We were saddened to see an excellent Agatha Christie story ruined by such bad direction and acting. David Suchet as Inspector Japp was the only nice touch. In fact whenever he was on screen he stole the show. Peter Ustinov was good, but all the overacting around him actually diminished him. Faye Dunaway and the rest of the cast overacted. I guess they were trying to parody the English impression of boisterous Hollywood types (maybe they are right for that). And why portray Hastings as such a pitiful fop. The bad tone was set in the first 5 minutes with the David Frost interview and character interaction. If we had known the whole movie was going to continue on such a bad trend we would have stopped it.
Review of Thirteen at Dinner
Thirteen at Dinner
(1985 TV Movie)
Certainly not the best Poirot....maybe the worst
1 September 2007