The real treat of "Ordeal by Innocence" is the absence of Agatha Christie's famous detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple trying to solve
another mysterious case. Our hero in this intricate journey is Dr. Calgary (played by Donald Sutherland), a geophysicist who returns to an English
county to simply return a lost wallet from a man he helped two years earlier. But when he gets there, to the Argyle estate, he discovers that the
young man was not only dead but was in fact executed by authorities after the brutal murder of his mother. Case closed for the family but not for
Dr. Calgary as he can prove he was the alibi for the man and that a killer may be on the loose and within that large rich family. It's time for him
to re-open the case, but not becoming himself a potential new victim but other people as well.
It's a nice little movie conducted by Desmond Davis, with fine performances from Sutherland, Christopher Plummer, Faye Dunaway, Sarah Miles, Michael Elphick, Diana Quick, Michael Maloney, Annette Crosbie, and Ian McShane (who steals the show). The story has an adequate progression in slowly developing the mysteries and the suspense of it all is fun to watch, and I loved the fact that this doctor turned investigator wasn't so the spectacular man who knows everything beforehand as usually Dame Christie used to write, he's prone to mistakes and misjudgments yet his quest for justice is interesting to watch. The deeper he gets into the Argyle family secrets (from adoption to incest and a fight for heritage), the more intriguing and peculiar it gets - and dangerous too. I absolutely loved the ending, very satisfying and surprising.
It's fine and watchable except for one thing that may destroy the enjoyment to some viewers: the music score. Has to be the worst soundtrack ever given to a film - or at least very close to that effect. For absolute ridiculous reasons, the studio decided to replace the score provided by Pino Donaggio ("Dressed to Kill") and went instead with jazzman Dave Brubeck and compositions that were not made for the film, it's materials he already had released. It simply does not fit the movie in no possible way. It's laughable when you see Sutherland being chased by a car or some killing is about to happen and you have full jazz themes being played out, very loudly. It's not that the music is bad (Brubeck is a very talented musician) but it does not have to be in the picture. It's awfully distracting and almost ruin the experience - I couldn't help but laugh or shake my head time and again.
Obvious that more demanding viewers won't find much excitment or curiosity in it, but I still find it quite enjoyable, one of those things you watch on lazy nights when there's nothing better to do or maybe you don't want to rewatch anything and definitely needs to look back at some forgotten film. This one's quite right for those nights. 7/10.
It's a nice little movie conducted by Desmond Davis, with fine performances from Sutherland, Christopher Plummer, Faye Dunaway, Sarah Miles, Michael Elphick, Diana Quick, Michael Maloney, Annette Crosbie, and Ian McShane (who steals the show). The story has an adequate progression in slowly developing the mysteries and the suspense of it all is fun to watch, and I loved the fact that this doctor turned investigator wasn't so the spectacular man who knows everything beforehand as usually Dame Christie used to write, he's prone to mistakes and misjudgments yet his quest for justice is interesting to watch. The deeper he gets into the Argyle family secrets (from adoption to incest and a fight for heritage), the more intriguing and peculiar it gets - and dangerous too. I absolutely loved the ending, very satisfying and surprising.
It's fine and watchable except for one thing that may destroy the enjoyment to some viewers: the music score. Has to be the worst soundtrack ever given to a film - or at least very close to that effect. For absolute ridiculous reasons, the studio decided to replace the score provided by Pino Donaggio ("Dressed to Kill") and went instead with jazzman Dave Brubeck and compositions that were not made for the film, it's materials he already had released. It simply does not fit the movie in no possible way. It's laughable when you see Sutherland being chased by a car or some killing is about to happen and you have full jazz themes being played out, very loudly. It's not that the music is bad (Brubeck is a very talented musician) but it does not have to be in the picture. It's awfully distracting and almost ruin the experience - I couldn't help but laugh or shake my head time and again.
Obvious that more demanding viewers won't find much excitment or curiosity in it, but I still find it quite enjoyable, one of those things you watch on lazy nights when there's nothing better to do or maybe you don't want to rewatch anything and definitely needs to look back at some forgotten film. This one's quite right for those nights. 7/10.