Heat of the Sun Boxed Set (Private Lives / Hide in Plain Sight / The Sport of Kings)
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Akbar Kurtha, Jimmi Harkishin, Lawrence Simbarashe, Susannah Harker, Trevor EveBrand: Wgbh Wholesale
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 360 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-06-01
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: PBS
Movie Reviews of Heat of the Sun Boxed Set (Private Lives / Hide in Plain Sight / The Sport of Kings)
Movie Review: The Romance of Africa, When It Was Romantic
Summary: 5 Stars
"Heat of the Sun" (1999), is a British television series of crime dramas that unfold as police procedurals; it was made by Carlton TV and the American PBS (Public Broadcasting System) station WGBH (Boston). It was shown in the U.S. on public television's Masterpiece Mystery Theatre. The mystery series is set in the 1930's, between the wars, in Nairobi, Kenya, which was, at one time, a beautiful city in a beautiful country.
An idealistic -- perhaps unrealistically idealistic-- former Scotland Yard Detective Superintendent Albert Tyburn, (the handsome, sober and moody Trevor Eve,Waking the Dead - The Complete Season 1 and Pilot Episode) is sent to Nairobi to head a new criminal investigation unit; he had, back home, shot and killed a well-connected criminal of a particularly despicable sort, and was given a stark choice: Africa or the dole. Once in Africa, of course, he encounters an unusual number of murders. As he works to fight crime, he must also contend with the colonialist bigotry of the country's expatriate population. Eve's costar is the beautiful Susanna Harker, (Pride and Prejudice (Restored Edition)), playing Emma Fitzgerald, lovely local airplane owner/pilot. Michael Byrne plays the racist, royalty-worshipping Police Commissioner Ronald Burkitt. Sean Gallagher plays the as-outrageous-as-he-wants-to-be Chico DeVille. David Horovich is Doctor Emil Mueller. Cathryn Harrison is Charlotte Elliott. Fans of the series have waited a long, long time for the item to be released on DVD, but it finally has been. The box set contains the complete miniseries divided into three episodes on three disks. The episodes are:
"Private Lives." Emma's sister, Lady Daphne, has been killed; at first it is thought by a lion, which the locals are happy to blow to shreds. But then it becomes apparent that she has been murdered; to Burkitt's discomfort, evidently by a white.
"Hide in Plain Sight." In a plot that goes all over the place, it appears that local native girls are being brutalized, raped, killed, and disappeared. Odd things are happening at the local missionary station. The Prince of Wales is supposed to visit: Burkitt wants all the native prostitutes rounded up and jailed in his honor. Diana Quick (Brideshead Revisited (25th Anniversary Collector's Edition)) plays one of a pair of odd local "sisters" on a failing coffee plantation.
The failing coffee plantation, of course, should ring a bell: it's what the Danish author Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke, née Karen Christenze Dinesen, best known by her pen name Isak Dinesen, wrote about in her wonderful, famous book Out of Africa (Modern Library), which probably started the world's habit of dreaming of the romance of Africa. This habit was undoubtedly reinforced by Sydney Pollack's gorgeous, Oscar-winning movie of the same title,Out of Africa: 25th Anniversary (Blu-ray/DVD Combo) (1985) that starred Meryl Streep as Isak, Klaus Maria Brandauer as her husband Count Blixen, and Robert Redford as the glamourous British flyboy, Denys Finch Hatton, with whom she falls in love.
"The Sport of Kings." Joss Ackland,Queenie - (NTSC all regions), the South African villain du jour for at least a decade, stars as an immensely rich and powerful land owner who prides himself on his horses and beats a black stable boy to death.
By the late 1990's, we know, the romance of Africa was well-established in the public mind. The process had been helped by two more influential books, also set in the 1930s, and the movies based upon them, released in the 1980s. White Mischief, The Murder of Lord Erroll by the British journalist James Fox, was based on the true story of a murder that occurred in what was known as Happy Valley. That was an area within the White Mountains, which were known for their marvelous mild climate, where most of the ex-pats, remittance men all, whom their families were willing to pay to stay well away, settled. This was followed by the movie of the same title, (White Mischief (DE) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Germany ]) 1987), starring Joss Ackland, once again, as a millionaire superannuated lord who, in 1940, on the eve of World War II, takes his comely young wife, Greta Scacchi, to Happy Valley - where she finds the local ex-pats at play, and meets Charles Dance. Sarah Miles co-starred.
West with the Night, by Beryl Markham, a friend of Isak Dineson's. Beryl, a dashing female aviatrix, on whom Emma Fitzgerald was undoubtedly based, was a famous woman in her time, known for her aerial accomplishments and adventures. She had been raised in colonial East Africa by her father (as Fitzgerald is supposed to have been), hunted with the Maasai tribe, bred thoroughbred horses, also romanced Denys Finch-Hatton, defied constraining social rules, and finished her life as an African horse breeder and trainer. A television movie, now undeservedly buried in obscurity, called Shadow on the Sun [VHS](1988) was made of this material, starring Stefanie Powers, Claire Bloom, and Peter Bowles.
Many of the most important events in the series occur in the pink-walled Muthaiba Club. This too, reflects the reality of Africa as it was then: Markham and Dinesen both met Finch-Hatton at the famous Kifaru Club, on which it is based; and Markham got married there twice. The mini series also bears the proud hallmarks of British TV at the time, clothes and cars are spot on, and Emma's plane is a jazz age hoot.
It appears that this series was an original creation, not based on any book, though it was surely influenced by the three cited above. Occasionally, the mysteries are a bit much, but they are shot through with humor, and are certainly set in an interesting place and time. Africa looks beautiful. It seems obvious that the expense of location filming on that continent caused there to be only the first series. Never mind, if you dream of that continent in color, but can't afford a visit, this set is much more reasonably priced.
More Heat of the Sun Boxed Set (Private Lives / Hide in Plain Sight / The Sport of Kings) reviews:
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Summary of Heat of the Sun Boxed Set (Private Lives / Hide in Plain Sight / The Sport of Kings)
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