The Alphabet Murders - 1965 film review

One of the very first crime novels I ever read was Agatha Christie's The ABC Murders. I absolutely loved the story. It was my grandmother's copy and I remember discussing the plot twists with her as I kept reading. That paperback edition was a movie tie-in, with cover images taken from the film of the book, The Alphabet Murders. I was intrigued, but I never saw the film. I learned that it was a flop and few people had a good word to say about it. Agatha Christie herself hated it. But I decided I'd like to judge it for myself, and now at last I've seen it. 

And my verdict is that, unfortunately, the panning that the movie received was well-deserved. There have been some dreadful adaptations of Agatha over the years, but this still ranks as among the worst. The problem begins with the casting of Tony Randall as Poirot - suffice to say that he's no David Suchet. He's not even a Ustinov or a Malkovich. 

The script is dismal. The writers, David Pursall and Jack Seddon, were responsible for Murder Most Foul, the film that introduced me to Agatha in the first place, so I have kindly feelings towards them, but really this isn't a great piece of writing. The director, Frank Tashlin, aimed for comedy and the result is more like The Pink Panther on a poor day than Agatha Christie, with a few eccentric camera angles thrown in for good measure.

There are some good names in the cast, although Robert Morley is as unsatisfactory a Captain Hastings as Randall is a Poirot. In many ways the highlight for me was a fleeting cameo appearance by Margaret Rutherford and Stringer Davis. I'm glad I satisfied my curiosity after so long, but suffice to say that this is a good example of how to murder a great story.