SUMMARY: RUNNING TIME: 94:00 Min.
Adapting Agatha Christie’s same-named 1956 Hercule Poirot novel, CBS-TV first broadcast this Warner Bros. Television film on January 8, 1986. Set in the present-day, acclaimed British mystery novelist Ariadne Oliver (Stapleton) is commissioned to devise a mock ‘Murder Hunt’ for a Devon village’s community fair.
With the fair set up at the posh Nasse House estate, Oliver invites the esteemed Belgian sleuth, Hercule Poirot (Ustinov), to attend as her guest consultant. Yet, the event’s macabre fun turns shockingly real when the supposed teenage victim is indeed murdered in the secluded boathouse.
Further complicating the crime, the estate’s owner (Pigott-Smith) discovers that his reclusive wife (Sheridan) has ominously vanished. Soon afterward, an inebriated third victim drowns due to the elusive culprit. It’s up to Poirot, along with Mrs. Oliver and his trusted associate, Hastings (Cecil), to unravel the sordid truth behind the nefarious events plaguing Nasse House.
Hercule Poirot: Peter Ustinov
Ariadne Oliver: Jean Stapleton
Capt. Arthur Hastings: Jonathan Cecil
Sir George Stubbs: Tim Pigott-Smith
Hattie Stubbs: Nicollette Sheridan
Amy Folliat: Constance Cummings
Detective Inspector Bland: Kenneth Cranham
Police Constable: Jack Ellis
Alec Legge & Sally Legge: Christopher Guard & Caroline Langrishe
Michael Weyman: Ralph Arliss
Amanda Brewis: Susan Wooldridge
Marilyn Gale: Sandra Dickinson
Mr. & Mrs. Tucker: Leslie Schofield & Marjorie Yates
Marlene Tucker: Pippa Hinchley
Marilyn Tucker: Vicky Murdock
Eddie South: Jeff Yaegher
Merdell: Jimmy Gardner
Boatman: Alan Parnaby
Hostel Girl: Siv Borg
Unnamed Women: Dorothea Phillips, Joanna Dickens, & Fanny Carnaby
Unnamed Men: James Gaddas & Cyril Conway
Fair Attendees: Uncredited
Note: This film would be Ustinov’s fourth of six Poirot films (three of which were released theatrically).
REVIEW:
Reasonably faithful to Agatha Christie’s source material, this decent adaptation recognizes that its storyline is indeed TV-caliber, as compared to Peter Ustinov’s ultra-scenic Death on the Nile and Evil Under the Sun. Populated by a good cast, the highlight is Ustinov & Jean Stapleton’s entertaining chemistry, with some third-wheel help from Jonathan Cecil, giving all three of them amusingly comical quirks.
As to the mystery itself, Christie’s novel isn’t among her best Poirot whodunnits, but the plot still makes for watchable mainstream television.
BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING: 5½ Stars
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