". Two underfed boys, Jim and Freddie, come down from their attic room to find their guardian, such as Dolly Capshaw was, dead on the floor. Her daughter, a deaf mute, keens over the body. Could it be an accidental injury from an alcoholic stumble?Madame Bernadette is perceptive as she mournfully tells Murdoch: "All of them dead bodies. You're surrounded by ghosts and they won't give you a moment's peace."This is an excellent movie. Morals. Morays. Judgement and Prejudice. You have to watch the 1st two movies first for the background. Then sit back and enjoy this story.NEW Graphanalysis, the comparison of handwriting samples in a scientific way. Don't confuse it with the pseudoscience Graphology, which is intuiting the writer's personality from handwriting.The last movie ends on a humorous scene that made me grin. A perfect ending to an enjoyable TV movie series.It is likely that you found the TV series first and then found the movies, but, just in case, here's a link to the latest (at the time I write this) season of the TV show: Murdoch Mysteries, Season 7 Happy Reader

I’ve seen the TV series with Yannick Bisson and I’ve read the first 4 books. The first episode of the TV series starts with no introduction of the characters, and is so unlike the books that I wanted to see what these were like. The Outerbridge movies are a kind of bridge from the books to the series. They follow the books more than the TV show does, but they also re-write the characters and veer from the original storylines. Most noticeable are Crabtree and Dr. Ogden. In the books, Crabtree is a huge man who practices against a horse to train for a tug-of-war match. A bodybuilder should be playing him. Dr. Ogden is in the 2nd book as a voice on the phone – one paragraph in 3 books – but here she’s the main coroner. Murdoch’s budding romance with the widow Enid Jones is gone. Movie one, Except the Dying, follows the book, tho not very closely. Some scenes are disjointed. The Kitchens are not well introduced. If I had not read the book, this scene would have seemed extraneous. The movie changes the character of Quinn. In the book he is likable and helps Murdoch apprehend the killer. In the movie he’s a stereotyped Irish rogue that’s embarrassing. Murdoch goes after the killer by himself. Movie two [which is book 3] is less authentic to the book. The book Poor Tom is as much about the dysfunctional Eakin family and Peg Eakin’s forced commitment to an asylum as it is about Murdoch. The movie is all about Murdoch. They added a second murder, and the ending was changed to a melodramatic fight between Murdoch and the murderer. This movie made me not want to watch the third, which is from book 2, but I finally forced myself to watch it. Under the Dragon’s Tail is not as bad as Poor Tom. It changes the book and melds Ettie [a prostitute from the first book] with Annie Brogan, a singer from the 2nd book. This movie starts to bring in the scientific detecting that makes the TV series interesting. They check for things like fingerprints and hair strands. The first and 3rd movies are OK to watch. Maybe I would have enjoyed them more if I had never read the books, but I found them disappointing. They have neither the raw narratives of the books, nor the innovation & humor of the TV series. They could have been so much better as a mini-series that took the time to probe the characters’ psychology as the books do.They do a good job of showing the dirt and poverty of the 19th century. Squeamish beware: you get a good look at the naked, dead girl in the opening scenes of the first movie.

I have a soft spot for mystery, murder myster that is, and it grows for those series based before all the technology came into play. This is a picnic for the eyes. These take you back in time when fingerprinting was just coming into play. I saw a review where somone really scolded them for showing a little nudity on episode one. Come on America, only we are the remaining prudes when it comes to something as simple as the human body. If you are over the age of 12 and male, and haven't seen the female body naked at some point, well you just need to turn life off and go back inside. As you watch each episode, you think you have the murderer figured out but bam! A different turn, a new clue, suddenly you find yourself guessing again. I wish they would have kept the original actors from this movie set for the running series now on t.v. Continuity would have been a great thing. I haven't watched any of the ones on t.v. now, the blue ray boxed set of seasons 1-4 is being released soon which I will buy. For the price, these can't be beat. They will draw you end and before you know it, sadly they are over. Buy this now!

Although the cast members are different to the TV series, the acting and portrayals are spot on.

great series

Love the series and wanted to see where it all began. Great to see the series characterisation is so aligned to these three original movies which did not disappoint.

L'ensemble de ces trois "inédits" constitue en quelque sorte "Le Pilote" de l'excellente série qui a été tournée quelques années plus tard avec Yannick Bisson. Ils ont inspirés et très certainement permis de mettre au point et perfectionner le concept des "enquêtes de William Murdoch" en tenant compte de ce qui pouvait plaire ou déplaire au spectateur et en faire ainsi une série de grande audience. Les trois histoires dépeignent avec beaucoup de réalisme une époque dans toute sa dureté et sa cruauté. Dans la série avec Yannick Bisson, ce qui pouvait être déplaisant ou vraiment choquer a été "gommé" voire "aseptisé" pour faire place à une ambiance plus sympathique et chaleureuse mais aussi des relations humaines plus riches entre les divers personnages. Quant aux personnages des "inédits", ils apparaissent moins charismatiques, parfois un peu ternes; l'inspecteur Murdoch ne semble pas vraiment s'intéresser aux innovations scientifiques pouvant aider à la résolution des crimes et que dire de l'inspecteur Brackenreid, joué par un acteur qui est l'antithèse de Thomas Craig. Autant ce dernier apparaît plein d'humour, volubile et souriant, celui des "inédits" apparaît plutôt comme un personnage antipathique. Seule, le docteur Ogden arrive à faire jeu égal avec celui joué par Hélène Joy.Ces trois téléfilms qui sont des adaptations des romans de Maureen Jennings restent très éloignés de l'adaptation qui a été tournée en série télé avec Yannick Bisson mais valent le détour et méritent d'être découverts car complémentaires avec la "grande série", ils servent de "comparatif."

These three adaptations of Except the Dying, Poor Tom Is Cold, and Under the Dragons Tail were so popular on Canadian Television, they spawned a new series entitled The Murdoch Mysteries, which was recently nominated for 14 Gemini Awards for its first season of 13 episodes.I highly recommend these three movies of the week with a stellar cast of Colm Meaney, Peter Outerbridge, Keely Hawes (MI5, Ashes to Ashes) and Flora Montgomery.