The Alphabet Murders
Director: Frank Tashlin
Year: 1965
Rating: 4.0
What a ghastly film. If you have even a smidgeon of respect for Agatha Christie
and her sleuth Hercule Poirot, this film is an abomination. If on the other
hand you could care less I suppose you might find this mildly entertaining
in a 60's cornball manner. The director Frank Tashlin was one of the slickest
comedy directors in the 1950's doing a few Jerry Lewis films as well as The
Girl Can't Help it and Susan Slept here. But I have no idea what he was thinking
here.
Maybe that should have been a tip-off because this mystery comedy skews heavily
towards comedy. Agatha Christie who was still alive and well said of this
film "The ABC Murders I was not allowed to see. My friends and publishers
told me the agony would be too great". Not that Christie had much better
luck with her Miss Marple character around the same time - she hated the
Margaret Rutherford films. I admit to sort of having a fondness for them
but they really are quite bad on so many levels.
I know that agony Agatha spoke of but I just finished off the book and was
curious. It is just stupid all the way through from Tony Randall's portrayal
of Poirot as a mincing old queen right out of The Birdcage to the way they
take a reasonably ok plot (far from my favorite Poirot) and basically ripped
it to shreds and then tried putting it back together in a black-out. Then
they have the nerve to have Robert Morley as Hastings his narrator in many
books ala Watson as a bumbling fool and not even really Hastings as we know
him. The only positive thing I can think of is that Anita Ekberg is in it
as the femme fatale but still the image of Poirot bowling on tippy toes will
stick with me longer than I like to think.
