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Appointment With Death

Hercules 07 Sep 10 at 1:23 p.m. GMT

Saw this the other night as missed it last Christmas. Heard it was dire but was looking forwrd to making my own mind up. It was truly dire, cant believe the nonsense that had to endure from start to finish, grabbed the boof afterwards and read it in three days as a sort of medicine!! I was actually quite depressed about ti if truth be known!!

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SpearmintHippo 03 Nov 10 at 10:56 p.m. GMT

I enjoyed the book, I thought it was great.  The adaptation on the other hand.....was rubbish.  It resembled the book in name only, the setting was changed, the characters were changed, the motive was changed and the addition of Lord Boynton was bizarre! And don't even get me started on the nuns lol.  I can only hazard a guess that the writer was under the influence of mind altering drugs when he wrote the screen play!

Santonix 30 Oct 10 at 10:06 p.m. GMT

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I just saw it this past weekend. I'm no stickler when it comes to adaptations -- Cards on the Table is one of my favorites -- but bad drama is bad drama. That ending with Lady Westholme AND Dr. Gerard being involved? And Nanny is "convinced" to off herself? The writer of this one sacrificed clues, continuity, and logic just so they could shock in the denouement! At least the other episodes have clues to help you follow along; this one just had Poirot leaping to odd conclusions that just happened to be correct!

Tommy_A_Jones 15 Oct 10 at 3:30 p.m. GMT

I think I heard tha David Suchet thinks this is the best so far and is very Proud of it, While I don't think it is the worst as that is definitely Cards On The Table I think it comes 2nd but not a Close 2nd.

Cicely 08 Oct 10 at 4:25 p.m. GMT

I haven't seen Appointment with Death yet, however, your observations apply to most of the others in the series, as well.  I have always looked forward the newest release coming out, but not anymore.  I don't understand the motivation in making an Agatha Christie mystery into a movie if the end product hardly resembles the original at all.  Why would the superb Poirot, David Suchet, accept these roles? 

Delicious_Death 08 Oct 10 at 4:12 p.m. GMT

I recently bought the Poirot DVD Collection containing Series 1 to Series 11, and have now seen Appointment with Death for the first time.  This production bears no resemblance to the book.  There is a raft of characters never conceived by Agatha Christie, and instead of her carefully constructed plot we are presented with a farrago of nonsense including just about every sub-plot known to man - white slave trading, a devilish nun, the skull of John the Baptist, child abuse, a lunatic nanny, and much, much more!

The peerless David Suchet's performance as Poirot is unimpaired despite the drivelling script, and there are some scenes in the hotel that are quite pretty to look at, but that is about all I can say in favour of this otherwise dismal production.

If Agatha Christie's characters and plots are not considered good enough to film, why bother to film them?  It seems somewhat fraudulent to offer this tripe as being the work of Agatha Christie, or even as being "based on" her work.  Previous episodes have undergone minimal tinkering and have been essentially faithful to the books, so what happened here?

GKCfan 09 Sep 10 at 8:19 p.m. GMT

I've been reading Christie's work for about seventeen and a half years now.  I started in January of fifth grade, and by September of seventh grade I had read all of her novels.  It took until college for me to track down some her plays and Mary Westmacotts and poems.

I think that emphasizing Poirot's religion helps ground his moral compass.  Why does he keep investigating, especially when he rarely profits financially?  Indeed, he often inconveniences himself greatly for strangers. I note that most of Christie's detectives have strong religious backgrounds.  Miss Marple is actively involved in church-related things in St. Mary Mead, and many of her friends and relatives are ministers or married to clergymen.  Tuppence is the daughter of a clergyman and is in the habit of carrying her Bible around with her.  I think that their strong religious faith isn't heavily stressed, but the occasional mentions make it clear that it is a factor in their characters.

MissQuin 09 Sep 10 at 3:26 p.m. GMT

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I agree with your post GKC, your always so knowlegable about all things Chrisite related. Have you been reading them a long time?

But Poirot's Religion does have usually have quite brief mentions, rather that being a huge plot theme like in the recent adaptations. I assume it's because of them wanting to give Poirot episodes  that deep serious tone, to have him praying and looking pious.

Fake nuns being killed by buzzards, what will they think of next?!

GKCfan 09 Sep 10 at 7:19 a.m. GMT

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Poirot's religious inclinations are more frequent in the books than people seem to think.  He attends church multiple times, and a church hymn in One, Two Buckle My Shoe leads him to the solution.  (Poirot has been known to attend Anglican services, but only when he going out with his hosts in the country and a Catholic church is not readily available.)  He professes to be a practicing Catholic in "The Chocolate Box," Curtain, and Taken at the Flood (you already mention some of these).

The fake nun in Appointment snuck away and stole a car while everyone else was distracted by the confessions and double suicide.  She had never fully recovered from the blow to the head than Ginny gave her during the attempted kidnapping.  She ought to have gotten full bed rest, but the excitement and events kept her moving.  You can see in her final scene that the wound on her forehead has opened up again, so what probably happened is that overexertion caused her head wound to affect her and make her pass out after the car broke down.  She then probably died of head trauma complications, heat exposure, or the buzzards, or a combination of these.

MissQuin 08 Sep 10 at 5:07 p.m. GMT

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Was it that there wasn't enough evidence to convict her? But she got her just desserts- in the desert!

I wonder if Labours Of Hercules adapt will have the nuns in it? It might be too much nun's. I don't recall if there was any in After The funeral, which were in the book I think.

Tommy_A_Jones 08 Sep 10 at 5:06 p.m. GMT

Thankyou Miss Quin, but why was she alowed to wander of into the Desert instead of being arrested?

MissQuin 08 Sep 10 at 4:48 p.m. GMT

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Thanks GKC. I had doubts over her really being a nun. But why an earth add her? I couldn't see the use of the plot either. It just seems almost like an unfunny joke, after the Nemesis fiasco. Big fat waste of time is adaptlly put!

I wonder if it was just another way of Poirot's Religousness coming into fore? There are perhaps three stories where his Religion play a part in the story -The Labours Of Hercules, Taken at the Flood and The chocolate box. But other than that, Poirot dosn't strike me as overtly devout. But we saw Poirot giving Ginny that cross at the end, all because of the fact he didn't want her to lose faith.  Poirot being the good Catholic again.

I didn't like the change of murder method. That stuff with the goat's blood, well it's just didn't seem very plasiable. I liked the orginal plot better. Sometimes changes in adapts are for the better. But for me, it didn't feel that way. It seemed to over complicate the story.

I also felt that one of the things I liked about the book, was that the family are shown years later. Theyve gradually managed to pull through their hard times and live normal happy lives. Ginny quotes Cymberline at then end.

The evil "nun" died of the heat in the desert though I think Tommy.

Tommy_A_Jones 08 Sep 10 at 3:51 p.m. GMT

I agree with all the points raised, I felt that probably the reason Physical abuse was changed from Mental abuse (Although the way the Victim wasd hateed by her step-children and her treatment of her own daughter suggests Mental abuse was evident) is because sadly people understand (Although I think that might be the wrong word) Physical abuse moree than Mental or Psychological abuse, I thought John Hannah, Cheryl Campbell and Emma Cunliffe were great aswell as the Female Murderer, I didn't understand why The Nun was allowed to wander off into the Desert if shew was a Criminal, Am I right in saying David Suchet says this was his best? I dissagree, There are far more which are much better, It just isn't my Least Favourite. 

GKCfan 08 Sep 10 at 6:38 a.m. GMT

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They didn't come right out and say it, but it's implied that Sister Agnieszka isn't really a nun.  Other than her behavior and the way she jettisons her Bible and veil at the end, there are some other clues.  For example, in one scene with Ginny, Agnieszka quotes from the King James Bible.  This is a Protestant version of the Bible.  If she were a real nun during the 1930's, she would almost certainly use the Douay Bible if she needed an English biblical translation.  Of course, she is heard praying in one dramatic scene while alone, although many method actors try to behave in character in private (there is a wonderful debate about this in reference to a scene in the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movie (The Scarlet Claw).  Nevertheless, human traffickers have been known to pretend to be authority figures to deflect suspicion.  

Frankly, I thought her whole subplot was a big fat waste of time.

MissQuin 07 Sep 10 at 5:20 p.m. GMT

I thought Appointment wth Death adapt was awful. I mean just because none of the characters were switched with homosexual ones, doens't mean it was good.

I feel really down watching it, it was so gloomy! Did anyone else think so? Ginny had misery piled on her. The only decent thing was the scenry looked great.

I think it was a very bad idea switching emotional abuse with physical abuse. It felt dumbed down, because intelligent people can see that emotional abuse is just as destrucutive as physical violence.

What was with the trafficking nun?!

Tommy_A_Jones 07 Sep 10 at 4:42 p.m. GMT

It wasn't thast bad Hercules, apart from the Chid abuse and Slave trading bits, I thought the rest was quite enjoyable, I have seen MUCH, MUCH WORSE Tim Curry should have played Charles Cartright in Three-Act Tragedy and I thought the Actor who played Carbury wasn't who I would have chosen but he was good, All in all I enjoyed it at Christmas, Another thing wrong with it was all the Sons and Daughters confused me. It reminded me of the Adaptation of Death On The Nile at the end, and you can't say it was half as bad as Cards On The Table Can you?