Dead Man's Folly

1986

Crime / Drama / Mystery

8
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 43%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 43% · 50 ratings
IMDb Rating 6.3/10 10 2341 2.3K

Plot summary

During a murder hunt game at a country house, to which Hercule Poirot is invited as an "expert", a real murder occurs.


Uploaded by: FREEMAN
September 01, 2024 at 11:09 AM

Director

Top cast

Nicollette Sheridan as Hattie Stubbs
Jean Stapleton as Ariadne Oliver
Peter Ustinov as Hercule Poirot
Constance Cummings as Amy Folliat
720p.WEB
861.5 MB
960*720
English 2.0
NR
us  
29.97 fps
1 hr 33 min
Seeds 31

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by bkoganbing 7 / 10

A Murder game gets real

Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie's Belgian sleuth, is brought up to modern times in Dead Man's Folly. Normally Christie stories are better set in the period that they were written, but in this case no harm is done. Her detectives are quite eternal.

Peter Ustinov returns as Poirot with Jonathan Cecil as the ever dependable Captain Hastings and he's been invited to another one of those English estates by American mystery writer Jean Stapleton. She's giving one of those mystery hunt games at the estate and the invited guests are going to be the contestants.

It gets really out of hand when three real murders are discovered in the course of this film. A young girl from the village, an old estate caretaker and the wife of the Lord of the Manor Tim Pigott-Smith. And they are connected though how you will be surprised.

I will give you two clues the former owner of the estate Constance Cummings knows a lot more than she is revealing and the arrival of Jeff Yagher from America upsets a lot of well laid plans.

You'll enjoy figuring this one out if you can.

Reviewed by Doylenf 6 / 10

Entertaining version of an Agatha Christie story which was never one of my favorites...

There's plenty to admire in the costumes and settings for DEAD MAN'S FOLLY, most of which takes place at a handsome English villa in the countryside where a murder party game is being prepared by mystery writer Ariadne Oliver (JEAN STAPLETON). Unfortunately, Stapleton plays her role as broadly as she did Edith Bunker and there are times where her strident voice and manner becomes almost unbearable.

Elegant settings aren't enough to bring this one up to the standard of PETER USTINOV's theatrical movies DEATH ON THE NILE or EVIL UNDER THE SUN. However, the color photography is impressive and everything looks worthy of a theatrical showing--except that none of the cast members have roles that are really fleshed out. As a result, the identity of the murderer is one of those "it could have been anybody" sort of things because, as is usual with Christie, there are almost too many red herrings among the suspects.

Never a favorite of mine, this version has the heavily overweight Ustinov strutting around and putting Hastings down with some blunt remarks--mostly for comic value. JONATHAN CECIL plays Hastings with a humorous slant--far different from the Hastings in the David Suchet series--but his contribution is an entertaining one. NICOLETTE SHERIDAN as Hattie is delightful as the dim-witted lady of the manor.

Not the best of the Ustinov TV adaptations, but it's good enough entertainment to pass the time.

Reviewed by TheLittleSongbird 7 / 10

The best of the Poirot made for TV movies, but not as good as Death On the Nile and Evil Under The Sun

I haven't read the book Dead Man's Folly, and this TV movie is the only one of the 6 movies Peter Ustinov did as Poirot, where that is the case. Now Dead Man's Folly I found to be very entertaining, with very good performances and a fine denouncement. However the script was weak and underdeveloped in places, the music didn't really stand out unlike Death On the Nile(the music was absolutely superb in that movie) and I found the overall film to be a tad too broad. I don't think it is as good as Death on the Nile or Evil Under the Sun, which are the best of the Ustinov outings. On a positive note, for a TV movie, it looks beautiful, with wonderful period detail, pleasant scenery and very nice photography. And the clothes were lovely to look at too. The denouncement is very unexpected and cleverly done, and I wouldn't have guessed it in a million years. But what makes the film so enjoyable is the cast. While I still consider David Suchet to be the definitive Poirot, Peter Ustinov was still a joy to behold and is clearly enjoying himself. Jean Stapleton positively brings life to the proceedings as Ariadne Oliver. Both Kenneth Cranham and Tim Piggott-Smith give good performances, if playing it safe. Jonathan Cecil is very entertaining as Hastings and Nicollette Sheridan is lovely as Hattie. But other than Ustinov the standout was indeed Constance Cummings as Amy, a truly delightful performance. All in all, while not the best of the Ustinov Poirot outings, it is a glossy and entertaining one, and actually one of the better ones. 7.5/10 Bethany Cox

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