Seven Dials Mystery

At almost two and a quarter hours, it's a very long drama, but it's worth watching, as it is absorbing, fun and intriguing. It's a slow, ambling mystery, full of espionage and intrigue. Don't expect great drama or sudden shocks, it's all very subtle.

I quite like the book, it's worth noting that this is a very accurate adaptation, the one thing I would point out is that here you're given subtle clues as to who the killer is, whereas in the book you're given hardly any. The solution always baffles me.

I love the style of it, it looks terrific, nice sets and lovely costumes. It is a production of its time, sometimes it looks more like a stage play.

Cheryl Campbell and James Warwick are excellent together, they work incredibly well, although producers were guilty of casting Mr Warwick too frequently, in all fairness he's perfect for them. Sir John Gielgud adds the humour, he's wonderful.

I like that we have references to Chimneys, Inspector Battle appeared in a few novels, including Chimneys.

Long, but lovely for a wet Sunday afternoon.

Intriguing. 9/10

I have an all-encompassing quest to experience films in a lucid, coherent way. Within that are several little projects that have become hypnotic vortices of their own. One of these, in a sort of self-referential way is the quest for the best film of a Christie novel.

This comes close in terms of Christiness. That's because it is a pretty faithful rendering of the book. As such, it follows her nice form of introductions. In these novels, it is all a game of defining people that sew into each other. The people come first and we find of course that by the end we have sewn them together incorrectly because of the simple order in which they were introduced.

Christie (and others, Sayers) have this game of limited watching. Everything we see is true, but we don't see everything we need to in order to weave a coherent narrative until the end. That's when we revisit many scenes, which we "see again." Its all about seeing, really. And that's especially so when she writes book without her regular detectives. With the detectives, there is some internal sight, some mental perspectives, but with these it is purely about what is seen physically.

Here's the interesting part. Movies, and especially these puzzle movies are also about what we see and what we don't. That's the root of the cinematic experience. But Christie didn't write with a cinematic imagination. So the two conventions of visual trickery are close but not the same.

That's why I'm so fascinated by films of Christie stories. It is a wonderful cinematic challenge for the filmmaker, and in a way — because all this is collaborative construction — one for the viewer as well.

This adventure plays with secrets in three ways (signage, association and "state" secrets) and allows us to confuse them by natural assumptions that prove false. It is clever. As a book it is clever, I mean.

As a film, it goes on too long and asks us to accept some rather extreme portrayals.

Even with its length and observance of the story, there is a pretty jarring discontinuity between the first part of a large group of young, silly people. We need this large number to justify the eight clocks. But managing so many red herrings in a movie isn't feasible so all the girls are dropped.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

I found this movie to be quite an enjoyable mystery, and very true to the early Agatha Christie style in its plot device of British state secrets being stolen and sold to foreign enemies. Although some of the interior scenes, especially right at the beginning of the film, have that slightly claustrophobic "soundstage" feel, this is quickly forgotten as the characters become more familiar and the mystery gets underway. The acting is very good, and Cheryl Campbell brings a lot of energy to the part of the flapper-heroine, Lady Eileen Brent, and James Warwick, as Jimmy The singer, joins her in playing upper-class amateur sleuth with a great deal of humour. Sir John Gielgud, as usual, steals every scene he appears in, and Harry Andrews is terrific as the stolid, slow-spoken Inspector Battle. The story follows the usual pattern of complicated twists and red herrings, but the conclusion came as a complete surprise to me, which I take as the mark of a good mystery.

Not the best Agatha Christie adaptation, but one of the better ones. The direction could've been more taut at times, but this is a treasure for any Agatha Christie fan(I have been for almost 9 years). It is beautifully made, handsomely shot with splendid locations/settings and evocative period detail, particularly those cars. If you haven't seen the film yet and are wondering about faithfulness or lack of it, Seven Dials Mystery is very faithful(with one or two subtle changes), like the Russian version of And Then There Were None it is like the pages of the book and prose come to life. And to me it doesn't suffer from being too faithful. Seven Dials Mystery is slow in pace, but considering that Christie's mysteries take time to unfold this approach was appropriate. The length I also thought was fine. The dialogue is very good if talky, true in detail and spirit to Christie's style, and the story even with the pacing and that the second half is more suspenseful than the first is engrossing and keeps us guessing until the ending, which is a surprise. Of the acting, John Gielgud steals the show and Harry Andrews is similarly terrific. James Warrick and Cheryl Campbell(though I can see her character is going to divide viewers) bring great humour and charm to their characters. All in all, a classic Agatha Christie mystery. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Unbelievable adaptation! Completely and utterly faithful to the novel, except for 2 things: 1) The climax is slightly altered to make it more "scary" 2) During the climax, #7 explains the purpose of the Seven Dials before revealing him/herself

The acting was fantastic! (Bundle's dad is portrayed so perfectly, it's almost scary!) You could watch this while reading the book, that's how faithful it is! The humorous scenes are still there, Bundle and her dad providing most of them. Some people complain that it is too long. Not at all, the length is just right! A long and drawn-out adaptation is WHY DIDN'T THEY ASK EVANS?.

An overall summary: One of those rare "perfect adaptations" which you'd like to watch over and over again. It deserves more than 10/10, but that is not allowed.