Ordeal by Innocence

The film begins with some style with the viewer taking a leisure boat ride to a small village in England with a pleasant Dave Brubeck score in the background. Brubeck's score continues through the movie and by the first half hour becomes annoying due to its over use. Donald Sutherland is layed back as an American doctor who after a two year expedition to Antarctica learns he was the only alibi to a hitch hiking stranger accused of murder and ultimately hung. True to Agatha Christie Sutherland becomes a sleuth and we are introduced to the stranger's family and associates. All the actors do a good job but are given little to do. Rarely do we see them interact with each other and nearly the entire film Donald Sutherland is interviewing each of the cast one-on-one...including the police! It doesn't seem any of the suspects get much screen time at all. Mid-way the director makes a truly terrible decision to replay some of the audio from previous scenes over present scenes (to represent Donald Sutherland thinking) including muddled whispering under more of Dave Brubeck's score. The plot is such a boring mess and impossible to keep up with. We never meet anyone long enough to remember their name! By the end of the film it becomes clear it really doesn't matter. At the beginning the police tells Donald Sutherland not to get involved that it is not worth it and at the end Donald and the viewers agree. THEN WHY MAKE THE FILM?????? The one joyous spark to the entire film was Cassie Stuart (Isabella in BBC's "Northanger Abbey") as the innocent stranger's wife. Her face and voice literally lit up the dark and damp film in her two scenes which occur in the last twenty minutes of the movie. She has such fun with her topless scene she should have won a special award just for attempting to bring some entertainment to an otherwise dreary movie.

This 1984 version of Ordeal By Innocence doesn't just fail as an adaptation, it also fails on its own terms too, the latter of which I always try to base my opinion of a film on. There are two adaptations(as far as I'm aware) of Ordeal By Innocence, this and the Geraldine McEwan adaptation. Neither really do the story justice and have similar problems to each other, but the McEwan version probably gives its actors more to do. The story is not perhaps masterpiece status, but it still has all the ingredients that make Agatha Christie so well worth reading. Just reading what it's about alone makes you want to engross yourself in the book and also watch an adaptation of it. Ordeal By Innocence is not a complete disaster. It does look good, it's well shot, slick and the costumes and sets are very handsome. Christopher Plummer is appropriately wry, Cassie Stuart is just lovely and lights up the film and while Faye Dunnaway deserved much more than a 2-3 cameo appearance she is quite memorable as a character who's easy to hate. However, while the cast is a who's who and were good on paper they don't have much to do. Donald Sutherland is rather workmanlike and Ian McShane brings some wit to his role but is given little to work with, while Annette Crosbie Sarah Miles are wasted and Michael Elphick- looking miserable with one of the worst Scottish accents I've ever heard on film- is embarrassingly bad. It's not surprising that most of the cast didn't register, because the characters are sketchy and not developed well at all. You have a vague sense of what their roles in the story are but little more than that, so it makes the audience find it difficult to properly care. The dialogue, when we could hear it, lacked flow and felt very flat. Same with the direction. The story is a great one, but told in this film confusingly and ploddingly with next to no suspense or life, and that is including the ending(further disadvantaged by the murderer being revealed way too early). So much so that I had a temptation to watch something else, something I don't want to feel from an Agatha Christie adaptation. And the music is just awful, overbearing and of the films I've seen recently it is by far the most out of place score I've heard for any film since watching 1965's Ten Little Indians(a film I actually liked). Overall, disappointing. 4/10 Bethany Cox

As a massive, in fact - borderline obsessive, Agatha Christie fanatic, I am particularly interested in reading the books and watching the film versions of the stories that she herself loved the most. "Crooked House" was a personal favorite of hers, and it was indeed a terrific book and got turned into a very enjoyable movie recently (in 2017). "Ordeal by Innocence" is another favorite of Mrs. Christie, and while the book is a masterpiece, this 1984 film-version was quite a disappointment.

The plot, of course, remains genius. The convoluted and twisted, but simultaneously highly original murder mystery is one that only could have come from the brilliant and practically inexhaustible mind of Agatha Christie. It's the tale of the noble Doctor Calgary who travels to a remote British island to return an address book to a young fella named Jacko Argyle whom he gave a lift two years earlier. When Calgary finds out Jacko got executed for the murder of his adoption mother, while he could have confirmed his alibi and save his life, Calgary insists on reopening the case. However, the rest of the entire family, as well as the local police inspector, are very much pleased how the case got resolved with Jacko's hanging, and Calgary's persistence and intrusion leads to new crimes.

Once more, the story is great and the denouement - albeit reasonably simple for a Christie mystery (which is perhaps why she loved it so much) - is marvelous, but the rest of the production is heavily flawed and poorly handled. The pacing is often too slow, the camerawork and editing are monotonous and dull, and then there's the misfit music. I'm glad to read I'm aligned with all my fellow reviewers around here who also state that the moody jazz-soundtrack (by Dave Brubeck) was a terribly wrong choice. The cast looks impressive, but notably the acclaimed names (Plummer, Dunaway, Sutherland) deliver the most underwhelming performances.

Yet another realization based on Agatha Christie novel in which there is a good cast who gives regular acting , nice set design , a twisted as well as confuse intrigue and logic absent . Dealing with an American Paleontologist called Dr. Arthur Calgary (Donald Sutherland) visits Mister Argyle (Christopher Plummer) to give him an address book that belongs to his son Jack Argyle , but the latter has been executed , condemned for murder his mother (all of Faye Dunaway's cameo is a black and white flashback) . Calgary has evidence that the convicted killer is innocent , but no one , neither a hard-nosed Police officer (Michael Elphick) modeled in American-style cop , nor villagers wish to reopen the case . Once the murder was solved , the real mystery began and Calgary learns that justice has been ill served in a small British community . After the clues have been shown we will get a chance to give the answer with Calgary finding out about the culprit at a twisted finale with outstanding surprises . Who is the killer? , can he find the true guilty?

The film is a detective story with Donald Sutherland as an amateur sleuth and in which you are the detective ; being middlingly shot , though filmmaker conjures up some atmospheric scenes . Too much red herrings it makes a little bit boring , pedestrian , endless and overlong . Stellar cast , but frankly wasted and interpretations are almost all phoned in . In the picture there is mystery , emotion , murders , suspense , pointless scenes and gorgeous outdoors . It packs a very good British support casting, such as : Sarah Miles , though miscast as Faye Dunaway's daughter , Ian McShane as Philip Durant , Diana Quick as Gwenda Vaughan , Annette Crosbie as Kirsten Lindstrom , Michael Elphick as Inspector Huish , George Innes as Archie Leach , and a young Phoebe Nicholls as Tina Argyle in some nudism scenes . The movie gets a lush costume design and acceptable production by known Cannon films , Yoram Globus and Menahem Golan , being well set in 1950s England, though being reallly cut because of budgetery reasons .

It contains colorful and glowing cinematography in Eastmancolor by excellent cameraman Billy Williams . Filmed on location in Dartmouth, Devon, England, UK . Dave Brubeck's unappropriate and anti-climatic soundtrack, including obstrusive jazz score that seems to belong to some other movie . Dave Brubeck replaced Pino Donaggio, who composed an enjoyable and sadly rejected musical score. The picture was a Box office flop , though received a Royal Premiere in the presence of HM Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip . The motion picture was regularly directed by Desmond Davis , containing some flaws, gaps and poor edition . Davis is an an expert on TV movies and television episodes , he also filmed some movies, such as : the notorious ¨Clash of titans¨, ¨Girl with green eyes¨ , ¨Smashing time¨, ¨The uncle ¨and a Sherlock Holmes flick , ¨The sign of four¨. Rating : 4.5/10 . Average, exclusively for hardcore fans of the star-studded cast.

When at the very start of the film Paleontologist Donald Sutherland arrives at the Argyle family's house and it comes out he is the undeniable alibi for one of the members executed for murdering his mother two years ago your sensation is that you are about to watch a top thriller; an innocent man has been convicted and a killer is still around. But as the film runs along your disappointment increases inevitably.

"Ordeal by Innocence" is a dull and at times even boring film that doesn't raise at any moment. Nothing interesting happens all along and even the final revealing of the facts lacks surprise and intensity (wether you guessed or not).

Donald Sutherland, Cristopher Plummer, Faye Dunaway and Sarah Miles (far from her good performance in "Ryan's Daughter") just pass through their roles and not very enthusiastically either.

You won't miss much if you skip this one.