Recently I watched the Jeremy Brett & Edward Hardwicke version of THE MUSGRAVE RITUAL for the second time. THe first time was when it was shown in the U.S. originally in the 1980s, but now it was being repeated on channel 21 in New York on a Tuesday night. It holds up quite nicely, with a good cast including James Hazeldine as Brunton and Michael Culver (Roland Culver's son) as Sir Reginald Musgrave. The period style of clothing and furnishings and transportation help keep the story's realism alive.
Most people are aware of THE MUSGRAVE RITUAL from the Basil Rathbone - Nigel Bruce Universal film, SHERLOCK HOLMES FACES DEATH. Like all of them it has been brought up to the 1940s, and the war is involved in the background, but the basis of the story is the meaning of the ritual and what it entails. In the film it was expanded a bit (in a bit of rewriting) to have more value than what Holmes and Reginald Musgrave discover it means in the story. It also is the reason the villain in that film commits his murders.
SPOILER COMING UP:
The original story is Holmes telling Watson of an adventure of his prior to their meeting in 1881 in A STUDY IN SCARLET. In 1878 Holmes is visiting a friend from his university, Sir Reginald Musgrave. During the visit Holmes notices the extremely able butler in the Musgrave Manor, Brunton. But one day Holmes learns from Musgrave that he was forced to fire Brunton because he caught him going over personal family archive papers late at night in the Master's Study. Brunton manages to coax a week more at the job from Musgrave (so as not to lose face in front of the other servants). However both Musgrave and Holmes discover that the butler has disappeared. Brunton had a reputation of being a Lothario type, and one of the maid servants (Rachel Howells) is acting peculiarly. Soon she too is missing. Holmes asks Musgrave what Brunton was looking at, and the so-called "Ritual", an old family coming into title ceremony is read. Holmes notices that it seems to have meaning regarding movements and measurements around the estate. Using some calculations he and Musgrave follow it until they reach an ancient section of the Musgrave Manor, and find it leads to a cellar with a heavy stone door on top. They lift it, and find Brunton inside, dead from suffocation. They also find a bag of odd looking items that has been tossed in the pond on the estate. Gradually Holmes concludes that Brunton got Rachel to assist him in opening the cellar, and he handed her the bag of items, but she dropped the door on him in revenge for him trifling with her earlier. As for the items in the bag, Holmes in reciting the ritual's lines realizes the ritual refers to Charles I's execution, and that the bag's contents are the original crown of the Stuart monarchs.
Except in two differences the script sticks close to the story. As pointed out in the trivia on this production, Watson is included in the story itself - he is not just listening to Holmes retelling it. In fact, Holmes' use of cocaine is brought in when Watson silently watches Holmes shooting up when the Detective thinks he is alone. The other difference is that the maid (played by Johanna Kirby) is never seen again at the end of the story, but in the episode her body appears in the pond, an apparent suicide.
The actual story ended up in the verse play MURDER IN THE CATHEDRAL (about the killing of St. Thomas a'Becket) by T.S.Elliot, where he uses the opening words of the ritual ("Who had it? He who is gone. Who shall have it? He that will come!") in the play. Elliot was a keen fan of Conan Doyle, and would even spoof Professor Moriarty in OLD POSSUM'S BOOK OF PRACTICAL CATS as "McCavity".
The fate of the regalia of the Stuarts is known, but not quite as simple as the story has it. Charles I lost most of the royal regalia in a ship disaster in Scotland in the Civil Wars in that country, and attempts have been made to try to locate the site of that wreck. Only one other monarch's jewels is the subject of as much keen interest: King John's regalia and property were lost in a sudden flood that drowned many retainers of his in 1216 in a place in England on the channel known as "the Wash" It too has never been located.
21 out of 24 found this helpful.
Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink