Gosford Park is a Robert Altman film which was released in 2001. It is a murder mystery which is set at an English country manor in the early 1930's. The movie has a huge cast, but the main character is Mary MacEachran, an inexperienced ladies' maid working for the Countess of Trentham. The Countess is going to a shooting party being held at the country home- Gosford Park- of Sir William McCordle and his wife Lady Sylvia. The Countess (Constance) is an elderly relation of Lady Sylvia's- actually, almost all of the guests are some sort of relation to her. There is Isobel, the McCordle's ungainly, unhappy daughter, as well as Sylvia's sister Louisa and her husband Raymond, Lord Stockbridge. Sylvia's youngest sister Lady Lavinia is also on site with her husband Lt. Commander Anthony Meredith. There are a few guests who aren't related to Sylvia: the Honorable Freddie Nesbitt and his wife Mabel, as well Lord Rupert Standish and his friend Jeremy Blond. Also arriving for the party is matinee idol Ivor Novello who is a cousin to Sir William; he has brought with him an American film director named Morris Weissman. Downstairs, the cast is just as extensive. The Gosford Park staff includes Mr. Jennings, the stern butler and Mrs. Wilson the efficient housekeeper. There's also Mrs. Croft, the cook, Probert, Sir William's valet, and Elsie, the head housemaid. There are two footmen: George and Arthur; Lewis is Lady Sylvia's personal maid, and Dorothy is the still room maid. There are also a number of kitchen maids, housemaids, boot boys, etc. Visiting staff, in addition to Lady Trentham's maid Mary, includes Robert Parks, Lord Raymond's valet, Morris Weissman's valet Henry Denton, and Anthony's valet Barnes. Louisa's and Lavinia's maids Renee and Sarah are also in attendance, as well as an assortment of chauffeurs, etc. The house party gets underway and we begin to witness a number of personal dramas and intrigues playing out both upstairs and down. And then someone murders Sir William. With such an enormous amount of people in the house, it's nearly an impossible task for the police to figure out what happened, especially since no one is particularly interested in helping them. Almost everyone has something to hide, and a good few of them had reasons to wish Sir William dead. In part two of my summary, I'll break down the motives of the various characters but won't divulge who actually committed the murder.
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