Movies in Brief

The Alphabet Murders. Of the recent run of Agatha Christie stories, this may well be the best. Tony Randall is Hercule Poirot, Robert Morley is a dunce from Scotland Yard, Anita Ekberg is the mad, mad lady who involves Poirot in a hunt for the devilish fiend who is killing people in alphabetical order. The first victim has the initials A.A., the second is B.B., the third is C.C., and before we know where we are, Poirot has done it again. The murderer, who oddly enough turns out to be the least probable person, is unmasked and, you’ll be glad to know, Poirot escapes from the villain’s clutches and triumphantly brings the wretch to justice. Swift, intelligent, entertaining; often, but not too often, the director takes something of a mocking view of the whole idea. The scene is London 1966, for Agatha Christie has survived the country houses, the butlers, the noblemen, the dubious French maids, she used to write about. She has survived England.

Walk in the Shadow. Patrick Mac- Goohan the incomparable made this film shortly before he achieved his celebrity as TV’s Secret Agent. He plays a British doctor, bent on securing legal punishment for a devoutly religious man who, obeying the teaching of his sect, allows his child to die for want of a blood transfusion. The thinking here is all very mixed- up indeed, but it is exciting for at least two-thirds of the length; and there is a great performance of sorts from Michael Craig as the tormented believer. Rather surprisingly, the director has set up MacGoohan rather than Craig as the real hero, and the effect of this is somehow unpleasant. Janet Munro plays Craig’s wife. The setting is a working-class suburb of London, which has also survived England. Everybody and everything is very, very gray.

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About the Author

Farley Clinton

The Alphabet Murders. Of the recent run of Agatha Christie stories, this may well be the best. Tony Randall is Hercule Poirot, Robert Morley is a dunce from Scotland Yard, Anita Ekberg is the mad, mad lady who involves Poirot in a hunt for the devilish fiend who is killing people in alphabetical order. The first victim has the initials A.A., the second is B.B., the third is C.C., and before we know where we are, Poirot has done it again. The murderer, who oddly enough turns out to be the least probable person, is unmasked and, you’ll be glad to know, Poirot escapes from the villain’s clutches and triumphantly brings the wretch to justice. Swift, intelligent, entertaining; often, but not too often, the director takes something of a mocking view of the whole idea. The scene is London 1966, for Agatha Christie has survived the country houses, the butlers, the noblemen, the dubious French maids, she used to write about. She has survived England.

Walk in the Shadow. Patrick Mac- Goohan the incomparable made this film shortly before he achieved his celebrity as TV’s Secret Agent. He plays a British doctor, bent on securing legal punishment for a devoutly religious man who, obeying the teaching of his sect, allows his child to die for want of a blood transfusion. The thinking here is all very mixed- up indeed, but it is exciting for at least two-thirds of the length; and there is a great performance of sorts from Michael Craig as the tormented believer. Rather surprisingly, the director has set up MacGoohan rather than Craig as the real hero, and the effect of this is somehow unpleasant. Janet Munro plays Craig’s wife. The setting is a working-class suburb of London, which has also survived England. Everybody and everything is very, very gray.