"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Selling Hitler: Episode 2 (1991)

 
Well, it turns out that Thomas isn’t quite the skeptic he purports himself to be.  Once Gerd has one of the forged diaries in hand, Thomas is positively beside himself with excitement.  The history buff in him is chomping at the bit to have his name attached to such a rare find.  It’s too bad he’ll just wind up having his name attached to a colossal failure.
 
In this episode, Gerd and Thomas are chiefly concerned with acquiring the cash for the diaries’ ever-increasing price tag.  They busily scintillate and schmooze men with sufficiently-deep pockets, inviting them to share in the secret.
 
There’s not enough focus on Thomas for me to have a great picture of him, but he’s entertaining enough.  He’s ambitious and excitable, and he clearly revels in the hush-hush nature of the whole affair.  He delightedly talks around the subject in unvetted company and drops winking hints of the “oh, if only I could tell you; just you wait” variety to his coworkers.
 
One amusing thing to note:  PC is in a few lengthy scenes with Manfred Fischer, Tom Baker’s character, in this episode.  However, most of his lines in them are off-camera and he’s only onscreen for a handful of brief reaction shots.  Now, I understand that it’s probably because he’s one of the less important characters in the scenes, but I like to think that PC just couldn’t contain his Whovian glee for more than a few seconds whenever he was in Tom Baker’s presence.    Can’t you just picture it, him standing out of frame grinning like David Tennant in “School Reunion”?

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