Veteran British actor Ian Richardson passed away recently. I took the opportunity afforded by my monthly mail order video subscription (no brand names, comrades) to stage a private film festival of Richardson’s best-known work, the BBC series, “House of Cards.”
The 1991 miniseries focuses on a fictional Tory power struggle following Thatcher’s ouster, as Francis Urquhart, the diabolically unassuming Chief Whip, plots to destabilize the government and sabotage his competitors. The filmmakers give more than a nod and a wink to Shakespeare. Urquhart’s Lady MacBeth-like wife is played by Lady MacBeth, Diane Fletcher (from the Polanski version), and F.U. frequently addresses the audience directly, to share his plotting or just to raise an eyebrow. It’s Richardson’s performance that turns what could have been a cheap gag into a darkly comic and chilling tale. The entire enterprise is devilish fun, right up to the shock ending.
The filmmakers revived the series for two sequels which compare less favorably to the original, if only because grabbing power is more fun than merely preserving it. “To Play the King” is more inherently British than the other series. Not because it focuses on a battle between an idealistic king and a cynical Prime Minister, but because, unlike entertainment fare tailored for American audiences, the filmmakers feel no need to make any of their main characters particularly likable. After all, the idealistic king’s politicking in favor of social welfare spending is no less an abuse of power as the Prime Minister’s Machiavellian dirty tricks, and is more hypocritical. Unfortunately, the filmmakers rely too heavily on F.U.’s ability to order “black-ops” mischief as a lazy deus ex machina to tie up the loose strands of an unwieldy plot.
“The Final Cut” is a slight return to form, finding F.U. struggling vainly to remain in office longer than Thatcher. The toll of time is conveyed interestingly, as ten years in office and gallons of blood on his hands, F.U. is surrounded by a cabinet and advisors than contain no familiar faces from the previous series. As the sins of his past inexorably catch up to him, his wife cold-bloodedly calculates how to preserve his legacy and their retirement finances.
As our own American political system gears up for a succession battle, it strikes me that few of the candidates are incapable of the cartoonish evil of Ian Richardson’s portrayal, but that none of them are capable of the wit and charm that makes the make believe politics of the “House of Cards” series so watch-able.