Product Details

• Actors: Donald Sutherland, Faye Dunaway, Christopher Plummer, Sarah Miles, Ian McShane
• Format: NTSC
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: MGM/UA Video
• VHS Release Date: February 20, 2001
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000059ZXN
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #323,291 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mature Mystery, August 17, 2002

By 

kreider49 "kreider49" (Springboro, OH United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Ordeal by Innocence (Amazon.com Exclusive) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is not the usual light mystery associated with Agatha. Here she has called up the more mature dark Victorian style of her English heritage. I like the change and the unbalanced ending (more real-life.)

5.0 out of 5 stars enjoyable, July 29, 2011

By 

jdl - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Ordeal by Innocence (Agatha Christie) (VHS Tape)

I want to tell you that this movie was very enjoyable and I will keep on watching it from time to time. Thank you for your service.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars once the murder was solved, the real mystery began, July 12, 2001

By 

Peter Shelley "petershelley" (Sydney, New South Wales Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ordeal by Innocence (Amazon.com Exclusive) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I can't recall a music score that has so blighted a film since the rock songs that drown out the dialogue in Hal Ashby's Coming Home, and the last thing a whodunnit needs is distraction. Director Desmond Davis uses the score by Dave Brubeck so unnecessarily that it spoils the odd moment when it is actually effective, and also undermines his interesting use of cross-cutting. Agatha Christie's mysteries are like jigsaw puzzles, and the fun is trying to keep ahead of the investigator, when bodies are piling up and the suspects multiplying. And the setup here of an innocent man convicted and hanged hiding the real killer has an innovative twist. Given genre conventions we're prepared to accept the notion of Donald Sutherland as the dead man's alibi, returning to seek out the truth, even though he isn't a policeman (he's a palentologist ie digging up the past) and even if Sutherland wearing a high coloured coat poses like Dracula. And Davis supplies the thriller cliches - a screaming cat, a near miss gunshot, a murderous chasing car, with filming in Dartmouth England providing smoky locations. The use of flashbacks during a confession (in black and white so we get it) is an attempt to make the material less talking heads, but the repetition of dialogue as memory for emphasis seems odd. The adaptation by Alexander Stuart features a funny exchange - "He didn't do it, he loved her. That's usually a pretty good motive for murder", as the murdered, Faye Dunaway looks very beautiful in flashback, and Sara Miles is fun as a drunk, but the climax as revelation is rather low-key, and the final act denied it's heroic due.