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The Alphabet Murders
UK 1965
produced by Lawrence P. Bachmann for MGM
directed by Frank Tashlin
starring Tony Randall, Anita Ekberg, Robert Morley, Maurice Denham, Guy Rolfe, Sheila Allen, James Villiers, Julian Glover, Grazina Frame, Clive Morton, Cyril Luckham, Richard Wattis, David Lodge, Patrick Newell, Austin Trevor, Alison Seebohm, Windsor Davies, Sheila Reid, and in cameos: Margaret Rutherford, Stringer Davis
screenplay by David Pursall, Jack Seddon, based on the novel The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie, music by Ron Goodwin
Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple (Margaret Rutherford) (cameo)
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Hercule Poirot (Tony Randall) has come to London strictly to get a new
suit, but the Secret Service thinks his life is in danger and decides to
put him under protection by one of their agents, Hastings (Robert Morley),
and see to it that he takes the next airplane back to Brussels. Now the
Secret Service is right, as an attempt on Poirot's life is actually made,
by a mysterious lady (Anita Ekberg) later identified as Amanda. Now of
course she doesn't succeed in killing Poirot, but she does get away, and
somehow draws Poirot into a murder case. You see, only recently a water
clown with the initials A.A. has been killed, and then at a bowling alley
where Poirot is sure he'll be able to track Amanda down at, a bowling
instructor with the initials B.B. (Grazina Frame) is murdered almost
before Poirot's very eyes. Now Poirot knows he can crack this case, but
Hastings is very adamant to get him out of the country, so ever so often
Poirot gives him the slip, which more than once actually ends him in jail
and only Hastings can bail him out ... Somehow, Poirot can track Amanda
down to Dr Doncaster (Guy Rolfe), her psychiatrist who describes her as a
schizophrenic with an obsession for the alphabet - which doesn't keep
Doncaster from secretly hiding her though. Poirot meanwhile has figured
out Amanda's next prospective victim, rich industrialist Sir Carmichael
(Cyril Luckam) - but when he arrives at Carmichael's, he doesn't want to
hear nothing of it, but Poirot learns the man's wife Lady Diane (Sheila
Allen) is cheating on him with doc Doncaster while his stepbrother
Franklin (James Villiers) is a hopless gambler. All that knowledge can't
keep Sir Carmichael from being killed, or doc Doncaster, who's really next
on the list by name alone, but ultimately Poirot can track down Amanda and
chase her up a crane whence she jumps to her certain dead. Case closed, it
seems - for everybody but Poirot, who eventually figures she must have
worked in someone's employ - like Lady Diane and Franklin, who actually
only staged the murder spree to get rid of their husband/stepbrother and
get their hands on his money. But it seems there are more cards in this
game than just a full deck ... Now you've probably not guessed
it from my synopsis (but might have from the fact that cartoon
veteran-turned-slapstick director Frank Tashlin had the riegns on this
one), but this is a comedy. And while the Margaret
Rutherford Miss Marples, which were shot at the same time
(which makes her cameo herre all the more funny), were pretty hilarious
but always murder mysteries first, this one's rather full-on in its comic
approach, as the murder mystery (that deviates a great deal from Agatha
Christie's source material) is not all that well structured, doesn't 100%
make sense, and always takes backseat behind a good joke. Now of course,
this film wasn't too well-received by serious Agatha Christie fans, and
really the approach doesn't always work even - like in the very dramatic
scene where Amanda leaps to her death, the feeling just doesn't transmit
due to all the silliness happening around -, but at the same time it also
shows Tashlin's absolute mastery of (slapstick) comedy, as everything
works in almost cartoon-like precision, all set-ups are carefully laid out
to get the most out of each shot, and the director most certainly doesn't
shy away from absurdities. Now this might not even be Tashlin's best, but
it's a great watch, just to see a master at work.
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