Meurtre en trois actes

Murder In Three Acts certainly isn't terrible, but compared to Death On the Nile and Evil under The Sun, it has a certain blandness to it. That I can understand because it is a TV film, so would be limited in budget in comparison. There is some lavish scenery, costumes and locations, and the acting is good on the whole. Peter Ustinov certainly seems to be enjoying himself as the dapper detective, while Tony Curtis, Lisa Eichlorn and Emma Samms give able support. Jonathan Cecil is wonderfully naive as Hastings as well. However despite a good cast, and the lovely production values, the film does have a number of failings. One was the script, badly underdeveloped in places, and bore little resemblance to the book, which is brilliant by the way, I suggest you read it. There are numerous plot changes too, even characters's names were changed, Hermione Lytton Gore's name was changed to Jennifer for some obscure reason, and Bartholemew Strange's portrayal wasn't at all what I imagined. And I did think the murders were clumsily handled. However, there are a number of redeeming qualities, it is very entertaining and enjoyable, but isn't like the book. 7/10 Bethany Cox

This is a fine movie. Watching Peter Ustinov play Poirot is always a treat. The dialogue between him and Hastings provides adequate humor. And the Agatha Christie whodunit puzzle is fairly good.

The film suffers though when compared to two previous Ustinov films: "Death On The Nile", and "Evil Under The Sun", both of which were grand and stately big-budget theatrical productions. By contrast, "Murder In Three Acts" is a made-for-TV movie, and therefore seems small and cheap. The scenery, the music, and the casting cannot compete.

Further, the suspects in "Murder In Three Acts" seem too "normal"; there are no really eccentric characters. The women especially seem bland and undifferentiated.

Still, if you can avoid the temptation to compare this film to other Hercule Poirot films, as well as Christie's source novel, the movie "Murder In Three Acts" is still entertaining.

Poirot using a pc?

THREE ACT TRAGEDY is one of Dame Agatha's great ideas, because of the way she was able to hide the murderer, the motive, even the fact of murder. But it's not one of her strongest novels, strangely enough. That's a matter of structure. And, I suppose, taste.

Poirot misses the second murder in this show because he's hammering away on a computer, writing his memoirs. That's a clever dodge. It's rare one of these modernized TV adaptations adds something interesting, so they need to be acknowledged when they do.

I've been a fan of Christie's since seeing "Murder on the Orient Express" on the big screen as an adolescent. I especially enjoyed Albert Finney's Poirot, who hypnotized me like a snake (not having read a Christie story at that time I had no other frame of reference). I was disappointed when Oscar-winner Ustinov took over. This has nothing to do with Mr. Ustinov personally. I've enjoyed many of his performances. But by the time his Poirot rolled around I had read several Christies and I saw nothing of Poirot in him; I don't care how many houses of cards he constructs. Nevertheless, I had a compulsion to watch any new Christy adaptations. I see his movies as mysteries using Christy's ideas but with a whole new detective. And, by his accent, a detective by way of Inspector Clouseau. Peter Ustinov is a truly great actor, but not a great Poirot. That's my contrarian view.

This movie is part of the slide away from all-star, splashy movies and into narrower TV budgets with notable film stars replaced by familiar television faces.

Hastings: I don't recall if Hastings was in this book but I rather think he wasn't.

I 've enjoyed Jonathan Cecil in a number of radio programs and talking books, but his Arthur Hastings is an idiot. He's not even a good sounding-board.

Tony Curtis is perfectly cast and they wanted a sexy female so Emma Samms was thrown in, where a woman of more modest dimensions might have been more advisable, though perhaps not so good for advertising.

For the rest, actors like Dana Elcar and Diana Muldaur are best known for being journey-people actors who get a job done.

Frankly, I'm no great fan of Tony Curtis but he's definitely a star, in the sense that the Finney flick and early Ustinov movies were cast with stars. A strange actor, when he's up against weak opposition on the screen he can be dull; but when cast against a Burt Lancaster or Jack Lemmon he can ratchet up his game to match them. He was notable in comedies and a twist of humor is always helpful in Agatha Christie performances; whereas in performances of her great contemporary P. G. Wodehouse the characters have to be dead serious, without a twinkle or a wink or a tongue in cheek.

This adaptation, so modernized, as I mentioned, Poirot is writing is memoirs on a computer, has changed a lot, if it remained faithful to how the murder was disguised. But, as with Christy's novel this adaptation tends to drag.

Ustinov is great, as always, but the movie is your basic made-for-TV fare. The setting is changed from the novel. I think this really hurt the production. You feel more like your watching an episode of "The Love Boat" than an Agatha Christie mystery. The plot is pretty decent, but it feels as if the cast is just going through the motions. And in my opinion, being that many of the stars just seem to have small parts, I find it's rather easy to spot the murderer. Still, it makes sense and everyone does a decent job with what's there, but I'd def. like to see this remade, esp. with David Suchet. Still, not bad for an afternoon's viewing.

"Murder in Three Acts" starts off rather poorly: the updating of the action to the 80's takes some getting used to, Hastings is portrayed as too much of a buffoon, and even Peter Ustinov himself seems to be hamming it up a bit too much in his first scenes. However, he gets more serious later on, and his climactic verbal reconstruction of the crimes is as delightful as ever - I just love the way he emphasizes certain words. The plot itself is quite clever - it begins with an apparently motiveless murder that turns out to be part of a grander scheme. For a TV movie, "Murder in Three Acts" has rather high production values: the Acapulco locations are beautiful, the houses and the hotels are lavish. But the cast cannot compare with those of Ustinov's theatrical Poirot outings, and most of the characters are very poorly defined. Still, if you are a mystery fan, this one is just about worth having in your collection. (**1/2)