Product Details

• Actors: David Suchet, Zoe Wanamaker, Alexander Siddig, David Westhead
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Run Time: 94 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000M1A5K2
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #230,675 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Appalling, July 7, 2007

By 

L O'connor (richmond, surrey United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Agathie Christie's Poirot - Cards on the Table (DVD)

'Cards on the Table' is one of my favourite Poirot novels, but this TV film has made a ghastly mess of the original story. Characters have been changed, or entirely replaced by other characters. A character who killed someone by accident in the book, is in this film version made out to have killed deliberately. The two girls have their roles swapped,so that the one who is the murderer in the book, is the innocent one in the film. The girl who is supposed to be guilty (but who in the film is made out to be innocent) turns out to be the daugther of one of the other characters (in the book they aren't related at all). And I need hardly say that there is no mention whatsoever of gay porn in the book. Most annoying of all, Superintendant Battle, who is one of Agatha Christie's best creations, does not appear in this film version at all.

The whole thing is absolutely maddening. If you watch this, do not imagine that it bears any resemblance at all to the original book, because it doesn't.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lushly Appointed Production *Spoilers*, August 7, 2007

By 

C. Cook (Ladera Ranch, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Agathie Christie's Poirot - Cards on the Table (DVD)

"Cards On the Table" gets a lot of negative reviews for the way it derivates from the original novel. Specifically, people take issue with the homosexual elements added to the story. However, despite these changes, the screenplay is surprisingly faithful to the book otherwise. How is this possible? Well, mostly because the final "twists" are added on top of the original storyline. For example, a man in the book who was having an affair with a woman, turns out to be having an affair with the woman's husband. Does this dramatically change the story? Well, I suppose if you are freaked out by the overt depiction of homosexuality in an Agatha Christie film then you will find this appalling. But it's ultimately an adaption. If you don't like it, go read the novel. It remains there, unspoiled.

Otherwise, this in an engaging production, nicely shot and well cast. Zoe Wannamaker makes a somewhat more morose Mrs. Oliver than I pictured, but she has left room to play it a little lighter in future productions. Suchet has deepened the character of Poirot, and he looks more and more like a haunted man. I suspect he is preparing the character for the depths he will reach in "Curtain." The storyline, while not one of Christie's most inventive or engaging, is serviceable. The changes give it a bit of energy the rather pedestrian climax of the novel lacked. The Suchet series has been so wonderfully faithful to the Christie canon--are we really going to freak out when they make some changes to the stories? The victim's homosexuality was strongly hinted at in the Christie novel, and the screenwriter ran with that. All in all, I found the adaption engaging, interesting, and respectful. A good screenplay is more than word-for-word translation of a novel.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An unusual but delightful film that is different than what Christie wrote, November 1, 2011

By 

Israel Drazin (Boca Raton, Florida) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Agathie Christie's Poirot - Cards on the Table (DVD)

David Suchet, who has played the villain in other films, is, as usual, superb as Hercule Poirot in this somewhat unusual tale. Poirot is invited together with four people, his friend the crime novelist Adriane Oliver, who adds some humor to the adventure, and two police officers, to an evening with the rather strange, very rich, Mr. Shaitana, apparently a Syrian. Shaitana tells Poirot that he is unusual in that he enjoys taking pictures of people and collecting murderers, not their pictures, but the people themselves. After a sumptuous meal, he has his guests play bridge, while he watches them for some time. However, after a while, he sits down in a large chair with high side arms that conceal him from view, and is later, after the several bridge games, found dead, stabbed through the heart. The police find that he has also been drugged. Poirot spend the rest of the film interviewing the guests, and discovers that each of them has a secret that Shaitana apparently knew about, them even though they tried to hide the secrets. Poirot has to find out why Shaitana invited these guests to his home, who drugged him, who stabbed him, and why.

The film is different than the book, book is still delightful.