curtis-8

This movie is so all over the place I couldn't figure out if it was a melodrama or a very dry comedic satire of one. The plotting is ridiculous, no one behaved or reacts like any human on the planet ever has to anything and the acting ranges from amateur to insane. I swear costar Miriam Hopkins is so incredibly over the top, bug-eyed manic it's like watching a blonde, coked-up Scarlet O'Hara. It's like she's in a completely different movie from David and the rest of the cast. A fascinatingly accidental comic performance. Davis starts out good, but soon resorts to a bad Bette Davis impersonation. A truly bizarre movie. If it didn't move at such a predictable snails pace it would be fascinatingly entertaining. As it is it's fascinating like a train wreck.

This is a perfectly ok Agatha Christie movie adaptation, but there's absolutely nothing special about it unless you're a huge Elizabeth Taylor fan.

I can understand why the pricers would want to branch out with Christie's other most popular character after the success of Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile, which both featured Hercule Poirot. But why did they choose this particular novel to adapt? Taking place in a 1950s English village it lacks the exotic cinematic grandeur and dramatic tension of the previous films. And Marple isn't even positioned as the main detective! Very, very odd choices.

They really needed to find a Marple story with more cinematic possibilities. That said, the film is ok if you think of it as a TV episode.

I loved this show as a kid and am thrilled that's it's finally available (via an all region disc set from Australia). There weren't really a lot of sci Fi tv shows between star trek and star wars, so anything hinting at sci-fi or fantasy was a hit with me. Of the American shows, TFJ had the wildest imagination and most action. But it is amazing how little money they spent on episodic tv back in the 70s (hilariously so at times). The set design in the episode An Act of Love utilizes more crinkled-up aluminum foil than I've ever seen in one place! 1000's of rolls of it I'd guess. And it looks like they hired an entire kindergarten to glue it to massive amounts of styrofoam and cardboard. That said, the story is pretty good, as most of the 10 stories were. The show runners aimed for high camp spectacle but often had to settle for kiddie school pageant sets and effects.

But most shows back then didn't even try (or tried too hard, like Space 1999). I love that this one gripped that plastic whiffleball bat it was given and swung for the cheap seats!