
Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Murder and the Mozzarella
Season 3 Episode 3 | 56m 1sVideo has Closed Captions
The strangling of an old lady happens in her restaurant’s kitchen.
The strangling of an old lady in her restaurant’s kitchen signals the latest flare-up in a feud against a rival Italian eatery. But with organized crime involvement and grudges stretching back to the old country, this is no ordinary food fight.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries is presented by your local public television station.
Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Murder and the Mozzarella
Season 3 Episode 3 | 56m 1sVideo has Closed Captions
The strangling of an old lady in her restaurant’s kitchen signals the latest flare-up in a feud against a rival Italian eatery. But with organized crime involvement and grudges stretching back to the old country, this is no ordinary food fight.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
How to Watch Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries is available to stream on pbs.org and the free PBS App, available on iPhone, Apple TV, Android TV, Android smartphones, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Fire Tablet, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, and Vizio.
Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship("La Donna E Mobile") (Louisa shrieks) - [Louisa] Ah, no, no, no!
(Louisa screams in foreign language) ("La Donna E Mobile" continues) (Louisa screams in foreign language) ("La Donna E Mobile" continues) (upbeat jazzy music) (upbeat jazzy music continues) (upbeat jazzy music continues) (upbeat jazzy music continues) (upbeat jazzy music continues) (upbeat jazzy music continues) (serene organ music) - [Father O'Leary] And there are new rules you will need to abide by, new doctrines to accept.
- Ah, yes, amen, sir, Father.
- And are you willing and able and freely consenting to all that this conversion entails?
- I do.
I am.
Yes.
- It is a very solemn choice, not one to be taken lightly.
(door creaks) - Yes, Father.
Dot made that very clear when she made me come here, asked me to come.
(ominous music) - Father, Father!
Father, you must come quick.
It's Nonna Louisa.
I think that somebody kill her.
- Killed her?
Where is she?
- In the restaurant.
- Show me.
Show me!
Stay, Father.
- This is how I find her, like this.
- [Hugh] She's your mother?
- Mother-in-law.
(Guido speaks in foreign language) - Someone else was definitely here.
- And they left by the back door.
- You can see the bruises coming up.
- They definitely held her by the throat.
(Guido speaks in foreign language) Beg your pardon?
Did you just say Camorra?
- I say nothing.
- Father O'Leary has a telephone at the church.
I'll call Miss Fisher.
- No, Dotty, we have to call the Inspector.
- Let's call them both.
- But I'm telephoning the Inspector first.
- It's my church, Hugh.
I do the flowers.
You're not even confirmed.
Ladies first.
(upbeat jazzy music) - Excellent timing, Jack, although it's fair to say I did have a little private shuffle.
- [Jack] Miss Fisher.
- Inspector Robinson, this is a very bad business, very bad.
Please come.
- But then I wasn't sure if the marks on her neck were from bruises or livor mortis.
- Because she's face up, it's more likely to be bruising.
Trust your first instincts, Dot.
- Your nonna would like you to be strong like she was a strong, hmm.
- I'm Phryne Fisher, private detective.
I'm so sorry for your loss.
- Grazie.
Thank you, Miss Fisher.
- I was- - Guido, do you have any idea who might be behind this?
- Excuse me?
Those bastard put a fire in my restaurant, killed my wife, and you're asking me who do this to Nonna Louisa?
- Perhaps we could have a more private chat.
Constable, if you could take a statement.
- You know it will do no good, just like before.
- I'll take care of it, Guido, please.
- Jack, I can't help feeling I'm missing half of this conversation.
- And I'm happy to keep it that way, Miss Fisher.
- What do you think that was about?
- The man did say something earlier.
It was an Italian word.
Hugh seemed to know what it meant.
It was cam something, cam- - Camorra?
- That's the word, yes.
- It's a very old Italian secret society.
- Is that like a social club?
- It's a little more dangerous than your average social club.
- Jack!
You didn't think I'd be frightened off by the Camorra, did you?
- No, I knew you'd be drawn to it like a moth to a flame.
That's why I'm keeping you out of it.
You have no idea how ruthless these people can be.
(Marianna speaks in foreign language) - (sighs) Pappa, we're gonna have to turn customers away tonight.
- Of all the times.
- It's the Festival of the Madonna, isn't it?
- Yes, that's tonight.
It's the biggest night of the year.
People come from everywhere to eat Nonna's food.
This year, she was to make a special dish, one she not make before- - [Friend] Guido.
- La strati dell'arcobaleno.
- [Friend] Guido!
- Uh, scusa.
- I've seen you before at church.
- Dorothy Williams.
Miss Fisher and I- - Work together.
Why don't you let us help?
- Thank you.
Thank you.
Poor Nonna.
This will be the end of our restaurant.
- You don't cook yourself, Marianna?
- Not like Nonna.
The dishes she cooked came from the old country, special traditional dishes.
I helped her prepare them, that's all.
- Were you helping her today?
- Nonna had sent me on an errand.
We were out of butter.
If I had been here- - [Dorothy] You might be with your nonna now.
- Your father won't say a word, but if you know who did this- - I know.
We all know.
It's no mystery.
- [Guido] Marianna, enough.
- You have to speak up!
Somebody has to do something or nothing will change!
- Don't worry, Miss Fisher.
Something will be done.
- [Marianna] But Pappa!
- [Guido] I'm going out.
- Pappa, no, please!
- Do you know where he's going?
Your father has a gun and he's gonna get himself into serious trouble unless I can stop him.
Where?
- There's been a feud with another restaurant.
- The name.
- Strano's.
(upbeat music) - Ciao, Jack.
Good to see you.
Concetta.
- Si.
(Vincenzo speaks in foreign language) (Concetta speaks in foreign language) - Concetta.
(speaks in foreign language) - So early tonight, but your table is always waiting.
Let me take your coat.
See, I know what you like.
- How have you been, Concetta?
- Every day, it gets a little easier.
- I need to ask some questions.
- This is why you come here tonight, not to see me but to ask questions.
- Have you heard about Nonna Louisa?
- How long you've been coming here, Jack?
You know us.
You know we hate the Carbone family.
So something happens, you come straight here.
Who would you think did it, my father, my brother?
Vincenzo.
- Si.
(Concetta speaks in foreign language) Hi.
- Johnny wants to ask you a question about the Carbone woman.
- Hmm, that family.
Whatever happens to them, they deserve.
Who make my sister widow, huh?
You know, Jack, the Carbones did that, but you, you not catch killer.
- Vincenzo.
- Si.
(Concetta speaks in foreign language) (Vincenzo speaks in foreign language) - Jack, be careful, he's got a gun!
- You would kill Nonna Louisa?
(speaks in foreign language) You tell everybody here what you done.
(Vincenzo speaks in foreign language) You kill Nonna Louisa!
- Guido, please, this is only making things worse.
- No, how can it be worse, huh?
My restaurant is finished.
(speaks in foreign language) - Give me the gun.
- No.
Who's next, huh?
Your sister?
My daughter?
This feud is gonna end, Inspector, and I'm gonna end it.
- [Jack] No!
(gunshot blasts) (crowd screams) (Vincenzo speaks in foreign language) - You, to the station with me now!
- He killed Nonna Louisa, you arrest me?
- I told you I'd take care of this!
- I can see how you take care, eat with them, drink with them!
- Everyone will be questioned, Guido.
Vincenzo, you too, to the station.
Go, go.
- Everybody, it's nothing.
(Antonio speaks in foreign language) - That pazzo tries to shoot me and I'm the criminal.
- The Carbones are being dealt with.
- Guido should be charged, and not just for this, but for what he did to Fabrizi.
- Who's Fabrizi?
- My sister's husband, gunned down in cold blood.
And for what?
Ask Guido who shot him.
- Where were you this afternoon, Mr. Strano?
- I went to the pictures.
- Can anyone confirm that?
- (scoffs) Why don't you ask Al Johnson, eh?
It was just me and him and a few hundred other people.
(speaks in foreign language) Eh.
- Do you believe him?
- Well, if he murdered Nonna Louisa, I'm surprised he didn't work out a better alibi.
You can see why last year's investigation didn't get very far.
- How did this whole mess start?
- As far as I can tell, a man named Fabrizi tried to burn down Carbone's restaurant.
- And did Fabrizi have links to the Camorra?
- A week later, he was gunned down in plain sight of at least 10 witnesses, but none of them saw a thing.
- And this Fabrizi, he was the husband of the woman at the restaurant, the one who was, um, brushing down your jacket?
- Concetta.
- She seemed to know you quite well.
- She's an old friend.
I believe that's a term I've heard used.
(Vincenzo screams in foreign language) (Guido screams in foreign language) (Vincenzo screams in foreign language) (Guido screams in foreign language) (Vincenzo and Guido scream in foreign language) - Stop, enough, both of you!
(Phryne speaks in foreign language) - They were saying something about an incident at the docks.
If I'm not mistaken, whatever happened at the docks started this whole feud.
- It's okay, it's okay.
- Pappa!
- I'm fine, I'm fine.
- No thanks to you and your family!
This is all your fault!
- See, they blame us again, huh.
(Guido screams in foreign language) (Vincenzo screams in foreign language) (Vincenzo and Guido scream in foreign language) - Enough!
Now here's what we're gonna do.
Constable Collins is gonna write up the firearm charges and keep them on his desk.
If I hear so much as a peep out of you, the charges are lodged.
- Hmm.
- Then the licensing bureau pays a visit to your restaurant to investigate the serving of alcohol after six p.m. - Please, Inspector, we can settle this outside.
- No, no, no, I'll settle it.
For now, I'm calling a truce.
(serene organ music) - [Father O'Leary] Now, did you read the pamphlet?
- [Hugh] I've been rather busy at work, Father, but yes, I have read it.
- And did you understand it?
Do you have any questions?
- Just, just one.
On this page where it talks about the Catholic family- - Yes, the family is very important to our faith.
- Yes, but it says here, "A wife must, in all things, obey her husband."
- [Father O'Leary] Yes.
- That's not a mistake?
- No.
That is one of the central tenets to our church's teachings.
After all, Eve was created from Adam's rib in order to serve him.
Do you have a different view, young man?
- Oh, no, no, Father.
I like that view.
In fact, Catholicism has a lot more going for it than I first thought.
- Buona sera.
Welcome to Strano's, Miss- - Fisher.
- Fisher.
- I'm afraid there was no time for introductions earlier.
(Concetta speaks in foreign language) - Please, come in, join us.
We usually eat after all the customers have gone.
Please sit.
Help yourself.
Vino?
Sit.
You were wanting something?
- Everyone is talking about the feud between your two families, but there is one thing that no one will talk about.
- What's that?
- The Camorra.
Was your husband a member?
- I knew nothing about his business.
Seems I didn't know him at all.
Wives are not for talking to.
My grandfather arranged the match.
I stepped off the boat a week before the wedding.
I did not choose my husband, Miss Fisher, but I was a good wife.
Salute.
- Salute.
- You are a friend of Johnny's.
Jack.
- A friend, yes.
- Hmm.
- And you?
- Si.
He tried very hard to find who killed my husband, but it is not easy.
And since then, he has dinner here many, many nights.
- He must like the food.
- He must.
Try some, please.
- Ladies.
I can sit down?
- Of course.
- Si.
- Grazie, grazie.
Signorina, please eat, eat.
Look at you, all skin and bone.
(chuckles) - Pappa, he cooks everything.
His father was chef, and his father's father.
(speaks in foreign language) - Mm, squisito.
- Ah, you like, you like.
Good, good, good.
That is a real cooking, huh.
Not like the old woman.
Her style is casalinga.
(speaks in foreign language) - Housewife cooking.
- Eh, brava, brava.
- I understand she was preparing a special dish for the Festival of the Madonna.
- Ah, special dish, yeah.
You want me to tell you about the special dish?
It's strati dell'arcobaleno.
You know how I know?
Because that is a recipe from my grandfather's recipe book.
That is a Strano dish from his recipe book which she stole many years before.
- Then why would she prepare the dish now?
- To cause trouble.
Why else?
- Well, it worked.
(ominous music) (ominous music continues) (ominous music continues) (ominous music continues) (ominous music continues) (ominous music continues) (ominous music continues) (ominous music continues) (lock clicks) (ominous music continues) (object thuds) (Phryne gasps) (suspenseful music) (attacker grunts) (Phryne grunts) (attacker grunts) (Phryne grunts) (attacker grunts) Guido.
Are you all right?
- I'm okay.
- Miss Fisher.
It's a good to thing you are handy with a knife.
- If I were a little handier, he wouldn't have gotten away.
Did you recognize him?
- If he was not one of the Stranos, he was one of their friends.
Thank you.
- What do you suppose he was doing here?
- I could ask you the same thing.
- I was looking for something.
- What do you look for you can't knock the door and ask me?
- Well, I wasn't sure you would give me the answer.
The dish that Nonna Louisa was making, the strati dell'arcobaleno, do you know where she'd get the recipe?
- Si.
She make everything from her memory.
- But the Strano seem to think that she stole it from an old family recipe book, and I can't help thinking that might be true.
- My Nonna Louisa, she was a woman of many secrets but one secret I know about.
Look.
- No recipe book?
- No, it's of the old country.
(soft melancholy music) - Was this her daughter, your wife?
- Si.
- I'm sorry.
- Eh.
My father used to say there is no future in the past.
- Nonna Louisa made a withdrawal of 77 pounds two days ago.
Do you have any idea why?
- Like I said before, Nonna was a woman of many secrets, like all you women.
You hungry?
I fix you something.
- I've already had two dinners.
- Two.
Oh, look.
I can see you are still wearing dessert.
Mm.
(speaks in foreign language) - It seems a pity to waste it.
Hmm.
- I find some more.
- Oh.
- Oh, no, no, no.
Please, allow me.
This must be what heaven taste like.
- Well, if it doesn't, I'm not going.
But then I might not be given the option.
Hmm.
I didn't know you drank coffee, Jack.
- Would you like me to make a full confession?
- No, thank you.
I prefer a never-ending source of mystery.
- Come in, Johnny.
Pappa is awake now.
- Concetta, this is Miss Fisher.
- Si.
We talked last night.
- Did you now?
- Buon giorno, Jack.
Have you eaten?
- Buon giorno.
We won't stay long.
I just need to see Vincenzo.
- Miss Fisher, would you like some bread and some meats?
- Oh, tempted.
- No, please.
- I'm afraid I'm gonna have to ask you to roll up your sleeves.
- What for?
- Someone broke into Nonna Louisa's restaurant last night.
Whoever it is has a knife wound to their upper arm.
- Fine.
Apology accept.
- Me too?
- [Jack] Si.
- Uno.
E due.
- Scusi, there must be some misunderstanding.
- Hmm.
A lot of things about you I don't understand anymore, Jack.
Maybe it's better you find some other family to- - Vincenzo, calma.
(pensive music) - You came back to the restaurant last night.
- I had a few questions for Concetta.
- Did you get the answers you were looking for?
- Too early to say.
When you say old friend, do you mean old friend like Dr. Mac, or old friend like Captain Compton?
- Oh, Concetta Strano hasn't saved my life from a burning plane wreck in Madagascar if that's what you mean.
Can I give you a lift?
- No, thank you.
I having an appointment at the docks.
- Nosing around.
- Don't worry, Jack.
If I find anything, you will be the first to know.
- No, I'll be the last.
I'm more concerned about you getting in too deep.
- Who, me?
- Look, these people have been killing each other for generations.
- I'll be careful.
I'll be careful.
Promise me you'll be careful too.
(ship horn blasts) - I thought I was dealing with you two clowns.
Who's she?
- I'm the one who's paying.
So if you have anything to say, now would be the time.
- [Bert] Did you hear anything or didn't you?
- All I know is there was some dodgy business going on with 'em Itis a year ago.
- Keep talking.
The meter's running.
- They were bringing in tinned tomatoes.
- Tomatoes?
That doesn't sound particularly lucrative.
- It depends how many tomatoes we're talking about now, doesn't it?
But a year ago, someone turns the tables, dumps half the bloody shipment of the things in the drink, and the Itis went off their nuts, tried to burn down a restaurant, killed someone.
Now is that what you wanted to hear?
(ominous music) (gunshots blast) (suspenseful music) - Get him out of here!
- [Bert] Come on.
Let's go.
(Mick grunts) - Come any closer and I'll shoot!
- You would shoot an unarmed man?
What kind of a lady are you?
- This kind!
(gunshots blast) - [Roberto] Come on.
(gunshots blast) - [Jack] Where is this dock worker now?
- [Bert] Royal Melbourne Hospital.
- As soon as I get the bullet out, Mick reckons he's moving to Fremantle.
- It's a wise decision.
- And nobody saw who shot him.
- But if I had a guess, I'd say it was the main man.
- Description?
- Wiry bugger, fancy mustache.
- Big scar running down the side of his face.
- Roberto Salvatore.
It was only a matter of time before he turned up.
- You know him.
- He's Camorristi, one of the higher ranks.
I suspect he ordered Concetta's husband, Fabrizi, to burn down Nonna Louisa's restaurant.
- And I'm guessing he had an alibi for that.
- Several.
- Well, at least we know how this whole thing began.
- We do?
- Tomatoes.
- Three people have been murdered over tomatoes.
- Well, it's either tomatoes or an ancient recipe.
You take your pick.
- They're Camorra.
They force every restaurant in town to buy from them, top price.
If you don't buy, you have accident.
- So you decided to sabotage a shipment.
- No, no, you don't understand.
- We understand completely.
The Camorra were threatening you, and so you decided to fight back.
Bravely, I might add.
- I like that you think like this.
But no, it was not me.
It was Nonna Louisa.
She was not the sweet old lady she pretend to be.
If you push her, she pushed back.
- Poison mushrooms?
- Death caps as far as I can tell.
- What about the marks on her throat?
- Well, I have no doubt that she was attacked, but that wasn't what killed her.
- There were mushrooms in the dish she was preparing.
- That is where it gets interesting.
I've tested the contents.
Those mushrooms were not poisonous.
- So she was killed by different mushrooms?
- Ones that she would have eaten earlier.
They don't kill you instantly.
- So her attacker and her poisoner could have been two different people.
- Or one person doing an extraordinarily thorough job.
- She'd collect the mushrooms herself from the banks of the Merri Creek.
- Could she have made a mistake?
- No, she was an expert.
Unless she wasn't wearing her glasses.
- I'm surprised you could see anything at all through these.
- She didn't like wearing them.
- Did your father get along with your grandmother?
- Not always.
She blamed him for my mother's death.
It made no sense.
- Yesterday afternoon, your nonna was alone in the kitchen, your father was at the market, and you were?
- At the dairy, buying butter.
- But there's plenty of butter in your kitchen, and I could tell from the color that it's been there for days.
Not all of your family hate the Stranos, do they, Marianna?
- I don't know what you mean.
- Oh, I think you do.
I noticed something at the police station last night.
You were worried about your father, but he wasn't the only man you were worried about, was he?
- It's okay, I'm fine.
- [Phryne] You're in love with Vincenzo.
- If my father finds out or Vincenzo's family, they would rather kill us than see us happy.
- But if you weren't at the dairy, then where were you?
- Vincenzo took me to the pictures.
It's the only chance we have to see each other.
My ticket.
Please, you can't tell them.
You don't know what it's like to love someone and know that you can never have them.
- Marianna, she told you?
- Not as such.
- Nonna Louisa found out.
Is that why you went around there?
- No.
We were at the picture theater.
- So you say.
- Please.
If Pappa finds out- - Then you need to tell us what you know about Nonna Louisa's death.
- I know nothing.
- But you know about the Camorra.
- There is no Camorra.
It's like a myth, a story.
- What about Roberto Salvatore?
Is he a myth?
- Who?
- We know the Camorra are importing tinned tomatoes.
- You know nothing.
I was 17 when I started working on the docks.
I didn't know anyone.
You think the Australian people, they invite me in?
But Fabrizi, he look after me, introduced me to Roberto- - Vincenzo!
(speaks in foreign language) You should keep your nose out of things you don't understand, huh.
That's how people get hurt.
- Is that a threat?
- Please, Jack, he doesn't mean... Pappa.
(speaks in foreign language) - Dispiace.
He still acts like the big man in the village.
There are people that fear him.
- Pappa Antonio is Camorristi?
- Who do you think married me to Fabrizi?
This was not for me.
It was for him, to set himself up here.
Fabrizi was, he was a pig.
Pappa is still learning he cannot threaten people here.
- Who else has he threatened?
- I may be able to stop him before someone else gets hurt.
- I heard the Pappa and Vincenzo last night.
He was saying terrible things, what he would do to her, to the girl, Marianna.
Scusa, scusa.
- [Dorothy] I'll open the doors for the funeral, Father.
- [Father O'Leary] Thank you, Dorothy.
- Father, do you really believe a wife must obey her husband?
- It's not a matter of belief.
It's how things are, how they have been since our Lord first created mankind.
- Well, perhaps times have changed, Father.
- I hardly think it's your place to question, Dorothy.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to prepare for the funeral.
- You know I love the church, Father, but from what I understand, the Protestant church has a much more liberal view.
- Are you saying that- - All I'm saying is that this decision could affect a lot of souls, myself, Hugh, and at least three or four children.
So I will have to think long and hard about, well, everything.
What are you doing here?
- The Inspector thought it might be a good idea, tensions being high.
- I don't understand why people who hated Nonna Louisa would come to her funeral.
- It might be to make sure she's dead.
- You don't think there'll be trouble.
- If there is, I've got it covered, Dotty.
(somber choir music) (somber choir music continues) (somber choir music continues) (ominous music) - Roberto Salvatore.
- Pappa Antonio is the Padrino.
(somber choir music) - Lord, do not call your servant to account for no one can stand guiltless in your presence unless you grant him forgiveness of all his sins.
Therefore, we pray in passing judgment, you will not let your sentence fall heavily on one who is commended to you by the sincere prayer of Christian faith.
But with the help of your grace, may your servant, who during life was sealed with the sign of the blessed trinity, be found worthy of escaping the doom of your vengeance.
We ask this of you who live and reign forever and ever.
Amen.
(somber choir music) (ominous music) (somber choir music continues) (somber choir music continues) (ominous music) (somber choir music continues) (ominous music continues) (somber choir music continues) (ominous music continues) (books crash) - I'm sorry.
(ominous music continues) (footsteps approach) Miss, is everything all right?
- Yes, Dot.
I think everything's starting to make sense.
(Marianna and Vincenzo speak in foreign language) - Miss.
- Marianna!
- How are things between you and Vincenzo?
I couldn't help noticing at the funeral you slapped him.
- It was nothing.
It was a misunderstanding.
- About?
- I understand what it's like.
I feel like slapping my fiance, Hugh, sometimes, and we're not even Italian.
- Vincenzo loves me and I love him.
One little fight isn't gonna change that.
- Does Vincenzo know who killed her?
Is that what the fight was about?
- Please, I buried my nonna today.
- I need your help with something.
Is this Nonna Louisa as a girl?
- I'm not sure.
It look like her.
- [Phryne] Could that be Pappa Antonio?
- I don't know.
Maybe.
- Do you think it's possible that they were once in love?
- The woman I know no have no love.
You know, when her only daughter die, my wife, she don't cry one tear, not a single one.
She was a bitter, twisted old woman.
If she have a love, she put it here, into the food.
- Well, I need to ask more people more questions, so thanks for the wine.
- Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa.
No, no, no, no, no.
Bella, stay.
- I'm sorry, I can't ravish you, but I still need to find out who murdered Nonna Louisa.
(Guido speaks in foreign language) Perhaps.
But I'm sure it will wear off.
- Whoever he is, he is a lucky man.
(performer sings in foreign language) - Where are Pappa Antonio and Vincenzo?
- Out at the club.
It's why I asked you, so we could be alone.
- And Roberto Salvatore?
- I have no interest in this man.
My grandfather wants to buy his loyalty, so he bargains with me as if I'm a village cow.
Pappa acts like a kind old man, but he's not, Jack.
- Concetta, be careful what you say.
It's dangerous.
- I do not care about these things.
Can't you see?
It is only you I care about.
You are everything I could ever want in a man, and I would give myself completely to you, Johnny.
All you have to do is ask.
- But your family has so many secrets.
You'll be duty bound to it.
- I'm familiar.
I would leave them in a breath.
For you, Johnny, I would.
- [Jack] Si.
- Si.
(speaks in foreign language) - They did come from the same village.
Imagine where all this hate has sprung from.
- It makes perfect sense.
What greater force is there than thwarted love?
- Burning the midnight oil, Jack.
Grappa will do that.
- I'm sure I was up no later than you.
- Oh, I was tucked up in bed at a very sensible hour.
- If you're waiting for me to ask who you were with- - That's odd.
Why would Nonna Louisa take out six pounds every Thursday?
- [Jack] Wages?
- There were none.
Only the family worked there.
- Shopping?
- That all came out of the restaurant account.
This was her personal one.
Another one of her secrets.
- So what did you say you were up to last night?
- I didn't.
- Then why are you asking me?
- No reason.
It's called civilized conversation.
- Yes, I loved Louisa, but her parents did not approve of my family.
(chuckles) Well, she wanted to run away, to leave all the families, but how could I leave everything I knew?
- Is that when she stole the book?
- Ah, she stole the book thinking that I would follow her.
But there's more to life than love.
- Where were you on Thursday afternoon?
- (scoffs) Where I am always, here, with a good friend of mine.
- Your friend's name?
- Roberto Salvatore.
- How convenient that you can confirm each other's whereabouts.
- Concetta.
- Si.
- [Antonio] Thursday afternoon, where I was?
- Here at the restaurant.
- And with who I was?
- Roberto Salvatore.
- We are making arrangements for the wedding.
Roberto will marry my Concetta.
- Scusa.
- I checked those session times at the Davey, sir.
They were definitely Marianna and Vincenzo's.
I brought Vincenzo in if you wanna chat to him.
- Thank you, Collins.
- But the numbers are different, substantially so.
The tickets are torn off the roll in order, but these numbers are not sequential.
- So Marianna and Vincenzo went into the cinema at different times.
I believe that one is Vincenzo's.
- Which means he arrived much later.
- He had time to attack Nonna Louisa before he went to the pictures.
When exactly did you arrive at the cinema the day before yesterday?
- I was late.
Marianna, she saved me seat.
- More than just a little late, I think.
You would have missed the one-reelers, the Wurlitzer extravaganza, not to mention the first 15 minutes of the main attraction.
Don't be shy now, Vincenzo, not when things are getting interesting.
- Did Nonna Louisa find out you were romancing Marianna?
Collins, if you wouldn't mind.
- Yes, sir.
- It won't be hard to prove you broke in and attacked her.
You have no alibi, and if your footprints match... - Foot on the chair, please, sir.
- Hold on a moment, Hugh.
(pensive music) - 56.
57.
58.
- How many should there be?
- 59.
- You have been studying.
- Mm-hmm.
Should I write up the charges, sir?
- Not quite yet.
That'll be all, Collins.
- Sir.
- I can charge him with assault, not a great deal more given the cause of death was poisoning.
- That's exactly what I'm thinking.
- Phryne?
- Well, it's right here, Jack.
It's all in the coroner's report.
Under normal circumstances, Amanita phalloides poisoning would take six to seven hours, but the patient's compromised liver function means a more likely ingestion period of three to four hours.
- She ate the mushrooms at breakfast.
- And there was egg in her stomach, as well as mushrooms.
Fritata di fungi.
It all comes back to the food.
- Vincenzo is a hard nut to crack.
Even if he knew, I doubt torture would get it out of him.
- But love might.
It can bring even the toughest men completely undone.
(birds chirp) (passersby chatter) - You sure this will work, Miss Fisher?
- Of course I'm not sure.
- Where's Vincenzo?
- What, no hello, Jack?
Where's the respect, eh?
- I did not see Vincenzo.
- I saw him come in.
- Just relax.
Tell me what- - [Jack] Vincenzo.
- Oh, Jack, please.
(Marianna speaks in foreign language) - Please, Miss Fisher, Inspector- (Antonio screams in foreign language) (Vincenzo and Antonio scream in foreign language) - I understand everything, everything!
- [Vincenzo] No, no!
- I understand every time that family touches something, they destroy!
She's gonna break your heart, Vincenzo, like mine was broken.
- I don't care what happened in the village all those years- - [Concetta] Pappa- - [Vincenzo] Whoa, whoa, whoa!
- I don't care what happened last year or last month!
All that matters is what happens now.
I love Vincenzo.
- Ah, love, love.
- [Marianna] No.
- Marianna, it's okay.
- Step aside, please.
Vincenzo will be charged with murder.
- There's a slim chance he'll get a lenient judge.
- But the most likely sentence is that he'll- - Hang.
- I'm sorry.
- I'm afraid Vincenzo isn't the man you thought he was.
Why do you flinch?
- Did Vincenzo do this?
- No, he would never.
- Your grandmother.
- She used a rolling pin.
- And what was it that prompted this beating?
- It never took much.
She didn't like the way the garlic was chopped.
It helps bring out the flavor more if you crush it with the flat of the knife.
- But this was about more than that, wasn't it?
She'd found out about you and Vincenzo.
Did Marianna know what you were planning?
- No, she knew nothing.
- But she found out that you'd attacked her grandmother and she didn't report you to the police.
- Which would make her an accomplice after the fact.
- I told you, she knew nothing.
You want to know why?
Marianna, she find this underneath the floorboards where that old woman had hidden it.
She brought it up on herself.
When she was going to make that dish, a Strano dish- - Strati dell'arcobaleno.
- My nonno, he always knew she stole the book.
When she announced she was serving her on the first night of the festival, it was a slap in the face to my family's honor, a disgrazia.
- So you poisoned her?
- [Vincenzo] Si.
- How?
- With the mushrooms.
- The death caps.
- Yes.
I force her to eat them.
- When you broke in.
- Yes.
I force them down her throat.
- This withdrawal of 77 pounds, she made it the day before she was killed.
- And she drew a bank check against it to a travel agent.
- 77 pounds can buy you a lot of things, a steamer ticket back to Italy.
- She was gonna send me away.
I couldn't go back to the old country.
What would I do in the village?
I was born here.
- It would have been the end of you and Vincenzo.
- It would have been the end of my whole life.
("La Donna E Mobile") - You had to pick your moment.
(ominous music) ("La Donna E Mobile" continues) ("La Donna E Mobile" continues) ("La Donna E Mobile" continues) When did you find out that Marianna had poisoned her grandmother?
- No.
I did this.
It was me, okay?
- You broke in, yes.
You tried to get the recipes back.
You tried to sabotage the dish that she was making.
You didn't try to kill her.
- [Jack] Nonna Louisa put up more of a fight than you were expecting.
- But it was the mushrooms that did the job.
She'd eaten those hours earlier.
- No.
No.
Please, Jack, take me.
Please leave Marianna.
No.
Miss Fish, please.
It's not Marianna.
Take me, please.
Take me, not Marianna.
Me, I did.
Please, Jack, come on.
Please.
- [Phryne] It's too late.
- You know what she said?
That she'd pay a gunman to kill Vincenzo.
She's done it before.
Nonna was the one who paid to have that man shot in the Italian workers club, Fabrizi.
- And who was this gunman?
- She wouldn't say.
- Your grandmother took out six pounds every Thursday.
Do you know why?
- Every Thursday night, a man would come to the restaurant.
- She was paying the gunman in installments.
Can you describe this man?
- He has a scar.
(ominous music) (Antonio speaks in foreign language) - You are not welcome here.
- Would you please leave us?
- Fine, fine.
The men want to talk.
- Get up.
- I prefer to sit.
- You'll spend a lot of time sitting in a prison cell.
You're under arrest.
- And you come all by yourself.
I have a friend with me you should know about.
Do you have a friend, Inspector?
- He has at least one.
- Ah.
Now things are getting interesting.
The thing you should know, Inspector Jack Robinson, is that whatever you do to me, it's not the end of our business.
I will not touch a hair on your little policeman head, but I do know the names of the people you hold dear.
- Go ahead and I'll shoot you right between the eyes, just like your poor old pappa's painting.
On the table!
- I know you're the Padrino of the Camorra.
You think your little foot soldier was loyal to you?
He was playing both families off against each other.
He took your orders to burn down Cabrone's, but he also took money to kill Concetta's husband.
- The feud is over.
Today, all past scores are settled.
(dramatic music) - I'm very pleased with your progress, Hugh.
I think you will make a fine addition to the ranks of the church.
- Thank you, Father.
- But there is just one little thing to be said, a correction if you like, a slight adjustment, about the role of the woman in the Catholic home.
Of course, we must take into account modern times.
It goes without saying that nothing is written in stone.
- Except the commandments.
Weren't they?
- Yes, of course, the commandments.
But my point is that times are changing, and perhaps the role of the woman in the Catholic home will need to change along with them.
(soft music) - Have you thought about it, Johnny, what I am offering to you?
- I've thought of nothing else.
- First, there is something I need to make sure of for myself.
You don't need to say it.
(speaks in foreign language) Your heart is, it's taken.
- I care for you.
You deserve- (Concetta speaks in foreign language) - I will be fine.
And Roberto will hang.
When I marry again, it would be for love.
But you are taken.
("La Donna E Mobile") ("La Donna E Mobile" continues) - The Inspector to see you, Miss Fisher.
- Not eating Italian tonight, Jack?
- Strano's is closed.
- Looks like you'll have to make do with me.
- Looks like we'll have to make do with each other.
(upbeat jazzy music) (upbeat jazzy music continues) (upbeat jazzy music continues) (upbeat jazzy music continues) (serene music) (dramatic music)
Support for PBS provided by:
Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries is presented by your local public television station.