Have Your Say

Discuss Poirot

Talk about everything Poirot related!

Finney or Ustinov

Det13jack 28 Dec 08 at 6:54 p.m. GMT

Who do you prefer as Poirot: Finney or Ustinov

Login or register to add posts and reply

20 replies

Reverse order

Det13jack 28 Dec 08 at 6:57 p.m. GMT

I prefer Albert Finney. In my opinion he came closest to the character aside from David Suchet.

ariadnepoirotmarple 28 Dec 08 at 9:44 p.m. GMT

I prefer Peter Ustinov way way better. Although he wasn't as perfect as David Suchet, he could portray some of the detective main characteristics. Albert Finney was so... hum... he wasn't Poirot! The character he played wasn't Poirot, definitely. Not even one of Poirot's characteristics was portrayed by him, in my opinion.

Tommy_A_Jones 01 Jan 09 at 1:46 p.m. GMT

I prefer Albert Finney, he looks more like my idea of Poirot than Ustinov does, Ustinov was more a Charecature of Poirot, I love his portrayal though and the Poirot films he was in but prefer Finney's portrayal after Suchet and Holm that is but Ustinov was waaaaay better than Molina.

ariadnepoirotmarple 01 Jan 09 at 11:08 p.m. GMT

Physically Albert Finney is better, no doubt.

Tommy_A_Jones 02 Jan 09 at 1:30 p.m. GMT

If you close your eyes and listen to all the Poirot's From and including Finney they all sound perfect (Except for Alfred Molina - He's a good actor but he should not have played Poirot.

cinnamonhead 06 Jan 09 at 11:15 p.m. GMT

I like Peter Ustinovs' Poirot better. To me Albert Finney seems to be trying to hard. Tony Randall was the worst Poirot and of course David Suchet is wonderful, I can't imagine anyone I'd like to see in the role other than him.

Tommy_A_Jones 11 Jan 09 at 4:13 p.m. GMT

I would love to have seen Tony Randall playing him, He would really have to have been terrible to be worse than Alfred Molina

AndThenThereWasTim 23 Jan 09 at 12:14 a.m. GMT

Hmm good question.. I think Finney looked better, but Ustinov played the role better in SOME of the movies.

pnerd 23 Jan 09 at 1:51 p.m. GMT

Poirot is not an easy character to portray. But still, in my opinion, Finney and Ustinov both did great jobs. They portrayed the character differently of course, but I liked both their portrayals.

MacMar 08 Apr 12 at 8:53 p.m. GMT

well, I don't really have a preference but, Finney looked more the part that Ustinov did...but of course the best Poirot and the one who fit the description the most was David Suchet

Tommy_A_Jones 09 Apr 12 at 10:28 a.m. GMT

Ustinov showed the Comedic side of Poirot but Finney looked like Poirot, The Book that Finney did is hard to nessup although IMHO both Molina and Suchet versions showed this isn't the case as both were not good IMHO, I can't picture Ustinov in Murder On The Orient Express but I can picture Finney in Evil Under The Sun and Death On The Nile but having said that I liked those films immensely

cameronjhw 09 Apr 12 at 12:57 p.m. GMT

Now this is a interesting as well as a tough question to answer but for my answer it can be summed up like this.  I like Ustinov because he seems to capture the humorous side of Poirot as well as the human qualities like his concern for Jackie de Bellefort (played by Mia Farrow) in Death on the Nile (which is my all-time favorite that features Ustinov).  But he physically does not look like Poirot and while he was good in Death on the Nile and Evil Under the Sun I thought some of his later Poirot films were not that good.  Albert Finney I never, never cared for when I saw him in the 1974 version of Murder on the Orient Express.  I really liked the film only because of the other marvelous actors who supported Finney's Poirot like Ingrid Bergman as Greta, Richard Widmark as Ratchett/Cassetti, Lauren Bacall as Mrs. Hubbard/Linda Arden, Sean Connery as Colonel Arbuthnot, and Martin Balsam as Bianchi among others. Finney looked creepy in his Poirot make-up and his so-called Belgian accent was weird.  I would also like to add that I saw Alfred Molina's portrayal of Poirot in the contemporary version of MOTOE and I certainly did not like him nor the film.  To me the only Poirot that I truly liked is of course none other than David Suchet.  He fits the role to a capital P (P for Poirot, of course).

Tommy_A_Jones 09 Apr 12 at 1:35 p.m. GMT

I wonder cameron, if you wrote a list of the Ustinov Films in which he plays Poirot and those books in order of Preference you would find that the Book is in ther same correwsponding place as the adaptation, It might be you don't like the later books which were filmed by Ustinov which might have a bearing on your Opinion, I don't think Appointment With Death or Lord Edgware Dies are as good as Evil Under The Sun or Death On The Nile Dead Man's Folly is also Great, I think Three-Act Tragedy and Murder In Three Acts are the bottom of each list.

cameronjhw 09 Apr 12 at 2:06 p.m. GMT

That is very interesting what you said. I do however like the later Poirot books like Dead Man's Folly but I could not picture the wife of Archie Bunker (Jean Stapleton) on All in the Family play the mystery writer Ariadne Oliver. I saw Murder in Three Acts with Tony Curtis as Charles Cartwright and I thought it was interesting to set the story in the tropics but it seems the rest of the cast was rather dull especially the actor who played Hastings (Jonathan Small). Appointment with Death was fun to watch because it brought back Lauren Bacall and John Gielgud (from MOTOE) but also I thought the actress who played the wicked Mrs. Boynton (Piper Laurie) was terrific as the tyrannical matriarch and that film version seemed to match the original novel. Lord Edgware Dies I didn't really like because I don't like Faye Dunaway portrayal as the attractive and murderous Jane Wilkinson and also even though David Suchet was in that film but I thought his performance as Japp was awful and could defintely not see him in that part. The way how I judge the movie adapatations with the original Christie novels is the actors and how close the plot corresponds with the book and in the film.  So for me this is my list of favorite Poirot film adpatations:

Murder on the Orient Express-Albert Finney

Death on the Nile-Peter Ustinov

Evil Under the Sun-Peter Ustinov

Appointment with Death-Peter Ustinov

SpearmintHippo 09 Apr 12 at 7:03 p.m. GMT

thats like being asked if you'd rather be poisoned or shot! Both men were absolutely awful as Poirot.  I recently watched Dead Mans Folly with Ustinov - it was absolutely dreadful!

Tommy_A_Jones 10 Apr 12 at 12:39 p.m. GMT

I think Jean Stapleton as Ariadne Oliver was Great and I could visualise her as Ariadne, I think it was an excellent idea having Ariadne meet Hastings who was actually played by Jonathon Cecil, I agree with you about MURDER IN THREE ACTS I couldn't visualise Tony Curtis as Sir Charles Cartwright, I think David Suchet, Jonathon Cecil and Peter Ustinov saved THIRTEEN AT DINNER I loved everything about EVIL UNDER THE SUN and DEATH ON THE NILE so much so I bought the Soundtracks of both films, I thought APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH Had a Great Cast and was good in places and I thought MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS was Good, This is my list preference;

EVIL UNDER THE SUN                 - Ustinov

DEATH ON THE NILE                   - Ustinov

DEAD MAN'S FOLLY                   - Ustinov

ORIENT EXPRESS                       - Finney

13 AT DINNER                            -  Ustinov

APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH - Ustinov

MURDER IN THREE ACTS        - Ustinov  

famouspoirot 16 Apr 12 at 10:52 a.m. GMT

Neither.David Suchet

andreasc 03 May 12 at 7:51 a.m. GMT

The answer to this one is easy. None of those two. When you have seen David Suchet play Poirot in his cool and slick style and with that imppecable Belgian accent then you realize of course that there is no comparison with the previous two. Yes David Sucet's Poirot is top of the list by far.

codebreaking 03 May 12 at 1:15 p.m. GMT

None of them, David Suchet is the best Poirot

Tommy_A_Jones 03 May 12 at 2:08 p.m. GMT

Finney only had 1 Crack of the whip whereas Ustinov had 6 so it is unfair to judge these 2