Mundane Attempt

Rating: 5/10 (23 November 2017)

O.K. O.K. I have watched the 1974 all-star Sidney Lumet directed version over a dozen times and still consider it the superior version, even better than the recent one on the made-for-PBS-TV one with David Suchet as Poirot. This version, sadly for me, diverts into some pretty cheesy melodrama, and events which do not appear in either former films and I am now going to re-read Agatha's novel to see if they indeed are in the book. I don't think so. My biggest complaint with this version is that it is anti-climactic in how the director treats the actual murder scene. He breezed thru it with only close up's of the "stabbers" whereas the older versions draw out the scene with a further identity of each of them from their individual comments whilst thrusting the blade and even how the each of them vary in how they DO thrust it. Sir John Guilgud in the first version almost dissects the body while poor Ingrid Bergman can hardly pierce it. Very great scene. Also, it is interesting to not that in the Suchet version, Poroit is a deeply religious Catholic and portrayed as such, which is a significant explanation over his torment in concluding the "first version" of the crime is the one he must choose to report. I encourage anyone who has not see either version before, to at least view the 1974 one to compare. Thank You.