Customer Reviews

Appointment With Death [VHS]

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I saw this movie in the theater when it was released in the late 1980s and love all the Peter Ustinov Hercule Poirot films. Why isn't this on DVD? I don't buy VHS tapes anymore, but if this was released on DVD I would buy it immediately for my Poirot collection. If anyone from the movie studio/distributor reads these reviews, please release this movie on DVD!!!!!

I really enjoyed this film, whose highlight is Peter Ustinov, as he plays Hercule Poirot for the sixth and final time. It was as enjoyable as Death on the Nile and Piper Laurie gives a brilliant performance as the malevolent stepmother. The film has a very nice soundtrack composed by Pino Donnagio.

Certainly a nice change from thr three made for TV films in which Ustinov stars as Poirot, which are excellent too, namely Thirteen at Dinner and Murder in Three Acts, and Dead Man's Folly, but Ustinov's full potential is really unleashed in the big-screen appearances.

Move over David Suchet! There is only one Hercule Poirot, that is Sir Peter Ustinov.

The matriarch of a brood of ineffectual children lords it over them and bullies them almost beyond enduring. They put up with their stepmother because their father's will left everything to her (or did it?) and the children are such wimps they cannot support themselves. Did I mention that the matriarch was once a matron in a women's prison? By the time ...gets bumped off, the viewer will be ready to cheer. But every child has a motive (the money), the means (access to mom's medicine for the overdose), and the opportunity (nobody has an alibi). There are even a few bystanders with ample motive. Not to fear, the redoubtable Hercule Poirot is on the scene to untie this whodunnit's Gordian Knot. He eavesdrops on everyone's conversations, rakes everyone over the coals with his scathing interrogations, and handily exposes the killer.

This all happens in the Middle East, as Poirot vacations in the Holy Land. The environs of Jerusalem provide some beautiful background, and the viewer visits the dusty digs at Qumran, the site of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The movie follows the book pretty well, but I was disappointed that the producer moved the scene of the murder from Petra to Qumran. The beautiful architecture of Petra would have made for more satisfying visuals than the excavation holes of Qumran. Remember the fabulous building in the side of the mountain from "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade?" That's Petra.

Peter Ustinov serves as a passable Poirot, but he's too big and too unkempt to capture the charm of Christie's Poirot. David Suchet, star of the A&E Poirot series, sets the standard against which all other video Poirots must suffer. Lauren Bacall almost stole the show with her rendition of an American-born M.P. who tried to out-English the native born English.

This is one of the best movie based on Agatha Christie's novel. Featuring class actors such as Lauren Bacall, Peter Ustinov, Hayley Mills, Carrie Fisher...,we get an array of characters that make very good suspects. However, it is Piper Laurie's magnificent performance as Emily Boynton that deserves most credit because she plays her character so well that it reduces any sympathy that the audiences might have for her. Who else can try to poison her lawyer in the presence of her step-children without being corny, except the talented Piper Laurie?

I think Michael Winner made a great adaptation of "Appointment With Death". They picked just the right actors to fit the parts.

The story is about the Boynton family on a 30's Holy Land tour. Mrs. Boynton (Piper Laurie) and her long suffering children Lennox (Nicholas Guest), Nadine (Carrie Fisher), Carol (Valerie Richards), Raymond (John Terlesky) and Ginevera visit Europe and the Holy Land. But their lawyer, Jefferson Cope (David Soul), secretly joins them. Mrs. Boynton makes enemies with everyone she meets. Including Lady Westholme (Lauren Bacall), Miss Quinton (Hayley Mills) and Dr. Sarah King (Jenny Seagrove). John Gielgud makes an appearance as Colonel Carbury.

I hope you enjoy this movie as much as I do!

Ustinov made six appearances as Christie's Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, and while the rest are masterpieces which very closely followed Christie's books, this one made some significant variations. While the location is excellent, the cast certainly high powered, and Ustinov's performance certainly outstanding, this movie dragged throughout the first half of the movie, and the second half wasn't much better. It might be the reason why this seems to be the only one of Ustinov's Poirot movies still not available on DVD, or maybe because it was produced by that pioneer of B movies, Cannon Films. If you enjoy Hercule Poirot, then you should get this movie for collection purposes only.

This is the third in the series of big screen adaptations to star Peter Ustinov as Hercule Poirot. Unfortunately for him, the director for this movie was the abomination of a British director, Michael Winner. Despite this handicap, 'Appointment With Death' does prove to be a reasonably entertaining outing for the famous Belgian detective, thanks in part to the great Christie source material and a couple of outstanding performances in the cast.

The exotic locale of an archaelogical dig in the Middle East is the setting for murder, as an American family is on vacation, very much under the thumb of their domineering stepmother (no prizes for guessing the murder victim). Hercule Poirot happens to be on holiday there as well and steps in to solve a murder where everyone has a motive, means and opportunity. Peter Ustinov appears to relish the chance to have another stab at Poirot and is clearly enjoying himself. However the acting honours go to the great American actreses, Piper Laurie as the sinister Mrs Boynton and Lauren Bacall as the wife of a British MP. While these two are on the screen, the film crackles with tension and in their one brief scene together, you can only hope for more. The remainder of the cast are largely one dimensional characters (particularly John Gielgud, coasting on to another paycheque) and don't add a lot to this movie.

This is certainly not in the same class as the previous Ustinov Poirots but nevertheless it is always great to see Agatha Christie's work on screen, even if it is in the hands of a fourth-rate director.

Mr. Boynton (whom we never see) passes away. Mrs. Emily Boynton (Piper Laurie) who used to be a matron in a prison is hard as tacks. She blackmails the family lawyer (David Soul) into burning a recent will, and preserving an earlier one that gave everything to Emily. Emily gets even nastier with her children and step children. It does not stop there she snubs just about everyone. So guess who gets killed.

This movie has everything that makes an Agatha Christie movie great. Everyone is a suspect. Everybody could have done it. Only Hercule Poirot (Peter Ustinov) can figure this out. Naturally Hercule Poirot is in the right place at the right time to hear everything and extract the truth.

You need to add this one to your collection.

For pity's sake, the other five Ustinov Poirots are on DVD...this is the only one that isn't. Come on already!

After the success of Death on the Nile (1978) and Evil Under the Sun (1982) and three tv-movies Thirteen At Dinner (1985-tv), Dead Man's Folly (1986-tv), Murder In Three Acts (1986-tv), Peter Ustinov returns as Belgian Detective, Hercule Poirot for the sixth and final time in this motion picture, Appointment With Death (1988). Piper Laurie is a wealthy, well-to-do woman at the reading of a will by her attourney (David Soul, original "Starsky & Hutch" tv series) of her dead husband. There are two wills. One will means less money to the widow and the step-children get an amount. In an act of blackmail, the attourney is forced to destroy one of the wills. Why does this woman put her "medicine" in a poison glass bottle. David Soul, the attourney, is having a romance with one of the widow's adult step-children. Cast also includes: Lauren Bacall, Carrie Fisher, John Gielgud, Hayley Mills (The Moon-Spinners), Jenny Seagrove, Nicholas Guest. Filmed in Israel, London and Italy.