Murder in Three Acts
                  
          
Director: Gary Nelson
Year: 1986
Rating: 5.5
I just finished the Agatha Christie novel the other day of the same name and was curious to see how it was transferred to film. Generally not very well but still entertaining. Peter Ustinov was Hercule Poirot in six films from 1978 to 1988. Three of them - Death on the Nile, Evil Under the Sun, Appointment with Death - were released theatrically while the other three - Thirteen at Dinner, Dead Man's Folly and this one - were made for TV with obviously much smaller budgets. With interest in Poirot once again out there after Murder on the Oriental Express, it is nice to see Christie being talked about again - not that she needs much help as she is perhaps the best selling author of all time. Next up for this new series is Death on the Nile.



The problem with this one may stem from the fact that it is not one of Christie's better books. I figured everything out about 140 pages before Poirot did. That may be because Poirot doesn't really show up till the third act in any significant way (not so in the film). And for financial or weather reasons they move the film to Mexico and California while the book takes place primarily in England. The cast includes a bunch of names who were sort of known back then for their TV appearances - Lisa Eichhorn, Dana Eclar, Diana Muldaur - and Tony Curtis in his Guest Appearance phase of his career. In his white shorts and long white socks he mainly just looks silly. Hastings who is not in the book is played in a totally simpy faced manner by Jonathan Cecil. He is also in the other two TV movies as Hasting. He and Poirot are like two old gay married men doing Laurel and Hardy.



The mystery itself though is not bad. Hastings and Poirot are invited to Acapulco to stay at the home of a retired famous actor - played by Curtis of course. In a cocktail party that brought back nightmares of parties I used to go to where everyone strains to make clever conversation and all I could think of was when could I politely leave, a guest takes a drink and keels over and dies. If only I had been so lucky. Everyone assumes it was a stroke and we move on to the second act. A year later another party is thrown and another person dies - this time definitely from poison. Poirot was not at this murder but returns to the scene of the crime. The declamation that always comes at the end of these films takes a long while as Poirot spins his tale of what happened. If someone had not read the book, perhaps it would have been a surprise.