What makes it different from others?

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

From my favorite movies..

Brilliant and touching

American adaptations of Agatha Christie (especially for television) tend to be on the low end of the scale. It's principally the writing, secondarily the directing – i.e. the writers and directors mold the Christie work into something they *think* American audiences want instead of giving us what we actually *do* want – which, when it comes to English murder mysteries, is the same thing the English want.So, I was greatly taken by surprise so see that *this* adaptation of *Murder is Easy* was NOT bad. It is not grade 'A' quality by a long shot; but it is definitely a high 'B' grade. And it is certainly more faithful to the original than the 2008 adaptation (which has a lot of *very* bizarre flights of fancy that do NOT make for a better story; just a bizarre one).In this version, Luke is not a retired policeman from India but a computer expert from America; but the age difference is the same (or at least Bixby was 20 years older than Down, which is the age difference in the novel). Lavinia Pinkerton has become Lavinia Fullerton for some reason, but she's killed the same way under either surname. Gordon Ragg, Lord Whitfield (no known relation to June) has become Lord Easterfield (in full credit, Lord Gordon Easterfield; but Easterfield would be his lordship, not his surname - so he might still be a Ragg, at least by birth). Honoria Waynflete, Rose Humbleby, and the rest (so far as I can tell) are all the same.The plot develops steadily and cleanly, as the suspense slowly builds. As in the novel, Luke believes the killer is a certain individual – which, of course, is a classic signal to reader and viewer that it must be someone else; but who? Ah, therein lies the mystery – and when the identity of the killer is finally revealed, it *is* a surprise (unless, of course, you have already read the book) because it is somebody whom nobody would suspect.And as long as nobody suspects you ... Murder is Easy.Side Note for Radio Fans: The best adaptation of this novel to date (November 2016) is one that was done a few years ago for BBC Radio 4 by Joy Wilkinson. It stars Patrick Baladi (New Tricks, Poirot), Lydia Leonard (The 39 Steps - 2008 version), Michael Cochrane (Downton Abbey), Marcia Warren (Agatha Raisin, Dangerfield), and a lot of other very good British actors that most Americans will not have heard of.

When Luke Williams meets an eccentric old English woman on the train and she tells him she knows of three murders and she is subsequently murdered, I felt that the film had started well and was likely to develop into a good whodunit. Unfortunately, it was down hill from there on.With one exception, the suspects are wooden, providing little other than simply having a list of suspects to consider. The exception is Bridget Conway, the object of the Luke Williams' desire. Attractive as she (Lesley-Anne Down) is though, there is a limit to how often I want to see close ups of her facial expressions.The plot - will Bridget Conway prove to be the murderer damming Luke Williams hopes or will it be someone else? - first stumbles along and then grinds its way to an inevitable slushy conclusion.

This is a TV movie from 1981 featuring a starry (for it's day) Anglo-American cast and based on one of Christie's novels from the thirties. It has been updated to the early eighties but that seems to have done little harm as the 'English country village' setting could just as easily be from the thirties anyway (slow but sure policeman on a bike, tweedy middle aged ladies, tennis parties at the big house etc). The eighties only really intrude in some of the more bizarre outfits for heroine Lesley Anne Down and in the fact that Bill Bixby's character is supposedly a computer whizz. The whole 'computer' thing is actually quite poorly thought out and contributes very little and I never believed that Bixby was any kind of whizz at all in that particular field. Some of the music is good (the main theme, love theme for Miss Waynflete) and some of it is dreadful (the comic 'Carry On' moments and especially the 'sexy' sax for the main couple).There are plenty of positives though. The film is astonishingly faithful to the book and plays out almost to the letter. This actually has a slight downside as there are far too many characters and most of them are barely fleshed out. The whole thing is very well shot and there are some very good performances. I was pleasantly surprised by Lesley Anne Down as Bridget - a very good performance indeed. Olivia de Haviland is appropriately tweedy and sympathetic as Miss Waynflete and Timothy West puts in a good turn as Bridget's childish fiancée. Helen Hayes is lovely in the brief but memorable role of Miss Fullerton. Bill Bixby is OK but not much more as the leading man. The story plays out well but the final confrontation between two possible killers is rather unconvincing but, to be fair, I think it would be a difficult scene to carry off really well.Overall, this is a very worthy adaptation and worth a look if you can find it.

... and worlds apart from the dire new UK TV versions. Bill Bixby is attractive, charming, funny and vulnerable. Lesley-Anne Down is beautiful and her outfits are... interesting, especially her loungewear. But should she really sleep in so much make-up? They're surrounded by a solid cast: Leigh Lawson, Anthony Valentine, Timothy West, Helen Hayes, Olivia de Havilland (but surely that's not her voice?). Shane Briant makes a wonderfully creepy doctor - what happened to him? What makes this film so good, tho, is that it sticks quite closely to Christie's book, and Tells The Story, something that the present gang of Christie pirates seem to think is far less important than appalling overacting by self-congratulatory thesps. One thing missing from this version is the present-day witchcraft theme that's present in the book. (Ellsworthy has sinister visitors who congregate in the woods at night and slaughter small animals in sinister rituals, making him more of a genuine suspect.)