Appointment with Death (film)
Appointment with Death | |
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Original cinema poster
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Directed by | Michael Winner |
Produced by | Michael Winner Menahem Golan Yoram Globus |
Screenplay by | Michael Winner Anthony Shaffer Peter Buckman |
Based on | Novel: Agatha Christie |
Starring | <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/> |
Music by | Pino Donaggio |
Cinematography | David Gurfinkel |
Edited by | Arnold Crust Jr. (Michael Winner) |
Distributed by | Cannon Film Distributors |
Release dates
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15 April 1988 (US) |
Running time
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102 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Box office | $960,040[1] |
Appointment with Death is a 1988 mystery film, made by Golan-Globus Productions and produced and directed by Michael Winner. It is an adaptation of the Agatha Christie novel Appointment with Death featuring the detective Hercule Poirot. The screenplay was by Peter Buckman, Anthony Shaffer and Michael Winner.
The film stars Peter Ustinov as Poirot, along with Lauren Bacall, Carrie Fisher, John Gielgud, Piper Laurie, Hayley Mills, Jenny Seagrove and David Soul.
Gielgud and Bacall had previously co-starred in another big-screen Poirot adaptation, 1974's Murder on the Orient Express.
Contents
Plot
Emily Boynton, stepmother to the three Boynton children – Lennox, Raymond and Carol – and mother to Ginevra, blackmails the family lawyer, Jefferson Cope, into destroying a second will of her late husband that would have freed the children from her dominating influence.
She takes herself, the children and her daughter-in-law Nadine on holiday to Europe and the Holy Land. In Trieste, the great detective Hercule Poirot meets up with a woman friend, Dr. Sarah King, who falls in love with Raymond Boynton to Emily's disapproval.
Lady Westholme, her secretary Miss Quinton and lawyer Cope are following them too. The children discover the second will and Emily succeeds in rubbing the rest the wrong way, causing much hatred towards her. At a dig, Emily is found dead. Poirot investigates.
Cast
- Peter Ustinov as Hercule Poirot
- Piper Laurie as Emily Boynton
- Lauren Bacall as Lady Westholme
- John Gielgud as Colonel Carbury
- Carrie Fisher as Nadine Boynton
- Hayley Mills as Miss Quinton
- David Soul as Jefferson Cope
- Jenny Seagrove as Dr. Sarah King
- Nicholas Guest as Lennox Boynton
- John Terlesky as Raymond Boynton
- Valerie Richards as Carol Boynton
- Amber Bezer as Ginevra Boynton
- Douglas Sheldon as Captain Rogers
- Mike Sarne as Healey
- Michael Craig as Lord Peel
Reception
The movie received a mixed reception.[2][3][4]
Box office
The movie was not a box office success.[5]
Critic David Aldridge from May 1988 Film Review magazine classified as "Another loser from Winner, though, to give the man some small due, even a more talented director would have floundered forcing freshness in such formularised fare.". He also criticised Cannon film for production value of exotic location, with the quote: "But, then, it is a Cannon Film and they're not known for spending a penny when a halfpenny would just about do. Good for TV".
Changes
The novel takes place primarily in Petra, Jordan whereas the film takes place in Jerusalem and Qumran (near the Dead Sea). This change was made because the production company was Israeli.
Ustinov as Poirot
This film was Peter Ustinov's sixth and last appearance as Hercule Poirot.
- Death on the Nile (1978)
- Evil Under the Sun (1982)
- Thirteen at Dinner (1985)
- Dead Man's Folly (1986)
- Murder in Three Acts (1986)
- Appointment with Death (1988)
DVD availability
This is the only one of the six films in which Peter Ustinov portrayed Poirot that has never been released onto Region 1 DVD for US and Canadian home video.
References
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External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Appointment with Death (1988 film). |
- EngvarB from September 2013
- Use dmy dates from September 2013
- English-language films
- Commons category link is locally defined
- 1988 films
- 1980s mystery films
- British mystery films
- British films
- Films based on Hercule Poirot books
- Golan-Globus films
- Detective films
- Films directed by Michael Winner
- Films set in Israel
- Films shot in Israel
- Screenplays by Anthony Shaffer
- Film scores by Pino Donaggio