Murder Is Easy

Bill Bixby, not actually turning into the Incredible Hulk, tries to solve the deaths of citizens in one of those quaint English villages where murderers seem to thrive. A nice fair adaption of a fun Christie book with pretty Leslie Anne and a hefty Olivia huffing and puffing thru the scenery. She's a wicked gas here.

Agatha Christie's 1939 story has been updated to the Eighties and it's hero/protagonist made an American allowing for the casting of Bill Bixby as Luke Williams, mathematical genius and computer programmer. He takes a fateful ride on a British commuter train and meets up with Helen Hayes who has an important errand to run.

Helen's a talkative old biddy who is worried that there have been a number of strange deaths in her small village recently and she fears that village constable Freddie Jones isn't quite up to a homicide investigation. She's confides in Bixby and then gets run down by a hit and run driver as she leaves the train.

Bixby's mathematical mind can't take in the random probabilities of all this coincidence and it intrigues him. He goes back to Hayes's village and turns detective, annoying village constable Jones, but finding romance with Lesley Anne Down and a host of suspects and a couple more deaths before the mystery is solved.

Among other inhabitants at the village is the local librarian Olivia DeHavilland and Timothy West who owns several newspapers. It's a pity that the story called for Helen Hayes to be killed off immediately so there could be no scenes with DeHavilland and Hayes.

As this story was written in 1939 I suspect that Agatha Christie had Lord Beaverbrook in mind for Timothy West's character. Audiences in 1982, especially American ones couldn't possibly appreciate the satire that Christie was employing with West as the tyrannical ego-maniacal newspaper publisher. Still I suspect citizens of the United Kingdom of the older generations knew quite well who West's character was modeled on.

I don't think the updating especially hurt the story however. The cast does very well by their roles and it's an intriguing film and idea that Helen Hayes voices.

Luke Williams encounters and strikes up a conversation with an elderly lady on a train, she explains that her village is beset by accidental tragedy, and as soon as she departs the station, she is killed in another......accident.

I have to say Murder is Easy is one of my all time favourite Agatha Christie books, I love the characters, I love the witchcraft element, I also love the concept of murder being easy, it is undoubtedly one of Christie's cleverest themes.

I actually like this adaptation, it's one that's grown on me over the years, early on I didn't really care for the modern setting, or the probability theme, but in recent times, I've come to accept them.

I'm surprised by just how much of the book is actually present here, of course there are lots of differences, but the core of the story is very much here, most or the deaths are covered, and they didn't veer too far off the grizzly ends that Christie originally wrote.

The script is a little clunky at times, some of Luke's dialogue doesn't work, but the whole thing is elevated by a wonderful cast, the cast list makes for impressive reading, and fair play the acting is terrific, Bill Bixby, Lesley-Anne Down, Freddie Jones all spot on, and of course there's real Star quality in the form of Olivia del Havilland.

It deserves a remake, it deserves a quality remake, I know one is coming from The BBC/Britbox, I'm intrigued to see what they do with it.

Overall, it's a thumbs up.

7/10.

Bill Bixby doesn't have his green alter-ego to help him this time, only his sleuthing abilities. You wouldn't like him when he's snooping around. In this TV movie Adapted from Dame Agatha Christie book, Bixby stars as a MIT stats professor who befriends an old lady on a train who confides in him that she's off to Scotland yard to report on a murderer. She is later killed in a hit and run accident. The MIT professor decides to investigate...

Fairly enjoyable mystery with good performances from Lesley Anne down and Bill Bixby, though it can focus a little too much on the romance between them, however it passes the time adequately with a good ending.

Agatha Christie's 'Murder Is Easy' gets off to a brisk start with Helen Hayes as a little old lady on her way to Scotland Yard to report a series of murders in her village. She describes the look that made her realize who the murderer is and tells Bill Bixby, "If no one suspects you, murder is easy." Shortly after she leaves the train station, she is killed in an auto accident. Thus, Bixby decides to investigate for himself.

Carmen Culver's teleplay would have been better if it hadn't updated the Christie material and tried to modernize the story with foolish computer nonsense. Furthermore, by devoting entirely too much time to the red herrings and focusing almost all of the remaining time on Lesley-Anne Down and Bill Bixby's growing relationship, it turns the surprise ending into little more than a sham for which there is no preparation. Bill Bixby's character in the novel was a young policeman--here he is an American computer wizard who delves into use of the computer (to no avail) to solve the crime. He's charming and believable enough but too many scenes are throwaways involving him and Lesley-Anne Down.

Suffice it to say that this is not one of the best adaptations of Christie's work. The technical aspects are excellent--the color photography of the English settings is impressive and all of the performances are first-rate. Nice to see Olivia de Havilland and Helen Hayes as "special guest stars". Helen Hayes contributes so much to the opening scenes that she makes up for the fact that there is no Miss Marple in this one.

But the tight suspense of the final scenes in the novel when the murderer is caught and revealed is missing here and the explanations are too swift to carry much weight.

Still, an absorbing who-dun-it for mystery fans although modernizing the story with computer detection work is no help at all.