The Moonstone (1996)

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins is one of the books I really enjoyed. His writing style is not difficult to read and I also happen to like detective stories. I was glad to be able to watch this movie version. It is said that The Moonstone is the first long detective story ever written, 20 years before Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote the famous Sherlock Holmes.

This 1996 movie version is great, with Greg Wise, Keeley Hawes, and Peter Vaughan (every time I see him, he plays a butler!); although the DVD's quality is very poor. (It's region 1). The beautiful Rachel inherits The Moonstone from her late uncle, who took the big beautiful diamond from a sacred Hindu temple in India during a war. Franklin Blake brings her the diamond and the two young people fall in love with each other. Rachel wears the Moonstone in a dinner party at her house. On the same night 3 Indian jugglers come, but they are turned away. The next morning, the diamond is gone. Who stole it and how? Rachel herself refuses to speak to the police. What turns out to be a practical joke has ruined the life of a young girl and almost ruins others, could it be the curse of the sacred stone? However, it all ends well.