Why another one?
3 adaptions to this book have already been made until now, why a fourth?
shareWho will play poirot? Any idea? Will it be David Suchet or someone else
shareI think Kenneth Branagh has signed up as director as well as starring as Poirot. Personally the last one made with David Suchet was so superior nothing else can beat it.
There must be another Poirot story not done to death that can be transferred to the big screen.
Totally disagree, Suchet's version was rubbish and a total disapointment. I mean, ever since I first saw Suchet as Poirot, 26 years ago, that I'd been looking forward for his version of MOTOE - the most famous Poirot story with the perfect Poirot, right? You can imagine my disapointment when I saw that "thing" he made. Talk about frustrated expectations! And talk about a wasted oportunity!
But I agree, there are other Poirot stories that could be adapted, like "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd", "Murder in Mesopotamia" or "Appointment with Death". Still, I don't mind another go at this one, maybe this time they will get it right (I love the Sidney Lumet 1974 version, it's only a pitty Albert Finney was so wrong as Poirot).
You had me until you disparaged Finney...Finney is the best Poirot so far. He was totally charismatic, commanded the screen and got the character just right. Suchet is a bore in the role and Ustinov was amusing but more Ustinov than Poirot. They choose MOTOE because of the exotic location, the wide array of characters and the surprise ending...
shareYou had me until you disparaged Finney
I'm going to join the OP in disparaging Finney. I saw it at the cinema when it was first released and found Albert Finney, usually rather good, to be extremely disappointing.
As for the surprise ending, my mum, who read a lot, but not Agatha Christie as she didn't like Christie, leant over and correctly anticipated the anding halfway through the film. share
You can have your opinion of Finney, but all critics, Christie experts and the Academy disagreed with you. He still is the best portrayal of Poirot and I am confident Branaugh will be excellent too.
Good for your mother - who cares.
You can have your opinion of Finney, but all critics, Christie experts and the Academy disagreed with you. He still is the best portrayal of Poirot
1. Yes, it is my opinion. How about adding the same rider to yours? It is after all, only your opinion, not an an absolute.
2. Oh, yes. We all know that critics, etc never make mistakes, and always come to a consensus.
Good for your mother - who cares.
Don't denigrate others simply because you are a plodding thinker and have no imagination/idea of applying logic. share
Christie herself said Finney matched her idea of Poirot completely.
shareChristie herself said Finney matched her idea of Poirot completely.
Reference, please? Only if it's a book on the cinema, not a biography of Christie, thanks.
Wikipedia (I know, not always accurate) states: 'In the end, according to Christie's husband Max Mallowan, "Agatha herself has always been allergic to the adaptation of her books by the cinema, but was persuaded to give a rather grudging appreciation to this one." Christie's biographer Gwen Robyns quoted her as saying, "It was well made except for one mistake. It was Albert Finney, as my detective Hercule Poirot. I wrote that he had the finest moustache in England — and he didn't in the film. I thought that a pity — why shouldn't he?'
I love the use of the word "grudging". share
Christie herself said Finney matched her idea of Poirot completely.
If that's true, I'm shocked that she would say it. She wrote about a man who's so obsessively neat that he wouldn't eat two boiled eggs unless they were the same size and then calls Finney's portrayal a perfect match when, early in the film, he makes a big song and dance of tearing up a menu and throwing it up in the air, laughing boomingly like an ogre as he did so.
Finney was completely over-the-top as Poirot. Another misguided aspect in his portrayal was his constant mordant laughter. Not Hercule Poirot at all.
The only actor so far who really got the character was David Suchet. What some claim to dislike about his portrayal tends to sound like what they dislike about the character itself. Ustinov was just Ustinov and the less said about Alfred Molina the better. I agree the version they made with Suchet was a letdown, but the 1974 Lumet film is far from the masterpiece people's nostalgia-tinted specs are making them believe it is. There's definitely room for improvement, even if it's difficult to imagine something truly refreshing. share
Suchet suffers because the adaptations he is in are so lifeless. He also has no charisma or magnetism. His high pitched voice sounds feminine and he is a boring actor. Finney was absolutely not boring...he held the screen throughout the movie.
shareWell, if that's how you feel - ie that he's boring - then fair enough I suppose. But you still provide no quote from Christie saying Finney was exactly what she imagined (she didn't live to see Ustinov or Suchet anyway). Most Christie fans regard Suchet's portrayal as definitive; and the things you see as faults in his version are actually far closer to the character in the books than Finney, whose performance was absolutely 100% pure smoked ham and resembled Poirot in appearance only.
shareSmoked ham by one of the leading actors of his generation is leagues better than a prissy old bore like Suchet. Sorry, I can't find the quote. Was from a book about Christie where she said Finney fit her idea of Poirot perfectly except for the moustache.
shareSmoked ham by one of the leading actors of his generation is leagues better than a prissy old bore like Suchet.
Hmm, what an eloquentlyy expressed opinion. So Albert Finney, because he is "one of the leading actors of his generation" is always going to be the better choice for a role.
Would you like me to throw in a few "quotes" of how Christie was "appalled" at Finney's performance? share
Please do because I've read every word every written about Christie and have never heard anything except how she praised Finney and the film so I think your quotes are probably not genuine.
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I've read every word every written about Christie
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/apr/03/agatha-christie-alzheimers-research
If she actually did say that Finney was the best thing since sliced bread, this throws her judgment into question.
I do hope you are not implying that I am actually lying about the section I quoted from Wikipedia. I did add the rider that that was the source. share
Seconded!
shareChristie herself said Finney matched her idea of Poirot completely.
Didn't Lee Child say something similar about Tom Cruise as Reacher? share
Tom Cruise as Jack Teacher is one of the most ridiculous actor castings of all time. By about 9 inches and 100 plus pounds. And the wrong sort of road weary toughness and ability to both think and intimidate. Robert Mitchum would have been perfect.
shareYes, Tom Cruse was about as far from Reacher as you could imagine, and he actually cast himself in the role. But, most annoying was Lee Child's spin about how Reacher's size was a metaphor for his inner strength, blah, blah, blah. Why couldn't Child be honest and say I want the money and attention that goes with the making of a movie - plus all that lovely free promotion for my books?
Actually. I've not thought of him, but you"re right: Robert Mitchum would have been good as Reacher. Mitchum could be great - forget Robert DeNiro as Max Cady. Mitchum was the original and best and terribly threatening. He's sadly largely forgotten by the general public.
I always thought that Dolph Lundgren of about 20 years ago would have made a good Reacher. Perhaps not a STAR or the world's best actor, but physically appropriate. I also think that in Person Of Interest", Jim Cavaziel has the right air of menace (or did, haven't watched it for a few years).
Cheers Terry, and Jim would be very cool in the role, but might need to add a few pounds, but I like him and we enjoyed PoI until the short final season. I am sure we could find a 100 actors better than Cruise. Mitchum in Night of the Hunter or Cape Fear, but with a touch of The Sundowners character or any of his war or western films would have hit the spot, both in size, but also style. Laconic but tough as Childs should have admitted (just as you said) It's weird because if Childs isn't making enough money writing the Reacher series to be able to say what he likes, then he has a bad manager, is scared of Scientology or is just a weak **** for selling out what will become an iconic book series, but for book fans a laughable movie series. I do like many of Tom's movies, but when he has to stand on a box like the legendary Alan Ladd to kiss the leading lady then you know something is awry!!! Which is the main reason Ladd made so many movies with (the equally vertically challenged) Veronica Lake (plus their chemistry together)
I don't mind your idea of Dolph, but he tends to mumble too much to play the role of Reacher who would have to testify in a military court and would be clearly and strongly spoken and without a trace of an accent.
Some people don't like Daniel Craig as Bond simply because of his hair colour!!! Wheras I think his persona is the closest to both Fleming's Bond and Connery's perfect Bond. Connery was a working class Scot, but not many people complain about his upbringing. I just hope Craig "does it for the money" but gives us three more great Bond films. Along with some better writers. And a better villain next time. I really like Christoph Waltz, but I think he sleep walked through Spectre. I am not sure if he did this because he really thought a Bond villain should act like he did, or because he didn't give a **** but compared to many of his other performances, his character had all the substance of spoonful of Vegemite in a bucket of water.
Anyway, you have a great Christmas and thanks for the cool response.
May the movies be great in 2017 and the trolls become an extinct species.
I agree! I love Albert Finney's portrayal of Poirot, I wish he'd played him more than once! He really captured the character's inner gravitas. That version of Murder on the Orient Express is my favorite Christie adaptation, hands down! I really think it's the best. It should really be interesting to see how Branagh's version turns out.
Keeper of Rumpelstiltskin's walking stick
Lady Gold
Suchet is Poirot.
shareAs for the surprise ending, my mum, who read a lot, but not Agatha Christie as she didn't like Christie, leant over and correctly anticipated the anding halfway through the film.
You're saying that your mother, who had never read the book, correctly anticipated that every suspect on the train committed the murder only halfway through the film? How is that possible?
Please replyshare
I will reply with pleasure: as I said "As for the surprise ending, my mum, who read a lot, but not Agatha Christie as she didn't like Christie, leant over and correctly anticipated the anding halfway through the film."
We saw it together at the cinema, when it was first released, so no one had told her how it ended. As I said, she muttered in my ear that she bet that they had all done it. Had she had any prior knowledge of the ending, she certainly would not have said this to me, as she was not the sort of smug person who felt that they needed to be a know-it-all.
I was a teenager, and my main reaction to the film was how gorgeous both Sean Connery and Vanessa Redgrave (the latter, I thought, overshadowed the lovely Jacqueline Bisset) were, and that I didn't like Ingrid Bergman in her role - and I don't care if the Academy Awards disagreed with me. I thought the whole film was a bit ho-hum and never have wanted to watch it again, even though it has some of my favourite actors in it eg Richard Widmark.
I guessed that everyone had done it as well. Seemed pretty obvious when they mentioned how many times he had been stabbed.
shareI'm amazed that Finney and Suchet are the only ones who have been mentioned in this thread. To me, Peter Ustinov was by far the best Poirot, and his three movies are my favorite Christie adaptations.
Not that I don't like the 1974 Murder on the Orient Express. I also like the Joan Hickson Miss Marples. And quite a few of the Suchet TV shows, although not the most recent set.
He did more than three and the latter ones are appalingly bad.
shareIt's not a surprise ending anymore!
shareI completely agree with you about Finney. It was a total miscast. Poirot can be portrayed either somewhat ridiculous like did Ustinov, but this is not the real personality of the character, or like Suchet who did a perfect impersonation because as he explains in a documentary accompanied by Christie's heir, he took the precaution of reading all the novels prior to choose how to act. He found the right accent to speak English which is not so easy and made of Poirot what it should be a serious person who can't be mocked for his accent as a superficial study of the character could lead to. He can be sometimes frightening and that's how with his logic and keen intelligence and capacity to find the contradictions or the little evidence which will bring him to find the truth. From that point of view part of Finney's interpretation is right, but physically and the accent he uses he is wrong. I don't believe a minute Kenneth Branagh capable of playing this character too he has neither the physic or the voice to do it right whatever his talent as a great actor he may have.
shareEspecially because the amazing Suchet series screwed up Ackroyd so hugely!
shareSorry but the Suchet version was a complete and utter disaster. It was boring, cut out half the plot and the whodunit aspect. See on youtube an interview with John Curran, the Christie expert, who trashes the Suchet version and for good reason. It was appalling...
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