Poirot Series - Appointment with Death

ReadinginVienna

I just turned off the TV after incredulously watching the first 30 minutes of „Appointment with Death“. I usually like the series with David Suchet (he is really great), but this epispde was obviously written by someone who does not care a bit about AC‘s books.

Appointment with Death is one of my favourite AC novels, it really hurts to see it mutilated like this :-(

Watching „Cards on the Table“ was a similar disappointment.

Are there other episodes I shouldn‘t watch?

GKCfan

Well, if you're concerned about episodes that deviate strongly from the original stories, there's the one-hour "The Case of the Missing Will," and the full-length Third Girl, The Labours of Hercules, and The Big Four.  Elephants Can Remember is 75% true to the book but has an original murder subplot thrown into the mix.  Others, like Mystery of the Blue Train and Taken at the Flood are largely true to the books but have some significant changes.  Fans and critics disagree on the quality of these episodes.  

Tommy_A_Jones

Appointment With Death is my 2nd least favourite Episode after Cards On The Table, I should say along with The Big Four and The Labours of Hercule but I did like they wove al the stories together even though those 2 Episodes were very boring at least they weren't HORRIBLE, OF the short story Adaptations I really disliked The Missing Will, It is my favourite of the short stories but hated the Adaptation.

P_Lombard

I would like to second GKCfan on The Labours of Hercules: it was a pretty appalling adaptation and is worth avoiding. As GKCfan also mentioned,The Big Four, Mystery of the Blue Train, and Taken at the Flood all make massive changes to the novels on which they were based, to point of being almost unrecognizable. I personally enjoyed both the novel and the movie version of Third Girl, but the movie does take significant liberties.

While some people like David Suchet's Murder on the Orient Express, I hated it and would recommend skipping it. I would estimate that 1/3 of the Suchet version of Murder on the Orient Express is loosely based on the book and the other 2/3 is completely the screenwriter's invention. The screenwriter tried to make a deep movie, but the movie is just overly dark and disturbing.

taliavishay-arbel

If you want a more faithful adaption of "Appointment with Death", see the old, Peter Ustinov version - while it has slight changes (e.g. the venue is changed from Petra to Qumran, the family friend becomes the family lawyer, the french doctor is missing and the pairings at the end are slightly  different) it is fairly faithful to the original. You can see it on youtube.

Tommy_A_Jones

I like the film, It allowed me to imagine that SPOILER ALERT!!! Cope was her accomplice years ago.