The Big Four

Case of the missing will too

@emrabt said:

I'm thinking probably, Appointment with Death and Murder on the Orient Express?

I don't enjoy either of those two from this series. I have the 3-discs DVDs set that they're included in, and like only Third Girl of the mysteries in that set (from I believe 2008). Fortunately Third Girl is a very nicely done and winning adaptation, so satisfactorily makes up for the other two movies (especially Orient) in that set being duds.

I think Orient suffered from two problems, being only 90 minutes and trying to distance itself from the much loved, well praised, colourful 70's movie. The result is a very compressed version of the story which forces itself to be really dark, both in tone and in actual set and colour. It was supposed to be made in the mid 2000's, when the tone of the show was very different and the adaptation would have been much lighter. They even scouted for locations, but the rights at the time were still held by Marion Rosenberg who had them for the terrible 2001 adaptation so ITV had to wait. Mystery of the Blue Train was made instead.

True, Notamy. However the main issue I had with this series' version of Orient was simply that I didn't like much of the casting, let alone various characterizations. The people mix - combination of the actual actors/actresses and of how certain characters were portrayed - just didn't "work" for me.

It's been over two years since I last watched it, so can't presently remember precisely which actors/actresses and characterizations I most considered to throw things off, though just generally remember that it was multiple.