Search - Agatha Christie's Poirot: Sad Cypress on DVD

The screenwriters botched it, dang it!

Patrick W. Crabtree | Lucasville, OH USA | 12/23/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"David Suchet yields his usual fine performance in this not all that well-known Agatha Christie mystery... but he unfortunately didn't have much to work with.

The story, loosely based upon Chistie's original work, is this: A young heiress, about to marry her soul mate (her cousin!) is accused of snuffing her fiance's prospective new girlfriend with poisoned hor's d'oeuvres sandwiches. The heiress is dragged down to The Old Bailey and promptly convicted of the murder. Hercule Poirot is called in (by a physician who has the hots for the rejected fiance), to quickly find the REAL murderer before the heiress is unjustly hanged!

Now, as simple as that sounds, the screenwriters bunged it up, I think because they had to fill in a lot of time -- and it shows. The whole thing is a bit foggy, especially to folks unfamiliar with Christie's original work. It's understating the fact to say that this film drags a little.

Fortunately, the cinematography is quite good, the locations and sets are very nicely done, and the actors pull off their respective roles, I suppose as written... sadly. BTW, the title of the film exudes from a song.... not a very good song.

This is an "okay" film for rabid Christie fans but most folks will be asleep on this one before 1/3 of the show is finished."

Story not at fault

Lover of English | 05/21/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I'd like to respond to the reviewer who thought that the story itself wasn't very good. I don't think that is what's wrong here. I've just purchased 2 boxed sets of Agatha Christie's "Poirot" and I felt in all of them that something subtle was "off". After watching them again I can see what it is. These productions are lifeless. There is a certain energy missing that was in evidence in the earlier "Poirot" productions. It's hard to describe, but if one were to have a little "Poirot" mini-marathon some long weekend, one could see the differences between the films in "The Movie Collection - Set Two" which contains: ""Hickory, Dickory, Dock" (surely one of the funniest of all the films),"Murder on the Links", "Dumb Witness" and "Poirot's Christmas" - and the films in "The New Mysteries Collection" and "The Classic Crimes Collection". I bought the two latter sets because I hadn't seen any of them on TV and it was a great treat to have some of my favorite Christie mysteries come to life. And even though the films in these two boxed sets do not have the vivacity of the earlier works they are still well worth the purchase. I particularly liked "Death on the NIle" since, once I had seen David Suchet, I couldn't stand to watch any other actor playing Poirot and I didn't care for the earlier version with Peter Ustinov. It's been my heartfelt wish that Suchet would make "Murder on the Orient Express" before he retires. The Albert Finney version was just silly.

So I don't think Agatha Christie's story is at fault here. "Sad Cypress" is one of the best reads. I can't tell whether it's David Suchet - he seems tired - or whether it is the writing that is stale. But there is certainly a lack of energy and a lack of humor that differentiates these two collections from earlier productions. If one could use a color analgy there is a certain "greyness" to these later productions that seems to sap some of the life from them. The color is, in fact, actually much less saturated in these two boxed sets than in earlier productions. So, with Poirot seeming a little tired and not much color in the films, they come off as much less vibrant than previous DVDs."

Well done

Michael W. Perry | Author of Untangling Tolkien, Seattle, WA | 12/09/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Agatha Christie has a well deserved reputation as one of the world's most popular authors and her Hercule Poirot stories played by David Suchett are absolutely marvelous. Although less known that "Murder on the Orient Express, this story, "Sad Cypress," is one of the best, with unexpected twists in the plot continuing to the very end. Unlike another reviewer, I didn't find it dragging, perhaps because I felt sympathy for the woman falsely accused."