The Cultured Criminal

A 19th-century Canadian murder case is dramatized in Florin Marksteiner's short period piece, which stars Mark Cowling as Reginald Birchall, a dissolute Englishman and Oxford-educated son of a cleric who moved to Ontario after selling off his inheritance to cover his gambling debts. In 1890, Birchall conned two men into entering a partnership and then killed one, Frederick Benwell (Paul Watson). Birchall apparently intended to slay the other man as well, but failed to carry out the plan. Tried for murder, Birchall was found guilty despite the absence of a confession and was hanged in November 1890. Marksteiner tells this lurid story in a series of short scenes marked by highly histrionic acting (mimicking silent-film convention, with extravagant gestures to complement the overwrought dialogue) and murky close-ups that often look as though they were shot on videotape. The end credits, during which all of the cast members—including Marksteiner, who plays the hangman—morph from their characters into their “real” personas, constitutes a considerable amount of the running-time. Quite frankly, the Birchall-Benwell case, although an international cause célèbre at the time, seems a rather tame affair in retrospect, and this affected retelling fails to make it interesting. DVD extras include a background featurette and a blooper reel. Not a necessary purchase. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)