Mrs. McGinty's Dead [HD]

A Good Story Destroyed
I don't know what Guy Andrews was thinking when he "adapted" this story. And if you're reading this review, let me say this. If you've read "Appointment with Death" and love it, as I do, then this "adaptation" will be appalling. First of all, the characters weren't just added and subtracted. They were systematically changed to fit some story Andrews apparently wanted to tell. If so, call it fan fiction, not an actual title by Christie. The addition of "Lord Boyton" was horrible. The nun was a complete travesty and the stupidity of the nanny cannot be stated louder. Perhaps if this had been billed as something else, I might have enjoyed it. But it wasn't. It was called and billed Agatha Christie's "Appointment With Death." I expected the tension between the eldest Boyton and his WIFE (who doesn't exist in this version). I expected the growing attachment between Jefferson Cope (Now changed to something entirely different and really LESLIE? REally?) I expected Ginnie and...

Unworthy
Who killed Hercule Poirot? It's difficult to believe that David Suchet enjoyed his performance in this production. I have read, and loved, all of Agatha Christie's books. Suchet's demeanor in "Murder on the Orient Express" would not even be appropriate in "Curtain", Christie's finale to the great detective. Poirot was a fighter and a thinker from the beginning to the end. This sad, sad interpretation was devoid of almost all of Poirot's endearing characteristics. I give Suchet credit for a good performance, but not that of Hercule Poirot, for certainly it was not he, the great detective. He dismissed flattery. He almost dismissed a challenge. He never smiled. He lost affability. In short, this was another person, another detective, an unworthy production; an unworthy performance. Buy the Albert Finney version. It, at least, has a spirited Hercule Poirot.

disappointingly changed
I really enjoyed all the earlier seasons of these David Suchet Poirot mysteries, but in this episode plus some other later ones I've seen, Poirot has had a personality change. He tends to be shrill and loud whereas in earlier episodes he was more often gentle and quiet. This goes along with the overall tone of the production. It seems as if it was decided that the Poirot mysteries had to be like every other show on TV in the last several years which is nerve screechingly dramatic and tense. I loved the more subtle cerebral tone of the older ones and I wish they hadn't changed it.

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