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By PAUL BRENNER
Perhaps no other work of pop culture burrows as deeply into the jagged depths of
the creative soul than Dennis Potter's groundbreaking 1986 BBC mini-series, now
presented in a three-disc set by Warner Home Video and BBC Home Video.
Potter's
painful autobiographical tale is a multi-layered fever dream alternating between
generic noir, childhood remembrance, hospital sitcom, and troubled
hallucination. Peppering the four interweaving strands are lip-synced popular
songs from the '30s and '40s, "banality with a beat," that serves as a Greek
chorus to the embattled psyche of the writer. And, as in Potter's "Pennies From
Heaven," the seemingly harmless tunes by Bing Crosby, The Inks Spots, The Mills
Brothers and others, are peeled away to reveal a bitter and cynic subtext in the
innocent tunes that after "The Singing Detective" render the songs unlistenable
in any other context.
Potter's fable concerns mean streeter Philip Marlow, a
dance hall crooner who is actually a private dick. But the noir potboiler
quickly becomes a divertissement after the story foundation turns out to be
writer Philip Marlow's debilitating stay in a hospital ward, overcoming a
crippling occurrence of full body psoriasis. It soon becomes apparent that the
detective story is merely one layer in the conflicting mental anguish of writer
Marlow (brilliantly played by Michael Gambon) as Marlow silently plots his
current life, his fictional story, and his troubled past. As any writer will
attest, this painful and anguished process of observation and distancing from
emotional reality takes a sad and hardy toll. And the triumph of "The Singing
Detective" is the clinical depiction of the mental trajectory of how a soulless
writer struggles with reality -- disease as a catalyst -- triumphantly regaining
his soul. Writing and creation is often a thankless and hateful task -- as
Marlow the detective remarks at one point "plenty of clues and no solutions."
Potter may not have solved the creative dilemma but the solution seems that to
regain your feelings and touch base in reality you may have to abandon your
creative drive.
Disc Three features a number of special features -- an excerpt from a British
program documenting viewer responses to "The Singing Detective," a documentary
on Potter, a photo gallery, a short interview with Potter commenting on "The
Singing Detective," and filmographies of the cast and crew. Director Jon Amiel
and producer Kenith Trodd provide audio commentary on all six episodes. |
