JohnHowardReid
Directed by FRANK TASHLIN. Screenplay by David Pursall and Jack Seddon. Based on the 1936 novel The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie. Music composed and conducted by Ron Goodwin. "Amanda" - music by Brian Fahey, lyric by Norman Newell, sung by Ray Peterson. Director of photography: Desmond Dickinson. Art director: Bill Andrews. Film editor: John Victor Smith. Mr Randall's clothes by Hardy Amies. Production manager: Albert Becket. Unit manager: Jake Wright. Assistant director: David Tomblin. Camera operator: Harry Gillam. Recording supervisor: A. W. Watkins. Sound recordist: Sash Fisher. Dubbing mixer: Fred Turtle. Sound editor: Bill Creed. Westrex Sound System. Associate producer: Ben Arbeid. Producer: Lawrence P. Bachmann.Copyright 21 December 1965 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures. U.S. release: 2 March 1966. New York opening at the 68th Street Playhouse: 11 July 1966. U.K. release: 15 July 1966. 8,096 feet. 90 minutes. (Cut to 7,046 feet or 85 minutes in the U.K.).SYNOPSIS: The plot opens when an aqua-clown is found dead in a swimming pool with a poisoned dart in the neck and with an ABC Street Guide to London floating at his side. Hercule Poirot happens to be in London and is determined to investigate the case.PRINCIPAL MIRACLE: Tony Randall as Poirot? Yet he does the Frenchman proud.COMMENT: Originally to have been Seth Holt directing Zero Mostel, this Agatha Christie adaptation ends up as something of a comeback film for Tashlin after a run of inferior items, mainly in the Jerry Lewis cycle. The reverse of the Miss Marple films, the plot disappears into the background behind a welter of almost surreal images like bowler-hatted Hercule Poirot chasing Ekberg mounted on a white horse down Rotten Row; the close-up of the poison dart that becomes a shot of the clown taken between his feet as the body falls away; or the mirror-faces in the steam room; or agent Morley continually locked in closets and car-boots with drunken blondes, unable to explain to his wife who thinks he's in Agriculture and Fisheries. - B.P.OTHER VIEWS: My favorite Tashlin movie, this is an amusing piece of whodunit spoofery, the satire and parody abetted by bizarre compositions plus Tony Randall's delightfully outrageous portrayal of Poirot, and a bright and bouncy music score. - JHR writing as George Addison.
TheLittleSongbird
Ever since the age of 11, I've been an Agatha Christie fan. I always find the stories, characters and how she writes very clever and interesting, and when translated well to television or film it can be very diverting. Most of the time her books have translated well, evident with the Russian film version of And Then There Were None(the 1945 version too), Death on the Nile or Evil Under the Sun with Peter Ustinov or the David Suchet adaptations of After the Funeral, Wasp's Nest, Sad Cypress and Five Little Pigs. But that is not the case with all, the 1989 film Ten Little Indians, Suchet's Taken At the Flood and Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Lord Edgware Dies with Austin Trevor, At Bertram's Hotel and Sittaford Mystery with Geraldine McEwan and Why Didn't They Ask Evans with Julia McKenzie proved to be disappointments both as adaptations and on their own merits.I'd say that The Alphabet Murders is not as bad as the above disappointments, but unfortunately I do have to class it with the adaptations that didn't work. And I am going to make an effort to judge it on its own merits, as any adaptation of a book regardless of its quality or how it's adapted is deserving of that. The book that it's based on, The ABC Murders, is a compelling read, maybe not one of Christie's masterpieces like And Then There Were None, Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Death on the Nile, A Murder is Announced and Sleeping Murder, but still great. The Alphabet Murders does have redeeming qualities. Even with films I don't care for or dislike intensely I always look for a redeeming quality or two, and any criticism I have aims to be encouraging and without condescension. The film does look good, the locations are very nice and it is well photographed. Robert Morley is a lot of fun as Hastings, and of the major roles for me he steals the film. Margaret Rutherford is also a sheer delight, but you do wish she had more to do. Anita Ekberg is visually very striking and does what she can with her femme-fatale-like(well kind of) role.Sadly, Tony Randall's Poirot doesn't work, for some people he will have done, but not for me. Considering that Poirot is the main character, this is a major debit. If I were to ignore for a second that he was physically wrong for the character(too tall and thin for one thing), his accent is never consistent, and to the extent that at times I didn't have a clue of what accent he was trying to pull off. And it seemed that he was playing for laughs, within the film it may have worked, but considering the genre and the actual story itself it was jarring, the subtlety and intelligence of Poirot was gone. The worst Poirot? If Austin Trevor's interpretation didn't exist, I'd say that Randall would be. Disappointing also was Ron Goodwin's score, Goodwin's style was instantly recognisable and really elevated the Rutherford Miss Marple films(in particular it was the best thing about Murder Ahoy!). For my tastes though, it was too chirpy in tone and repetitive, adding nothing to the atmosphere.The way The Alphabet Murders was written also fell flat. Instead of being absorbing, the story felt too tediously placed and meandering. The great mystery is severely lacking in suspense and atmosphere, and when you watch a mystery you want to keep guessing to the very end and be surprised by the outcome, but here everything seemed too obvious. It is further hindered by the slapstick, there was too much of it, some of it seemed too dragged out, it was unnecessary and nothing came across as funny. The story and script seemed to be a mix of Agatha Christie, Inspector Clousseau and the sort of work Frank Tashlin did with his Looney Tunes cartoons. And just for the record, I very much like Clousseau and Tashlin. Some will be entertained by it, but for others they'll feel that not only was the material uninspired but the mix just didn't gel. On this one, I'm afraid I'll have to side with the latter group. Some of the dialogue between Poirot and Hastings is entertaining, especially the one about extra insurance and British railways, but the rest of the characters don't have much to work with and not much feels like Agatha Christie. Little is interesting about the characters, the support characters are reduced to stock, cardboard stereotypes and what we learn about Ekberg's character is that she's sexy and dangerous but that's pretty much it.Overall, disappointing but I do think it could have been much worse. But you're better off watching the Suchet adaptation of The ABC Murders, one of the best of the ITV Poirot series. I can understand it if people liked this, as what didn't work for me will work for them, but while I am not one to attack an adaptation for not being like the source material it is understandable also if purists will dislike this. 4/10 Bethany Cox
nutolm
I think this is one of the worst versions of an Agatha Christies novel, bad actors, and a really stupid plot and presentation. The comic performances dosn't fit at all in the book I have read - there is no more to say, I'm very disappointed. Bad movie. Tony Randall make a terrible portrait of the superb detective Hercule Poirot - I have seen his version by David Suchet in the 90s - that a very good performance. And the Swedish Anita Ekberg, I almost put away my beer when I saw her presence. Okay, great body, blond and Scandinavian - but she can't act. What pleasure me most was the cameo of Margaret Rutherford, when I've seen her earlier as Miss Jane Marple, she is really great, so I gave one point for her too - nothing more to say...Leonard.
mama-sylvia
I don't know why the producers purchased the book rights; other than a few character names, there is NO resemblance to Agatha Christie's taut suspense story. Hercule Poirot, famous for exercising only his little grey cells, leaps about and crawls under barriers. His faithful sidekick Hastings has become an inept security agent, from whom Poirot continually escapes. Poirot actually meets the intended victims except for the first one. Tony Randall does a rather good job playing this miserable excuse for Poirot, which isn't necessarily a compliment. The story and resolution are completely changed, and not for the better. If you're an Agatha Christie fan, pass this one by.
