Dead Man's Folly (TV Movie 1986)

Dead Man's Folly (TV Movie 1986). 1h 30m | Not Rated

“There has been (so far) only one definitive screen Poirot and that is David Suchet. As much as I admired the art of the late Sir Peter Ustinov, he was always completely miscast in this role. He was nothing like the character that Agatha Christie envisaged, i.e. an over-fastidious dapper little man who had a mincing walk, a bald egg-shaped head and a dark waxed moustache. Peteru0026#39;s rotund shape, with crumpled clothes and a crumpled moustache to match, would make her, and indeed Poirot himself, turn in their graves. However, Ustinov, as he usually does in this role, and probably deliberately, hams it up (likewise the entire cast) with enthusiastic gusto, but again I suspect, not entirely as Miss Christie would have imagined it.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eJonathon Cecil plays Capt Hastings as if he was a complete moron. Although not blessed with the same u0026quot;little grey cellsu0026quot; as his companion, Hastings was not written as a fool, and in fact had supposedly been in Military Intelligence, which (although suggested in the film), is not a place for idiots.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOverall this movie (as with all Ustinovu0026#39;s portrayals of the character) is to Poirot, as burlesque is to the legitimate theatre, but so what? Itu0026#39;s enjoyable to watch, and thatu0026#39;s what entertainment is all about.”