Update of 83yearold mystery thriller ‘The Beast Must Die’ makes for gripping TV.
“The Beast Must Die” is one resilient, nasty piece of work.
Published 83 years ago, the highly entertaining source novel belonged to a series of mystery thrillers written by poet Cecil DayLewis, under the pen name Nicholas Blake. It was first adapted to the screen in Argentina in 1952, then in 1968 as an hourlong entry in a U.K. TV anthology series. A year later, the French iteration, released in the U.S. as “This Man Must Die,” came out, and it is still revered by film buffs as one of psychological suspense master Claude Chabrol’s finest works.
Now fans have a largescale Englishlanguage “Beast” production in the form of a sixpart British miniseries that begins streaming one episode per week on AMC+ starting Monday, July 5. (Each plays one week later on the AMC cable channel.) It’s updated to modern times and technologies, and informed by current thinking about trauma, race and gender.
Rest assured, though, this story remains plenty nasty. DayLewis (yes, actor Daniel’s father) came up with such a sophisticated yet primal tale of grief, deception and revenge that evolving sensibilities can’t repress its reptile allure. Not even serious changes to two of the main characters alter the narrative’s fundamentals, though one plays out more successfully than the other.
Cush Jumbo, best known for her role as Lucca Quinn on “The Good Wife”/ “Good Fight,” is calculating, heartbreaking and terrific as Frances Cairnes. She’s a widowed schoolteacher who was devastated further when her young son was killed by a hitandrun driver on the Isle of Wight.
In previous iterations the character was Frank Cairns, a male crime novelist. Their behaviors differ, obviously, but the agenda’s the same. Frances pretends to be a different person in order to find her son’s killer, and once she believes she’s located the culprit — George Rattery ( Jared Harris of “Chernobyl”), whose default settings are belittling, bullying and betraying — Frances insinuates herself into the wealthy islander’s household. This leads to many delectably fraught interactions with everyone in the family, but Harris and Jumbo’s suspicious circlings of one another are especially
expert faceoffs. Tense suspense, quickwitted feints, vulnerability and, sometimes, wry laughs all come out in these superb acting tangos.
Nigel Strangeways should be as watchable, but here you just want to get away from him. The character is actually the star of DayLewis’ book series, a gentleman private detective with a capable wife, Georgia — kind of a British Nick and Nora Charles. In the show, he is a single London police inspector who has just taken command of the holiday isle’s lackadaisical constabulary. He comes loaded with PTSD due to a partner’s tragic death, a pretty ridiculous ethical conflict and a generally glum, offputting manner.
Strangeways is played by Billy Howle, who always appears to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown in Netflix’s recent “The Serpent” series. “Beast” limits him to only two or three panic attacks per episode, and he’s actually quite good when not overacting. But this troubled cop is artificially burdened with too many issues, like the flawed heroes of “Perry Mason” or “Mare of Easttown” who seem to be taking over prestige cable shows.
The policeman’s melodrama excepted, series writer Gaby Chiappe (“Their Finest”) and director Dome Karukoski (also of the 2019 “Tolkien” biopic) do a decent job of building out the story. Emotional credibility is in generous supply while prejudices, though barely addressed, are all the more upsetting for their microinsinuation here.
The novel may have been formally innovative and written to amuse, the Chabrol film more wicked and less forgiving, but this “Beast Must Die” balances harsh judgment with empathy, an apt approach for these divided times.
It’s not a matter of which version is best as much as appreciation for a story sturdy enough to adapt to changing environments — as a good chameleon should.