DEAD MAN'S FOLLY

US, 1986, 89 minutes, Colour.
Peter Ustinov, Jean Stapleton, Tim Piggott- Smith, Constance Cummings, Kenneth Cranham.
Directed by Clive Donner.

Dead Man's Folly is an Agatha Christie murder mystery with attractive English settings. It is an opportunity for Peter Ustinov to be Hercule Poirot once again (Evil Under the Sun, Death on the Nile, 13 at Dinner, Appointment with Death). Tim Piggott- Smith is rather good as his friend Hastings. Jean Stapleton enjoys herself as Mrs Ariadne Oliver, the novelist.

The film has all the popular Agatha Christie characters and ingredients, clues and murders, the resolution by Poirot. Direction is by Clive Donner who made a great variety of films from telling satires in the '60s including Nothing But The Best and Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush to Alfred the Great and chic comedies like Vampyra. He also did adaptations of Dickens, including A Christmas Carol, to the television screen.

1. The popularity of Agatha Christie stories? Hercule Poirot?

2. The English setting, the countryside, the estate? The musical score?

3. The title and the reference to the folly? Its part in the plot? The murder hunt and the game? Characters, clues and explanations?

4. Jean Stapleton as Mrs Oliver, American gushing style, the meeting with Poirot, her fears, her character? The introductions, fears during the murder hunt, her eagerness for the solution?

5. Peter Ustinov as Poirot: type, in relationship to Agatha Christie's original? Skill at being a detective, vanity? Ingenuity? Friendship with Hastings? The introductions, his observing characters, succeeding in the murder hunt-, following up the clues, explaining the solution?

6. Hastings and his friendship with Poirot, support, clues?

7. Sir George, his manner, relationship with Hattie, aloof, a good swimmer? The murders, the revelation of the truth, his mother, his murdering his wife, his accomplice? Ruthlessness, army career? His fortune? The appropriate villain?

8. Hattie and her American style, glamour, vagueness? her presence during the carnival? The pretences? The truth, the tourist disguise, the murders? Her callousness?

9. The victims: the girl, the grandfather? Their knowledge about the family, blackmailing, the set-ups for their death? The family and the explanations?

10. Sally and Alec, his nuclear scientific background, presence at the estate, tensions, rivalries?

11. Michael as the architect, his disdain of the folly, flirting with Sally?

12. The secretary and her devotedness?

13. Eddie, the American background, his explanation of his presence, suspicions? The truth?

14. The mother, her friendliness with Poirot, her despair about human evil? Her knowledge of the truth? The exposure?

15. Agatha Christie's stories as puzzles, sufficient clues? Aspects of human nature?